Disney's Parades

The gems of the Disney Resorts, by far are their wonderful parades. Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure park produce the best choreographed, audio, and visual effects in the west. Disneyland’s Celebrate: A Street Party honors Disneyland’s guest for the events that they are celebrating in the park. The choreographed dancers and Disney characters are all well tuned to swing, rock n’ roll, and Latin groves. Disney’s California Adventure park has two parades. The first parade is the very exciting Pixar Play Parade. This parade is dedicated to characters that are involved with Pixar Studios. The characters range from the movies such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Monster’s Inc. The interaction with the crowd draws a lot excitement from everyone. For example, the CDA (child detection agency) characters from Monster’s Inc. squirt you with water as they walk by. The second parade is the dazzling Electrical Parade. This night time spectacular is eye candy for the young and old.

The Electrical parade has been one of my favorites since I was a little girl. It holds a special place in my heart for the fact that it gives me a memory of watching it with my grandmother who has now passed, and for the wonderful show it provides. All the floats in this parade are lit with either blinking or non-blinking lights of all colors. Even the character’s clothing has lights on them. One by one the floats pass by from scenes like Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Snow White. I especially love the Snow White float, because it features Dopey sitting in a mine cart that has been filled with beautiful lights made to look like jewels. It makes you feel like you just want to grab and hold the jewels in your hand. The music is all electro –synchronized to the lights on the floats. I feel that’s what gives the parade its special touch. Without the lights blinking to the music it would just be boring. Make sure if you want to see the parade before its last run you need to go to Disney’s California Adventure park before April 18, 2010.

Disneyland’s Celebrate: A Street party is the best parade of both parks. The music, dancing and visual effects are very impressive. The hot salsa sounds and the fast swing beats are the best that I’ve heard in any parade. Thanks to Ricky Martin’s, “Cup of Life”, and The Jungle Books, “I Want to be like you”, songs are just a joy to sing-along with. All the characters are non-stop dancers and each cast member dances perfectly to every tune. At this part of the parade I enjoy the salsa dancing. Each cast member chooses someone from the audience and they join into form a giant conga line. When at night the lights are so beautifully arranged. Many spot lights of all colors illuminate the parades path. I also applauded the cast members that are using stilts, I understand that it could be quite difficult to walk in those things let alone dance in them. If you enjoy parades like I do, then I suggest that you see all of them. Believe me when I say that it’s worth waiting in one spot for an hour or two to view one of these gems.