WDW parade during Tropical Storm Fay

[bradhig]

I found this on Youtube. Who's dumb idea was it to hold a parade in a downpour and strong winds. They were lucky because the Peter Pan float almost hit the villains float Probably a lot of damaged costumes. I hope some heads rolled after this.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRywpEuc ... re=related

[Escapay]

Who's dumb idea was it to hold a parade in a downpour and strong winds.

I have no idea, but that video was a joy to watch. Makes me miss the days when I'd roam around the parks on a rainy day with nary a guest in sight.

Probably a lot of damaged costumes.

I'm sure it takes a lot more than just water to damage those costumes.

albert

[Siren]

Wow....I recently washed my unicorn costume and it took 2 days to dry WITH HIGH POWERED dryers. I doubt the costumes were ruined, but I bet it was a terrible pain for the cast members who clean the suits to dry them out like that. Not to mention the wearer of the costumes must have sore backs, shoulders and legs....my unicorn costume weighed probably a good 50lbs+ soaken wet....and I wasn't even wearing it then.

I also notice the floats are going by real fast (fast for floats anyways)...looks like very poor planning. It was during a hurricane, I don't think it would have been terrible for them to cancel the parade for the day, I am sure people would understand. And if they didn't, screw them.

[goofystitch]

Well, Disney floats can't go backwards. They have to be towed if they need to go in reverse. So my guess is that the parade was already lined up backstage and it was going to be easier to send it out then to have to tow the whole thing back to the garage where it is stored. In addition, the performers are well protected underneath their costumes and with the speed that the floats were going, they probably weren't in them longer than 20 minutes.

I wouldn't say they were "dumb" or that it was "bad planning," but rather unfortunate circumstances. My guess is that they weren't expecting the storm to come as soon as it did and they were caught off guard. The Magic Kingdom actually has a secondary parade that they send out in the rain, called the "Rainy Day Cavalcade." When it's already raining hard and the parade is supposed to start, they send that out instead. Click here to see it. As you can see, Disney's costumes are actually water resistant, so none of them would have been ruined. In fact, characters can go swimming, and they have. Years ago, Goofy used to swim in the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon with guests every day, Mickey used to dive at The Living Seas, and characters have been seen swimming at Castaway Cay with lucky guests on a Disney Cruise.

[blackcauldron85]

Here's an article about a recent rainy parade:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/featur ... ngdom.html
(via LaughingPlace.com)

[goofystitch]

That is unfortunate. Again, once the floats are lined up, the easiest way to put them back is to run the parade, which is why all the floats kept coming out. And as I mentioned before, the Princess float is the heaviest. Where it got stuck in Town Square is where the incline starts towards the castle (because the road is now above the tunnels). Diseney did the right thing by getting as many characters off of the floats as possible.

[Escapay]

OH MY GOD!

WE WERE THERE THAT DAY!

Of course, we were inside Philhar and the show ended shortly after the rains came. We put on our ponchos and ran around Fantasyland for a bit before going on Peter Pan's Flight with our fastpasses.

Man, if we'd have known the parade was still going on, we'd have run over there just to see it all.

albert