Did anyone else feel cheated watching Spectromagic at 10pm instead of 8pm?

[whalewatcher]

We went to the MK on Jan. 4 and thought we would be so clever to watch the 9pm fireworks and Spectromagic at 10pm instead of 8pm...you know...to beat the crowds. The plan worked out great but the parade seemed shorter and with fewer characters. Some of the floats were empty in fact.

Has anyone else noticed this?

PS The parade can start in either direction. Does this mean they bring the parade to one end of the park and then just send it back the next time the parade runs?

Just curious...

 

[Ajax]

Hi walewatcher-

I saw it on 12/30 at both times, and my wife & daughter saw the 10pm version on 1/1. All three parades started from the foot of Main Street, and from what I saw and my family told me, there wasn't any difference.

 

[Bill3]

We watched the late parade on 12-29-02 and both my wife and I noticed empty floats and minimal characters. We decided it was worth it for the less crowdwd conditions.I have been to wdw before and have seen this before. It does not happen all the time just whenever.It was fairly chilly that evening,that may have had something to do with it.

 

[pooh.kim]

Ww were there and watched 10 PM parade on 1/1 and it had all floats, characters, etc. and was way crowded!! Decided to ride during the 10 PM parade on 1/3 and 1/4. Fri 1/3 the parts we did see of the parade seemed the same and all but on 1/4 I did notice that some of the floats were empty and that seemed strange - probably would have been disappointed if we had not already seen it. I think this was the last night (1/4) that they ran two parades.

 

[jazyjewel]

I was there on 12-28 and watched the 10:00 parade because the 8:00 is always sooooo crowded. I did notice a few empty floats that went by, but didn't realize that those were supposed to have had characters on them. Without seeing the first show tho, I did not notice. But the good thing is, there were only about 300 or so people left in the park, and the characters were more friendly. My hubby's fav is Donald duck and he was last, but was looking across the street when he past us. So, I ran over to the next spot so I could get a better picture (that's how deserted it was), and he actually posed just for my picture, same with Captain Hook. Both posed just for me, so I think it was worth it.
Julie

 

[bobcat]

We saw the 10pm parade on 1/2. All the floats were full and we got great interactions from the characters. We sat right in front of the shooting gallery in Frontierland and many of the floats stopped right here. There was no crowd and we played checkers for a while before the parade started. I think this is my new favorite spot.

 

[The Sybah Shelstah]

Wait a minute.. what parade did I see/videotape/take pictures of at 10pm at MK on Christmas day?!? Please let me know!! I'm so confused now.. I do know that I did not see snowglobes with characters in them and I thought it was odd at the time. Did I see them and just don't remember it or did I see an entirely different parade?

 

[Ocean]

Originally posted by whalewatcher
PS The parade can start in either direction. Does this mean they bring the parade to one end of the park and then just send it back the next time the parade runs?

Just curious...

The pattern I've usually observed is that afternoon parades run from Frontierland down to Main Street, and evening parades run from Main Street to Frontierland.

 

[whalewatcher]

Wow! Thanks for the response. I didn't think it was my imagination.

You guys are right...there are definite advantages to the late parade. We were able to sneak in a ride on Thunder Mountain and run over to watch the parade at the last minute. Also, the characters we saw did seem very friendly.

 

[AKASnowWhite]

Originally posted by The Sybah Shelstah
Wait a minute.. what parade did I see/videotape/take pictures of at 10pm at MK on Christmas day?!? Please let me know!! I'm so confused now.. I do know that I did not see snowglobes with characters in them and I thought it was odd at the time. Did I see them and just don't remember it or did I see an entirely different parade?

The snowglobes are in the *Share a Dream Come True* parade - afternoons at WDW. If you saw a night time parade, you must have seen Spectromagic.....

 

[The Sybah Shelstah]

Ohhh, I see! So I need to make sure I catch the "Share a Dream Come True" parade then on my upcoming trip! Thanks for the info!

 

[JulieWent]

It's funny. On our recent trip I made a special point of getting to Spectro because it has been so many years since I have seen it. I don't know if my memory is faulty (imagine that!), but it just seemed to be a shorter parade. (I went to the 8:00.) Maybe I was younger then, but I just remember earlier versions of this parade going on forever.

That said, there were plenty of characters and the interaction was good. It just seemed shorter, is all.