Chapter 2: Parades and Fireworks
Parades and Fireworks are fun. What isn’t fun is getting stuck in a crowd when you’re not expecting it.
If the Parks are busy and filled with people milling about normally, whenever there are parades or fireworks shows, it gets much, much worse.
Well, at least around the parade and fireworks areas. It can be a nice time to NOT be in those areas, because lines are generally much shorter. We’ll talk more about going to parades and fireworks later, but for now we’ll concentrate on avoiding them.
As a general rule, the parades and fireworks shows happen in the main plaza of the Disney Park. To be safe, just avoid that part of the Park entirely whenever these are on (and a good 30 minutes before and ten minutes after). Thankfully, the app map also tells us when these are happening. Just select “shows” on the map, and tap on each of the events to find out what time it is. Then, don’t be there for that time.
We know that time can slip whenever we are in the Parks, however, and it is easy to find yourself coming out of a ride and finding the entire population of the Parks placed directly between you and where you want to go. Fear not! There are ways around this. First, though, let’s look at a map.
This is the map of the Stars on Parade route, and it cuts the park clean in two.
If you happen to be on the Discoveryland side of the Disney Park when this parade is on (and, let’s be honest, this is the more usual parade route), then you have to do some scouting if you want to escape from Discoveryland. The parade is never long enough to completely cut the one side off from the other, so you may need to scout out where on the route the parade actually is, and then go to a place that it is not in order to escape Discoveryland. To assist in your scouting, it is useful to know that the parade starts from the North and heads to the South along the parade route.
There is, however, another parade.
And it goes in the opposite direction as the Stars on Parade, while following the same route. Because we need things to be more confusing, of course!
Actually, it is nice to have things shaken up like this, otherwise they run the risk of becoming too much the same all the time. This parade is, for lack of a better term, the seasonal parade. It is the parade that changes more than the Stars on Parade, and reflects holidays and other themes going on in the Parks.
The main plaza is where most people gather to watch either parade, but it is also busy along the route to and from the plaza. Additionally, when the seasonal parade is on, there are more guests where it begins in Main Street, while the Stars on Parade has more guests viewing it from where it starts near It’s a Small World. It essentially bisects the majority of the Park, so we have to think about our edges and our alternate routes in order to avoid the crowds.
Helpfully, however, the parades circle the Main Plaza once they get there. I’m assuming this is to help with the flow of guests between different areas of the Disney Park, but it also has the helpful side effect of making for a longer-lasting parade!
Taking the seasonal parade as our example, I’ve made a (objectively much, much worse) map of the parade route once it reaches the Main Plaza:
Once the parade reaches this point, we have some reliable options! Say you want to go from Discoveryland to basically anywhere else in the Park. You’ve got one sure-fire way to do that. It is this path:
Because there is this parade on, we can be pretty sure the Path of Mystery is closed to us. So, we have to skirt around the edges of the main plaza until we can get to the Connector. Then, we can get from there to any other place in the park fairly easily. We just have to make sure we go there while the parade is
Fireworks are much the same as parades, except the path between the plaza and the Path of Mystery is much more accessible.
Here’s another terrible map:
Different colours and everything. Very advanced.
With fireworks, the main plaza is going to be incredibly busy. This is the area highlighted in dark blue on the map. There are going to be too many people within the dark blue area to be able to walk through with any sort of ease. The light blue area still sees a lot of people gathering there to watch the fireworks, but the density of the crowds here is enough that you can still get through. Keep to the light blue paths wherever possible. The area highlighted in red is inaccessible during fireworks. Well, it is the entrance to the area that is reserved for guests with a Priority Card, so if you have one of those, you can use it as a way through. Otherwise, you won’t be allowed to walk through here.