got there after 8 and didn't have any trouble locating a tree to stand in front of and take great photos ...1st time to the rose bowl and it won't be the last....parked in business at 301 N Lake st ..10.00! read more

Rose Parade Route - I went by myself got there about 8:00 a.m. and didn't have any trouble finding a front row tree to stand in front of and get great photos - Festivals Near Me - Pasadena, California

Let's preface this is, we are from out of the area. We are not familiar with the streets, route, shops, bathroom locations, food venders, ect. When reading the website they said that the more expensive seats have a better view. Thus I purchased the most expensive seats listed and parking due to I don't know the area. I'm glad I did. Parking was easy as it can be in the dark and we found our seats after a lot of walking. Here is what we purchased. Area 1-150 S Orange Grove $100 Parking Area 1 $45 Souvenir Program Advance Sale $8.50 The seats were in the last row so we had a back rest. That was a plus as we did not bring seat backs. We brought a blanket to sit on and that kept us from having a chilly bottom. The view was blocked a little by a tree, so I felt a little mislead on my purchase. After the parade in the afternoon we walked down the way and there were other seats, cheaper with a perfect view. I still am happy with our seats. They were in the security zone and would not let you bring in food or drink and there were no vendors, so I was a bit mislead by the other reviews. On the other hand I saw people carrying in boxes of breakfast, donuts, and trays of coffee. Our security person made us toss out the oj and granola bars so I was a bit annoyed that others let people bring in whole meals and coffee. We had no vendors in our area so, it was a good thing we ate and drank prior to entering, but it would have been nice to have a snack and something to warm you up. Parking was easy in and out. It was pricy, and we drove by lots that were cheaper, but being from out of town and not knowing this I'm glad we didn't take the chance, I'd hate to spend my whole time looking for parking on the one way streets. I felt safe where I parked so that was a extra bonus. It wasn't as cold as expected, but I was still happy I brought hand warmers and a blanket to sit on. The bleachers were so narrow I'm glad we didn't bring those chair backs as there wasn't room. The person in front of me had it and I had no leg room. My legs were squished up against me and I couldn't move. Most don't bring them so no worries. If I did it again I'd sit out of the security zone so I could bring food and drink. The parade goes for miles so there are lots of options. I would get seating again. I don't like the idea of going the night before and camping out to save a few bucks. It's not worth it to me. $200 was fine price to pay for a once in a life time experience. I don't know if I'll ever go again due to distance and work. If you pass a souvenir stand and want something, get it. They close up fast, either soon as the parade ends or during the parade. We had to go to the float viewing to find something. read more

A bucket list experience completed! We got lucky with tickets, and were sitting in the bleachers almost directly across from the KTLA zone. If you can buy tickets for bleachers, I highly recommend it. Side note/tip, the bleachers are all labeled by addresses: the East side of the street is the odd numbers and the the West side of the street is the even numbers. It can potentially be a long walk to get to your specific bleacher address, so wear comfy shoes. Parking gets more expensive the farther down Union you go towards the start of the parade route. There are a very, very few places open early (we were walking through the area at 5:30am), so bring some snacks and/or a bottle of water to get you through the early hours. Depending on your seating area, you might have to go through security checkpoints, so be kind and listen to the guards. Bathrooms are almost all completely "porto's", so be prepared, especially in areas where people were camping around. In terms of the floats and bands, cheer your head off! Be mindful of the neighborhoods and clean up after yourselves. Most of all, dress warmly and have an amazing time! read more

Happy New Year, my fellow yelpers. My first 2015 review ! #001/100 Yelp 2015 Challenge This is my second time watching the rose parade, I when here last year and the line and crowd isn't as bad as I though. You don't need to camp or come too early here, unless you wanted reserve for a big group and get the best viewing spot. If you going come late, I suggest go for near the end route like Sierra Madre. There's fewer people in the end route than in the startup and the float will take longer time to get there like after 9pm. That give you extra a hour of sleep if you party too high the night before or when to countdown. This year floats wasn't as impressive as last year and doesn't had many one that wow me. The parade now is mix with large group of Christian and military presentation. In the end is wrap up buy army of big towing truck that make annoying horn sound. The parade is free and you get the whole package with live band and peoples, the pre and post float view don't get neither one and cost $10. If you are local resident, then there's no excuse for you to come out and see a least once in your lifetime. Some people travel across the country and even oversea just to get here. read more

