Best place to see Parade of Dreams About This Page:

[chezp]

I hope you guys can help. We want to see Parade of Dreams at 7pm one night at Disneyland and then we're booked for dinner at the Napa Rose with friends at 7.45pm that night. Where is the best place to watch the parade to make a quick exit? Any thoughts would be great, as we missed it last time and don't want to miss it this time.

[w-steele]

I would suggest you locate yourself in front of the Main Street Railroad Station. Unless I am wrong, the parade starts near this point and travels back towards 'its a small world'. If you locate yourself any further away from the exit gates, you might as well forget either you dinner reservations or catch the parada the next time you visit. It won't be so bad 'fighting' the crowds at this point than it would be if you were further up Main Street. As it is, I think the parade is about 30 minutes long, barring any 'break downs' and being so close to the exit gate, you can exit DL and cross over to CA and go to Napa Rose thru CA. It would be closer than going thru DTD. Hope you enjoy both the parade and Napa Rose.

[DyanKJ130]

When we saw the parade in February it started at IASW, which was a great location because there were no people on the opposite side of the street - made for great photos, but wouldn't be so great for exiting the park quickly. (Although going through Tomorrowland and then cutting through the stores on Main Street might get you out pretty quick. ETA: You could also take the train to the main entrance.) I also checked our photos....the difference in time between the first photo and last photo was just under 15 minutes.

Here's a photo showing the start area of the parade. (That one person was one of 2 people over there....she kept getting up & in the way )


Hope this helps!

[chezp]

Thanks for that.

[ilovedisney0_0]

Wow, Dyan, what are the odds? You find the EMPTIEST place to watch the parade, then the one stinkin person standing next to you keeps getting in your photos!

[Dlandmom2]

The evening parade does start near the Main Street train station and work its way back up to It's a Small World. Depending on what kind of view you want, you could either park yourself at the top of the steps of the train station and have more of an "aerial view" so you can see more floats when they stop and do their little shows, or if you want to be more up close, then try the curb at the bottom of the train station steps. Also, if you want to sit along the curb on the straightaway part of Main Street, that would work well too. The closer you are to the train station, though, the easier access you'll have to the exit.

You probably already know this, chezp, but the parade stops several times along the route so that the floats can each do a little performance. To make sure you're not at a spot that's going to be between two floats, you may want to ask a CM in advance the best spot to sit. Even if you do end up sitting "between" two floats' stop points, you'll still be able to see a decent amount.

Hope that helps!

[dizzparkmom]

On 10/3, we watched the 4pm parade as it started at Small World. Later that day, we got on board the train at Toontown for a trip to Main Street so we could exit DL and get to the Trick or Treat Party at DCA. We boarded the train about 6:45pm and made it to Main Street just after the parade started entering Town Square. As we exited the train, there were not very many people watching from the train station and we had a pretty good view of the parade from up there. We didn't stay long, as we had to get into the super long lines for the party. We were able to go down the steps and exit the park very quickly. If you watch the parade from the train station, I don't think you'll have any problem getting to your dinner in time.