Originally Posted By Disneydanny has the little gate next to Splash Mountain that the parade floats enter or exit (depending on direction traveling) always been there or was that originally part of the guest viewing area?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros It's been there since Splash Mountain was built in the early 90's. Before then, there was a similar configuration for the parade route, though in a slightly different location, near the old Frontierland railroad station Beyond the gate, the road is actually fairly narrow, so there's no real room for an audience on either side of the floats. Additionally, it doesnt' add much length to the parade route, so it's not really worth it for them to allow guests into quasi-backstage areas I've always liked that gate and thought it was a pretty elegant way to solve the traditional problem of a parade coming out of backstage. Instead of opening some oversized doors to an area that's clearly full of warehouses, the parade just sort of winds its way out from between the trees. It does leave that awkward stretch of pathway that's off limits to guests, but overall I like how it works
Originally Posted By Disneydanny i know there also was a time in the 80's where fore some reason they routed parades through Fantasyland instead of Frontierland. any idea when or why that was?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I've never heard of that. Where did the parade enter? There's really no backstage access gates in Fantasyland big enough for a parade (much of FL's backstage is a level below the guest level, due to the Utilidor), so I'm not sure how it would have worked Are you sure you're not thinking of DL's parade route, which starts next to it's a small world and passes the Matterhorn on the way to the Hub?
Originally Posted By Disneydanny i heard from a Cast Member that they did route parades at Magic Kingdom to Fantasyland for a breif period in the 80's, they said it wouldn't be possible to do that now because the gate where they exited is paert of where New Fantasyland is now.
Originally Posted By tonyanton I've never heard of that...the only possibility would be pre-Toontown, east of the 20,000 Leagues showbuilding, but the Mad Tea Party would be in the way and prevent floats getting to that bridge to the hub. Perhaps they're thinking of Disneyland or Tokyo or Paris?
Originally Posted By cheesybaby I am very skeptical of this as well. How would the floats get from Fantasyland to Main Street?
