Christmas Parade on ABC

[Zippy 1]

I was very disappointed with the Christmas Parade this year. It seems every year we see less and less of the parade. I liked the 3 families they spotlighted. But please bring back the parade coverage. It has been a tradition in our house to watch. Not sure we will tune in next year

[BrerGnat]

I think we had a similar post last year. They need to just drop the word "Parade" from this show.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We did (and it may have been mine!)

I really, really want to see the parade. Maybe it can be like Macy's ... a bunch of presentations and then the parade?

Although, this year was a bit better than last year ...

[Lacy]

I thought this year was better than last year. And it seems that they have stopped calling it the Parade. What was this year's title - The Disney Parks Unforgettable Christmas Celebration or something like that. This year they seemed to spend more time on the musical acts and I was surprised at little time they spent showing the rides, etc but I thought but like I said I thought it was better than last year.

[DizneyFreak2002]

Those were musical acts? A bunch of no names and never will be "performers" for the preteen done deaf set... And parade? Far from one.. Oh look here is, well another bogus scripted family "unforgettable" moment... Well this year, much like last year, was very forgettable... What the heck did Arianna Grande have on? She is a disgrace... And they cater to that little brat.... Holds them up for 3 hours during taping and they STILL put her on? I would have dumped her in a heart beat... Not tuning in next year... I'll keep the 24 hours of A Christmas Story on instead.. or just play Christmas music... Disney lost yet another view of their pathetically put together Christmas parade...

[DonaldDuck1117]

I wouldn't call Reba McEntire or Seal "no names" or "non-performers." Yes, a lot of preteen/teen music but, hello, that's their target audience with this thing. I'm glad they dropped "parade" from the name because it isn't a parade. It wasn't as much of a commercial as last year.

[paragon]

Sadly, the entire broadcast is nothing more than a commercial.

[Polynesian Dweller]

This just gets less worth watching every year and this year we commented to each other it wasn't even a good commercial. Other than a couple of names the musical acts were uniformly forgettable. They showed little of the parade and little of the parks that showed them well. Won't be looking forward to next year's.

[Arielfan98]

I liked this year better in that the focus wasn't on advertising so much. Last year's parade was "Aulani this and Aulani that" and I was getting sick of it. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't feel like they were trying to sell Disney on me this time around which I liked. On the other hand, I agree 100% the parade was non-existent. I did enjoy the family stories, though. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas regardless :tree:

[1DisneyNut]

While we were watching, I thought about the thread on last year's parade and how bad it was. This year wasn't quite as bad but it was still pathetic. We want to watch the parade and see the parks not a 2 hour long infomercial with horrible singing acts every 5 minutes. Arianna Grande was awful.....AGAIN! It would be a vast improvement just not having her on the show.

It was so bad yet again, I realized about 20 minutes in that I was once again the only one in the room watching. The wife and kids had all lost interest and were off doing other things leaving me to watch the mess by myself. News flash Disney, my kids are teenagers and they won't even watch the show.

I suggest as an experiment next year Disney do 2 shows. One is a one hour show featuring nothing but the parade and the parks. The other show can be their over-produced, infomercial, bad singing act, garbage and see which one gets the better ratings.

[ck32250]

My first year watching was 2013. '14 and '15 were downhill from there. Such a shame. Same here, wife and kids weren't interested and my daughter loves parades. They did a buildup to Santa in 2013 and they practically opened with Santa in '15.

[deedee73]

It is just too much other stuff & not enough park or parade & characters for my family. After last year we didn't even tune in this year. We actually watched the Macys parade twice & bits feom the Chicago one instead.

[SurferStitch]

It was better than last year. At least they showed a lot more WDW footage. As for the acts... Reba and Seal are definitely not no-names. I actually thought the musical acts were pretty good (I just can't stand Arianna). But I agree about the parade... would love to see a lot more. Also, was bummed I didn't see any Stitch on the special!!

[Altair]

Anyone remember Drum Major Mike? Back in those days it was almost all parade. :(

[Speedy1998]

Sadly, the entire broadcast is nothing more than a commercial.

I have jokingly called the "Very Merry Christmas Commercial" for years.

