Best Spot to Watch Disney’s Festival of Fantasy Parade
One of my favourite things to do on our day at the Magic Kingdom is to watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade. This parade features many of your old favourite characters and some of your new favourites. With a Peter Pan float, Ariel float, and Merida float. A Pinocchio float, Princess float and Mickey and Minnie Float. There’s sure to be one your child’s favourite at some point during the parade. For the parade to be enjoyable for you and your party you need to have a good viewing spot. If you’re stuck three people deep you’ll miss the dancers in front of the floats and you won’t get the character interactions you can get when you’re sitting in the front. If you’re in a busy spot you’ll be squished as other guests try to squeeze their way in to see the parade. Other spots have the sun in your eyes. Making it very hot and uncomfortable. Have no fear, we have found the most perfect spot to view the parade.
The parade route begins in Frontierland, goes through Liberty Square, in front of Cinderella’s Castle and then down Main Street, U.S.A.. The spot we’ve found to be perfect for viewing the parade is in Liberty Square. When you enter Liberty Square from Cinderella’s Castle, Sleepy Hollow refreshments in on your right and Ye Old Christmas Shoppe is on your left. Directly in front of this shoppe is the best spot for watching the parade.
When the cast members rope off this area, the rope goes all the way to the bridge, sectioning off this whole side of the street, making it very hard for passersby to sneak in last minute. With the Ye Old Christmas Shoppe behind you, there is no pedestrian traffic. The only people coming in behind you will be guests exiting this shoppe, which is really hard to get to during the parade. By sitting in front of this shoppe you won’t have anyone shoving in to grab the spot you’ve stacked claim to.
In this viewing spot the sun is behind you, which gives you a clear viewing, unimpeded by the suns strong rays. If it unexpectedly starts to rain you have the shop to run into for shelter.
This location also gives you a few different things to do while you’re waiting for the parade to start. You can head into Ye Old Christmas Shoppe to grab a souvenir Christmas ornament. You can go grab a delicious snack at Sleepy Hollow, try one of my favourites: Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich. The Mary Poppins meet and greet location is also just around the corner, and because it’s so close to parade time, there’s rarely a line.
After the parade is over you’re in a very good location. You can go a variety of directions. You can go to Fantasyland, stay in Liberty Square, go to Adventureland or Frontierland. Whatever you want to do for the rest of your afternoon is at your disposal.
One of the negatives of this viewing spot is bathrooms. There’s no particular bathroom that is close. For pre parade bathroom breaks you can make your way to The Crystal Palace bathroom, the Tangled bathroom in Fantastyland, or the Frontierland bathroom found after the Diamond Horseshoe.
To be in the front of the crowd at this viewing spot I would recommend claiming your spot a half hour before the parade starts. Which is approximately 40 minutes before the parade will actually reach your spot.
I recommend setting up here over the FastPass+ location. Guests using the FastPass+ location have this parade as a high priority on their park day and will therefore be at the location half an hour before, making this use of your FastPasses totally redundant, because that’s what time you’d have to grab a spot anywhere else.
There is no sidewalk here, which is when those strollers come in handy. Otherwise throw some sweaters on the ground so everyone can stay comfortable. Happy Planning, Friends.
