We were able to see SpectroMagic fairly well from the tables on the porch at Tony's on our last trip, but it wasn't a great view. We could see OK over the heads of people standing on the sidewalk, but some folks were standing on benches/planters, so they blocked part of our view. But you do miss the lower part of the floats, and there is no interaction with the walking characters, so I would only watch it from Tony's if you've seen it from street level already (or don't really care).