Disneyland to enter Cars Land float in the 2013 Rose Parade

October 23, 2012, 2:23 PM · Disneyland confirmed today that it will enter a float in the 2013 Rose Parade, here in Pasadena.

Cars Land Rose Parade Float
Concept art courtesy Disney

Yep, the theme is Cars Land, as Disney continues its marketing campaign for the new land that's made California Adventure the original Disneyland's first serious challenger for the title of Most Popular Theme Park in Southern California. Disney's entered floats in the Rose Parade before, but not since the mid-2000s, when the park promoted Tower of Terror, and then Disneyland's 50th anniversary.

Since Theme Park Insider's world headquarters is three blocks from the Rose Parade route here in Pasadena, we've got tons of parade and float decorating photos from past Rose Parades here on the site. Just search "Rose Parade" over in the search box, to the right. And we'll be on the route again this year, taking photos of the Disney float for you. (Even though it appears that my beloved Northwestern Wildcats have once again gagged away their chance to play in the Rose Bowl. Sigh. Thank heaven for 1996. And 1949. When we won.)

Replies (4)

October 23, 2012 at 11:28 PM · Seems like its going to be a real nice float. Cars Land was simply awesome when I visited this past August.

As for Northwestern, at least they're going to a bowl, it could be worse. You could be a UTEP fan like myself, where a bowl game victory has not happened in over four decades and are sitting with a 2-6 record this year, again. But hey, at least the victory over Tulane this past saturday was fun. Go Miners!

...Back to the parade though. I'm not even sure anyone will be watching the float. Everybody's going to be at the Disneyland Resort. I'm guessing that the week between Christmas and New Years will see record crowds at DCA.

October 24, 2012 at 8:09 AM · My hope is Disney doesn't decide to yank the Float from the official after-parade viewing site and take it to DCA like what they did to the Tower of Terror float. Since Disney decided to pull it from public viewing, they missed an marketing opportunity to sell DCA to the public in Pasadena, which was visited by many foreign and domestic tourists. At that time, few tourists will make a separate trip to DCA to see the float when the actual ride was right around the corner. It was an embarrassing flub.

I actually went to DCA on the next day. There weren't many people who viewed the float especially when it wasn't in proximity to other Rose Parade floats. The visitors to DCA were already sold on the park. What Disney needed to do was sell others on the park. Marketing DCA should have been the goal of sponsoring Rose Parade floats. I recommend Disney have lots of Cast Members handing out flyers and inviting the Rose Parade visitors to visit DCA. Offer some discounts and give away some Carsland stickers.

October 24, 2012 at 11:43 AM · I broke this story on Oct. 13, here: http://bit.ly/CarsLand1

It would have gone sooner but was waiting for confirmation from Disney. After two attempts and no repsonse either way, I went with the story.

October 24, 2012 at 10:11 PM · Is it just me, or does the Rose Parade have more grains, bark, nuts & fruits and less flowers as the years have passed. I remember floats covered in flowers; some truly carpeted in roses. Is it too expensive nowadays? I think Stephany Edwards says "Dried split peas, kelp and pampas grass" more than "Carnations, chrysanthemums and gladiolas".

This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Vacation deals

Park tickets

Subscribe by email

Subscribe by RSS

New attraction reviews

News archive