Hear ye, hear ye… After two long years, Magic Kingdom’s Festival of Fantasy parade returned today, March 9th! (Time flies… Festival of Fantasy rolled for the first time 8 years ago on March 9th, 2014!)
Magic Kingdom’s afternoon parade features many favorite Disney characters atop vibrant state-of-the-art floats, starring friends from Peter Pan, Frozen, Tangled, Beauty & the Beast, and more. Of course, Mickey, Minnie, and the gang make an appearance in parade-exclusive costumes. Be prepared for an earworm, the original parade song will live rent-free in your head for days to come… away we go!
Now through March 13th, the Festival of Fantasy will step off twice daily at 11:30am and 2:30pm. Beginning March 13th, the parade will show at 12pm and 3pm most days. Ah, the classic 3 o’clock parade…
Disney has stated that the various Character Cavalcades, including the newest Disney Adventure Friends Cavalcade starring 30 characters, will continue to be performed in addition to the twice-daily Festival of Fantasy parade.
Festival of Fantasy – The 2022 Version
What once featured over 90 performers, the Festival of Fantasy parade has received some modifications for its long-awaited return in 2022. During the first performance in two years, there were some noticeable cuts making this a lighter parade than what it once was. Characters that often traveled in twos were solo atop their respective floats (no princes standing beside their princesses), the majority of parade dancers between floats are missing, as well as the rolling Tick Tock Croc behind Peter Pan’s ship, and Merida along with her oversized bagpipe float is also missing. The songs Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah and When I See an Elephant Fly has been removed from the parade’s soundtrack. Additionally, the rose-studded princess float received some major aesthetic changes.
Crowd control Cast Members were noticeably emotional hearing the parade music startup:
The WDW Ambassadors, along with a few Magic Kingdom Cast Members, were the honorary grand marshals for today’s first parade:
The parade begins with Belle on a rose-covered float. The dancers that previously led this float were missing, as was Beast who used to appear with Belle.
Behind Belle is Cinderella without her Prince Charming, and Tiana without her Prince Naveen.
Queen Elsa [along with a little Olaf!] appears on the opposite side of Tiana, but poor Princess Anna was gone.
The first float now features swirly green structures instead of the previous flower installations. And the bottom of the float is missing a ton of the sweeping greenery. Here’s what it looked like before… What do you think of the changes?
Two colorful dancers and Ulf the mime lead the way for the Snuggly Duckling float, featuring Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and two ruffians.
Characters from under the sea glide by, leading Ariel atop her clamshell throne, as bubbles start to fill the air. The two seahorse spinners behind Ariel are missing.
Wendy and the Lost Boys (four out of the usual six) dance between floats; while Peter Pan, Hook, and Tinker Bell are seen on the Neverland float (Wendy used to pilot the Jolly Roger ship with Peter).
Mr. Smee follows closely behind. Tick Tock the Croc, along with the medieval dancers and Merida and her bagpipe float are all missing. Instead, we go from Neverland to Maleficient, led by the three good fairies, and just two of the previous three thorn stilt-walkers. The two raven characters were also missing near Prince Philip.
Unfortunately, the dragon wasn’t breathing fire that I could see. That’s generally a highlight of the show.
Following behind the massive rolling dragon are Jiminy Cricket, Alice, The Mad Hatter, Snow White, and the Seven Dwarfs. (The White Rabbit was often included before.)
Storybook Circus-themed dancers are missing from this next section, just before Pinocchio arrives atop a festive Monstro the Whale, and Donald waves from a Fantasia-themed float, with Pluto at the caboose.
Minnie, Daisy, Goofy, Chip, and Dale follow closely behind. (Minnie used to be inside the hot air balloon with Mickey, while Daisy used to be on the float next to Donald)
More circus dancers were removed from this section. And finally, Mickey is the star of the parade’s finale float:
Check out a video of the current Festival of Fantasy processional here:
Genie+ Lightning Lane Additions
Beginning March 11, Festival of Fantasy will be added as a Lightning Lane selection to the Genie+ service (along with the meet & greet location See Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams at Disney’s Hollywood Studios).
Genie+ Lightning Lane reserved parade viewing will be located on the east side of Cinderella Castle (the same parade viewing area from the days of FastPass+).
If seeing Disney’s Festival of Fantasy parade is important to you, and you’re using Genie+, we recommend making this Lightning Lane selection a priority for your Magic Kingdom day. The viewing areas are small; much less capacity than any attraction would have throughout the day.
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Let’s Hear From You
This is Walt Disney World’s only full parade (with the exception of the Seven Seas Lagoon’s nightly Electrical Water Pageant), and we’re still hoping for an eventual nighttime parade! In the meantime, it’s nice to have another slice of entertainment back at the parks, even if it is a diet version.
