Simply put – wow!

Paint the Night, Disneyland’s newest nighttime parade developed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first of all Disney theme parks, will blow you away.  If you were at all concerned that this would simply be the old Main Street Electrical Parade revisited, have no fear.  It’s about as close to that parade as today’s HDTV’s are to my parent’s old black and white set we had when I was three.

While there are definitely homages to the much beloved parade of the past (including a clever integration of the old Baroque Hoedown into the theme music), it is it’s own creation and an incredible one at that.  Utilizing a modified version of the Wreck-It Ralph theme song (“When Can I See You Again”), the music makes the whole show even more foot-stomping fun than ever before.  I couldn’t help feel tingling all over as I watched the first float approach.  The big drum lit up and the music exploded and I was hooked.  As each float went by I felt like a child again, awed by the dazzling display before me.

The park was more crowded than I can ever remember it and with the 60th anniversary coming into full swing with all the many annual passholders coming to see the new parade and fireworks, it’s bound to be busy for quite some time.  Is it worth the wait?  It sure is!  But why wait?  Here are a few strategies we used to get front row seats on the curb right down Main Street USA and we only had to wait an hour. That might seem like a long wait, but considering that some people had waited for more than four to five hours to get the same seats – it’s a steal!  Hope these tips help.

1. Plan on seeing the 11pm parade – If you have little ones, this may not be the option for you or you can have the whole family take a nap and plan on coming back to see the late parade.  The nice thing about the 11pm parade is it tends to be much less crowded and since it begins on Main Street, you’re already close to the exit and first out to the trams or your hotels.
2. Get there before the end of the 8:50pm parade – We walked in to the park as the 8:50pm parade was about to finish up – around 9:10pm (It’s only about a 20-25 minute parade).  We walked along the left side of Main Street and hovered around until the final float with Mickey was passing us by and simply walked into the middle of Main Street behind the float and stopped.  We had an ideal position for the fireworks!  We were able to watch the fireworks with some of the best views in the park complete with the images projected onto the Main Street buildings.  It was breathtaking.
3. Move to the curb and sit down at the end of the fireworks – Right after the fireworks ended, we moved to the curb and found a spot we liked and just sat down.  Sure enough other people soon started to do the same thing and behind us they immediately began to set up the ropes.  A friendly cast member even came and told us to please remain seated during the parade and don’t worry about having to stand up as everyone behind us was asked to do.  We had great seats with little struggle and saw an amazing fireworks display, too!  How cool is that?