Disney's televised christmas parade....ugh!

[mpgrandpa]

I actually enjoyed the songs. Not so much the "parade" if that's what they call it.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

Feedback sent! I received an automatic reply stating that they cannot get back to me individually because of the high volume of communications they receive.

 

[afwdwfan]

Then they splice the best scenes together for the airing.

I hadn't thought about it that way. If we saw the best scenes, I'd hate to know how bad the rest was.

 

[Disney Queenie]

Huge thumbs down, one big obvious commercial. Disney needs to get the point that, they are turning a lot of people off from the magic. Not surprised, but still disappointed. We changed the channel, to watch Christmas Story, we just could not take it anymore.

 

[World Showcaser]

No Christmas. No parade. Hardly even any Disney. Barely even Frozen. Terrible representation of Aulani. Horrible host. It was just awful. As far as I could tell it was an ad for Tim Tebow and Ariana Grande, who were each pretty bad in their appearances.

 

[bltman]

Why shut down main street (and other parts of the park) to film segments of a parade they have no intention of showing? All it does is cause chaos for those entering the park and those trying to get around. I was there on the primary filming day of the actual parade day. Not a single segment (other than a brief glimpse of the dragon) that I saw or witnessed them clean up made it on the show. They made a big announcement about the new carriage from the new Cinderella movie during the taping yet they didn't even show the scene.

Since it is not a normal parade and is not easy to watch live (lots of starting and stopping), if they don't intend to show it, they shouldn't even bother causing an inconvenience at the park.

 

[disneyerin]

It is our family tradition to open gifts Christmas morning and then snuggle up for the Disney parade and get excited for our next trip. Yesterday's parade/frozen special was awful! It was nothing but an advertisement for Frozen and Aulani!

Same with us!! I can't have Christmas breakfast without the parade.....
So instead my husband and I watched old Disney Park Christmas parades on You Tube. It was great!

 

[disneygrandma]

In the past, we've watched the Christmas parade show off & on thru out the year, and then deleted that show right before Christmas Day in anticipation of the new show. How I wish we still had some of the past WDW parade shows, because this year's show was deleted as soon as we finished watching it.

There wasn't one single portion of it that we would want to watch again. Just plain terrible. Hardly any parade. Nothing of the parks at all. Nothing of the resorts. What the heck were "they" thinking?

 

[Missytara]

Tim Tebow was only good for the two minutes he promoted the two bowl games on ABC and talked "football". The rest of the time, he was horrible - stiff and boring.

Love Robin Roberts and her "Frozen" outfit. She could have handled the entire show by herself from WDW.

Wish they had showed more on the reunions themselves and not so much promoting the resort - i.e. Aulani. That was over the top.

The parade was barely noticeable - the performances were "nice" until they started singing the songs off their upcoming CD's.

Again, I agree, it was more like one long commercial. No Disney, No substance, no plans to watch in the future.

 

[Seeker615]

I was flipping through the channels and at first I didn't even realize it was the Disney Parade.

I kept it on hoping to see the actual parade but was very disappointed.

I didn't enjoy most of the singers and as much as I like Tim Tebow he was just awful.

Big bummer!

 

[tim123]

It is our family tradition to open gifts Christmas morning and then snuggle up for the Disney parade and get excited for our next trip. Yesterday's parade/frozen special was awful! It was nothing but an advertisement for Frozen and Aulani!

I went back and watched some of the TV specials that went back to the 80s.
WOW has the Disney Corporation changed in the last decade or so.
First off I didn't see the 2014 special but I looked at 85',88',96',01,…
Like night and day. The camera moves so fast these days and the editing is like less than a split, quarter second per image. I may be old but YUK.
Then there was good ole sweet Disney role model Miley Cyrus….
Need I say more about where our society has gone?
From a great rendition of Santa Claus is coming to town from 7 years ago to…well what she does TODAY. Wonder what effect that has on the young girls who loved seeing her with their parents at WDW then..miss wholesome …to what she has turned into…
Basically the corporation has reached the point where we are all milk cows feeding the beast…
In the 88' parade there were maybe 100 members of a marching band…
2013 there were 10…
"Give the rabble less, charge more, turn it into one big commercial for Aluna or Frozen or DVC….they'll still come by the millions"
America 2014. Yuk.

 

[ForeverAlice]

It was awful. I ended up turning it and letting them watch the once upon a christmastime parade on youtube. I used to love watching the parade on tv as a child. Not anymore.

 

[kristenabelle]

While I didn't really enjoy this year's parade at all (the reunions were the only part I really paid attention to), I'm not going to gripe about how the corporation has changed. They're a business. They've always been a business. This parade is one long ad for the Disney Parks (special focus on Aulani because maybe it needs a sales boost?) geared towards first time visitors. Of course people like us would hate it. It's not for us. I'd rather watch Muppet Christmas Carol to get that warm, fuzzy, Disney entertainment feeling.

Owning Disney stock has made me feel a lot better (meaning more neutral) about Disney as a corporation in general. It reminds me that despite my wish that everything is about magic and family and blah blah..they're still a publicly traded corporation with a bottom line.

 

[lugnut33]

While I didn't really enjoy this year's parade at all (the reunions were the only part I really paid attention to), I'm not going to gripe about how the corporation has changed. They're a business. They've always been a business. This parade is one long ad for the Disney Parks (special focus on Aulani because maybe it needs a sales boost?) geared towards first time visitors. Of course people like us would hate it. It's not for us. I'd rather watch Muppet Christmas Carol to get that warm, fuzzy, Disney entertainment feeling.

