Annual Passholder viewing area for Mardi Gras parade terrible

[hydrotony]

Saturday, I went to the Mardi Gras to see the parade and saw that the AP only viewing area is at the same place as last year. It is at the corner right in front of the entrance for the parade. The area gets very crowded. The floats make a left turn and only a small section is near that turn and most people were far away and well out of bead throwing range. The parade then makes a circle and returns to that corner before leaving the park. The problem is that just about every bead thrower was out of beads and few actually went into the AP only area.

Take my advice, see the parade from somewhere along Hollywood Blvd. where it was much less crowded. I did and got about 20 strings of beads without trying hard. I then went to the AP only area for the return trip just to see how it was and it wasn't good. People in this area really don't know how good everyone else had it.

 

[DOOM1001]

I'm an AP holder and from experience you don't want to
be in a corner where the floats turn and as they turn get a bit further away from you making the beads barely reach you.I was there this Saturday and also from experience know passholder areas for certain events are best to avoid.I was right across the street in front of the Horror makeup show but more towards Hollywood blvd away from the corner.After the parade went by and I got my 20 or so beads I went across the street near the smoking area across from Mels Drive in.You could tell just by looking at the passholder area how crowded it was,there are good spots to be found all along the route,makes no sense to get in a crowded area because that's the designated area for passholders.It was funny how when we saw the parade by the smoking area with the benches there was one float that had thrown all their beads and all the girls throwing beads were just waving instead of throwing beads and another float had lost power and had no lights.Most of the beads we caught here we just gave to kids near us,I already had like over 20 and about 20 pounds of beads from parades from other years at home.One thing I did like is how there were more uniquely colored beads from other years.Last year it seemed like every bead was gold,purple and green.This year there were a lotof silver ones,white ones,black ones,pastel pink and green,etc..The floats were really cool this year as well.

 

[Hug the Mouse]

We were standing next to pass holders VIP area Saturday and the worst thing was the lack of light...led to many strands of beads bouncing off my face!!!