Okay, They had the parade. WOW!!!!!!!
That was so cool. I don't know if I can ever go again and just be on the sidelines yelling for beads.
We got there at 6pm and got our tickets and had to return at 7pm to prep for the parade. We got there around 6:35pm. We waited until 7pm and they started to take people back. They had a line and they took people in groups and started with the back of the parade. They took 30 people in the first group and that was us. We were on the Gator Float. The biggest float in the parade and the last float. They took us back and instructed us on how to throw the beads and gave us hats and costumes. They then loaded us in the float. In front of us were racks of beads. Between me and my son we had 3 racks of beads to throw from. We had to wait about 20 minutes after we got on the float for the parade to start. Then WOW I couldn't even imagine how many people were in the park until we started going through the streets. Everyone was screaming and yelling and wanting what we had, The Beads!! We made it through without running out and they let us keep around 10 beads ourselves.
There was a standby line that was rather long, and I know they took ALOT of people from that line, probably because of the rain, so I don't know how the chances are if you are there on a good night.
If you get a chance to do it, DO IT!! It is one of those times your'll never forget.
George