PryncessChrysty
Merrily on our way to nowhere in particular
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2004
- Messages
- 3,353
As many of you know, they were taping the the Christmas Parade at DL today. Even with this going on and it being a Saturday, the crowds were relatively light. These two things made for a very memorable day, one that I will surely never forget! 
We got on to the tram at about 10:00am where we had a couple of 'special passengers'! I'm thinking they were probably on their way to see Snow White
Once we got into the park, we were planning on heading to Buzz first, but something else caught my eye....
As soon as we came out the other side of the tunnel, I was totally star struck. Mind you, I was born & raised in CA, and I've seen my fair share of celebrities and TV shows & movies being filmed. But I still get starstruck every time. I was SO excited just to be there with all of this going on!
On our way toward Tomorrowland we saw that there were rehearsals going on for the HSM performance/taping in front of the castle. We happened upon a spot that was clear from the passersby, away from the crowd gathered around the stage area, AND had a perfect view! Since it was too good to pass up, we stayed there for about 30 minutes and were able to catch a couple of rehearsals and the first take. The cast of HSM2 was there (except for Troy). I took a bunch of video footage, but didn't realize until we got home that I only got two photos of this (and no photos of the stars, just video)
It's kind of a far off shot, but this is the choreographer guiding the dancers:
And this is where the crew was (in the HUB):
Here's a video so you can see them - it's not the best, but I don't want to post any of them performing because I don't want to ruin anything for the actual airing of the show
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rr7lJKql5Ss
We left before the 2nd take and were finally on our way to Buzz, but the line looked a little too long. So we decided to take the train over to NOS. While waiting at the Tomorrowland Station (where, btw, there were only 3 other people in line) we saw Mickey, Minnie, Max, Chip and Pinocchio each driving their own car on Autopia! It was SO cute! (and again, I only have video.....so sorry!)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FJxbjh1K1F8
From there we rode HMH with a 20 minute wait and found things we never noticed before. On our way out, we noticed that there were no lines for the rafts to Pirate's Lair. We decided to take advantage since we hadn't seen the new theming yet and neither one of us had even been to the island in at least 10 years. As soon as we got off the raft everyone went left, so we went right. We found ourselves on a stage like area and I asked a nearby CM if they were going to be doing a show. He said that one would be starting in about 25 minutes. That seemed like a long wait, but we found a nice shaded area and decided to just take in the scenery. A few minutes in, the Bootstrappers (pirate band) came up right behind us and did a 15-20 minute set, which was great! That led to the Pirate show and it was so much fun.
Once the show was over, we ventured around the island. I should tell you here that I've had some health issues over the past few years which made it very difficult to walk even the shortest distances and made my visits to Disney very limited in what I could experience. My health has improved by leaps & bounds over the past few months, so to be able to walk around so freely is so, well.....free'ing. Once we were all explored out, we headed back to the main land and over to Indy (15 min. wait). After Indy, we decided to cop-a-squat in the HUB, have a snack and decide our next plan of attack. Little did we know that they were now actively taping the parade!! OMG!!!! I am SO excited at this point!!! DH2B takes a seat on a bench at the HUB and keeps his laughter to himself as he watches me run around like the Tazmanian Devil (my apologies for the Looney Tunes reference in a very Disney thread!).
When we first came in to the park there were people already sitting on the curbs to be sure they were in the audience for the parade when the taping began. They had the parade route roped off a bit differently than normal - it only went the length of the shops on Main Street, so from the Emporium to the Camera Shop. Since we were at the HUB, we were watching from afar, but they would bring the floats over to where we were to be staged - which meant we got to see them all before they hit the actual filming area.
The princess float before the characters were brought out
And now with the characters
It was funny because every time they brought out a float, it would be there for about 5-10 minutes before being taken to the filming area. When the floats would first appear, there would be nobody around and by the time they started on their way down toward the cameras, the staging area would be full of spectators. (Which I think you can actually kind of see in the last 2 photos).
Here are a few more pics of the 'staging area':
The castle was still blocked off because of the stage that had been set up for the performances. It stayed like this all day.
While DH2B was still happily resting on the bench at the HUB, I walked down Main Street to see how crowded the audience areas were. I couldn't believe how much open space there was!! (There was a walking path between the store fronts & the audience, just like for the normal parades). I made it all the way down to the Emporium, which was where Ryan Seacrest was. They had him up on a stage where the giant Christmas tree would normally be with his back to the castle and the parade coming up behind him.
