Flights of Fantasy Parade & The New Fantasyland - 1983

Today, I have a few miscellaneous items, from the 1983 opening of Disneyland's New Fantasyland. We will also be taking a look at the "Flights of Fantasy" parade, which was created to celebrate this newly remodeled land.

First up, is this order form for a special Disneyland 2-day passport, commemorating Fantasyland's reopening. This was part of an advertising supplement, which was included in local newspapers in May of 1983. I originally posted the entire supplement, back in May of 2019 and it can be viewed (here).

The ad suggested buying it as a "cherished addition to any Disneyana collection." That might be the first time I had ever seen that mentioned as a selling point, by Disney themselves. I bought one of these tickets and I never did use it. I'm assuming it's still good since it doesn't have an expiration date on it. Of course, I'm not a "Junior" anymore. I'd like to know who it was at Disney, that decided to eliminate the "Junior" pricing category?

The commemorative tickets were also available at the main gate ticket booths, as stated in this price guide brochure. These guides were handed out to guests, as they drove into the old Disneyland parking lot.

It states on the page above, that Disneyland does not accept credit cards. I wonder when that policy changed?

Here's the entertainment guide that was available at the main gate, in the early part of the summer of '83. This one was effective June 18th through July 1st. Before the summer was over, this guide would undergo some slight alterations. We'll see the updated version a bit later in this post. This version had three panels, with the back panel of the guide featuring an ad for The Disney Channel (which debuted earlier that year).

The Flights of Fantasy Parade was created specifically for the debut of the New Fantasyland and ran both during the day and at night, bumping the usual nighttime summer run of the Main Street Electrical Parade. This was the second time that the Main Street Electrical Parade was put on hiatus for a summer season. The first time was during the 1975-76 run of "America On Parade."

Tinkerbell was returning to the "Fantasy In The Sky Fireworks" show, for the first time since the summer of 1976. Her flights had been grounded ever since demolition began on the Mine Train Thru Nature's Wonderland attraction in 1977. Her "landing pad" had been located within the footprint of that attraction, so as it was being removed, Tinkerbell's landing spot went with it. For her 1983 return, a special "ranger station" type of tower was built on the eastern side of Big Thunder Mountain, which allowed her to "land" once again, after taking off from the top of the Matterhorn.

The "Make Believe Brass Band" was listed as performing throughout the New Fantasyland. This group was also new for the summer of '83. Three of it's five members can be seen below, leaving Fantasyland to go on a break. They are exiting through the Big Thunder Trail gate in the northwestern corner of Fantasyland.

This brass quintet would also assist Merlin in the "Sword In The Stone Ceremony," which was a show created specifically for the New Fantasyland. Merlin would perform a few magic tricks for guests and then he'd choose a child from the crowd, to come up and try to pull the sword out of the anvil in the Castle forecourt.

Prior to choosing the child, Merlin would choose an adult male, who would attempt it first. The men were always unsuccessful, but the children were always able to do it.

Afterwards, Merlin would give the children a special medal to wear around their neck. In later years, the children were only given a button (like the one below, from 1986).

At some point, they must have gone back to giving out the medals. I found this one on ebay. At first I thought this must be from the earlier days of the Sword in the Stone Ceremony, but the seller was claiming that it's from circa 2005. The fact that it has "© Disney" stamped on it and not "© Walt Disney Productions" (like the button does), confirms that this would be from a later date than the button.

By the spring of 1984, The Sword In The Stone Ceremony was being featured on the cover of the park's entertainment guide.

In addition to Merlin and the Make Believe Brass, the New Fantasyland featured a couple other new "street entertainers." The woman below, was a street mime. At times, she would stop "miming" and play her recorder for guests.

There was also a juggler, who would stroll through the land and perform for the crowds.

Here is the second version of the entertainment guide, for the summer of '83. This one is for August 28th through September 10th. The artwork for the Flights of Fantasy Parade had been expanded for this guide, making it four panels/pages across, in comparison to the previous guide's three panels.

This was an ad that ran in a special "summer entertainment supplement," to the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

Now let's take a look at the new parade! It began with Mickey, Minnie and Donald, riding in their own hot air balloons, while other iconic Disney characters walked alongside them.

On this particular day, Minnie doubled up with Mickey in his balloon.

Next up was the Winnie the Pooh unit. The parade floats were all "soft sculpture" in design.

And some of the characters in the parade, such as the Heffalumps and Woozles below, were actually inflatable costumes with a performer inside.

It had to be difficult walking inside one of these giant costumes. And it must have gotten awfully hot in there!

