Christmas Parade Questions

[khertz]

My DH and I are planning to head down to WDW at the beginning of December this year, probably flying out of New Orleans on the 4th and staying through the 14th or 15th. Nothing has been booked yet, but we will be booking our resort soon. I had a couple questions for the Disney vets to this time of year.

Typically, how far in advance do they announce the date of the Christmas Parade taping (or is there a standard day/weekend that it takes place)? And how much does the parade taping affect the other parks? We definitely will want to avoid the MK on that day if our trip overlaps (which I'm thinking it will!). How crowded does that make the other parks?

Our parents will be joining us for the beginning of the trip, and I'd hate for this to make one of our first days in the parks a negative experience. My parents have been several times in the past few years, but my in-laws haven't been since about 1991! So I definitely want them to have a great time and not have a negative view of our vacation in the first few days.

 

[chirurgeon]

They generally tape the parade the first weekend in December. I would say this doesn't effect the other parks too badly, especially Epcot since that can absorb a lot more crowds. Epcot this year wasn't bad at all. And the next weekend is Mousefest. A definite good time for those who love Disney and the Disney Internet community. I'll be there.


Kim

 

[DisneyDebbie]

They usually do the parade the first weekend of Dec. which for '09 would be Fri. 12/4 and Sat. 12/5. I don't think it makes the other parks too crowded, since alot of people flock to the parade.

Happy Planning!

 

[khertz]

They usually do the parade the first weekend of Dec. which for '09 would be Fri. 12/4 and Sat. 12/5. I don't think it makes the other parks too crowded, since alot of people flock to the parade.

Happy Planning!

Thanks for the info! Hopefully we can hit a couple other parks over the first couple of days. There will be so many new rides and attractions that my in-laws haven't experienced that I don't think they'll care where we go on what days. They've basically given it up to us and my parents because we've been so many times!

 

[CanadianGuy]

The Christmas Parade taping dates usually aren't released till much closer.. but going on the typical dates historically in relation to Thanksgiving and other 'annual' tie-ins... (Note: these are projected dates using "Best Guess Technology" (tm) and as with everything Disney - NOTHING is official til it's a press release with Disney letterhead.

The Christmas parade in 2009 will most likely be taped on December 4th, 5th.

The Friday is usually the Castle Forecourt shows and performances and on Saturday they tape the actual parade floats.

It's an extremely slow process that usually involves a lot of repeats, resetting, starting over etc. It literally takes hours ...


What do they tape and on which day?

Friday, they tape the castle forecourt shows and a few other 'tidbits' and on Saturday they tape the actual parade route. There is a LOT of starting and stopping and doing the same thing over and over again.

I'd love to take my DD or DS, what time should we be there?

The tapings are generally audience controlled. AP holders were given a chance at tickets for both days and those tickets go quick. This past year Disney posted a chance for people to book tickets on their website and confirm a date and time.

Can I see the parade or forecourt shows anyway without tickets?

Depends. Usually you can see 'something' from a distance or a non-roped off viewing spot but generally speaking your view will be much less interesting than those with tickets. (IE: Tickets get the primo locations)

I could NOT care less about the parade, how will this affect me going to the MK on those days?

On Friday, the shows are taped in the Castle Forecourt area and the crowd is pretty much restricted to that area and the taping is usually done around 2pm at the latest according to a number of posters.

On Saturday, Main Street USA is gridlock. It's nasty.. Amazingly, the rest of the Magic Kingdom is apparently "a walk in the park" once you get past Main Street.. at least until early afternoon. When people start walking away from the taping to go on rides in early to mid afternoon, then it gets pretty busy. The MK is open til midnight on that Saturday.

 

[khertz]

The Christmas Parade taping dates usually aren't released till much closer.. but going on the typical dates historically in relation to Thanksgiving and other 'annual' tie-ins... (Note: these are projected dates using "Best Guess Technology" (tm) and as with everything Disney - NOTHING is official til it's a press release with Disney letterhead.

