When will Christmas Parade be taped?

[Carrie in AZ]

I have looked and searched for this year's date the Christmas Parade will be taped, and cannot find any information. If anyone has a concrete date, I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks!

 

[Peri]

I have been hunting too - one poster in the Christmas thread indicated it would be in December this year based on information from their dance school, but that was one isolated post a while back.
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The people who know are parents of dance team members who auditioned in August to appear in the parade. I saw that the auditions were done, so the dancers should be getting word soon, to ensure their parents have time to plan, make reservations, etc.

Last year it was November 10th or so - I forget the actual date, but we were there.

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

It is traditionally in early November (usually the first weekend) and has been for the last several years. They have to do it before the crowds start coming in and before they officially open the holiday season. That and they need time to do all the post-production and correlate the footage from WDW in, as well. The taping is also the first time the Christmas Parade is actually seen on the streets of DL. It is running by Thanksgiving weekend full time, so taping in December is a bit of a schedule interruption for the park's daily routine and expectation.


I would offer up that they may have been auditioning for possibly the daily Christmas Parade?

 

[Peri]

The auditions were in August for the Christmas day parade - I learned that on a dance board I stumbled on when trying to find this year's parade dates - at that point they had NOT announced the taping date. This was a dance company from Alabama or somewhere out there, so not the daily fellows.

I think your observation that the parade should be taped early in the season is Excellent (your reasoning is good!!) and I hope it is true!

In any event, it was definately early November last year and it was not particularly disruptive except right at the entrance to the park for a while on one day and a little bit at the hub.

 

[scldir]

I called Disneyland last week to ask them about the parade, and they told me it was in Nov. They didn't give an exact date because I had already told them when in Dec. we would be in CA. They realized my dates were at the same time as the CP, so we talked about how to rearrange my schedule to miss those crowds. (The person who answered the phone talked to her supervisor to make sure she had the correct info, because she was in training.)

 

[disneychrista]

What day of the week is the parade usually taped on?

We were at WDW back in 2002 and I know they taped their parade while we were there, the first week of December. But the difference for them is that they do not offer the parade during regular park hours, only during the after hours party, so no interruption of schedule.

 

[DLtorgo]

Last year it was taped on Sat and Sun with some overflow. They had the dancers on one day and did the main parade, then they filmed segments with Stevie Wonder at the castle and Anika Noki Rose on the Mark Twain. Then on Sun they had Demi Levato and Ryan Seacrest filming her song and his host segments. I don't remember the exact order, but it was over the whole weekend at different points.

 

[Aladdin + Abu]

Yeah, taping of the Christmas Parade and special guests have usually happened the first full weekend of November, and sometimes additional taping is done the following weekend. When the taping of the parade is done, they usually don't have the Christmas Tree up, as they often place a camera and/or stage area there. After the parade is taped, then they can place the tree in it's spot. So they will often do additional filming a few days after the parade filming, and sometimes they don't finish the taping until the following weekend. Last year they did most of the taping within just a few days, whereas previous years they did the taping primarily on the 1st two Saturdays in Novemeber. It looks like last year, they were working around Ryan Seacrest's schedule, so that's probably why they broke from their normal filming schedule.

They also have at least two special guest singers that they tape. One of the stage areas is always in front of the Castle, so keep your eyes open for when they start constructing a stage area in front of the castle. That's the sign that special guest taping will begin any day. Usually the taping is done first thing in the morning.

As far as who the special quest singer(s) are, Disney doesn't announce it ahead of time. But, sometimes word leaks out the day before. The day they do the taping, Disney does place signs near the entrance of DL and near the area where the taping will be happening, to inform guests that by entering the area, guests are giving permisision to have their image appear on tv, along with all the legal notices they are required to disclose.

As for the 2nd special guest signer, that location can vary, from year to year. Last Year they did some taping of Anika Noni Rose in New Orleans Square, where she sang a song from Princess and the Frog. This year, it would be expected for them to use as least one song from Tangled, so I would think they would do some taping of the meet and greet area that is being worked on in Fantasyland.