Rumor Did Disney Put in an Order for 50 Parade Float Chassis?

[Dr. Falls]

Just speculation! Would be good though.

Remember that pin series that Disneyland released for their diamond anniversary? With each decade being represented on a pin?

That could work really well if they leaned into their vast library of attractions and IP.

Just a thought.

 

[larryz]

I understand contract negotiations with Bombardier are going very well for this.

With the Bombardier General...

 

[FerretAfros]

I hate to be the bearer of reality, but it's incredibly rare that Disney truly builds an entire parade from scratch. Even when a parade debuts all "new" floats, they're typically built on the chassis from older floats. Only when a park is getting a parade for the very first time, or when the design is a significant departure from the existing infrastructure, does an entire parade have new chassis.

The last parade built from scratch for the domestic parks was DL's Celebrate! A Street Party in 2009, which was structurally different than anything DL had done before, and its floats have been thoroughly repurposed since then. One of the stage units was given new life in DCA's Viva Navidad!, while the other 2 have been used for special events (one may have been repurposed for Paint the Night). The smaller 'balloon' floats were converted into the drum floats for Soundsational. And the character bicycles have appeared in parks around the world, most recently for a special event at WDSP.

Prior to that, the last all-new parades were Eureka!, Mickey's Jammin' Jungle, and Stars & Cars in 2001. Eureka! and Jammin' Jungle were the first parades at their parks (DCA and DAK, respectively), while Stars & Cars was a significant change from the traditional floats used at the Studios. Jammin' Jungle was largely abandoned, Stars & Cars was sent to Paris, and Eureka has been used to build "new" floats for Block Party Bash, Pixar Play Parade, and Paint the Night.

For most "new" parades they simply take old floats, strip them down to the chassis, and rebuild from there. Occasionally they'll be supplemented with floats from a different park (Festival of Fantasy's finale from TDL) or one or two truly-new floats due to a unique design (dragon), but the majority of the floats predate any given parade. Or has been the case all too often in WDW, they'll simply stick old floats into a new parade with some fresh paint and props.

So do I think that Disney ordered 50 new chassis? Nope. Even in the highly-unlikely event that they needed 50 "new" floats, the overwhelming majority of them would be built on the framework of what they already have. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?

 

[GSP Guy]

A different float representing each year.

Great idea!

 

[MisterPenguin]

I hate to be the bearer of reality, but it's incredibly rare that Disney truly builds an entire parade from scratch. Even when a parade debuts all "new" floats, they're typically built on the chassis from older floats. Only when a park is getting a parade for the very first time, or when the design is a significant departure from the existing infrastructure, does an entire parade have new chassis.

The last parade built from scratch for the domestic parks was DL's Celebrate! A Street Party in 2009, which was structurally different than anything DL had done before, and its floats have been thoroughly repurposed since then. One of the stage units was given new life in DCA's Viva Navidad!, while the other 2 have been used for special events (one may have been repurposed for Paint the Night). The smaller 'balloon' floats were converted into the drum floats for Soundsational. And the character bicycles have appeared in parks around the world, most recently for a special event at WDSP.

Prior to that, the last all-new parades were Eureka!, Mickey's Jammin' Jungle, and Stars & Cars in 2001. Eureka! and Jammin' Jungle were the first parades at their parks (DCA and DAK, respectively), while Stars & Cars was a significant change from the traditional floats used at the Studios. Jammin' Jungle was largely abandoned, Stars & Cars was sent to Paris, and Eureka has been used to build "new" floats for Block Party Bash, Pixar Play Parade, and Paint the Night.

For most "new" parades they simply take old floats, strip them down to the chassis, and rebuild from there. Occasionally they'll be supplemented with floats from a different park (Festival of Fantasy's finale from TDL) or one or two truly-new floats due to a unique design (dragon), but the majority of the floats predate any given parade. Or has been the case all too often in WDW, they'll simply stick old floats into a new parade with some fresh paint and props.

So do I think that Disney ordered 50 new chassis? Nope. Even in the highly-unlikely event that they needed 50 "new" floats, the overwhelming majority of them would be built on the framework of what they already have. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?

Where is WDW going to get the chassis for a new nighttime electric parade?

 

[TTA94]

I hate to be the bearer of reality, but it's incredibly rare that Disney truly builds an entire parade from scratch. Even when a parade debuts all "new" floats, they're typically built on the chassis from older floats. Only when a park is getting a parade for the very first time, or when the design is a significant departure from the existing infrastructure, does an entire parade have new chassis.

The last parade built from scratch for the domestic parks was DL's Celebrate! A Street Party in 2009, which was structurally different than anything DL had done before, and its floats have been thoroughly repurposed since then. One of the stage units was given new life in DCA's Viva Navidad!, while the other 2 have been used for special events (one may have been repurposed for Paint the Night). The smaller 'balloon' floats were converted into the drum floats for Soundsational. And the character bicycles have appeared in parks around the world, most recently for a special event at WDSP.

Prior to that, the last all-new parades were Eureka!, Mickey's Jammin' Jungle, and Stars & Cars in 2001. Eureka! and Jammin' Jungle were the first parades at their parks (DCA and DAK, respectively), while Stars & Cars was a significant change from the traditional floats used at the Studios. Jammin' Jungle was largely abandoned, Stars & Cars was sent to Paris, and Eureka has been used to build "new" floats for Block Party Bash, Pixar Play Parade, and Paint the Night.

For most "new" parades they simply take old floats, strip them down to the chassis, and rebuild from there. Occasionally they'll be supplemented with floats from a different park (Festival of Fantasy's finale from TDL) or one or two truly-new floats due to a unique design (dragon), but the majority of the floats predate any given parade. Or has been the case all too often in WDW, they'll simply stick old floats into a new parade with some fresh paint and props.

