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Christmas Parade Filming Fun

Princess Tiana and her court

Somehow when I woke up Sunday morning and decided to head to the Magic Kingdom, I wasn’t thinking about them filming for the Disney’s Christmas Day Parade that will air on ABC, you guessed it, on Christmas Day. But I should have remembered that the Jonas Brothers would be taping their segment today and that they’d probably be doing pickup shots for the parade since Saturday was rained out.

That certainly explained the extra cars in the parking lot when we arrived. Many guests had been at the Magic Kingdom since 7AM rehearsing and filming segments of the Jonas Brothers piece. When we arrived at 9AM the Main Street area was crowded, but the rest of the park was pleasant. In fact we rode Space Mountain twice with almost no wait before 10AM.

We then decided to check out the Jonas Brothers filming. We were in luck as they were just finishing filming with one or two complete takes of the whole performance. So we got to see quite a bit, including dozens of girls who screamed at the chance to just wave high to any of the brothers. I have to say I’m happy I wasn’t there from 7AM just waiting for the final shots, but it was fun to see how it was all put together. Most in the audience seemed to be having a good time, at least.

Santa loves all the boys and girls

A little later in the day we happened along Main Street where they were just about to start filming shots that will appear in the ABC Christmas Day parade. As it turns out there were a few great spaces right infront of the emporium, so we stood and watched for a while. It really was a lot of fun and everyone got into the spirit of putting on a good show for the TV audience.

I had been in the audience for a number of filmings at Disneyland, but never at the Magic Kingdom. At Disneyland the experience was always one of chaos and rude guests. But at the Magic Kingdom everything was under control. As much as possible they kept the park running as normal and except when necessary for the filming, you wouldn’t have even known it was going on. What a great job by all involved in the park on Sunday.

I look forward to getting more involved in future filmings and recommend you do to. If you were there this weekend, please let us know how it went.