What happened to the balloon ride?

[pixiesmimi]

What happened to the hot air balloon ride in Downtown Disney? It wasn't there when we went in August and I just wondered if it ever got up and running and what happened to it.

[thatkindofday]

If you're talking about the characters in flight thing, it was up and running the second week in September. It only runs with weather permitting.

[GrumpyFan]

I haven't heard of it closing. It's over by the west side, did you go over there? Also, it's still listed on Disney's site.

[kathiep]

We were there from 8/22-8/31 and saw it pretty much every day. My kids thought it was the greatest that they saw it from the top of the splash tubes at Typhoon Lagoon and they also spotted it when walking around World Showcase.

[Ed]

I see it almost every day. It's clearly visible from my vantage point - the roof of Orlando Airport!

:cool:

[marlaine]

It was up and running Sept. 16th when we were there!

[pixiesmimi]

Characters in Flight, is that the hot air balloon ride that was supposed to be in DTD? We were there Aug. 23-30 and never saw a thing. It was raining the day we went to DTD but I looked around to see where it might be and didn't see anything. Is the West side over by the restaurants or in the market place? We went to the market place and didn't go on the other side because of the rain. Maybe that was why I missed it but I thought it was around the lagune and figured it was there around the market place.

[Ian]

I got there on 8/30 and stayed until 9/7 ... it was there every single day we were there.

And quite obvious, as well. You could see it clearly from the road leading in to WDW.

[Imagineer1981]

Yep, I was there the same time as Ian and it was there everyday. Saw it from EE a couple of times too!!

[DisneyFr33k]

Wow! Another one, after all the times I've been to WDW, I didn't know existed. Goes to show, there is always something undiscovered in WDW! I'll look for this during our next trip!!

[pixiesmimi]

I got there on 8/30 and stayed until 9/7 ... it was there every single day we were there.

And quite obvious, as well. You could see it clearly from the road leading in to WDW.

Just don't know how I missed it because I was really looking for it to show DH. We didn't see it from any location. :confused:

[Pally]

We were there Aug 26-Sept 3 and rode it on Aug 30 early afternoon. We also could see it from a couple of parks. It made for a nice skyline especailly after having ridden on it. :mickey: It was not busy when we arrived there. We did not have to wait more than 5 minutes. Lucky us, because when we came down from our ride there was a building line that seemed to come from no where. :mickey:

[KatrinaJ91]

Characters in Flight, is that the hot air balloon ride that was supposed to be in DTD? We were there Aug. 23-30 and never saw a thing. It was raining the day we went to DTD but I looked around to see where it might be and didn't see anything. Is the West side over by the restaurants or in the market place? We went to the market place and didn't go on the other side because of the rain. Maybe that was why I missed it but I thought it was around the lagune and figured it was there around the market place.

It is located right across the bridge to the West Side on the lagoon. If it is in the air, you can see it from pretty much everywhere in DTD. It sits right next to the Hagan Daas/Pretzel place right on the water. Sorry you missed it, it is a very cool sight to see! :cool:

[pixiesmimi]

Don't know. Guess I was blind. :shake::shrug: Don't know how I missed something that big that I was actually looking for.

[dmosher]

Yep, it was up and running last night!
:pipes:
D

[joelkfla]

Minor correction:

It's actually helium-filled, not hot-air. There's no burner to lift it, like in a real hot-air balloon.

The helium does the lifting, and a winch pulls it back down to earth.