Parade Logistics
Parade Upkeep
Producing a daily parade with live fresh botanic material offers up some unique challenges. Flowers wilt and must be regularly refreshed. Fortunately, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade – the “Rose Parade” which inspired Fantasia in Bloom – has for over 100 years perfected the art of floral floats.
Disney teams up with the Southern California-based Fiesta Parade Floats, the world’s premier floral float decoration company. Together, they create a parade following the Rose Parade’s central dictate: “Every inch of every float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds or bark.”
Floats are decorated on-site, using backstage maintenance sheds located behind Pixar Pier. These sheds provide direct access to the California Adventure parade route. Refrigerated chambers within the sheds keep flowers in tip top shape until they are ready for their show. Local Californian farms provide 100% of the decorative materials. Farmers deliver flowers to California Adventure throughout the festival season, ensuring the utmost freshness. Disney’s press releases make a point to highlight the parade’s "Made in California" pedigree.
Parade decoration detail, featuring white tapioca pearls and red cranberry seeds.
Much of the decoration process only needs to be done once, prior to the start of the CaliFloral Festival. Non-perishable vegetable materials such as seeds or bark can last throughout the festival season. Semi-perishable surfaces such as leaves can be replaced monthly, using removable float panels to make this a quick and inexpensive overnight process. New panels are created in advance within the backstage shed. Disney’s crews will use biodegradable polyvinyl glue to attach these materials to the floats. Every category of organic material, from the seeds up to the flowers, offers the widest range of colors and textures, so there is no limit to the effects floats can achieve.
The last piece of the puzzle are the live flowers. These are the parade’s raison d’etre. Their colorful hues and floral fragrance cannot be matched. Floats will boast a wide-ranging assortment of flowers, from roses to blossoms, orchids, chrysanthemums, carnations, and more.
Flowers are affixed to the floats within hours of parade time. These flowers retain their vibrancy for half a week before they must be replaced. Show-ready flowers are housed in plastic water vials, which help to retain their bloom as long as possible. Float panels include simple vial insert slots. The changeout process is fully streamlined; it is easily done overnight. Floats are refreshed on a rotation, so that Disney’s backstage crews are never overwhelmed.
Water vials, pictured, help retain floral freshness.
Partial map of DCA, with the Fantasia in Bloom parade route shown as a dotted line.
Parade Route
The parade floats will be moved from the Pixar Pier Backstage to the area next to Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta, where the parade will begin. It will go down all the way through Paradise Gardens Park. Then, it will turn left on the Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar. Afterwards, it will continue its path on a straight line, all the way up to the fountain at Buena Vista Street, where it will turn left into Grizzly Peak. It will follow the path ahead until the space next to Soarin’, the parade ends there. the floats will be stored in that space until it’s time for the second function. Which will begin at Grizzly Peak and finish at Pixar Pier. After that, the floats will be taken to the warehouse where it’ll be taken care of until the next day.
Next: Parade Floats
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