Hi, again! Hoping someone experienced can offer some good insight, and hopefully reassure me!
My group of 10 (5 adults, 5 young kids) will be heading to our first MVMCP in early December. I have been reading every bit of MVMCP information that I can, as this is likely a one-time event for us since it's a big splurge. My group would like to try to watch the first parade, even though we know it will be more crowded, because there's a good chance that some of the kids could fall asleep & miss the parade entirely if we only do the second, later parade.
However, I'm reading reports on various blogs & forums that people suggest getting a spot on the curb on Main Street for the Once Upon a Christmastime Parade at least 2 hours early! And that would mean being on the curb at 630pm for an 830pm parade! Not only am I concerned that the kids (6, 6, 5, 4, 20 months) won't have the patience for that, but also we were hoping to get one large group photo with the 7 Dwarfs, and our original plan was to do that first (and be in line early for them). But now I'm worried accomplishing both won't happen - if we focus on good parade seating & watch the first parade, that flows right into the fireworks show at 10pm, meaning we probably couldn't line up for 7 Dwarfs until after fireworks were over - likely having asleep kiddos!
But if we do the Dwarfs first, even if we managed to be among the first in line, we might not be finished that until 730pm or after, and will that put us out of contention for a curb spot on Main Street for the first parade? We don't need a full curb for all 10 of us, if that makes a difference, but we do have strollers and would want the 4 older kids to have a curb seat while we adults stand or carry the 20 month old.
Realistically - is it just something that we have to let go of, wanting to do the first parade AND meeting a popular character(s) while everyone is awake? If so, that's really frustrating. Thanks in advance for any feedback - I'm the primary planner for all 10 of us & was the one who convinced everyone to splurge on MVMCP, so I'm really trying to make sure we all have a good time.