Theme park parades can start heated arguments among some fans, who will debate the Electrical Parade vs. Spectromagic vs. Light Magic for hours on discussion boards. (Okay, everyone will pretty much agree that Light Magic was a disaster. But why was it so bad? Oh, now we're going again!) Yet many, many other theme park fans couldn't care less about parades. They're the ones running to the other side of the park to ride as much as they can while the parade draws visitors away from those rides and toward the parade route.
Theme parks don't need for a majority of their visitors to watch parades to make the shows worthwhile. If only a small percentage of park visitors choose to sit down and watch a parade, that still can mean a reduced load of thousands of visitors to a park's overwhelmed attractions, making wait times manageable for others at the busiest time of the day. The parades can represent the elusive "win/win" scenario for park managers -- a great show for people who love such things, and lesser wait times for people who'd prefer that.
But only if parade fans actually like the parade. Throw a bad show out there, and everyone's skipping the parade for the park's other attractions, keeping wait times long and all the money spent on the parade wasted.
What do you do about parades when you visit a theme park? Are they something you include in your day at the park, or something you try to avoid? That's our vote of the week.
Please tell us in the comments about your all-time most memorable parade moments, whether they be from a great parade, a terrible one, or one that allowed you to bag a record number of attractions with little or no wait.
And then I go back to skipping them. The lesson is, as always, that I make no sense whatsoever.
Actually, my Mom was into that kinda stuff, so on my first coupla visits in the mid and late 70's, we did view the parades at Disney. My interest now is below zero..but then again, the parks I go to nowadays are not exactly known for their parades.
The only time I've been completely defeated by a parade was during Universal's Horror Halloween Nights. The first time they had the parade, I watched with glee, but I was staying a couple of nights and didn't need to see it again. When the parade hits, everyone in the park is stuck in a small, one block radius for nearly and hour and half. You can't go ANYWHERE, and that seriously cuts back on your limited time when you're trying to visit as many haunted houses as possible in just a few hours. If I had more experience with Halloween Nights, I might have been able to be in a a haunted house or a line during the parade, but both nights it caught me unaware and I was stuck twiddling my thumbs for an hour and half, unable to reach any house or attraction during the parade.
With theme park crowds being what they are these days, particularly at Disneyland, I just as soon escape the crowds and ride the rides. Except that the ride you want is always on the other side of the parade route.
Yeah, I hate the parades.
The parade I miss the most is the Tapestry of Dreams/Nations at EPCOT: Massive puppets wandered the parade, moving floats of huge spinning drums were thumped in time to the music. Here's a good spot to still find it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI-jJniMoG0
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Once I see a parade, I'm never really one to go back to it. I'll do the parades at Disney's Halloween and Christmas parties mainly because they only happen once a year and they're usually a big step up from their normal parades. But as for going out and waiting for the night time or 3 o'clock parades on an average day, maybe I'll sit down and watch once or twice a year just to see if something has changed.
I think the parades could benefit from a constant change up, something to keep repeat visitors coming back to sit again and again. And I'm not talking a big change, maybe just throw a different character in every now and again. Keep everything a bit fresh.
Overall I'd say, I'm a parade by passer, but if you surprise me or give me a reason to go watch then yep, my butt will be planted on the curb.