Walt Disney World With Kids (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [65]
The Enchanted Tiki Room
Hall of Presidents
Mickey’s PhilharMagic
Monsters, Inc.
The small shady area across from Sleepy Hollow in Liberty Square
Best Vantage Points for Watching the Parade
The Magic Kingdom has two basic parades: the afternoon parade (usually 3 PM), which runs daily, and the evening parade, which runs nightly in the on-season and periodically during the off-season. All parades begin by City Hall and finish beside the gate just to the left of Splash Mountain.
Stake your curb space about 30 minutes before the parade is due to start. If you show up an hour early, you might snag a seat on the second floor of the railway station. For some families the bird’s-eye view more than makes up for not being able to interact with characters.
Insider’s Secret
The evening fireworks are preceded by a nifty little extra called Tinker Bell’s Flight. Look toward the castle and you’ll see a young gymnast dressed like Tink descend via wire from the top of the castle.
Tips for Your Last Hour in the Magic Kingdom
Some rides—most notably Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Prince Charming Royal Carrousel, Astro Orbiter, Dumbo, and Splash Mountain—are particularly beautiful at night.
If you’re visiting on an evening when the parade is scheduled, make sure you’re stationed as close as possible to the beginning of Main Street. This way you can turn in your strollers and make a final potty run before the parade begins and make a quick exit after the fireworks end. Otherwise you risk being stuck in the exiting crowds, which can be really difficult to navigate, especially if you’re trying to carry small children or push a stroller.
Not watching the evening parade? It pulls almost everyone in the park to one place at one time, so about an hour before the parade starts you’ll notice a definite shift in the crowd. This is a great time to squeeze onto a couple of rides that had long lines earlier in the day.
“People who aren’t watching the evening parade really do need to get out before it begins,” confirms one mother from New York. “The kiddie rides in Fantasyland get less crowded before the parade starts so we decided to ride a few one night and then slip out before the parade began. Bad idea. We lost track of time and it took us literally 45 minutes to get from Fantasyland to the front gate, pushing two strollers through crowds of people who were standing still in the middle of the sidewalks, looking up at the fireworks. After that we started setting our phone alarm to ring for 30 minutes before the parks were scheduled to close.”
Wishes, the present manifestation of the fireworks display in the Magic Kingdom, is beautiful, with pyrotechnics perfectly synchronized to a musical score. It’s presented nightly at closing time, even when the parade isn’t scheduled to run, and it’s visible from any location.
The rides stop running at the park’s official closing time but Main Street stays open for up to an hour longer. If the crowd looks bad here, you can be sure it looks even worse at the bus stop or monorail station. Pause, have a snack, and let the crowds thin before you exit.
Insider’s Secret
The best place to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks isn’t in the Magic Kingdom at all. It’s the California Grill, high atop the Contemporary Resort. The California Grill is a beautiful upscale restaurant, with some of the best cuisine in all of Orlando. Despite the restaurant’s reputation, it isn’t formal or stuffy. Kids are welcome.
To see the fireworks, reserve a time about 30 minutes before the parade is due to start. (This needs to be done before you leave home. First call 407/824–4321 to determine the evenings and times the parade is scheduled, and then reserve a table by calling 407/WDW–DINE.) Since so many guests have been showing up at the restaurant just to see the fireworks, the restaurant has been forced to implement the policy that only diners are allowed to view the show. (Can’t get a perfectly timed reservation? If you dine at California Grill earlier that