Festival of Fantasy Parade coming to Magic Kingdom in 2014

[WDWDad13]

I'm a little saddened this new parade has been running for 2 days and 2 floats already have had moving issues. Can't help but think how cool that dragon is but how easy it may be after time and wear and tear for it to have issues too.... hopefully they maintain this very well

 

[WDWFanDave]

Watched the video yesterday that Steve posted, and I thought it looked really nice. Perhaps my favorite part...NOT seeing the castle float in the parade. Can someone backstage make sure they let the air out of the tires for once and all?

But, as to the reports of things not working...I do live the real world, and know that not everything can be perfect, but come on...brand new parade, new floats, and they've been testing for several weeks. Shouldn't these things be working? And, why the heck are they running the parade if there's some issue. Delay it and fix it. I know, it was 'Media Day', whatever that's supposed to mean, but you'd think they'd be even more concerned about things not working for the 'media'.

And, one last thing to ponder...WDW is a once-in-a-while, or once-in-a-lifetime vacation for many. Lots of folks stay off property, and I bet there are a fair number of people that buy 1-day MK tickets. Family of 4, 1 day tickets to the MK=$400 + taxes + food + merchandise. At what price point does it become acceptable to have a new parade with things not working?

Anyway, I do hope that they get it fixed and operational when on stage, as someday when I go back to WDW, I'd like to see it in person, it really does seem nice.

Oh, and kudos to the performers...you can see that they really have a great sense of pride in the performance!

 

[Tip Top Club]

The good fairies were gliding today!

 

[Jose]

Anyone has photos of the new segways for the fairies?

 

[TheFranco]

Maybe they turned off the rotating effect for better pictures on Media Day?

 

[Sweet Thing]

Didn't see any fire from Maleficent either. And Hook's anchor was still in one position, not moving. Cinderella also didn't rotate, so I missed her (but I was on the 'lucky' side that saw Anna and Elsa).

Really liked what I saw overall (and the music was great, IMO), but I hope these effects can be maintained.

Maleficent had fire. It only goes twice in a loop. Once when Philip starts to battle the crowd and once when he defeats her. The ship AND anchor were moving. The Fairies were also on their segways.

 

[CTXRover]

Hopefully this isn't a case of TDO thinking, "Now that Steve's gone, we don't actually have to maintain the parade." Understandably, it's normal for show elements to go down. However, to have 3 down the day after the premiere is sort of disconcerting, and honestly, unacceptable..

I know this was comment was in jest, but Steve is in fact there today, so it's not that . He's giving interviews in the rose garden. Who knows why those sections weren't rotating, but it's too early to say it's a maintenance thing at this point....

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Unfortunately, my phone died and I ended up leaving the park, but here's another thought - maybe the rotation was intentionally turned off today, in order to ensure that Anna and Elsa faced a certain direction.

Wasn't today supposed to be a big media day? I did notice a 'reserved' section in the hub (not FP+ or handicap-accessible) that was full of tripods, and Anna and Elsa were facing their side of the parade route. If the rotation is back tomorrow, then we shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Maleficent had fire. It only goes twice in a loop. Once when Philip starts to battle the crowd and once when he defeats her. The ship AND anchor were moving. The Fairies were also on their segways.

I was watching Maleficent for a really long time (including during the 'dramatic' moments where she breathed fire in yesterday's videos), and nothing happened besides a roar. Not sure how I could've missed it (I was watching in Frontierland, if that matters). As for the fairies, I didn't even know about the segway effect, but it's nice to know they're fixing things as they go along.

 

[TTA94]

I guess some of the floats scrapped the ground by the bridge..

https://twitter.com/dibadisney/status/443117031052050432

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Maybe they turned off the rotating effect for better pictures on Media Day?

Sorry I missed your post, but that's definitely what I'm thinking now.

 

[WDWLover#1]

Maleficent had fire. It only goes twice in a loop. Once when Philip starts to battle the crowd and once when he defeats her. The ship AND anchor were moving. The Fairies were also on their segways.

