Viewing Parade of Dreams from Main Street Restaurants

[NWPrincess]

Our family has decided to combine our meals with our entertainment. So, for example, we are eating lunch while watching the Billy Hill show at the Golden Horse Shoe, we (thanks to the tips from this board), made PR seating reservations outside at Wine County Trattoria to see the Pixar Parade. Now, we were thinking of eating at either Carnation Cafe or Plaza Inn during the Parade of Dreams.

Has anyone done this? Where did you sit to get the best view, etc?

Thanks!

 

[DangerMouse]

At either of those restaurants, you won't have the best view of the parade. There will be walkways of people in front of you, and people standing and walking by while you are seated at a table. You will also need to try to ensure a seat closest to Main Street, which may be pretty hard to do. If you truly want to experience the parade, I wouldn't recommend watching it at either of these locations. JMO.

 

[bumbershoot]

This is the sort of view you'll likely have from Plaza Inn.

Most of these were with heavy zoom, so I could see 'between' the tree limbs (and this was *january*, so there wasn't much foliage on those trees).

Or just wait until they go by for a less obstructed view.

I think the Trattoria is a basically good idea, but in DL I would get food from a counter service (vegetarian gumbo in a breadbowl is one of our faves) and watch the POD from in front of the bathrooms "behind" Alice, across from the Matterhorn. Bring a blanket, settle in on the curb, have yummy food, and relax.

 

[biolabetty]

We watched the parade from the seats right next to the railing at the front of Carnation, and saw very little. Too many people in front of you, and the stroller parking area is right there so there was constant activity. You could see from bumbershoot's pictures that basically all you can see is the very tops of the floats, but things happen lower than that too. The Plaza Inn is much farther back from the street than Carnation, and the view there isn't very good either. There are a lot of trees and bushes plus people in the way.

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

This is the sort of view you'll likely have from Plaza Inn.

Most of these were with heavy zoom, so I could see 'between' the tree limbs (and this was *january*, so there wasn't much foliage on those trees).

Or just wait until they go by for a less obstructed view.

I think the Trattoria is a basically good idea, but in DL I would get food from a counter service (vegetarian gumbo in a breadbowl is one of our faves) and watch the POD from in front of the bathrooms "behind" Alice, across from the Matterhorn. Bring a blanket, settle in on the curb, have yummy food, and relax.

I agree! This is a great spot to watch the parade. We get take-out food and sit here too. It works out perfect!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I agree with the other posters. The big problem you'll have is that the restaurants are all on street level and the crowd lining up to watch the parade will be right in front of you. You're better off grabbing a quick service meal and eating it while you wait.

 

[NWPrincess]

Wow! I didn't realize the view would be so upstructed. Thanks for the advice everyone. I guess the counter service/blanket idea is probably better (and cheaper) than eating at either of the eateries on Main Street. That has the great time-saver effect too!

 

[bumbershoot]

I should have mentioned this in my first post, sorry if it seems I'm being too forceful.

On the Carnation restaurant side, there is a roped off section closer to the curb where people sit and stand. Stand? Oh yes, stand. Many do. You will generally have people right on the curb sitting, but further back they stand.

Then behind those ropes, the CMs aggressively keep a pathway moving, and make people who stop and stand either get under the ropes or just keep walking. So from Carnation you will have a steady stream of bottoms passing by to deal with, not just people sitting and standing to watch the parade.

 

[Daisybelle]

Something we did on our trip was get a counter service meal and then went and sat up on the main street train station landing. We did this twice and were able to get a bench and had a perfect view from up there. We got our spot first (an hour ahead of the 630 parade-we were ready to sit and rest anyway) and then my daughter stayed there and I ran and got food. The parade starts from that end at the 630 time so it was just perfect. For us. We also viewed fireworks from that area one night and had a good view.