The Christmas parade in 2009 will most likely be taped on December 4th, 5th.

The Friday is usually the Castle Forecourt shows and performances and on Saturday they tape the actual parade floats.

It's an extremely slow process that usually involves a lot of repeats, resetting, starting over etc. It literally takes hours ...


What do they tape and on which day?

Friday, they tape the castle forecourt shows and a few other 'tidbits' and on Saturday they tape the actual parade route. There is a LOT of starting and stopping and doing the same thing over and over again.

I'd love to take my DD or DS, what time should we be there?

The tapings are generally audience controlled. AP holders were given a chance at tickets for both days and those tickets go quick. This past year Disney posted a chance for people to book tickets on their website and confirm a date and time.

Can I see the parade or forecourt shows anyway without tickets?

Depends. Usually you can see 'something' from a distance or a non-roped off viewing spot but generally speaking your view will be much less interesting than those with tickets. (IE: Tickets get the primo locations)

I could NOT care less about the parade, how will this affect me going to the MK on those days?

On Friday, the shows are taped in the Castle Forecourt area and the crowd is pretty much restricted to that area and the taping is usually done around 2pm at the latest according to a number of posters.

On Saturday, Main Street USA is gridlock. It's nasty.. Amazingly, the rest of the Magic Kingdom is apparently "a walk in the park" once you get past Main Street.. at least until early afternoon. When people start walking away from the taping to go on rides in early to mid afternoon, then it gets pretty busy. The MK is open til midnight on that Saturday.

Thanks for all this great info! I didn't realize it was taped for two days, so that's definitely good to know, since my DH and I will be arriving before everyone else on Friday and were planning to go to a park. We know to avoid MK! And I didn't realize MK would be open so late on Saturday. We could possibly hop over there and enjoy (hopefully) later crowds at night and feel like we have EMH privileges when we really don't! Again, thanks so much!!

 

[thesupersmartguy]

I was there diring the parade taping in 08. I stayed in the CL lounge most of that day, and went to MK that night. It was not super crowded, but they did route people around Main Street through the backstage area. This was around 6:30PM.

Hope this helps.

 

[khertz]

I was there diring the parade taping in 08. I stayed in the CL lounge most of that day, and went to MK that night. It was not super crowded, but they did route people around Main Street through the backstage area. This was around 6:30PM.

Hope this helps.

That helps a lot actually. Thanks so much.

 

[wendyt_ca]

How can you find out what shows will be going on and who will be the guests on the parade and what day they will be performing? We are going that week.

 

[CanadianGuy]

How can you find out what shows will be going on and who will be the guests on the parade and what day they will be performing? We are going that week.

This gets released about 2 to 3 weeks before hand.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

Thanks for all this great info! I didn't realize it was taped for two days, so that's definitely good to know, since my DH and I will be arriving before everyone else on Friday and were planning to go to a park. We know to avoid MK! And I didn't realize MK would be open so late on Saturday. We could possibly hop over there and enjoy (hopefully) later crowds at night and feel like we have EMH privileges when we really don't! Again, thanks so much!!

We had a "girls week-end" at Disney this past December and our day for the MK was 12/6 when they were taping the Main St. parade portion and some other celebrations around the castle. For the 4 of us girls, it was actually the best day to be at MK because everyone was crowding around the train station, etc trying to get a glimpse of Regis & Kelly or trying to be in the taping. For us, we just raced down Main St. and took a quick left by Casey's and headed to a practically empty park. It was beautiful!! Most rides were a walk-on. The only wait we really had most of the day was to see the Fairies & get our pictures taken. We were there when the park opened to regular guests (not those with the special parade tickets) and stayed until they turned us out..............LOL!! We'd do it again in a heartbeat!!

The only thing we were actually dreading was the fact that the POP Warner kids were arriving that week-end for their championships & we didn't want to be staying at the resorts that they were checking into. Been there, done that & won't repeat that fiasco again!!

Enjoy your trip~~~