VIDEO - Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade takes to the streets of the Magic Kingdom with grand opening performance

Mar 09, 2014 in "Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade"

Posted: Sunday March 9, 2014 4:06pm EST by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Magic Kingdom's daytime parade is back with the brand new 'Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade.'

We have a complete video from today's grand opening - so click the video below to see the parade for yourself. But be warned, it is the complete 15 minute parade, without edits and is full of spoilers. So if you are waiting to see it live in person, you might want to skip the video.

The completely new parade features all of your favorite Disney characters on nine new floats.

The Princess Garden – This pageantry of princesses celebrates Disney royalty. Cinderella, Tiana and Belle accompanied by their respective princes, ride in a garden of topiaries with woodland creatures, birds and more. Cinderella’s dress playfully twirls like a turntable, while Swan Court couples lead the 50-foot-long majestic float, capped off with a special appearance by Anna and Elsa from Disney’s hit animated feature, “Frozen.”

Tangled – A massive long ship on the high seas showcases Flynn Rider and Rapunzel in search of adventure and another Best. Day. Ever! Rapunzel’s iconic tresses weave throughout this 36-foot-long float decked out with swaying pendulums carrying dastardly thugs.

Little Mermaid – Ariel and her friends sit atop a colorfully kinetic seashell music box that boasts an enchanting musical jubilee. There’s no shortage of whimsy on this Under the Sea float with conga dancing fish kicking up their fins and bubbles galore. Shimmering fabrics and intricately designed costumes for the Lion Fish, Coral Fish, Seashell and Sea Horse performers are runway-inspired.

Peter Pan – Straight from Never Land come Peter Pan and Wendy soaring high aboard the famous Jolly Roger pirate ship complete with smoke effects and special surprises. A rainbow arch shines over Skull Rock and Tinker Bell nestled among giant flowers, while Captain Hook takes center stage on a swinging anchor. “Newsies-inspired” Lost Boys kick up their heels to high-energy choreography.

Brave – Celtic couples and a vessel shaped like an enormous bagpipe announce the arrival of Merida perched high on her majestic crown. Scottish dancers step to melodies of the Great Highlands in celebration of the popular Disney*Pixar film, “Brave.”

Sleeping Beauty – The heroic Prince Phillip battles a Steampunk-inspired Dragon as the wicked Maleficent. This float stretches 53 feet in length and 26 feet tall with a prickly spinning wheel dead center of the float. With fiery eyes and glowing effects the spectacular dragon was built on an articulating chassis allowing the float to bend and flex as it moves along the parade route – a first for Disney parades. This float was designed in a partnership with Tony Award-winner Michael Curry. There’s Prince Phillip, thorn-inspired stilt performers, dramatic raven dancers, plus the three good fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather glide along the parade route.

Finale and Mickey’s Airship – The parade culminates with a 90-foot-long magical caravan of characters featuring Pinocchio, Dumbo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Mad Hatter, Pluto and more in a splashy carnival of color. There’s Pegasus horses, dancing hippos and sassy Bubble Girls with cotton-candy-like hair celebrating Storybook Circus in New Fantasyland. Sporting zany new costumes Mickey and Minnie Mouse sit sky high in Mickey’s Airship — a giant hot air balloon that rounds out Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade.

“The parade celebrates and pays homage to what the Magic Kingdom is all about,” said Randy Wojcik, senior show director Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Creative Entertainment. “It has the most beautiful floats, enchanting characters, vibrant costumes that come to life; and the choreography is just glorious. Yet, it is also very kinetic, relevant and powerful on a scale never seen before at Walt Disney World.”

The parade has an original soundtrack inspired by favorite Disney films, composed by Mark Hammond, known for his work on World of Color at Disney California Adventure and the Flights of Fantasy parade at Hong Kong Disneyland. The parade has its own voice with a theme song customized for each float followed by a medley of songs woven throughout the cavalcade.

The 15 minute parade performs daily at the Magic Kingdom at 3pm.

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SpectroBroMay 09, 2018

I can say for a fact that the costume with the expandable wings WILL be back. The wings are currently being repaired. They went 4 years with out being replaced so these repairs are much needed.

DisoneMay 08, 2018

bummer.

SquishyMay 08, 2018

Haven't seen this said by anyone yet but, The raven costumes in the festival of fantasy parade seemed to have change for permanently. The costumes currently in use we're temporary in 2017 and only used in windy days but for the past 3-2 months it looks like this is a permanent change. Apparently the wings of the old costumes broke too many times because of the wind. Old costume: New costume:

CrazydisneyfanlukeNov 16, 2015

I haven't seen any in a recent search, could you link one?

riorizNov 16, 2015

There's videos of the 5pm on YouTube

TTA94Nov 15, 2015

Oh I do agree fully that the garland is very much missed! I do hate those stupid wreaths! Im just saying, regardless of the Christmas decor, that FOF is even more awesome at dusk!

JoeCamelNov 14, 2015

Oh Please, I have to whine that they took the garlands down for this parade. How could it possibly be great with the lights when the garlands are missing. This is a travesty that must be rectified by cutting the floats down to size or erecting risers for the garlands at once TIC...

Cesar R MNov 14, 2015

and noone took photos? HERESY!

cjk0318Nov 14, 2015

It's definitely pretty :)

TTA94Nov 13, 2015

Just saw FOF at 5pm because of the Christmas parade taping today.. I still wish they would run it at this time more often! 6 or 7pm would be even better! Seeing FOF with the Main Street lights is really cool!

JoeCamelJun 18, 2015

Uh - no, the idea is to have you pay to come into the park not sit and watch it on your phone?

jrhwdwJun 18, 2015

WDW just Periscoped FOF and it was awesome!!!! Someone PLEASE tell management that they need to do this or set up a Live Cam MUCH more often!!!

dstrawn9889Jun 02, 2015

fridays' show, apparently the parade controls were misbehaving -- wrong audio ques for the floats, onstage effects offline(not triggered)

mm52200Jun 02, 2015

Already an ongoing discussion about this in the thread titled "Mess-tival of Fantasy". It was just one of those days where everything that could have gone wrong happened. I saw the parade in person that day, and I saw it the day before. It was in perfect working order the day before, every single effect was working. So this was definitely a fluke of some sorts.