These Haunted Forest trees from the Snow White unit, were reused the following year in the park's Christmas parade.

This float was also used again in the Christmas parade. The Wicked Witch had a spiel that she gave as she stirred her couldron. It went as follows:

"Mix the brew and make it right.
Just the thing to get Snow White.
A poison apple......TAKE A BITE!
Go on, take a bite! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

The clown jack-in-the-box on this Pinocchio float would slowly rise up out of the box. Note the large Dutch puppet on the right side of the float (between Honest John and Gideon).

Next came the Babes in Toyland unit.

The "Toy Soldier Drill Team" had been a regular feature in the park's Christmas parades.

These oversized marching broomsticks were my favorite part of the parade!

This float from the Fantasia unit was also recycled and used again for the Christmas parade, along with the Alligators, Ostriches and Hippo costumes.

Okay, the broomsticks AND Maleficent, were actually "tied" for my favorite part of the parade!

The dragon would blow smoke from it's nostrils!

Maleficent also had a spiel that she would recite throughout the parade. Her monologue went like this:

"Well my pet, shall I cast my spell on them, hmmmmmmm?
YOU FOOLS! IMBECILES! YOU DARE TO DOUBT MY POWERS? HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!"

"NOW LISTEN WELL, ALL OF YOU! I AM THE MISTRESS OF ALL EVIL AND NOW YOU SHALL DEAL WITH ME! HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!"

Next, was the Alice In Wonderland unit. It was pretty unusual to see a character costume for the March Hare. And the character head for the Mad Hatter, had been redesigned for this parade and was much smaller in comparison to the costume head that had been used in the past. The following year (1984), the Mad Hatter "rubber head" costumed character was retired and replaced with a "face character," meaning that the person who is wearing the costume, has their face exposed and is physically and verbally acting out the part of the character.

This float used the same smoke effect as the Maleficent float, with the smoke coming from the caterpillar's mouth.

We will end today, with this out of focus picture of the Disneyland sign that used to sit on Harbor Boulevard, at the entrance to the old Disneyland parking lot. The bottom portion of the sign reads, "Open Every Day. Today 9 am - 12 am. See The New Fantasyland. Flights Of Fantasy Parade."

Actually, we will end with these two videos, which I recently came across on YouTube!

This first video features home movie footage of the parade, with the parade soundtrack dubbed in:





This second video features many snapshots of the parade, accompanied by the parade's soundtrack:

*****Post Update (April 2024)*****

Here's an additional newspaper advertisement, promoting the "Flights of Fantasy" parade.  It's from a September issue of The Los Angeles Times. The park's summer schedule was over, and the parade was now running on "weekends only."

New Fantasyland Grand Opening - May 1983

It was May of 1983. A good portion of Disneyland's Fantasyland had been closed for over a year, for a major remodeling. Park management announced that Fantasyland's "grand re-opening" would be taking place on Saturday, May 28th. This advertising supplement was included in The Los Angeles Times, a few weeks before the scheduled opening.

The special advertisement confirmed the date of the opening as Saturday, May 28th. My friend and I had never been to Disneyland for the grand opening of an attraction, so we made plans to be there on that day. Then a little snag came up. We found out from some cast members, that there was actually going to be a special grand opening ceremony and preview for the Press, three days earlier. When I called the park, they wouldn't tell me in advance whether or not the general public would be allowed into Fantasyland that day. We had to wait.

Finally, that day arrived. I called the park in the morning and asked the same question. They said "yes", the New Fantasyland was open to all park guests that day and that it would continue to be open for the next three days, leading up to the announced "official" grand opening date on Saturday, the 28th. I asked if any kind of special ceremony was planned again for Saturday and they said "no." I asked why they announced the official opening date on one day, when it was really opening three days earlier. I don't remember what they said exactly, but I do remember that it was a "canned Disney response."

So my friend and I decided to rush over to the park, so that we could say we were there on opening day. I had won free Disneyland tickets recently through the campus radio station at school, so I didn't have to worry about paying for this visit. Here is that ticket, dated May 25, 1983. I always hated it when the cast member that stamped your ticket at the gate, was careless about it and smeared the fresh ink.

Everyone coming into the park that day was being given this New Fantasyland button. By the way, they were NOT giving these out on the announced "official grand opening day," three days later. (My friend and I went back on that Saturday, because I had already taken the time off from work, and it had been our original plan to go to the park on that day, anyway.)

Members of the press were given this pin:

This is the entertainment guide that was available at the gate.