Owning Disney stock has made me feel a lot better (meaning more neutral) about Disney as a corporation in general. It reminds me that despite my wish that everything is about magic and family and blah blah..they're still a publicly traded corporation with a bottom line.

So it's ok to put out a crappy product as long as it's focused on profits? Got it!

 

[tim123]

While I didn't really enjoy this year's parade at all (the reunions were the only part I really paid attention to), I'm not going to gripe about how the corporation has changed. They're a business. They've always been a business. This parade is one long ad for the Disney Parks (special focus on Aulani because maybe it needs a sales boost?) geared towards first time visitors. Of course people like us would hate it. It's not for us. I'd rather watch Muppet Christmas Carol to get that warm, fuzzy, Disney entertainment feeling.

Owning Disney stock has made me feel a lot better (meaning more neutral) about Disney as a corporation in general. It reminds me that despite my wish that everything is about magic and family and blah blah..they're still a publicly traded corporation with a bottom line.

I totally agree with you.
But!
There reaches a point somewhere down the line where the balance between profit and the quality of the magic…will DIE. We love WDW NOT because those few who own shares reap the rewards…we love WDW because of the feeling we get when we enter those 27,000 acres.
If they continue to plow down tradition and history (look what they have done to the Polynesian), squeeze more and more people in, cut back on quality of staff to shave more and more profit, globalize and WalMartize the brand, over hype mediocre films and absorb any corporate entity they can canablize….THEN…what good are profits.
Yes yes Disney was always a corporation.
Been going there to the swamp for decades. Still love the place. I'm old so I don't matter. BUT..the WDW of yesterday is no where near what it is today in just about every way….
We used to have millions of mom and pop hardware stores, good personalized service, down town center businesses….now we have Home Depot…
There will come a time when the magic will fade away…
That magic is real and it has been for 44 years…
While I agree with the pragmatism of your argument I feel that there is a thin line between profit and a quality product. It isn't ALL about money in life..from the corner store now gone…to global mega corporation.
I'm old. I prefer the simpler times.
they made profits then too. just not 30 % annually. For decades the standard expected return on investment meant you were doing good with 3 to 5 % a year and a ratio of about 25 to 1 from the highest to lowest paid employee from the toilet cleaner to the CEO….Now its 1000 or 2000 to 1…and 35% stock goals…
That is unsustainable and detrimental to our planet and our society.
Just my opinion…but I do agree with your pragmatism.

 

[MeridaAndAngus]

I agree the "parade" was disappointing. I've come to expect it to be one big commercial, but I feel like this year there was so little footage of the actual parade that it was almost laughable they called it that. It was basically a montage of various musical acts, pointless banter, and very little footage of the actual parks. I wish they would go back and do another special like they did a few years ago (maybe it was on HGTV?) where they walked through all of the different decorations they put up in the parks and resorts for the holidays. I would take that over the "parade" special that only shows about 10 seconds of the actual parade.

 

[riverbend]

While I didn't really enjoy this year's parade at all (the reunions were the only part I really paid attention to), I'm not going to gripe about how the corporation has changed. They're a business. They've always been a business. This parade is one long ad for the Disney Parks (special focus on Aulani because maybe it needs a sales boost?) geared towards first time visitors. Of course people like us would hate it. It's not for us. I'd rather watch Muppet Christmas Carol to get that warm, fuzzy, Disney entertainment feeling.

Owning Disney stock has made me feel a lot better (meaning more neutral) about Disney as a corporation in general. It reminds me that despite my wish that everything is about magic and family and blah blah..they're still a publicly traded corporation with a bottom line.

From what I can tell, the consensus isn't that people had a problem with Disney trying to market themselves. I think that's something we've all come to expect. You're absolutely right that Disney is a business.

The problem is that the "celebration" wasn't even effective in selling the Disney brand. If anything, it felt like they were trying to sell us concert tickets more than hotel rooms and park passes. I don't know about you, but I want Disney to vie for my patronage. As a consumer, I don't want to feel like I'm being taken for granted or that my dollar doesn't matter.

 

[Robo]

Very sad.

 

[kristenabelle]

So it's ok to put out a crappy product as long as it's focused on profits? Got it!

I don't think I'd go that extreme, but in this example, I'm not sure if the parade was ever focused on providing quality family entertainment on Christmas morning. I think it's always been a mega-ad for first time visitors. Maybe I didn't flesh out my thoughts well enough, but it's sad that people are so disappointed in this 2-hour parade (tears, ruined Christmas- really?). I'd hope that people have more enjoyable traditions around the holidays that overshadow the lackluster parade.

 

[kristenabelle]

From what I can tell, the consensus isn't that people had a problem with Disney trying to market themselves. I think that's something we've all come to expect. You're absolutely right that Disney is a business.

The problem is that the "celebration" wasn't even effective in selling the Disney brand. If anything, it felt like they were trying to sell us concert tickets more than hotel rooms and park passes. I don't know about you, but I want Disney to vie for my patronage. As a consumer, I don't want to feel like I'm being taken for granted or that my dollar doesn't matter.

Fair points. I agree, it totally sucked. But I'd rather focus on my awesome Mary Blair book instead of a junky parade that some exec thought was a good idea.