The one thing I’ll say is I agree with comments I’ve seen that it would benefit from more performers on the ground. It needs a little more kinetic energy.
3 Likes
We were at MK Friday night. We had just left HM and had walked into Mori Momento for a T-shirt and heard music I wasn’t familiar with. We came out to a surprise viewing. (Surprise for us) I guess other people knew. I thought it was beautiful and I will admit I cried a little. This was the first time I had watched a parade move from Main St to Frontierland. The colors are perfect with the theme and the lights are gorgeous without being tacky. I loved the train and the ending with Jiminy Cricket.
11 Likes
I watched the parade and it’s much needed but I’m surprised it’s selling out AP reservations. It’s basically a cavalcade with lights.
3 Likes
This is 100% what I thought just watching the posts. I’m not as excited as I was before. And I was exceedingly happy it was being rolled out. So much so we changed the kind of trip we were taking so that it would include MK.
I’m still thrilled we get to experienced it! But it seems kind of ?? unfinished ??
2 Likes
I’m slightly less than whelmed. It feels like they calculated exactly how much they needed to do to barely satisfy people who have been desperate for a night parade and did just that.
It’s good enough, and I’m sure I’ll like it better in person. Right now it seems like something I’ll watch once per trip and then take advantage of lower ride wait times on every other night I’m in MK.
3 Likes
This is my view too, but I am hanging our TPs to skip this parade now. We were going to be hopping to MK on an evening for the parade and after readng/hearing reviews, it doesn’t sound worth it. Spectromagic and Main Street Electrical were great, but Starlight sounds like a half a— version of. nighttime parade. Very disappointing.
1 Like
I’m excited to see the parade. I WAS surprised there wasn’t more kinetics involved…but then…did the Main Street Electrical parade have kinetics? I don’t think it did. (Could be wrong…it has been a minute.)
In any case, I am not a huge parade fan to begin with…but I can only imagine the wonder that the young kids will have seeing this!
3 Likes
Disney Parks posted their own POV of the parade. I have to say, the more I see of it, the more I appreciate it. These floats are absolutely stunning. The light, the color, the technology, the integration of characters into the floats – Beautiful.
(ETA: They edited this a bit to reduce downtime between floats.)
9 Likes
I am big on parades. I fondly, fondly, fondly remember the Stars and Motor Cars parade, and Block Party parade and Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle parades. I saved seats many times with my stroller-child while DH and my mom took the big kids on rides. I never saw the Tapestry of Nations at Epcot, however.
I’m sure they are a lot to orchestrate, but it is a shame (to me) that there won’t be genuine full-scale parade anywhere for the time being. I am glad we will be there for MVMCP in Nov.
2 Likes
Ooh I saw Tapestry of Nations! It was the one and only daytime parade I’d seen until I watched FoF on my last trip.
2 Likes
We did enjoy the Christmas parade at MVMCP…although, I think we enjoy some of the pre-parade antics even more!
For me, I grew up in the marching band, and we had to do the Memorial Day and Fourth of July Day parades. For me, the most important part of any parade are the bands. So, I find it SO annoying that with the America’s Thanksgiving Parade (in Detroit), each time a band goes to play, they cut to commercial. The BEST part of the parade, and we get maybe 10 seconds of music. (I get it…the floats are all sponsored, and so the companies want their advertising investment to pay off, whereas the bands are just local schools…but still, I’d rather hear the bands than see another float or parade balloon!)
But I digress. I think the Starlight parade will be visually stunning, and the fact that each float has their own music is really cool.
6 Likes
I’m with you there! I was the drum major in my high school marching band back in the day. I went with my family to a 4th of July parade this year and my wife took the girls to a different spot to get a better look at the royalty floats while I stayed in the spot that had a better view of the marching bands.
2 Likes
I’m wondering if people have tips, yet, on where to best watch the parade…
1 Like
Something I heard from some vlogger was, if you go to the parade that happens before the fireworks, that if you get to the central hub early to watch the parade, you can stick around for the fireworks. But…seems like a nightmare, to me, to be crowded in among so many people for so long.
4 Likes
I was there on Monday night. I order to watch from the Hub you had to be there hours ahead of time. It will be interesting to see how long that is the case. We got to MK around 6:45 and the spots on the curb were all taken.
In Frontierland there were lots of spots until about 8:15, and then everything started to fill in.
There is an area that they keep clear at the Country Bears Jamboree exit. But right at the parade is about to reach you, they put up a rope and people filled in. If you hang out waiting for that you have to be inside the yellow or else they make you move on. But it is definitely an option!
6 Likes
Having seen it in person here are a few of my thoughts.
Visually it is stunning, absolutely gorgeous. The float designs were complicated with artistic suprise.
The music is classic and does some nice callouts. It does change for each float but not as well as the Magic Happens music does. But that music is completely different, so maybe comparisons aren’t fair.
The ground game really disappointed me, and I had avoided all spoilers that mentioned this. My two favorite parades are Boo to You and Magic Happens. I have come to realize it is because of the dancers and other ground interactions - the costumes, puppets, character interactions make the parades special.
Hopefuy Disney will backfill these elements. I know it is hard to have it dark enough to see ground characters and have the floats look there best, but I have faith in them. The snails amd turtles from MSEP were the most memorable part of that parade when my daughter was five and they interacted with her.
10 Likes
Now they go back to the convoluted weekend rules? LOL
It was always like that.
1 Like
Thanks for your review.
I’m planning to watch from Frontierland and seeing the late fireworks walk up. I don’t care where I watch from really.
2 Likes