The inside is dated May 25th. The opening ceremony is listed along with special park hours. Since they would not tell us in advance whether or not we would be admitted into Fantasyland that day, and it was a last minute decision for us to go, we did not make it there in time for the opening ceremony at 10 a.m.! :-(

The Fall 1983 issue of Disney News Magazine featured a good shot from the opening ceremony on it's cover. Notice how the Castle drawbridge was in the "up" position. It was supposedly being lowered for the first time since opening day of the park, back in 1955. The guy in the bottom/middle of the photo, happened to be in "Fantasy On Parade" the year that I was in it.

The magazine included an article about Fantasyland's rededication, along with more photos of the opening ceremony.

The New Fantasyland's opening day festivities were covered by the local CBS TV show, 2 On The Town, with the hosts reporting live from Fantasyland. This advertisement was from The Los Angeles Times.

And this advertisement and TV listing were from the May 21-27th issue of TV Guide.

My friend and I ended up getting on camera for the live CBS show. We were also on two other channel's evening news reports. We had seen ourselves on a small TV monitor that was sitting on the ground, so we were pretty sure that we were shown during the live broadcast. My great-grandmother actually saw me on TV and called my mom to ask her if I was at Disneyland! I was also told by some people at work, that they saw me on the news. About 14 years later, I met someone who just happened to have recorded part of the 2 On The Town show and gave me a copy. Here is that partial recording of the show. The hosts are Steve Edwards and Melanie Rogers. I apologize for this not being complete. I wish I had the entire show!





And here are my pics that I took that day. I'm not sure why I didn't take more photos! Maybe I was just caught up in the excitement of everything being new.

These first two pictures were taken from the entrance to the Pinocchio attraction. This first one is looking in the direction of the newly relocated Dumbo's Flying Elephants. At this time, it did have Timothy Mouse on top of the hot air balloon in the center of the attraction, but it had not yet received the ornate centerpiece that would soon be installed below him.

This view was taken from the same spot, but looking over towards Peter Pan's Flight.

Alice In Wonderland did not reopen in 1983 with the rest of the New Fantasyland. Guests had to wait until the following year for that attraction. At this point, the track in the loading and unloading area had been ripped out and replaced with grass. The descending track on the winding "leaf" just ended as soon as it reached the ground (remember, the cars did not reenter the building in the original version!) and a sign was posted out front, stating that Alice would be back in 1984. There was also a low construction wall that kept guests back, but allowed them to view the old attraction facade and the new sign.

The "Sword in the Stone" ceremonies with Merlin, began on that very first day. The guy on the left was a member of the Make Believe Brass, which was a "musical comedy quintet" that performed throughout the New Fantasyland. Does anyone know when they discontinued the Sword in the Stone ceremonies?

This photo shows empty torch posts out on the bridge in front of the Castle. The banners had been removed from them for the rededication ceremony. Note the temporary "stone block" wall in the moat, to the left of the bridge. That wall is what hid the mechanism that allowed Maleficent to rise up into the air, during the opening ceremony (as seen earlier on that cover of Disney News Magazine). This was nine whole years before the appearance of Maleficent in "Fantasmic!"

This is the last pic that I took that day. It was already getting dark and I really needed a flash for this one.....and I REALLY wish I had a flash, because Annette Funicello (center) was standing just a few feet away from me and was being interviewed by Steve Edwards (in the hat on the left) and Melody Rogers (holding the microphone on the right). Can you see Annette? Try squinting. She's there, I swear! Unfortunately, this Annette interview from 2 On The Town is missing from the video clip above.

These next three pics were taken three days later on Saturday, May 28, 1983. Again, that was the day that was announced to the public as the "official" opening date for the New Fantasyland. In this pic of the Castle, we can see that the temporary structure from the opening ceremony had not yet been removed from the moat. We got there at park opening, but there wasn't any kind of ceremony held for the general public that day.

This shot of the brand new Pinocchio's Daring Journey attraction, shows the absence of the Pinocchio figure above the entrance. He wasn't added until many years later.

And this photo of the White Rabbit's house (the Mad Hatter Shop) shows how the railing in front of the house, used to go straight across, blocking the pathway. This was changed some years later, to allow guests to have access up to the miniature door. The window next to the door, also lost it's flower box at some point. Note the construction wall for the Alice In Wonderland attraction on the left, and how low it was.

Here is a more recent shot (from 2014), taken from almost the same angle.

This last photo was taken during the summer of 1983 and shows a little bit more of that construction wall (in the distance).

 We will end today, with the 1983 television commercial for the New Fantasyland: