Christmas Fantasy Parade

Disneyland
1

Hello,
My family will be at DLR for the first week of December and it’s our first time there for Christmas. We definitely want to check out the Christmas Fantasy Parade, but I’d appreciate some feedback from those who have seen it.

  1. Firstly, would you recommend the afternoon or early evening parade? We’re there during weekdays only, so perhaps crowds are less of a concern for either, but there may be a larger after school/work crowd for the second showing. If busier for the second show, are the lights worth waiting longer for?

  2. How far ahead would you recommend camping out for a spot? Definitely not interested enough to do a dining package, but also hoping this isn’t similar to when i was there for the Main Street Electrical Parade in 2017.

  3. Anyone have a favorite spot to watch main street parades? Any good spots where we maybe wouldn’t need to wait as long ahead of time?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

2

I’m not your best source on this question since I don’t love parades. Christmas Fantasy was fun though and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it if that’s your cup of tea.

I saw the afternoon parade pretty easily a couple years ago after riding IaSW. We just walked up to the parade route at a planter nearby and were able to see most of it without obstruction.

In general I’d say if a prime spot (particularly on Main Street) is important to you, line up 30 min before a regular parade and 1 hour before a popular one (like MSEP revival). Christmas Fantasy is probably more along the lines of 30 min before. You can often get lucky with a decent spot even 10 min before or if you don’t mind being behind people, just show up at parade time like we did.

I’m sure some people would say to wait longer but I just can’t justify it for myself.

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Last year we went to Disneyland on a Friday in November before Thanksgiving. It was not a high crowd level day. My daughter and I were on the train and as we approached Main Street Station, I saw everyone lined up for the parade. We decided to hop off and walked down, got a spot right on the street and the parade started (from Main Street not IASW) within five minutes. I love the parades, but I hate staking out a spot so we often try to slip in at the last minute and have had a lot of luck with that on days where the crowd level is not too bad.

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