How early to grab MSEP viewing spots?

[FeistyDisneyMom]

My plan for our first night at Disneyland is to watch the 8:45 parade near iaws, enjoy the Encanto projections, and then watch fireworks from the same spot.

How early should we plan on camping a location? Does 8 sound early enough? Is there an ideal viewing spot to see all 3 from isaw or will we need to make some tradeoffs?

 

[dleyel]

Last night we got a spot near IASW about an hour before. The parade was at 8:30. I think you need to find a spot at least an hour ahead. We were across from IASW.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

That looks like a great spot! Did you happen to stay and catch the Encanto projections?

 

[PirateBrigade]

I would advise an hour if you want to be sure, but I was able to walk through a very packed crowd (on the steps overlooking IASW) and ended up just a few people back from the parade route directly across from the ride.

That might have been just sheer luck and people not wanting to walk all the way in, so I still say an hour is good.

 

[PirateBrigade]

I'd go for the highlighted area here, the red X's are where there is no viewing on the south side of the route.

 

[PirateBrigade]

That looks like a great spot! Did you happen to stay and catch the Encanto projections?

I know you didn't ask me this, but I'll answer anyway

There was so much chaos in the aftermath of the parade, and we really wanted to watch the Disneyland Forever fireworks, so we pushed out of there quickly.

Is the 10:45pm and 11:30pm projection a fit for the family, or too late? I guess that affords you a second chance if the first attempt isn't the best.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

For my family I think it is totally doable, but that first night we'll be touring with another family, and I think that'll just be too late for them. Although honestly they aren't sure if they will even last to the 9:30 fireworks, so we can always change things up last minute. I love the stability of having a plan to fall back on, but honestly I'm a bit of a spur of the moment change it up kind of gal

If we did stay in place for fireworks, does it seem like the view is worthwhile? I know they show projections against iasw during MMM, but know nothing about DF.

We also have 5 days in park, including 2 without the other family at all, so several opportunities to see all the nighttime stuff.

 

[PirateBrigade]

For my family I think it is totally doable, but that first night we'll be touring with another family, and I think that'll just be too late for them. Although honestly they aren't sure if they will even last to the 9:30 fireworks, so we can always change things up last minute. I love the stability of having a plan to fall back on, but honestly I'm a bit of a spur of the moment change it up kind of gal

If we did stay in place for fireworks, does it seem like the view is worthwhile? I know they show projections against iasw during MMM, but know nothing about DF.

We also have 5 days in park, including 2 without the other family at all, so several opportunities to see all the nighttime stuff.

Oh good, plenty of time to watch things! We were there 4/21-4/23 and even with only 2 days of nighttime entertainment (4/22+), we felt that it was enough.

I would say no, Disneyland Forever is best seen from main Street and the hub (avoiding the tree that blocks the sky left of castle). The fireworks are shot off mostly from the left (when looking at the castle), and other features (Tinkerbell, Nemo, fire effect, fireworks shot off from Fantasyland building roofs) would be behind you if you stayed in place at IASW.

BUT, be forewarned. If you are catching the 8:30pm MSEP at IASW, you will barely make it to Main Street for the fireworks, and pretty much everyone will be in place already by the time you get there. When we left the IASW area immediately after the parade, they had us cut across Fantasyland, through Frontierland, and around to Adventureland, before emerging at the hub.

Since you have many days, I would probably do MSEP night 1, watch Encanto and fireworks in-place at IASW, then sometime nights 2-4, prioritize the fireworks. That should give you enough leeway in case there are wind/weather issues.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Since you have many days, I would probably do MSEP night 1, watch Encanto and fireworks in-place at IASW, then sometime nights 2-4, prioritize the fireworks. That should give you enough leeway in case there are wind/weather issues.

I like this plan! I'll add that one night for sure we will be watching F! - still hoping they give some dining package details for that one. We'll probably stay and watch fireworks from that location that night as well; unless we do Fireworks at hub and then do second showing of F!

 

[PirateBrigade]

I like this plan! I'll add that one night for sure we will be watching F! - still hoping they give some dining package details for that one. We'll probably stay and watch fireworks from that location that night as well; unless we do Fireworks at hub and then do second showing of F!

Oh yeah! I forgot about F!

Will be back there in early June, I should probably look at that and start plotting things.

 

[shaycamp21]

Are there 2 shows nightly for both the parade and fireworks? And what about Fantasmic?

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Oh yeah! I forgot about F!

Will be back there in early June, I should probably look at that and start plotting things.

Oooh, what dates? Maybe we are plotting for the same week - June 7-14 is our trip, park days 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Are there 2 shows nightly for both the parade and fireworks? And what about Fantasmic?

Fireworks are only once. MSEP and F! both are scheduled for twice a nice.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Anyone who wants to chime in on other details of my plan, my pre-trip report is here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/ptr-the-last-5th-birthday-june-2022-updated-4-26.3841772/

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Oooh, what dates? Maybe we are plotting for the same week - June 7-14 is our trip, park days 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14.

Our park dates are similar, June 7-11. Getting excited

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

June 7 park hours/entertainment schedule is available. Tomorrow when our first day is showing it will really feel real! My youngest knows we are going (we've gone for every 5th birthday so there was no way this was going to be a surprise), and she asks everyday if we are going tomorrow . I can't wait until the answer is yes!

For the 2nd MSEP showing, I'm guessing there really isn't a need to camp out viewing ahead of time, and that we should have walk up views available if we stay late enough. Does that sound right? I wonder if 2nd show of F! will be similar.

 

[dleyel]

That looks like a great spot! Did you happen to stay and catch the Encanto projections?

I wanted to stay for the projections since it was only a 20 minute wait, but my daughter wanted to leave as I still had to drive her back to UCLA and she had homework to do. In hindsight, we should have waited as it took us forever to get out of the park since we were following the parade.

 

[dleyel]

Also, we were to the far right of the highlighted area in PirateBrigade’s photo. Most of the area was already full an hour before, but we were all adults so didn’t need to be right in front. A tree would have been in our view if the parade had been coming the other direction, but it was perfect since it started at IASW.

 

[PirateBrigade]

Oooh, what dates? Maybe we are plotting for the same week - June 7-14 is our trip, park days 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14.

June 9-12, really in park evening of the 9th, then full days 10 & 11 (with those grad nites, yikes!)

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how Grad Nites go this year. We've been in June before, but seems like they have a lot more nights for it this year than in the past. Not sure if that means it'll spread things out more, if demand has just gone up that high. Also will be interesting to see if DCA is less crowded during the day on those dates (that's my hope!), and I'm already mentally preparing myself for how crowded DL will be in the evening... But we couldn't avoid it!