hi again. So i went on Friday. The Sonoma Terrance Paint The Night Reception is still under testing phase so i was invited to test and trial. Im not sure if this match exactly what you will experience, but i guess it should be close to it. We were told to head to location at 8pm. Parade start time is at 8:45pm coming from the paradise pier to hollywood.
We were placed in the back row area of the seating area on high chair and table. This is what my view looks with the balloon vendors.
The view does see over the people from the back. The only concerned i had was the poles. The parade lighting and speaker poles are in the way. From the back, u will see them. Its much harder to take pictures of the floats coming by. There is no guest that will sit on the railing in front so the view is pretty good.
Now lets talk about the food. I forgot to take a picture of the bread but they give u 3 different types of bread. One looked like a dinner roll, the taste of it, like a hint of some kind of herb. The 2nd bread of course is sourdough bread. The last bread was the tastiest but for some reason they only give 1 for 2 people to share, but it was like a cheese flavor to it. The bread also came cold, if it was warm, im sure it would taste so much better.
The main course consist of like 12 items on a plate. Here is a picture.
The menu list is missing the peppercini for some reason. The food was pretty decent and tasty. This is where im not sure if your experience might be different with another type of plate, but this is what was given to us. YMMV. The back of the menu showed 4 different wines. I also forgot to take a picture of it. They seem to be specialized wine but they just taste like normal red wine to me. They did have some off menu drinks, one of them they call "Paint The Night." special. I got one, was pretty good. My friend told me it taste to her like cough drops though lol. very light on alcohol, taste very fruity to me. We were also given a box of chocolates! i dont recall one of them, i think it was just regular chocolate, but one had raspberry cream, one was salted caramel, the white one was white chocolate. Came in this paint the night box.
Now, here comes the parade! The one thing that i saw lacking was that the speakers are pointed towards the parade route, so the sound isnt as great as being right next to the route. But it is definitely still a great place to watch. You can see everything, but as u can see in both my first and 2nd picture, the stupid light pole is in it.
Overall, its a nice place to just sit and relax. The parade is a bit unknown as this is the 2nd time the parade started going at DCA. They are still trying to figure out the lines and such. If you were actually on the parade route, we noticed that it was super close to the guest.
Now this is where i can get a little biased, i am an ex cast member and this seating arrange/meal was free, but i honestly cant imagine paying for this. If u were to pay for this, id also wait till June to actually got see Paint the Night. My friend was specifically there to see the Incredible float, but we later learned that that float wont be out until after the movie comes out. Save your money until then if u will be going at another date! Overall though, it was a nice experience! I hope that helps y'all with your decision making. Feel free to ask questions!