So do I think that Disney ordered 50 new chassis? Nope. Even in the highly-unlikely event that they needed 50 "new" floats, the overwhelming majority of them would be built on the framework of what they already have. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?

The likelihood of them purchasing floats from TDL seems high. Which if that happens and any Dreamlights floats are involved, that will be fantastic news for the overall parade!

 

[Squishy]

Where is WDW going to get the chassis for a new nighttime electric parade?

TDL's old Happiness is here parade?

 

[MisterPenguin]

The likelihood of them purchasing floats from TDL seems high. Which if that happens and any Dreamlights floats are involved, that will be fantastic news for the overall parade!

TDL's old Happiness is here parade?

Buying and shipping floats from Tokyo for a brand new night time parade which should be the height of night/electric parades seems... not... good.

 

[TTA94]

Buying and shipping floats from Tokyo for a brand new night time parade which should be the height of night/electric parades seems... not... good.

Depending what they are going with. I think the Dreamlights floats are pretty massive. And MK can have large floats, well, hight wise.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I would think Disney's engineers could build new float chassis for the cost of shipping the ones from Tokyo (and paying TDL for them).

 

[TimeTrip]

Calm down everyone. They're getting 50 floats to store in varying conditions. Then they can figure out the cheapest storage possible that doesn't cause a "spectromagic'ing"

 

[monothingie]

I would think Disney's engineers could build new float chassis for the cost of shipping the ones from Tokyo (and paying TDL for them).

This is what I've been wondering. Are the chassis' really that large of an engineering challenge that they can't piece them together without involving the army corp of engineers?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Spectromagic required 37 chassis. Give or take.

"SpectroMagic 50" has a nice ring to it.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I hate to be the bearer of reality, but it's incredibly rare that Disney truly builds an entire parade from scratch.

It's incredibly rare that a park has its 50th anniversary too. I'm not saying I'm convinced, but if there's a time to go all out it's the 50th.

 

[MotherOfBirds]

It's obviously Paint the Night 2: Paint Harder.

It'll be a Splatoon crossover

 

[brb1006]

I hate to be the bearer of reality, but it's incredibly rare that Disney truly builds an entire parade from scratch. Even when a parade debuts all "new" floats, they're typically built on the chassis from older floats. Only when a park is getting a parade for the very first time, or when the design is a significant departure from the existing infrastructure, does an entire parade have new chassis.

The last parade built from scratch for the domestic parks was DL's Celebrate! A Street Party in 2009, which was structurally different than anything DL had done before, and its floats have been thoroughly repurposed since then. One of the stage units was given new life in DCA's Viva Navidad!, while the other 2 have been used for special events (one may have been repurposed for Paint the Night). The smaller 'balloon' floats were converted into the drum floats for Soundsational. And the character bicycles have appeared in parks around the world, most recently for a special event at WDSP.

Prior to that, the last all-new parades were Eureka!, Mickey's Jammin' Jungle, and Stars & Cars in 2001. Eureka! and Jammin' Jungle were the first parades at their parks (DCA and DAK, respectively), while Stars & Cars was a significant change from the traditional floats used at the Studios. Jammin' Jungle was largely abandoned, Stars & Cars was sent to Paris, and Eureka has been used to build "new" floats for Block Party Bash, Pixar Play Parade, and Paint the Night.

For most "new" parades they simply take old floats, strip them down to the chassis, and rebuild from there. Occasionally they'll be supplemented with floats from a different park (Festival of Fantasy's finale from TDL) or one or two truly-new floats due to a unique design (dragon), but the majority of the floats predate any given parade. Or has been the case all too often in WDW, they'll simply stick old floats into a new parade with some fresh paint and props.

So do I think that Disney ordered 50 new chassis? Nope. Even in the highly-unlikely event that they needed 50 "new" floats, the overwhelming majority of them would be built on the framework of what they already have. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?

I remember being impressed when Disney Channel was showing off previews of Disneyland's "Parade of Dreams" back in early 2005 in honor of Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. Most of the floats were notably huge especially the Ursula float and the entire Alice in Wonderland section. The parade even ran during the nighttime on certain days.

I think Parade of Dreams might marked the last time Disney actually created a major anniversary parade. Since Disneyland kept Mickey's Soundsational Parade running throughout the anniversary celebration and Pixar Play Parade only added small editions related to Disneyland's 60th Anniversary. While Walt Disney World hadn't created an anniversary daytime parade since their 25th Anniversary. Share A Dream Come True Parade could technically count since it debuted in 2001 which was Walt Disney World's 30th Anniversary that year and also celebrated Walt Disney's 100th Birthday.

Also R.I.P Trees

 

[MotherOfBirds]

Maybe the parade will be made entirely of floats from previous anniversaries in ascending order, ending with a single new float for the 50th.

 

[Obobru]

I wonder if we will ever see a MK evening parade again as the park isn't open late as often as it used to be when it was regularly open until midnight with 2 spectro runs. Now any evening parade would be an upcharge event.

 

[danlb_2000]

This is what I've been wondering. Are the chassis' really that large of an engineering challenge that they can't piece them together without involving the army corp of engineers?

It is not just a question of ability, it's also a question of capacity. Disney doesn't have enough shop capacity to build everything they need they have to decide what to outsource and what to build in house. Since a chassis doesn't require a lot of creativity it may make more sense to outsource it.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

My analysis: Iger is starting to feel the heat over inadequate expansion during the last 10 years, so he told everybody to "circle the wagons."

Everybody looked around and said, "Boss, we got rid of all the wagons."

Iger said: "You better get some stinking* wagons! And then circle them!"

Hence, an order for 50 wagons.

*Euphemism

Lol...