Refuting The Top 14 Reasons Not To Go To Disney, Part 7

So I'm happily looking at my Facebook newsfeed the other day and one of those "Sponsored" things is up there. It's from a site called Viral Travel (which sounds like a bad idea on the face of it) and is entitled 13 Reasons Not To Go To Disney. Of course I bite. Sue me. So its about what I expect, the same things we Disney fans expect from you non-Disney fans-- crowds, expense, capitalism, yadda yadda yadda. The thing is, many of these criticisms are true to a large extent, but avoidable. I hate to see people get spoiled on the Disney I love because they go about the whole experience unprepared logistically or mentally for the realities of the place. I figured just for kicks to take the 13 reasons one by one (or two by two) and try to explain why they don't keep ME from the Magic. This part four, part one is here, two here, three here, four here, five here, and six here.

4. The Nightly Parades Shut Everything Down

 Every night, the Disney crew puts on a very special parade complete with floats, music and lots of dancing. There are other parades that are held in different areas during the day, but they are relatively small and fairly easy to get around.

Just try to get to the other side of the park for that one last ride during the nightly parades, and you will be shocked at how much of the park instantly becomes essentially inaccessible. Even better, the nightly parades are the same thing over and over. Everyone stands and watches the first one they see, but by the second night you start to realize it is just the same boring thing as before.

The parade route is patrolled by the most overzealous Disney employees ever, and they do their best job to mimic the behaviors of a rabid junkyard dog as they tell everyone they cannot walk through a pathway well before the parade has even started.

Because of these lovely employees, if you don’t get to the area of the park where you want to stay until the parade is over, you will be stuck where you are until the ridiculous nightly procession finally ends.

Uh, no. No they don't.  You may have to walk around the lines or go the long way round rather than through the hub in front of the Cinderella Castle, but the nightly parade, nor the multiple daytime parades, shuts nothing down. If you see a Disney cast member acting like "a rabid junkyard dog" at ANY time, let me know. Yes, they try to keep you from being run down by Elliot, but they are ridiculously nice about it.

Elliot. Don't fling yourself in front of him.

We love watching the parades, but the writer is correct in that they are pretty much the same each time. This isn't a bad thing at all, though, as the parade draws such a crowd that parade time is a great time to visit the attractions. Getting around can be tricky, but the parade times and routes are well advertised. You are best to avoid Main Street at Electrical parade time, for example. But you CAN do as Lisa and I did once and ride Splash Mountain a few times until the parade is going by while you are on the ride and you get to watch the Electrical Parade from the top of the big drop.

I want to see THIS parade. Lots of times.