Best spot for Macy's parade viewing?

[SquashBanana]

Good morning everyone. We are here now and was looking for advice on the best place to view the Macy's parade at about how early we need to arrive for a 5:30 parade? Thanks!

 

[georgina]

Good morning everyone. We are here now and was looking for advice on the best place to view the Macy's parade at about how early we need to arrive for a 5:30 parade? Thanks!

There are many good spots along the route to stand. You may want to consider what your plans are immediately after the parade. Because the parade ends up where it started, the route to the rest of the park (San Francisco, Diagon Alley, Springfield) is cut off from the Hollywood area. So we watched along the Hollywood area and then were stuck either walking completely around with the parade to get to DA (very crowded walkways) or just exit the park and walk to IOA. DH said 'let's go to Finnegan's', but no, if you are watching from the opposite side of the parade you cannot get there until the parade is about over! Santa does a little tree lighting thing which is fun, it is at the big tree where the parade turns into the NY area. Also, there are confetti cannons on top of some of the buildings along the route that kids especially seem to enjoy.

We were there the 1st weekend in Dec and people were already grabbing spots and hour early, we picked something maybe half an hour ahead. I'm sure it's more crowded now.

 

[SquashBanana]

There are many good spots along the route to stand. You may want to consider what your plans are immediately after the parade. Because the parade ends up where it started, the route to the rest of the park (San Francisco, Diagon Alley, Springfield) is cut off from the Hollywood area. So we watched along the Hollywood area and then were stuck either walking completely around with the parade to get to DA (very crowded walkways) or just exit the park and walk to IOA. DH said 'let's go to Finnegan's', but no, if you are watching from the opposite side of the parade you cannot get there until the parade is about over! Santa does a little tree lighting thing which is fun, it is at the big tree where the parade turns into the NY area. Also, there are confetti cannons on top of some of the buildings along the route that kids especially seem to enjoy.

We were there the 1st weekend in Dec and people were already grabbing spots and hour early, we picked something maybe half an hour ahead. I'm sure it's more crowded now.

This is awesome information thanks! Are you talking about the tree that is across from mummy?

 

[georgina]

This is awesome information thanks! Are you talking about the tree that is across from mummy?

Yeah, I think so. The real big one in the square.

 

[Krisshay13]

We sat across from the tree and honestly, it wasn't the best. We were sitting so, when Santa stopped to light the tree, we were looking straight up to watch him (as in, heads looking at the sky). We were not far from the Mummy lockers. I would probably move down a little more. I would prefer to be looking down the road at Santa & the tree to get a good view. This is also an area of the cannons so, that's fun!!

We were sitting straight across from the tree


Wish we had moved down this way a little.......and looked back at the tree

 

[Lynne G]

This was from where I was standing next to the black railing in front of the mummy. It was a great spot to see the parade as it came around the corner. And we saw and heard Santa motion to light the tree.

 

[Krisshay13]

This was from where I was standing next to the black railing in front of the mummy. It was a great spot to see the parade as it came around the corner. And we saw and heard Santa motion to light the tree.

that's where I wish we had stood.......I didn't realize we were actually too close

 

[SquashBanana]

Thanks for all the advice. One of our rides at IOA went a little long so we didn't get through the front gate at Universal until around 5:10 and it was already difficult navigating the area around Minions & Shrek. So we ended up standing on the corner across from the Today Cafe in the grassy area with the info board. It was elevated so we could see just fine. We followed Santa to the tree but couldn't really see because the other trees in Central Park were blocking the view of the Christmas Tree. Considering we didn't arrive until 20 minutes before parade time, we did about as good as could be expected.