A friendly CM was telling everyone to keep the flow of traffic moving, but I decided to test my luck and ask her if I could slip under the rope into the audience (When I'm at Disney, I like to practice my common courtesy skills and not just assume I'm entitled to anything and everything). To my surprise, she lifts the rope for me and helps me get my face into the action! I end up being right in the line of the cameras and now feel sorry for all the people who waited all morning for this (No really, like actually bummed for them, not in like, a mocking sort of way). I am literally 30 feet away from Ryan Seacrest, who I'm not necessarily a fan of as I don't watch American Idol nor do I listen to KIIS FM, but again I'm starstruck because I'm pretty much a geek for this stuff. The parade is now in motion again and Ryan appears to be enjoying his view:
Look for me when you're watching the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade Special on ABC Christmas Day. If I end up on there, it will be when the Seven Dwarves are on! Here's my face for your reference...LOL (I wore a red shirt today just in case I got a spot in the audience)
After the Dwarves were done, they had Santa Goofy set up to go next.
It was taking them a long time to get that one going so I went back to DH2B. I was worried he maybe be getting a bit irked with me since he'd been sitting on the bench for about a total of an hour at this point, but thankfully he was not. He totally gets me and my love for Disney.
We finally made it over to Buzz (which was only a 15 minute wait) where DH2B kicked my butt......again!
I really wanted to ride Peter Pan because DH2B has never been on it, and it's been ages since the last time I was on it. The wait was 35 min, but was totally worth it. This ride is so awesome!!! We both loved it.
I saw the Toon Town Christmas decorations on MousePlanet.com and I was really excited to see them, so that was our next stop. Everything was even more adorable in person!
Somehow, neither one of us had ever been on Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin - the wait time posted was 40 min but from the outside looking in, it looked more like 4 min! This wasn't the only time we had experienced this today so we thought we'd give it a shot. Oh man, were we mistaken! That line was like an endless maize! But we finally did make it on to the ride....exactly 40 minutes later. LOL We each got our own car, but we were connected - and we were spinning those things like crazy. It was so much fun!
Once our equilibrium's had leveled off, we walked to around to take in the scenery then made our way over to IASW Holiday. It looks really pretty, but the line was longer than we were willing to wait. We wanted to get home a little early if at all possible, so we decided to ride BTM then head home. The line was so short and it was so much fun riding it at night that we went on again as soon as we got off!!!
After our 2nd go round on the railroad, the actual parade (Parade of Dreams) was now making it's 2nd run of the day and the CM's were diverting the traffic headed towards the exits to a backstage area behind the MS shops. While I readily admit to being a bit of a nerd, this is something that probably only my DIS friends would understand - As much as possible, I don't want to be exposed to anything that might spoil the magic. As soon as we hit the backstage area, I grabbed DH2B's hand, asked him to please guide me so that I could just look at the ground and then I blocked off my eyes from anything above my feet (kind of like I was trying to block out the bright sun, nothing TOO dramatic )
That was the end of our wonderful Disney day!! Thank you so much for sharing it with me!
We got on to the tram at about 10:00am where we had a couple of 'special passengers'! I'm thinking they were probably on their way to see Snow White
Once we got into the park, we were planning on heading to Buzz first, but something else caught my eye....
As soon as we came out the other side of the tunnel, I was totally star struck. Mind you, I was born & raised in CA, and I've seen my fair share of celebrities and TV shows & movies being filmed. But I still get starstruck every time. I was SO excited just to be there with all of this going on!
On our way toward Tomorrowland we saw that there were rehearsals going on for the HSM performance/taping in front of the castle. We happened upon a spot that was clear from the passersby, away from the crowd gathered around the stage area, AND had a perfect view! Since it was too good to pass up, we stayed there for about 30 minutes and were able to catch a couple of rehearsals and the first take. The cast of HSM2 was there (except for Troy). I took a bunch of video footage, but didn't realize until we got home that I only got two photos of this (and no photos of the stars, just video)
It's kind of a far off shot, but this is the choreographer guiding the dancers:
And this is where the crew was (in the HUB):
Here's a video so you can see them - it's not the best, but I don't want to post any of them performing because I don't want to ruin anything for the actual airing of the show
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rr7lJKql5Ss
We left before the 2nd take and were finally on our way to Buzz, but the line looked a little too long. So we decided to take the train over to NOS. While waiting at the Tomorrowland Station (where, btw, there were only 3 other people in line) we saw Mickey, Minnie, Max, Chip and Pinocchio each driving their own car on Autopia! It was SO cute! (and again, I only have video.....so sorry!)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FJxbjh1K1F8
From there we rode HMH with a 20 minute wait and found things we never noticed before. On our way out, we noticed that there were no lines for the rafts to Pirate's Lair. We decided to take advantage since we hadn't seen the new theming yet and neither one of us had even been to the island in at least 10 years. As soon as we got off the raft everyone went left, so we went right. We found ourselves on a stage like area and I asked a nearby CM if they were going to be doing a show. He said that one would be starting in about 25 minutes. That seemed like a long wait, but we found a nice shaded area and decided to just take in the scenery. A few minutes in, the Bootstrappers (pirate band) came up right behind us and did a 15-20 minute set, which was great! That led to the Pirate show and it was so much fun.
