Disneyland honors Fleet Week with sailors, parade and flyover

Disneyland Resort turned Main Street, U.S.A. into a Fleet Week showcase Saturday, hosting more than 100 sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen for a day that mixed military ceremony with the park’s signature spectacle. The visit came as Los Angeles Fleet Week brought service members to Southern California ahead of Memorial Day weekend, and it landed at a sensitive cultural intersection where the armed services lean on high-profile public stages to reinforce visibility, connection and esteem.

The service members spent the day riding the Jungle Cruise and the Mark Twain Riverboat before moving into nighttime entertainment that included the Paint the Night parade and the Wondrous Journeys spectacular. Disneyland also built the day around military recognition inside the park, tying the event to the 250th anniversaries of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps and to the resort’s long-running practice of using ceremonial rituals to mark service.

The centerpiece came in Town Square, where crowds gathered for a special flag retreat ceremony on Main Street, U.S.A. Navy Band Southwest performed, in what Disneyland said was one of the largest Navy band appearances at the resort. The ceremony ended with an F/A-18E Super Hornet flyover from Strike Fighter Squadron 94 at Naval Air Station Lemoore, a moment that pushed the tribute from pageantry into unmistakable military theater.

Josh D’Amaro, chief executive of The Walt Disney Company, presented military leaders with an American flag that had flown over the park. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse also appeared in new red, white and blue outfits created for the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary, folding Disney’s own brand into the broader commemorations around the military’s semiquincentennial.

Disneyland said daily flag retreat ceremonies have been part of the park since it opened in 1955, and it has previously hosted Fleet Week participants, including in 2025. Rear Admiral Robert Nowakowski said the day highlighted Disney’s continued tribute to service members who came before and those who will follow, underscoring how the resort’s patriotic programming has become part of the public face of civil-military ceremony at one of the country’s most recognizable attractions.