Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros is a musical dark boat ride housed within the pyramid-shaped Mexico Pavilion, at the

Epcot Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unreal ...

theme park at the

Walt Disney World Resort The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

in Florida. It was the first

World Showcase Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unreal ...

attraction to feature Disney characters based on an existing property.

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

followed suit in 2014 when it closed its

Maelstrom Maelstrom may refer to: * Maelstrom (whirlpool), a powerful whirlpool ** originally the Moskstraumen in English Amusement rides * Maelstrom (ride), a former log flume dark ride attraction in the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World Resort ...

ride to make room for Frozen Ever After, which opened in 2016.

Synopsis

The attraction begins with posters indicating that

the Three Caballeros ''The Three Caballeros'' is a 1944 American live-action/animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on ...

are to perform a concert tonight. After boarding the boats, guests float around the

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

and volcano in the back of the pavilion's main room. Soon, guests enter a tunnel on the side of the pyramid, where

Panchito Pistoles Panchito Pistoles is a cartoon character, cartoon anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic rooster created by Fred Moore (animator), Fred Moore. He first appeared in the 1944 Disney film ''The Three Caballeros'' with his friends Donald Duck and José Ca ...

and José Carioca of The Three Caballeros introduce themselves, only to find out that Donald Duck, the third member of the group, has run off, prompting Panchito and José to set off on a frantic search for their missing friend. The next few scenes show Donald touring Mexico and José and Panchito on a magic

serape The serape or jorongo is a long blanket-like shawl/cloak, often brightly colored and fringed at the ends, worn in Mexico, especially by men. The spelling of the word sarape (or zarape) is the accepted form in Mexico and in other Spanish-spea ...

(a sort of Mexican flying poncho) looking for him. The next scene has characters similar to '

It's a Small World "It's a Small World" is a water-based boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks worldwide, including Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida; Tokyo D ...

' with dancing animatronics and a Donald Duck

piñata A piñata (, ) is a container, often made of papier-mâché, pottery, or cloth, that is decorated, filled with candy, and then broken as part of a celebration. Piñatas are commonly associated with Mexico. The idea of breaking a container fille ...

. Once past this area, guests enter a

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

, which features different scenes of live-action footage with the Caballeros. After leaving the cave, there are three panels featuring a Mariachi band in the first, some Mexican girls and Donald in the second and Panchito and José pulling Donald away from the girls in the third. From here, guests float into

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, where

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

are going off overhead and the Three Caballeros are finally performing their concert.

History

The Gran Fiesta Tour replaced

El Rio del Tiempo El Rio del Tiempo ("The River of Time") was a dark ride housed within the pyramid-shaped Mexico pavilion, in EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The ride carried passengers on a slow boat ride through variou ...

(The River of Time) boat ride that previously was at the Mexico Pavillion from 1982 to 2007. Panchito, the leader of the trio, is the only Mexican character of the three, as Donald is portrayed as a citizen of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

while José is

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian. The attraction's flume system and boats were manufactured by

Arrow Dynamics Arrow Dynamics was an American manufacturing and engineering company that specialized in designing and building amusement park rides, especially roller coasters. Based in Clearfield, Utah, the company was the successor to Arrow Development (194 ...

, who also worked on other water-based dark rides for Disney such as ''

'' and '' Pirates of the Caribbean''. Eric Goldberg, best known for animating the

Genie Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic myt ...

in '' Aladdin'', directed the animation for the ride. On December 4, 2015, animatronics of the Three Caballeros from the Mickey Mouse Revue were placed into the attraction's finale. * * *

Voice talent

Tony Anselmo Tony Anselmo (born February 18, 1960) is an American voice actor and animator. He has been the official character voice of Donald Duck since 1985 following the death of the original voice actor, Clarence Nash. He has also provided voices for Do ...

as Donald Duck * Rob Paulsen as José Carioca *

Carlos Alazraqui Carlos Jaime Alazraqui (born July 20, 1962) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, impressionist, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Deputy James Garcia on '' Reno 911!'' and for his voice acting roles. His extensive ...

References

WDWHistory - Grand Fiesta Tour

External links

Walt Disney World Resort - Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
{{Epcot Amusement rides introduced in 2007 Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions Epcot Walt Disney Parks and Resorts gentle boat rides Dark rides Water rides Audio-Animatronic attractions World Showcase Free flow boat rides 2007 establishments in Florida

Synopsis

History

Voice talent

See also

References

External links