Once the show was over, we ventured around the island. I should tell you here that I've had some health issues over the past few years which made it very difficult to walk even the shortest distances and made my visits to Disney very limited in what I could experience. My health has improved by leaps & bounds over the past few months, so to be able to walk around so freely is so, well.....free'ing. Once we were all explored out, we headed back to the main land and over to Indy (15 min. wait). After Indy, we decided to cop-a-squat in the HUB, have a snack and decide our next plan of attack. Little did we know that they were now actively taping the parade!! OMG!!!! I am SO excited at this point!!! DH2B takes a seat on a bench at the HUB and keeps his laughter to himself as he watches me run around like the Tazmanian Devil (my apologies for the Looney Tunes reference in a very Disney thread!).
When we first came in to the park there were people already sitting on the curbs to be sure they were in the audience for the parade when the taping began. They had the parade route roped off a bit differently than normal - it only went the length of the shops on Main Street, so from the Emporium to the Camera Shop. Since we were at the HUB, we were watching from afar, but they would bring the floats over to where we were to be staged - which meant we got to see them all before they hit the actual filming area.
The princess float before the characters were brought out
And now with the characters
It was funny because every time they brought out a float, it would be there for about 5-10 minutes before being taken to the filming area. When the floats would first appear, there would be nobody around and by the time they started on their way down toward the cameras, the staging area would be full of spectators. (Which I think you can actually kind of see in the last 2 photos).
Here are a few more pics of the 'staging area':
The castle was still blocked off because of the stage that had been set up for the performances. It stayed like this all day.
While DH2B was still happily resting on the bench at the HUB, I walked down Main Street to see how crowded the audience areas were. I couldn't believe how much open space there was!! (There was a walking path between the store fronts & the audience, just like for the normal parades). I made it all the way down to the Emporium, which was where Ryan Seacrest was. They had him up on a stage where the giant Christmas tree would normally be with his back to the castle and the parade coming up behind him.
A friendly CM was telling everyone to keep the flow of traffic moving, but I decided to test my luck and ask her if I could slip under the rope into the audience (When I'm at Disney, I like to practice my common courtesy skills and not just assume I'm entitled to anything and everything). To my surprise, she lifts the rope for me and helps me get my face into the action! I end up being right in the line of the cameras and now feel sorry for all the people who waited all morning for this (No really, like actually bummed for them, not in like, a mocking sort of way). I am literally 30 feet away from Ryan Seacrest, who I'm not necessarily a fan of as I don't watch American Idol nor do I listen to KIIS FM, but again I'm starstruck because I'm pretty much a geek for this stuff. The parade is now in motion again and Ryan appears to be enjoying his view:
Look for me when you're watching the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade Special on ABC Christmas Day. If I end up on there, it will be when the Seven Dwarves are on! Here's my face for your reference...LOL (I wore a red shirt today just in case I got a spot in the audience)
After the Dwarves were done, they had Santa Goofy set up to go next.
It was taking them a long time to get that one going so I went back to DH2B. I was worried he maybe be getting a bit irked with me since he'd been sitting on the bench for about a total of an hour at this point, but thankfully he was not. He totally gets me and my love for Disney.
We finally made it over to Buzz (which was only a 15 minute wait) where DH2B kicked my butt......again!
I really wanted to ride Peter Pan because DH2B has never been on it, and it's been ages since the last time I was on it. The wait was 35 min, but was totally worth it. This ride is so awesome!!! We both loved it.
I saw the Toon Town Christmas decorations on MousePlanet.com and I was really excited to see them, so that was our next stop. Everything was even more adorable in person!
Somehow, neither one of us had ever been on Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin - the wait time posted was 40 min but from the outside looking in, it looked more like 4 min! This wasn't the only time we had experienced this today so we thought we'd give it a shot. Oh man, were we mistaken! That line was like an endless maize! But we finally did make it on to the ride....exactly 40 minutes later. LOL We each got our own car, but we were connected - and we were spinning those things like crazy. It was so much fun!
Once our equilibrium's had leveled off, we walked to around to take in the scenery then made our way over to IASW Holiday. It looks really pretty, but the line was longer than we were willing to wait. We wanted to get home a little early if at all possible, so we decided to ride BTM then head home. The line was so short and it was so much fun riding it at night that we went on again as soon as we got off!!!
After our 2nd go round on the railroad, the actual parade (Parade of Dreams) was now making it's 2nd run of the day and the CM's were diverting the traffic headed towards the exits to a backstage area behind the MS shops. While I readily admit to being a bit of a nerd, this is something that probably only my DIS friends would understand - As much as possible, I don't want to be exposed to anything that might spoil the magic. As soon as we hit the backstage area, I grabbed DH2B's hand, asked him to please guide me so that I could just look at the ground and then I blocked off my eyes from anything above my feet (kind of like I was trying to block out the bright sun, nothing TOO dramatic
) That was the end of our wonderful Disney day!! Thank you so much for sharing it with me!
If they call it the Walt DisneyWorld Christmas Parade why is it taped in 
