Dumbo the Flying Elephant has its majestic presence in all five Fantasyland parks, the world over. This carousal ride was installed for the first time in October 1955 in Disneyland.
Rest four around the world, enjoyed being privileged attraction on days of inauguration of parks. Artistic style of Dumbos’ décor, self maneuverability and one of the best photo settings, make them one of classic rides in Fantasyland.
Children sitting on Dumbo Elephants should be photographed when they are low and at slower motion. This ride is for kids below 5 years.
This ride composes of sixteen twin seating Dumbo-shaped riding cars moving up and down. These riding cars are fixed with rotating central hub through arms. Front of each car is an animated elephant, with gorgeously decorated headgears.
Body, which houses seats, is equally well painted and tastefully decorated. Peculiarity of Flying Elephants is maneuverability of their heights, high or low, as liked. The heights can be adjusted using independent joystick. The riding cars are connected to a rotating hub through decorated arms. Rotation of the ride is counterclockwise.
In the beginning, it was a ten car ride, inspired by scene of alcohol intoxicated pink elephants of the film named "10 Pink elephants on Parade’.
During installation, the elephants were painted in pink color. However, due to disagreement of Walt Disney, Flying Dumbo Elephants were painted grey. His disagreement had logic of creating Dumbos based on reality, not on movie influenced nightmarish imaginations.
These facts have gone into Disneyland's book of history. During remodeling of Fantasyland in 1983, capacity of carousal was expanded to the present level of sixteen twin seating cars.
Successive changes have been continuing after accidents of 1989 when one of the fiberglass bodies broke out from its arm causing injury to a visiting couple and their little daughter. April 1990 saw another accident. One of the support arms got ripped out from the hub injuring a young Canadian girl.
Changes in 1993 introduced new kinetic mechanism and additional seating capacity. Timothy Mouse showed maturity in handling Dumbos. He took up "magic feather’ instead of a whip. Queuing area was relocated in the backside of fantasyland having covered waiting hall and holding areas.
After some minor modifications induced in 2004, rearrangement was made in 2005 for the elephants to fly over doughnut-shaped pool with splashing water.
Furthermore, one of the Dumbos was painted gold to honor park's fiftieth anniversary in 2005. An old organ plays as the background music on occasions, which is audible from a long distance. |
