Cinco de Mayo Parade at Disney’s Coronado Springs!
This morning, Disney Cast Members treated guests of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort to a festive Cinco de Mayo parade complete with all the makings a of great event – floats, costumes, music, candy to toss to onlooker and even Mickey and Minnie!
For the past few weeks, Cast Members from various departments at the resort including Housekeeping, Security, Engineering and others collaborated with their coworkers to design and create elaborate parade “floats” using resort pargos (golf carts, flatbed carts, etc.) for the event. Today, they donned their costumes and took their pargos out on parade around the resort grounds.
Check out our video of the parade below (and make sure you watch all the way through to hear the Cast Member’s hilarious laugh after he hands me a handful of crinkle cut paper because he’s out of candy. ha!)
Though it was a short event, lasting only about 30 mins in total for the parade to loop around the lake, both Cast and Guests were laughing and smiling and having a great time while the parade rolled through.
Most Guests who came to see the festivities were lined up along the parade route near El Centro (the main lobby building), but others came out of their rooms and stood on balconies of the other buildings when the commotion of pargo horns, maracas and shouts of “Happy Cinco de Mayo” and “Viva Mexico” could be heard around Lago Dorado.
Here’s a look at the parade pargos and the Cast who displayed them proudly:
While a similar Mardi Gras Cast Pargo Parade occurs at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort on Fat Tuesday, this was the first time they had this event at Disney’s Coronado Springs. After seeing the joy on the faces of the Cast Members who participated and the Cast Members who came to watch as well the Guests, I suspect it will be an annual event. I look forward to attending again next year!
Random educational side note: Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s independence day. Mexican independence is Sept.16. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over the French forces of Napoleon III on May 5, 1862, at the Battle of Puebla. 😉