Hello everyone, and welcome to our next look at what makes the attractions at Disney second to none! Today we are focusing on the Opening Day attraction Dumbo the Flying Elephant, which first opened at the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971. Prior to that opening, it opened at Disneyland on August 16, 1955. In addition to these two locations, Dumbo was also an opening day attraction for Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland.
Dumbo is located in Fantasyland, and features characters from the movie. Guests that ride the attraction sit in one of the Dumbo cars, and you can move the car up or down as needed and wanted. With the expansion of Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom, there are now Dueling Dumbos — meaning that they actually have two of the rides, and they have been updated to look really cool at night!
Did you know…
that, according to Wikipedia, the original design of the Disneyland attraction had ten ride vehicles which were intended to represent not the “one and only” Dumbo, but the alcohol-induced “pink elephants” scene from the film. In fact, the working title of the attraction was “10 Pink Elephants On Parade” and the elephants were painted pink on installation. However, Walt Disney objected, not wishing Disneyland’s guests to ride vehicles themed to a hallucination and thereby ordered them painted gray.
Additionally, in honor of Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary in 2005, one of the Dumbo elephants was donated to the National Museum of American History.
As you see from the picture at the beginning of this post, one of my favorite Disney memories was created on June 21, 2010, at 12:06AM, during Extra Magic Hours, when my wife and I saw Mickey and Minnie riding Dumbo with two very unsuspecting Guests. It was a surreal moment, and like many very important events, this event is one that I’ll never forget where I was when it happened.
In this case, Stephanie and Sophie had gone on to get in line for Dumbo, and Cindy and I were heading over to ride Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel. It had rained hard that day, but had stopped in the early evening, but as a result of the rain, the Magic Kingdom was practically empty. The ground was wet, but as we were getting ready to get in line for the Carrousel, we happened to look over and see Mickey and Minnie in line with the guests, who look dumbfounded at their good fortune!
To top it all off, being the true Gentlemouse that he is, when the ride was over, Mickey got off, went back to Minnie’s Dumbo car, and helped her off as well. Chivalry is not dead!
I hope you have enjoyed this look at Dumbo the Flying Elephant! Tell me, is this an attraction that you and your family must ride, or can you do without? Please let me know in the comments, and thanks for stopping by!
[…] Dumbo the Flying Elephant – an original classic (mydreamsofdisney.com) […]