There are few moments at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party that feel more magical than finding the perfect spot for Mickey’s Boo-To-You Halloween Parade.
You stake out your curbside location, grab a snack, settle in, and prepare for one of the best entertainment offerings of the night. The Headless Horseman is coming. Mickey and his friends are coming. The villains are coming. The music starts playing, and suddenly that parade spot feels like Halloween heaven. There’s just one problem that will completely change the experience.
People are being allowed to cross the parade route in front of you.
That means the seemingly perfect parade-viewing location you chose could turn into one of the most frustrating places to watch Boo-To-You.
When a Great Parade Spot Becomes a Bad One
Not every section of the parade route operates exactly the same way when it comes to crowd control.
In some locations, Cast Members allow guests to cross the parade route in designated areas during the parade. While this might make sense from a crowd-flow perspective, it’s a very different story for the guests who have been investing precious party time waiting for the parade.
Imagine you’ve been standing along the parade route for an extended period. You’ve found a great viewing angle, you’re ready with your camera, and the parade finally reaches your section.
Then, right as the grave diggers arrive and start performing, Cast Members extend a rope in front of the performance and allow dozens of people to cross the parade route… blocking your view of the performance. This is not a hypothetical situation; it is one that happened to the MouseHouseNews.net team just the other day.
Suddenly, instead of having an unobstructed view of the parade, you’re watching throngs of guests pass directly in front of the entertainment you’ve waited all night to see. If you’re in one of these unfortunate areas, just know that it will happen over and over throughout the parade.
The Worst Possible Timing
The biggest issue isn’t necessarily that guests are allowed to cross. Our team has been blocked from getting around Magic Kingdom by parades many times, so we know how convenient it would be if only there was some way we can cross once a parade starts. However, we’ve never actually seen this practice being permitted until our recent visit to the Halloween party.
Again, the issue is not that people can now cross… It’s when they cross that is a problem. Boo-To-You isn’t simply a parade where floats slowly pass by. There are specific moments when characters and performers stop and perform routines along the route.
Those are some of the moments many Disney Adults are waiting to see. When guests are permitted to cross the parade route in front of one of those performances, simply because there is a break in the parade flow as a performance is occurring, those people crossing suddenly block your view.
Instead of watching a character perform, you will find yourself watching many people being herded across the street.
Have your camera ready for a special moment? If you’re behind a designated crossing point, you’ll end up with a crowd of people walking through the frame. By the time the crowd is halted from crossing, the performance is over and the parade progresses… those grave diggers march right past you and you’ve seen none of the shovels scraping the ground. Bummer.
Why This Matters More at Boo-To-You
Boo-To-You is one of the marquee experiences of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. For many Disney Adults, the parade isn’t something to casually watch while walking through Magic Kingdom. It’s something worth planning around.
You might arrive early, skip another attraction, or spend part of your party evening protecting your carefully chosen spot. That investment makes interruptions especially noticeable and annoying. That also makes the location of your viewing spot more important than it might initially seem.
Don’t Assume Every Spot Along the Route Is Equal
This is where Disney World guests can get caught off guard. Looking at a map, it might seem like a spot along the parade route is a spot along the parade route. In reality, your experience can depend heavily on exactly where you are standing.
From firsthand experience, I can tell you exactly where you should NOT watch the parade. At the front of Magic Kingdom, you’ll find City Hall. It sits to the left of the park as you enter, just past where you go under the train station. If you look on the ground, you will find a wheelchair ramp cut into the sidewalk that connects one side of the street to the other side. DO NOT stand to the West of that ramp. This is a verified parade crossing route and you will not see the performances. A much better bet is to stand to the East of that ramp, or directly behind the train station. Train station = good. City Hall = terrible. You’ve been warned.
The Bottom Line
Finding a spot for Boo-To-You isn’t just about getting close to the parade route. It’s about understanding what happens around the parade route. If Cast Members are allowing guests to cross in front of the performances at the location you’ve chosen, you may quickly discover that your seemingly perfect spot isn’t as perfect as it looked.
Nobody wants to spend the Halloween party waiting for Boo-To-You, only to have the best moments of the parade partially blocked by people walking across the street. Before you commit to a viewing location, take a few minutes to check the ground around you. Be skeptical of a wheelchair ramp cut into the sidewalk ahead of you as you look towards the direction where the parade will approach.
Remember that the best parade spot isn’t the one with the closest view. It’s the one where you can actually watch the performances. MouseHouseNews.net just took one for the team. Whenever this happens, we’ll certainly pass on the information we’ve learned so you don’t make the same mistake. Please support our efforts by subscribing to the MouseHouseNewsNet YouTube channel where we’ll post quality, unobstructed videos for you!
