Extinct Attractions – Flights of Fantasy Parade
Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I took a look back at a Hong Kong Disneyland parade that called the park home for nearly a decade.
Last Friday, Disney California Adventure launched their Lunar New Year celebration. I was able to attend last Monday, and the celebration is as fun as always, with the food standing out, especially. The event has been running since 2012, a bit after the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney’s first theme park in the Chinese area, but helped set the stage for the opening of Shanghai Disneyland a few years later. But today, I’m going to stick with Hong Kong Disneyland and jump back to its 5th anniversary.
Via YouTube
Hong Kong Disneyland turned 5 on September 12, 2010, but it took a little while for some of the celebration festivities to appear at the park. Disney on Parade, the opening day parade received a bit of a run past the 5th anniversary before the parade created for the celebration debuted on January 18, 2011. Flights of Fantasy Parade followed the Tokyo blueprint of creating a parade for anniversary celebrations, though Flights of Fantasy was special because it included collaborations from Disney Parks around the world. Each float received a fun name and there was a long show stop that gave kids the chance to dance and be part of the show. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.
The parade started out with a song that may sound familiar to Disneyland fans as Mickey’s Soundsational Parade took the song and used it for years itself. I loved hearing it, especially as it worked with the Dumbo opening float setting the stage for the flight theme with a fun balloon included. Dumbo was followed by a fun little band before one of my favorite floats in the parade.
Via YouTube
Mickey appeared in a fancy airship with the rest of the Fab Five and Chip and Dale. They all had some fun navigation outfits that felt a bit steampunk and really helped set the tone for the rest of the show, which did its best to feel different than so many parades before it. With its zeppelin-like balloon, guests got a glimpse at the “flights" that would be a part of the parade throughout.
Before the full float that came next, there was a bit of a tease with Pooh in a little hunny pot followed by dancers in Tigger outfits that were super cute. With him were Tigger and Eeyore just strolling around before a full-sized float that had a lot of zany energy to it. There were a bunch of Heffalumps plus some bouncing “bees" (aka people on elastic bands that allowed them to bounce).
What would a Disney parade be without some princesses? With that in mind, Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora and Belle made their way into the parade riding on the back of a swan without much other fanfare.
The next float brought back the extravagance of the previous floats with a jungle-themed float that combined characters from The Jungle Book and The Lion King. The older film got the chance to go first with Baloo and Louie appearing in walkaround character form while Kaa, Shere Khan and Colonel Hathi were in robot or balloon form. There were tons of trees and plants as well to provide a lot of life to the parade and just amaze guests. But what was even better was characters from The Lion King appearing next with Rafiki and Timon in costumes this time while Simba was in balloon form.
Tinker Bell got her own time to shine next with a bunch of fairies on ladybug carts leading the way in front of her. Behind her were a bunch of fairy dancers because Tink has a lot of friends.
Via Designing Disney
With the fairies in place, Lilo & Stitch got some representation next, with Stitch in both character and balloon form. There was a gigantic wave behind Stitch that probably wouldn’t have even fit under wires at many theme parks, it was that huge. It would have been nice to get a few other characters on the float, but it was great for what it was.
To close things out, Toy Story characters got the moment to shine with Woody and Jessie walking around in front of the float with some dancers behind them dressed as Star Command pilots. Buzz himself appeared on the float as part of a very cool looking toy shop that had a couple of other Easter eggs to Toy Story characters.
As a whole, the floats were pretty awesome especially with some deep levels of detail. Each of them had a really unique look, though the parade probably would’ve worked better without the show stop because it was over five minutes long and really slowed things down.
Flights of Fantasy Parade closed on January 26, 2020 as a part of the COVID-related closures. It hasn’t returned since then and is technically not fully extinct but I think that after five years, it’s safe to assume that it’s never making its way back. It’s a shame to lose such a fantastic parade, but it did have nearly a decade of run, so it’s tough to see that it hadn’t gotten its fair share. Hopefully, Hong Kong Disneyland will get a parade of its own back soon.
Via YouTube
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!