Disneyland’s new Mickey’s Soundsational Parade down Main Street litterally takes off with a bang…of drums played by a rocking drumline, and then the Mouse himself. Part of our press tour last week involved some excellent viewing of the new spectacle. Mombloggers Ana from Finding Bonggamom, Charlene and Liling from Trekaroo, Akemi from Chalk & Cheese Chronicle, and Colleen from Travel Mamas were all on hand with me and hundreds of other members of the media to take in the sights and sounds. We could hear the drums coming long before they reached our vantage point across from the train station.
When the drums finally made it our way, they were keeping a funky beat to an old classic, the theme from “The Mickey Mouse Club.” For some reason, I thought Mickey would be at the end of the parade, kind of like the arrival of Santa at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Instead, the Mouse in Charge followed the drummers on his own float, and showed his talent as a drummer. Who knew Mickey could even hold drumsticks? Not me, that’s for sure.
The parade seemed to end there, because there was quite a gap between the drummers and the next float. I think they pace it so that the songs don’t bleed into each other. Anyway, next up were the Bollywood-meets-Hollywood Alladin Dancers, decked out in purple, hot pink, and gold. A very handsome Alladin stood atop the float. Each of the floats was preceded by a team of dancers in costume. According to show directors
Some of the floats were old, familiar Disney characters, like Simba from the Lion King, while others featured newer Disney charaters, like Princess Tiana from The Frog Prince and Rapunzel from Tangled (one of my favorites). Each float had a different type of music and dancers to go along with it.
Princess Tiana’s dancers were dressed as Mardi Gras butterflies. According to show directors Steve Davison and John Addis, there are 97 people in the parade on any given night. They put out a casting call in January, and over 1,000 musicians, dancers, and actors showed up for auditions, with 180 being cast in the actual parade. Add to that the number of artists, builders, and show directors and as Steve and John said, “it takes a village” to put on the parade each night.
The princess float was a big hit with princesses young and old in the crowd, with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty on the front, Rapunzel’s tower front and center, and Belle and Cinderella on the back. I liked that they put the newest Disney princess, Rapunzel as the featured performer on the float, decked out in pink and purple.
The last float was a raucous reinvention of Mary Poppins with chimney sweep dancers and a jazz band featuring the man in the moon. The show directors told us that they tried to incorporate many styles of music and as many of the traditional Disney movies as they could, with a modern twist.
Overall, I think this one is my favorite Disney parade of all.
Tips for enjoying Mickey’s Soundsational Parade:
- People tend to line up on Main Street early for the parade, so grab a snack and a drink and settle on the curb for a street view of the parade.
- If you’d like an overview, a good vantage point is the Disneyland Train Station steps. You can see down Main Street from the top.
- Look for a secret small paper figure of a character from another movie on Princess Tiana’s float.
- The music is LOUD, so if your kids are noise-sensitive, you might want to stay back from the street.
Disclosure: Disney Parks & Resorts paid for my airfare and accommodations to attend this event. I did not receive any compensation for writing this review, or payment in exchange for posting. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the opinions or policies of the Walt Disney Corporation.
Glennia Campbell has been around the world and loved something about every part of it. She is interested in reading, photography, politics, reality television, food and travel and lives in the Bay Area of the U.S.
She blogs about family travel at The Silent I and is also the co-founder of MOMocrats Beth Blecherman and Stefania Pomponi Butler, which launched out of a desire to include the voices of progressive women, particularly mothers, in the political dialogue of the 2008 campaign.
She found her way to Democratic politics under the tutelage of the late Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Cora Weiss, and other anti-war activists and leaders in the anti-nuclear campaigns of the 1980’s. She has been a speaker at BlogHer, Netroots Nation, and Mom 2.0, and published print articles in KoreAm Journal.
Professionally, Glennia is a lawyer and lifelong volunteer. She has been a poverty lawyer in the South Bronx, a crisis counselor for a domestic violence shelter in Texas, President of a 3,000 member non-profit parent’s organization in California, and has worked in support of high-tech and medical research throughout her professional career.
