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

FerretAfros

FerretAfros

Well-Known Member
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?
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Original Poster
FerretAfros said:
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?
Click to expand...

Where is WDW going to get the chassis for a new nighttime electric parade?
 
TTA94

TTA94

Well-Known Member
FerretAfros said:
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?
Click to expand...

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!
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Original Poster
mnelson3 said:
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!
Click to expand...
Squishy said:
TDL's old Happiness is here parade?
Click to expand...

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

TTA94

Well-Known Member
MisterPenguin said:
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.
Click to expand...

Depending what they are going with. I think the Dreamlights floats are pretty massive. And MK can have large floats, well, hight wise.
 
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
FerretAfros said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
dct000005.jpg

Also R.I.P Trees :(
 
Last edited:
O

Obobru

Well-Known Member
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

danlb_2000

Premium Member
monothingie said:
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?
Click to expand...

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

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
larryz said:
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
Click to expand...

Lol...
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom