Carnation Cafe to watch parade - what time to book?

[elaine amj]

We'll be at DLR for a week for the 60th in July and it's our first trip. I'm thinking of timing our Carnation Cafe reservation with the afternoon parade on July 17th. It looks like the parade is at 4:30pm? Is 4pm a good time for an ADR? I know we won't get to see much of the parade...I thought it might be fun to try for an outside table just to have the sounds, music, and the top half of the parade going by.

Or is it best to skip the parade madness and book for 6pm for a quiet, relaxing meal?

 

[sc426]

In my experience, I would book a 4:15pm meal and ask for an outside table. The servers know not to bother you to much while the parade is going by unless you ask them for something.

 

[Epek]

Just want to point out, the 4:30 parade will not be the new Paint the Night parade. Soundsational is still a fun one, but not the one everyone is talking about for the 60th.

 

[figment_jii]

I would probably opt for a 4:00 pm reservation in case the restaurant is running behind schedule. It's kind of an off time, so hopefully they can honor requests and seat you in a timely fashion (when they're running behind and/or fully booked, they may not take table requests so you'd have to take the next available table which maybe located inside). Soundsational starts in Town Square, so it should pass by Carnation fairly soon after 4:30 pm (don't forget that the Frozen pre-parade float should pass by a little before 4:30 pm). As Epek points out, Soundsational is not the new parade for the 60th - it's been around since 2011. You seem to know that you probably won't see much of the parade from the restaurant, so as long as you don't go with high expectations, it's probably okay to dine there during the parade.

 

[elaine amj]

Thank you all so much! I booked for 3:50pm to be on the safe side since it IS July 17th. We won't mind waiting for a table. We are there for 5 park days so will possibly watch Soundsational "properly" at some point. We are so-so about the afternoon parade in WDW and crazy about the night parade there so expect about the same in DLR.