Christmas parade taping

[disneymagicgirl]

It just dawned on me that the parade taping usually is early December. So I looked it up and it was 12/6-7 last year. Our trip is 11/30-12/8 this year. I am planning to put together our daily itinerary tomorrow. Can I assume the taping will be 12/5-6 this year? Should we avoid MK those days or is it fun to partake in?

 

[mesaboy2]

It just dawned on me that the parade taping usually is early December. So I looked it up and it was 12/6-7 last year. Our trip is 11/30-12/8 this year. I am planning to put together our daily itinerary tomorrow.

1. Can I assume the taping will be 12/5-6 this year?

2. Should we avoid MK those days or

3. is it fun to partake in?

1. Probably...sounds right to me.

2. No reason to. Main Street and the Hub will be hard to navigate, but the rest of the park should be just fine. CMs will likely provide ways into the park that avoid the congestion.

3. Most people who've gone say no.

 

[DOOM1001]

It's cool to see it taped and to then see it on TV but it requires hours of standing around,dozens of takes from the artists,the actual parade will have cheerleaders stand around near the hub for like 30 minutes waiting for their turn to come down mainstreet to be taped,very time consuming.I'm from Florida and go often so missing out on some park time was fine but for someone who's not a frequent visitor just know that it will take up a lot of your time.I've done it twice,once when the Jonas Bros were in there in 2009 and in 2013 with Candace Glover and Il Volo.It seemed in 2013 like everyone around me was a CM on their off day.

 

[Angeejoe]

It just dawned on me that the parade taping usually is early December. So I looked it up and it was 12/6-7 last year. Our trip is 11/30-12/8 this year. I am planning to put together our daily itinerary tomorrow. Can I assume the taping will be 12/5-6 this year? Should we avoid MK those days or is it fun to partake in?

I happened to be there last yr & it was kind of a pain. You couldn't walk down main street at all, you couldn't walk around the hub from 1 side to another, you couldnt take pics in front of castle, they had small areas blocked all over the park were that shot little like cameo shots over & over with characters walking or asking guest question, & if you wanted to be a bystander to watch on main street you had to come early & you were pretty much stuck all day as if you left the wouldn't let people back in that area. It did leave a lot of rides not as busy but you had to walk from future world the behind castle to get anywhere else so it took longer. When we walked in we were sent to the right the a fenced in area & walked behind the shops on main street. They did offer EMH until like 12a because of this though. I never saw anyone famous.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Thanks! Maybe just dd15 and I will do it one if the days and let DH keep the littles at the GF pool.

 

[ohionola]

We went once during the parade taping. A little annoying but no big deal. We found the entire taping thing extremely boring so don't expect much entertainment from that.

 

[katt789]

We were there over the filming last year and here's what I'll say:
-The day of the castle stage performances filming is okay, the crowds aren't that bad, but be aware that things like the 3pm parade, the Move It Shake It dance party & of course the castle party are affected.
I believe the daytime parade was at 5pm instead, while the others were cancelled completely for the day.

Same goes for the filming of the actual parade.

On the actual parade filming day, the main street/hub will be JAM packed, they'll be escorting you around through the backstage ways to get places. We found the rest of the park to be pretty dead that day, but again, main street was crowded.
And again, things are affected, any character who has an outdoor meet and greet (jasmine & aladdin, anyone who's in town square, tiana, peter, etc) probably will not be doing sets, and if they are, they're super messed up (since they can't be out at the same time as the parade filming is happening)

As for taking part in the filming, there are cast members and guests who sign up or something that will be the ones on the street that you'll see on xmas day, you'd be a couple rows back, stuffed in the crowds. We arrived at the park at rope drop, and were there til just past noon, we were later boarding our plane that afternoon when NPH said that they had JUST wrapped filming the intro. The film industry is quite boring, they'll take 5 hours to film 5 minutes of footage, and it'll be the same thing over and over again.

I'd say if you're going to MK for the rides, then yeah, it's fine, otherwise, I'd go somewhere else!

 

[jngwright]

Do they tend to tape the actual parade part on the 1st or 2nd day? If we arrive at RD, will we still get routed backstage?

 

[boBQuincy]

We purposely skipped this day at MK for years after reading how bad it was but we tried it last year and our experience was really good! Entering the park we were routed behind Main Street but after arriving near the Plaza we were able to make our way down to the Confectionery where we soon got curbside spots. We arrived late (2:30) and maybe that helped, we still saw about 2 hours of the parade, including:

and...

We would do it again.