How early to grab MSEP viewing spots?

[mel2014]

We were there on Saturday night for the first viewing and managed to find a spot in the raised area around the left side of the highlighted area PirateBrigade showed above around 8:00, though we had to climb over people sitting on the stairs to get up there. Everyone was crammed in pretty tightly but the view was pretty good because the reserved seating area stopped people from standing in front of us. Our original plan was to stay put for the Encanto projection and I think the view of that would have been good, but my crew was ready to be moving again by the end of the parade.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

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.

We watched the second showing of the MSEP last Saturday from Main Street. Walked up 15 minutes before show time and were second row in front of the bathroom next to the fire house. The first row was seated on the curb so our view was perfect. Anyone could have walked up and joined us at any time. It was never crowded. Bonus that the second parade started on Main Street so we didn’t have to wait for it to come all the way over from IASW.

This was our view:

 

[gelatoni fan]

For first showing, you'll probably want to arrive like 30 min to an hour before. But every day, its getting easier. On Friday, areas were filling up at 3PM but on Sunday, there were still plenty of 2nd row spots less than an hour before. For the second show, you can walk up and find a 2nd row spot easily at any time.

 

[PirateBrigade]

Oh, and can we agree that the three dancing rope bearers are one of the sleeper hits/delights of the parade?

We followed them up Main Street on the 2nd showing of Friday 4/22 and every few minutes there'd be spontaneous yelling/cheering them on from the crowd. Was fun to watch, and the music for that float is very danceable.

 

[PirateBrigade]

We watched the second showing of the MSEP last Saturday from Main Street.

Hah! We were near you eating ice cream at Gibson Girl watching the parade go by for that showing on Saturday.

We got our ice cream late and just let ourselves into the roped off viewing section about 4-5 minutes into the parade, there was definitely room.

 

[PirateBrigade]

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!

I'm having trouble reading the tea leaves on how the crowds will flow at grad nite. Think it's being discussed here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/quick-grad-nite-question.3878697/

Part of me thinks we should start at DCA on these days and cross over, but someone pointed out students might not arrive until 10am-3pm starting at DL, so rope dropping DL might be a better option, DCA midday, then come back to DL in the evening.

 

[jknc]

So, the 1st parade starts in back of park and 2nd parade starts in front of park?

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Hah! We were near you eating ice cream at Gibson Girl watching the parade go by for that showing on Saturday.

We got our ice cream late and just let ourselves into the roped off viewing section about 4-5 minutes into the parade, there was definitely room.

Wish we could have met!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

So, the 1st parade starts in back of park and 2nd parade starts in front of park?

That’s how it was happening last weekend.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

If things don't work out that first night to watch with our friends, I am 100% confident my family can catch it a different night at the 2nd showing. I love the idea of doing Gibson - one of our favorite moments from the last trip was enjoying MMM in front of Gibson and some delicious ice cream!

The Encanto projections are now a for sure must-do for my crew, as it is the favorite movie of ALL my kids. This doesn't happen often as they range from 5 yrs to 14 yrs, so wow to Disney for putting out a show that appeals to all of them, and that I rather enjoyed too!