BeachClubVillas said:
Please don't tell me that!!! Six months ago I booked a nice quiet weekend at WDW for Dec 2nd and 3rd. I figured I'd get to see it all decked out for Christmas and beat the crowds for the first time EVER. Now I find out they're going to be taping the parade on my only day at MK. Great.
How bad is it going to be? Will it clear out by the afternoon? We have tickets for MVMCP that night.
Mainstreet will be a zoo - and the extras will be arriving prior to park opening most likely, but its not so bad. I was there last year, walked right past Regis and Kelly
Anywho - Mainstreet will be busy, but in a sorta "i'm in a movie" type way because everyone is decked out in christmas clothes and people are huddles between barriers pretending to be a massive crowds when they only take up like 10ft. The only thing that really gunks stuff up is the musical number - and that doesn't last too long.
The rest of the park will be surprisingly quiet - everyone is one mainstreet - over half the folks are getting free tickets to be on mainstreet for X number of hours as extras, and the other half are probably passholders who went to be on TV or see the show.
Other parks, will be the same. BEWARE the Fountain at Epcot. If it's having a musical guest, which it sometimes tapes for the parade, there will be crowds of people there - but the rest of the park will be quiet.
MGM may tape things in the backlot areas or around Light Motuers. One year they taped that horrid "Who Lets the Dogs Out" thing for the parade in June. So, it's a possibility but not a huge one.
Some CMs here will probably be chatting about the event as it draws near. If they're taping at other parks (which will be like MK's mainsteet, but again dedicated "crowd" areas only) we'll probably hear about folks having to work crowd control.
If you have a past-years parade on tape, look for the tell-tale signs of a quie day to reassure you. For example, people crowded on mainsteet for the parade - but just behind them against the store fronts, 5ft of open space with a trickle of people going into or out of the park. Or when the wide-shot of the Castle show happens, how the crowd packed-tight crowds bluntly ends at the edge of the hub while Mainstreet is abandoned.
