Disney World & Disneyland have special tapings for special holiday shows to bevaired on tv. There's always the Christmas Parade that airs on Christmas morning, and this year there was a special show aired on Thanksgiving evening. Disneys Magical Holiday Special which was basically an introduction to the start of the Christmas Holidays at the parks. Christmas decorations start to go up shortly after Halloween in the first week of November... marking the start of Christmas at Disney. This gives guests two full months to enjoy the Christmas celebration and decorations in the parks. The first decorations to go up are for the taping of ABC specials. This year preparation started on November 5th for taping of the Magical Holiday Special, November 7th-11th. Some taping are done after the park closes early and no general admission guests are around... some are done when the parks are open. The guests you see around the performances are special admission guests... not those in under general admission. We found this out on our first and only attempt to visit the park while taping was going on. It's not as good as you would think. Special admission VIP guests are the only ones permitted by the performances... sections are roped or barricated off so general admission guests can not even get close to see the performances. You are lucky to get a view from a distance. And they are not real shows... It's a tv production with delays, takes & retakes... segmented in bits and pieces. During the taping of the Christmas Parade, a 5 minute segment on tv, of Main Street filled with cheer groups filmed for 4 hours until they got the production shots they wanted. Not very entertaining in person to watch. So not only can you not get close under general admission, but you won't even enjoy the taping. It was an experience that was not worth repeating. Much more enjoyable to simply watch the show and performances on the TV special. Hope you got to see the special on Thanksgiving, and get to enjoy the Christmas Day Parade.