Were you there then? If so thankgoodness it's working

 

[novawildcat18]

I guess some of the floats scrapped the ground by the bridge..

https://twitter.com/dibadisney/status/443117031052050432

Well that can't be good....

 

[WDWLover#1]

UPDATE: While the Princess Garden unit didn't rotate today, it appears the Peter Pan float was able to get the ship and the anchor to rock back and forth (the anchor a little slowly, but noticeable). Watch the video below carefully, and you get a slight glimpse of it. I'm sure there will be a better video of it later, but it appears that while some elements were down, others went up today. Hopefully tomorrow will provide a fully working FOF parade.
http://instagram.com/p/lX9G4Gq2qX/

Right this video proves that everything was working apart from Princess unit-dragon is even breathing fire

 

[BwanaBob]

Yes... everything Sweet Thing said is correct.

Still good size crowds.

 

[WDWLover#1]

To confirm further this photo was taken today at the parade by Ricky Brigante of ItM

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Sorry for the false alarm. Still not sure how I missed the fire completely - will have to catch it again. Either way, Maleficent was really impressive.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Finally, Magic Kingdom Park's parade department joins the 21st century! This new parade, while not terribly groundbreaking artistically or overwhelmingly impressive in any way, is a vast improvement over the embarrassments they've been running on that parade route for at least the past decade.

I will say it's quite clearly obvious the audience on this Sunday debut were stacked heavily with off-duty CM's out to see their friends perform or for just a free afternoon of entertainment. The cheers and shout-outs to performers are evident in the YouTube videos, and when the dragon does its fire-breathing gag everyone goes hush because they all know what's about to happen and then erupt into a cheer that the trick actually worked on debut day. Yay! I know some folks think off duty CM's make for a high-energy audience, but I find that they are so in on the operation as they screech at their performing friends that it's more distracting than anything.

But this parade is a huge improvement for Magic Kingdom Park parades. They really had nowhere to go but up, but at least they are starting to climb with this pleasant new afternoon parade.

I agree, I didn't notice anything overly impressive in the parade either, but I was thoroughly entertained. I particularly enjoyed the last two floats. Looking forward to seeing this in person.

 

[Disneysea05]

So bizarre, in a good way, seeing the Tokyo Disneyland floats at MK! I saw Jubilation! many times since it debuted in 2008, so it will take some getting used to them in a new park!

The princess garden and monstro floats are already 6 years old, so I hope they receive proper upkeep. They still look as great as they did in Japan!

The dragon is very impressive!

 

[TP2000]

Didn't know about those. Still, these are features that have been introduced only lately to parades. I remember very few (if any) parades using them (like fire). The Pixar Play Parade and Festival of Fantasy are the only two I know making use of real fire at this point.

Valid points that this is a groundbreaking parade if you have only been to the Florida parks.

But the acrobatics and fire effects have been in Anaheim parades in various forms since 2008, for the past six years. And a few of the floats themselves are several years old, borrowed from Tokyo. I visit the Anaheim parks regularly, and the Tokyo parks about as often as the WDW parks, so that's my point of reference in commenting.

But I can completely understand that if you are someone who has only visited the Florida parks, and your only point of reference is WDW operations of the last decade, that this new parade would be considered "groundbreaking" for that audience. It's a very lovely parade that Magic Kingdom desperately needed, so now we can all enjoy it for what it is.

 

[SpectroMan93]

I know this was comment was in jest, but Steve is in fact there today, so it's not that . He's giving interviews in the rose garden. Who knows why those sections weren't rotating, but it's too early to say it's a maintenance thing at this point....

Hmm, well then maybe they're waiting till tomorrow to drop the ball on maintenance. Glad that what we thought were maintenance issues are probably Media Day quirks. Once more videos pop up today, I'm looking forward to see how the swinging ship effect on Peter Pan looks. Even without the swinging, people really fell in love with the unit. Note to any Disney management reading this, that does not make it okay to not have the effect.