[Speedy1998]

I suggest as an experiment next year Disney do 2 shows. One is a one hour show featuring nothing but the parade and the parks. The other show can be their over-produced, infomercial, bad singing act, garbage and see which one gets the better ratings.

How about for the first show, doing the parade live. My bet is even if they used an intern from the local ABC affiliate, as the MC, it would get better ratings than the infomercial version of the parade.

[Tekneek]

It had been a tradition...until this year. About halfway through, the kids just put in a DVD. I didn't even have the heart to put up a fight, as I had completely lost interest already myself. I don't know who their target audience is with this thing.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

I think I may have even started the thread last year. Tim Tebow as a host, doesn't get much worse than that. We have it sitting on our dvr. Almost watched it last night, but instead put in Sound of Music as we just saw the play the day after Christmas, then watched my Vikings whoop on the Giants instead.

I was hoping to hear some better reviews, but am not surprised to not find any.

Did Samantha Brown make an appearance again this year? She is always one of my favorite travel hosts and she seems to have a soft spot for doing Disney.

At this point, I'll most likely fast forward through it to see if there are any parts worth showing to the kids.

[Yungbuck73]

I thought it really stunk. Everything is so produced its sickeneing. Miss the old ones

[1DisneyNut]

On a side note, something good came out of the forgettable Christmas celebration. If you haven't heard about it yet, google Rhett Wheeler and watch the video of him singing on stage at WDW. Ariana Grande was apparently 3 hours late for her performance so the producers were killing time by asking people in the crowd if they wanted to sing, tell jokes or perform in some way to entertain the restless crowd until Ariana decided to bless them all with her presence (sarcasm lol). Rhett was just some random spectator waiting in the crowd and volunteered to sing and was then called up onto the stage.

I would say it was the bright point of the show but didn't even make it to TV. The kicker is it was completely off the cuff and improvised and was by far better than most anything they actually showed on TV. The guy may have gotten his big break just because he decided to go to WDW that day, went over to Ariana's stage and she was late.......now that is some magical, once in a lifetime stuff right there.

[zoopop]

I just watched the parade over the weekend.

I thought it was a little better than the last few years (not saying much) and even some of the performers were entertaining. But Disney is missing out on capturing WDW during the holidays becuase this parade/show is so over produced.

Instead of showcasing a bunch of Pop stars who look like they don't want to be there use the park and their performers to get into the holiday spirit. Talk to the guest at different parks. Focus on sections of the parks (Epcot or hotels). Disney has more than enough material to get thru a 2 hr special. And like many of have said....SHOW THE PARADE!!!

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

I just watched the parade over the weekend.

I thought it was a little better than the last few years (not saying much) and even some of the performers were entertaining. But Disney is missing out on capturing WDW during the holidays becuase this parade/show is so over produced.

Instead of showcasing a bunch of Pop stars who look like they don't want to be there use the park and their performers to get into the holiday spirit. Talk to the guest at different parks. Focus on sections of the parks (Epcot or hotels). Disney has more than enough material to get thru a 2 hr special. And like many of have said....SHOW THE PARADE!!!

Totally agree. We slept in on New Years day, then made a big brunch for the family. I had recorded the show and decided to put it on and we watched it all. I would agree, not nearly as bad as I thought it would be and definitely better than last year's disaster with Tim Tebow. That said, it felt almost like every time Robin Roberts was "my apologies, but we are going to interupt our production to show you a quick snippet of the parade, but don't worry, I'll be right back".

I didn't particularly like the three family stories, but what are you going to do. The parks are so incredible during the holidays, you'd think they try to showcase that a lot more than they do. Was hoping that Samantha Brown would have been back, but alas, not to be.

[SBETigg]

Exactly, not even a good commercial! I could sit through hours of coverage on the parks, resorts, etc, but not a fan of just watching musical performances of groups/individuals I mostly do not know or care for. More of the parade would be great. It was exciting to see the Star Wars segment, for example, brief as it was. But then, back to another excruciating or mundane performance. Even the "big names" weren't giving it their all. Blah.

[MNNHFLTX]

I didn't watch last year so I have no comparison, but I actually liked the broadcast this year (aside from Ariana Grande). Yes, they don't show much of the parade, but I can always watch the Rose Parade for that. I liked the musical acts (again, aside from the one previously mentioned) and I liked Robin Roberts hosting it.