Why would the parade stop?

[pampam]

We watched the Main Street Electrical Parade last night. It had nicely started when it stopped for 5-7 minutes. Then carried on. I'm thinking nothing major happened, since it did start again after a few minutes, but I do wonder why it or any parade would stop.

 

[Skywise]

I've seen this twice actually - Both times it was one of the floats motors breaking down so it couldn't move. The last one was the American finale float and they had to bring out a tow truck to get it moving again to applause after about a 10 minute delay.

With the.. music... playing... the... whole... time!!!

 

[Robo]

Yup.
Float or Cast Member issue.

Standard procedure to pause the show until the situation can be remedied or cleared.

 

[Miaka1]

We saw it stop once because a very large duck (not Donald) decided it wanted to weave back and forth across the parade route. It was going from side to side checking to make sure any and all popcorn spilled was cleaned up properly. It took 4 cast members to corral him out of the way. It was actually really cute.

 

[wilkeliza]

That parade is holding on by a thread. My CM buddies and I use to joke that a prayer happens every time it stops that it gets through that night. The America float in particular seems to break the most.

The usual is either a CM who signals for a stop due to something in the way or injury whatever or a float mechanical issue.

 

[monkyby87]

There's any number of reasons...CM got in the way, guest got in the way, float had an issue. If anything it just makes the parade last longer

 

[11290]

"Normally" it is a mechanical / electrical issue to resolve, or if there is wet pavement, some of the floats have a difficult time making it up the hill at Pecos and have to be pulled with a tug (flag is one of the worst for this). Sometimes it can be a problem "off stage" at the exit or a medical situation in the park requiring EMT's to get across the parade route (not very often dut can happen).

 

[DVC-Don]

Either a float broke down or a squirrel was in the road and would not move. Remember the video of the squirrel that stopped the monorail a few years ago?

 

[DebbieB]

They need to bring Paint the Night to WDW. Saw it in August at DL, was amazing.

 

[kadams17]

In Jan last year we were watching the Festival of Fantasy Parade and one of the fairy godmothers became stuck in the trolley tracks that run down Main Street. They first thought her power died but then realized she was just stuck. It was about a 7 minute ordeal, but we got to watch the Fairy Godmothers keep "fighting" with the other characters and the dragon was right in front of us! The result was about 6 cast members coming over and grabbing the base of her dress to lift her back into the street. They do a great job making sure you are entertained.