Who doesn’t like a good parade? Walt Disney World has had a daily parade since opening day, October 1, 1971, when it hosted the “Character Parade”. There have been many different styles of parades since then, everything from the simple Trolley parade down Main Street to the returning Festival of Fantasy parade.
Did you know that there have actually been parades in each park at Walt Disney World? The most popular ones, though, have been those done in Magic Kingdom. Let’s take a quick look at three of the ones I really like(d). (I will split this between two separate posts.)
The Main Street Electrical Parade opened in Magic Kingdom on June 11, 1977 and was the first night time parade in Walt Disney World. The parade was originally created for Disneyland where it premiered in 1972. (Interesting fact, the parade was developed for Disneyland because the west coast executives were jealous about the Electrical Water Pageant that happened each night on the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.) It quickly became very popular on both coasts.
This was the first parade I ever saw at Walt Disney World. It just blew my mind! I could not figure out how they managed to have all these floats operating independently while the lights changed colors and moved. I am sure it wasn’t as complicated as I thought it was but it's just another example of Disney Imagineering making something that seems impossible happen.
There were 10 units in the parade celebrating various Disney classics and each unit had various floats throughout the years.
– Opening Unit–
– Alice in Wonderland –
– Cinderella –
– Peter Pan –
– Snow White and Seven Dwarfs –
– Pinocchio –
– Pete’s Dragon –
– Closing Unit-
There were also units for Bedknobs and Broomsticks and It’s a Small World but I did not have pictures for those. Sorry for the quality but these were taken a long time ago and early digital wasn't that good in the dark. If you would like to see the full parade, I have included a link to a YouTube video.
The parade ran on and off for several years with it’s official last show on October 9, 2016. It would swap coasts several times with another night time parade, Spectromagic. There has not been a night time parade in Walt Disney World since Main Street Electrical parade ended.
Spectromagic first appeared on October 1, 1991 to celebrate Walt Disney World’s 20th anniversary. The story is about how Mickey and the Spectromagic Men create the power of Spectromagic. It is comprised of five different themes broken into 23 units and used 39 different floats. The major difference between this and the Main Street Electrical parade were the technical upgrades allowing the use of fiber optics. I do have to say that a big part of the atmosphere for the parade was the theme song, On this Magical Night. It’s a very upbeat tune that just makes you smile (it will also stay with you for a while).
Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures as I was to enthralled with the parade to take any so I have included a link to a YouTube video for the entire parade. Between the two, Spectromagic was my favorite and I was very disappointed when it ended on June 4, 2010. There were hopes among its many fans that it would return but Disney has confirmed that several of the floats were destroyed during storage.
Next time we will talk about the Festival of Fantasy parade and its return.