Disney Christmas Parade Taping

[Tbiafore]

I noticed that on Nov 10th they moved the Festival of Fantasy Parade to 5pm (from 3pm). I also heard they are taping the Christmas parade from Nov 10-13 as well. I have a few questions I hope someone can answer regarding this....

1. Why would they move this parade time? What does it have to do with the taping of the Christmas parade?

2. The Christmas parade is a completely different parade than the Festival of Fantasy, right?

3. When it comes to grabbing a seat on Main street for a spot in watching the taping of the Xmas parade, how early should you grab a seat? I assume much earlier than normal parades since its such a hot item.

 

[mb187143]

I noticed that on Nov 10th they moved the Festival of Fantasy Parade to 5pm (from 3pm). I also heard they are taping the Christmas parade from Nov 10-13 as well. I have a few questions I hope someone can answer regarding this....

1. Why would they move this parade time? What does it have to do with the taping of the Christmas parade?

2. The Christmas parade is a completely different parade than the Festival of Fantasy, right?

3. When it comes to grabbing a seat on Main street for a spot in watching the taping of the Xmas parade, how early should you grab a seat? I assume much earlier than normal parades since its such a hot item.

I was there for the 2013 taping. They moved the 3pm parade to 5 because the Christmas parade taping took almost all day. The celebrate a dream come true parade didn't actuall step off until closer to 6.

As of 2013 you needed a ticket to be part of the crowd to watch the Christmas parade taping. Those of us without tickets were guided up main street through the stores. I believe now they also use the bypass.

 

[Tbiafore]

Thank you for this! So to be clear, the Festival of Magic Parade is NOT the parade that they will be taping for Christmas then?

If so, when does the Christmas parade start? Is that the 6pm one you mentioned (Celebrate a dream come true parade)? Sorry for the lack of knowledge here.

 

[sharonabe]

You're a little confused. The TAPING of the Christmas Day parade is an actual taping of the parade that will be shown on TV on Christmas Day. It's like a movie shooting in your home town with LOTS and LOTS of stop, retake, do that again, wait, one more time, still not right, move that float, you go here, no do it again. It's not a parade that you want to find a seat and watch. It will take ALLLLLL day. They will begin before the park opens, and as PP said, you'll be lucky if the regular, afternoon parade actually begins at the 5 pm slot they've scheduled.

 

[Tbiafore]

Gotcha...thanks!

 

[jvattes]

As of 2013 you needed a ticket to be part of the crowd to watch the Christmas parade taping.

All media I have read on this year's taping is that all park guests are invited to attend the taping with their regular park tickets. Just to clarify that.

 

[PantherPete]

On another note, does anyone know when they plan to tape the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC?

 

[Robo]

On another note, does anyone know when they plan to tape the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC?

Just in case you MIGHT be serious...

It's performed/telecast LIVE.

 

[PantherPete]

Thanks Robo. I wasn't serious. More meant as a joke. I always knew Disney didn't do the Christmas Parade live on Christmas morning. But I did always think that they taped it as it happened, i.e. they taped the parade, instead of retakes and set ups, etc. Kind of ruins it for me a little now knowing it is a Hollywood style production. Oh well, at least I still have Santa Claus.

 

[subtchr]

On another note, does anyone know when they plan to tape the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC?

Just in case you MIGHT be serious...

It's performed/telecast LIVE.

Just to add to Robo's response, in case you are wondering how they know how to highlight each group as they perform on the "star" in front of Macy's (they only get one shot, after all!), all groups have a set time, anywhere from about 2 am to 4:30 am, to be at the star to do a quick run through on Thanksgiving morning.

I am a tour director for marching bands and other high school music groups. I took a group to Macy's 4 years ago, and our spot time was 3:15 am. After the 2 minutes of showing what they planned to do there for the cameramen, we went to have breakfast then stood on Central Park West for about 3 hours. It was actually pretty awesome.

 

[DebbieB]

All media I have read on this year's taping is that all park guests are invited to attend the taping with their regular park tickets. Just to clarify that.

Typically they pass out special tickets to stand in the front rows on Main Street. Last few years it's been castmembers and families. They usually start before park opening, so you need that ticket to get in early. If you have a regular ticket you can fillin any empty spots. That's the way they have done it in previous years.

 

[AARCLUKSCH]

Does anyone know the line up for entertainment yet?

 

[Robo]

Does anyone know the line up for entertainment yet?

Nope.

 

[Disneygeek Amanda]

I saw that the FOF parade is listed at 5:00 all four days they announced for the Christmas parade taping. I would guess that this is because they don't know exactly which day will be the actual one for the main taping. Does anyone know if FOF will go back to 3:00 on the other days or will it stay at 5:00 for all four days?

 

[Tbiafore]

I saw that the FOF parade is listed at 5:00 all four days they announced for the Christmas parade taping. I would guess that this is because they don't know exactly which day will be the actual one for the main taping. Does anyone know if FOF will go back to 3:00 on the other days or will it stay at 5:00 for all four days?

When I saw this I assumed the tapping was going to happen over several days. I would be interested to find this info out as well.

 

[Tbiafore]

bump...anyone know?

 

[Robo]

bump...anyone know?

What we "know" is that we never know... until they actually begin production.
The show is at the discretion of the producers, who often change things last-minute as
problems and opportunities present.
Not the least of which is weather.
Maybe one of the headliners or hosts gets the sniffles (or a flight is delayed)
and they need to change days around to accommodate (even rewrite to cover.)

Having spent my entire career in the video production business, I can tell you that
when the client says, "We can shoot on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday." my response will
always be, "Let's book Tuesday. Then, if we have problems, we can fall back on the next two days for coverage."

 

[Robo]

I can also tell you that about three years ago, the weather turned out to be so unfavorable for
outdoor shooting that they moved (at the last minute) the entire "star shoot" (with a large choir and major star soloist) into the
lobby-atrium of the Grand Floridian Hotel.
(It was a beautiful scene, too.)