I Was a Disney World Cast Member and I'm Letting You in on a Parade SECRET

Being a Disney World Cast Member is no easy job. With great power comes great responsibility!

But, Disney World Cast Members have the luxury of getting the ins and outs of just how things work in and out of the parks, and you know what that means — SECRETS. And now, we’re letting you in on a little secret or two about Disney World entertainment!

We have a few former Cast Members here on our team at AllEars, and they let us in on some secrets you might not know about Disney World parades! Let’s get to it.

Safety Drills

It takes a lot to keep parades running smoothly, and that means everyone needs to be paying attention to safety! Parade performers and Cast Members will often have to go through multiple rounds of safety drills and training. This involves watching the parade “step off” from backstage and getting to know the floats.

You also might experience an “e-stop” if you’re watching a Disney parade one day. Essentially, it’s an emergency stop that the parade has to do if someone (like a kiddo) gets too close to the performers or the parade route. Make sure you keep an eye on your little ones when you’re watching the parades!

Dragon Fire

If you’ve ever seen Disney’s Festival of Fantasy Parade in Magic Kingdom, you’ve likely seen the Maleficent dragon breathing fire — but not the entire time.

For safety reasons, it’s too dangerous in certain areas for the dragon to breathe fire (like near the Liberty Tree in Liberty Square that Walt picked out himself!) so make sure you’re not in that area if you want to catch all the fire!

Rehearsal Rules

We bet you didn’t know that full parade dress rehearsals happen in the middle of the night! It makes sense, of course, since Disney can’t exactly practice a parade route with people in the park. Because of this, the parades will practice with full sounds, costumes, etc. after everyone has already left.

Before this, though, the parades are rehearsed in facilities beyond the park — like behind Animal Kingdom or multiple ballrooms at the Contemporary Resort!

Float Storage

Ever wonder where all those intricate, giant floats go when the parade isn’t happening? They’re actually kept in storage just backstage! In Magic Kingdom, the floats are kept in a “step off” location behind Frontierland.

Even though the parade ends on Main Street, USA, the floats have to drive all the way back behind Jungle Cruise and Adventureland to get back to their initial starting point. Cast Members must also get off the floats at the end and either walk back via Utilidors (the underground tunnels beneath Magic Kingdom) or are escorted in vans.

Heavy Lifting

The reason the Cast Members in Magic Kingdom parades have to actually get off the floats before they had back to the staging area is because there is actually a massive hill behind Jungle Cruise that the floats have to climb!