The Disneyland Paint the Night Parade

I'll be the first to admit that I was really hoping that the Main Street Electrical Parade would be brought back for the 60th Anniversary. When I heard that Disney was going to make a new parade for the 60th, called the Paint the Night Parade, I was a little disappointed. After seeing the Paint the Night Parade in June, my mind has been changed! The Parade is amazing! It has great new relevant

floats with great music, and even had just the right amount of subtle tribute to the Main Street Electrical Parade. In this blog, I'll detail the Paint the Night Parade, float by float and also give some advice on where to watch it. If you don't want to be spoiled as to what the parade looks like, scroll down past the pictures to see the best viewing spot. Also be warned that pictures never capture the true feeling and effect of nighttime parades, especially in the case of the Paint the Night Parade, but here it goes...



The first thing you see are pixie dancers, leading the way for Tinkerbell.

On the tip of Tinkerbell's wand is a light from the original Main Street Electrical Parade.

If you are familiar with the Main Street Electrical Parade, no doubt you'll recognize this drum! A nice tribute. Peter Pan sits on top.

The drum is followed by three characters: Tigger, Genie, and Lumiere. This picture doesn't do them justice - they looked great!

Next is the Monsters Inc float. Each of the doors is a TV and the images change constantly. There are load sounds by this float which my kids weren't crazy about.

After Monsters Inc float, Lightning McQueen makes his way down the parade route.

After Lightning were some really neat dancers. This was one of my favorite parts of the parade.

Mack Truck is next, and as you can see, it is very impressive. The whole interior of the truck is made up of lights which flash on and off in amazing patterns.

More dancers follow the Mack Truck. These dancers are dressed to look like coral and are an introduction of the Ariel float that follows.

The Little Mermaid float.

An illuminated Nemo and Marlin swim after the Little Mermaid float. Who knew they were friends with flounder?

Dancers dressed in Toy Story Country Western clothes lead the way for the Toy Story float.

The Toy Story float with Woody on top.

Cast Members dressed as candelabras set the mood for the Beauty and the Beast/princess
theme.

Belle's is the first of the princesses and gets her own float! 

Belle is followed by Rapunzel (behind the dancer) and Cinderella who were relegated to smaller floats.

Due to its sheer size, the Frozen Ice Castle float is a sight to be seen. Anna and Elsa are on front with Olaf on back.

Following the Ice Castle are cast members twirling circular discs that change colors. The effects are pretty cool!

Goofy, Donald, and Minnie are next riding on floats with dancing lights that change color.

Fittingly, Mickey finishes up the parade on a float that this picture doesn't do justice to.

Our viewing area:
In the summer time, The Paint the Night Parade runs two times each night. The 8:50pm parade starts to the East of It's a Small World and ends on Main Street near the entrance of Disneyland. The 10:45pm parade starts where the first parade ended and ends by Small World, where the 8:50 parade began. People had already begun saving spots on Main Street by 5:00pm - almost 4 hours before the parade. As much as we wanted to see the parade, 4 hours equals a lot of missed rides at Disneyland so we developed an alternative strategy. Right after the 8:50pm parade is the fireworks show which runs from about 9:30pm to 9:50pm. Main Street is flooded with people at this time so avoid it, if possible, by going on rides in Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, or Fronierland. The reason I mention these three lands is so that you are close to the parade route so that once the fireworks show ends, you can rush in and grab a spot to watch the 10:45pm parade. This way you only have to wait 1 hour instead of 4 hours for the 8:50pm parade. The spot we found was on a concrete bench just around the bend from the Astro Orbitor in Tomorrowland and just before reaching the Matterhorn. We got this spot both nights we watched the parade by getting there right at the tail end of the fireworks show, around 9:40. Here is a picture of what our viewing area looked like:

Our viewing area. The parade starts from the left side of the picture, and to the right down the parade route would be the Matterhorn.

UPDATE

The Paint the Night Parade has been discontinued as a nightly addition to Disney's entertainment schedule and will only be presented on certain nights during the 2016 Holiday Season before it is replaced in early 2017 by the Main Street Electrical Parade. The Main Street Electrical Parade will be returning to Disneyland for "a limited time run". It is widely believed (though not confirmed by Disney) that the Paint the Night Parade will return to Disneyland soon, perhaps even as early as summer 2017.