The Los Angeles Rose Parade is finally crossed off my bucket list. It was nothing like the horrifying stories I have heard in the past of the crazy crowds, killer traffic, camping out in the freezing cold or you're stuck with no view of the parade. I want tell everyone out there interested in watching this parade live that the stories are only for those who arrive late. My family arrived 2 hours prior to the start of the parade half way down the parade route. In all honesty this was my first rodeo and a spur of the moment adventure so we just rolled with it. We took snacks, drinks, chairs, and blankets but if you have a portable heater definitely a great idea. First off I used my google GPS and I bypassed the exit off of the freeway and went to the next off ramp. I crossed Colorado Street and parked randomly on a one Way Street that is located parallel to the parade route. I had pulled over to view my GPS because I had taken a different route and came to realize that I was parked 30 sec from the parade route near a Jack's, Carl's, and McDonalds. There was a porter potty almost around every corner and not in bad condition which is good for the miss's. Then along the parade route the street spots were full but the curb was available almost every few feet. Breakfast options were available everywhere because of our prime spot and we stayed with our back to the sunrise so we could see the parade with no worries. We did notice that marshmallows and raw tortillas lined the streets so 12am must be a party but we just observed the aftermath. Of course we enjoyed the parade but by the last few floats my boys were done watching and ready to go. We saw the whole thing walked to the car and left into the city away from the route and the freeway. So for me it was easy in and easy out with a great experience but no plans of going back because we are not big on parades but definitely glad we did it. read more

Rose Parade Route - Festivals Near Me - Pasadena, California

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I am kinda spoiled when it comes to this parade... my aunt has a house a few blocks away! I have been coming to this parade (not every year) since I was super young - like 6 years old and I am... well.. never mind! I have camped on the street in my late teenage years and had too much fun at night and slept through the parade ... except for those "pesky" bands that wake you up... lol... good memories but NOW attending with my kids - it's even more special. MY FAVORITE thing is walking through the floats as they are staged the night before. People are excited, friendly and we all do the countdown in the street and hug everyone around you!!! You get sneak peeks... and inside info... like the cast that was going to be there for the Bachelor float... if you are in to the Bachelor... not me (hehehe) My aunt super blessed us this year and bought us tickets at the starting line right below the HGTV booth! Who hoo! Awesome seats. Just note - the exhaust for all the generators is nauseating... but it's only 2 hours... and I have ruined myself way worse back in the day smoking.... The Property Brothers were throwing out the roses from the display after the parade and I GOT ONE! YAY! Then as I was trying to post my photo for my friends... I almost missed them walking down the bleachers where I was! So I hurried to catch Jonathan Scott and oooppsss.. fell on him... I am such a super DORK! sigh... Age recommendations: my 4 and 6 year old were semi-ready to leave when it was a little over an hour into it...My Aunt hooked up babysitting for our 19 month old! Hotdogs wrapped in smokey salty bacon - smelled amazing and cost $5 each - I didn't get one but wished I had cash-ola on me... Oh and back in 2007 when George Lucas was the Grand Marshal - my husband was on crutches - we had the BEST seats in the house! The Rose Parade really takes care of the disabled and gives ample space for unobstructed, prime seating - curbside viewing! I actually got to talk with George Lucas and ask him for his autograph on a Storm Trooper Toy - he held it in his hand, contemplated, and then said, " maybe later." Really... still waiting.... what a punk! One stinkin signature - for our collection... lame! Glad Disney is in charge now... The Parade is awesome! BUCKET List... revisited again and again! Oh and we do notice when the New Year falls on a weekday - it's not as flashy busy as on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. That might help for planning your trip! read more

My last experience with the Rose Parade came in 2009 when USC played Penn State in the Rose Bowl game. Fast forward five years and now I'm a student at USC (a little foreshadowing maybe?) Southern California's biggest and world-renowned New Year's celebration down Colorado Blvd is one of the best free things you can do. My suggestion is that you bring lawn chairs and sit somewhere in Old Town (near the intersection of Colorado & Fair Oaks). The start of the parade (and the televised portion) is at the Norton Simon Museum at the intersection of Orange Grove & Colorado but unless you camp out, you're probably not going to be able to find a spot there in the grandstands. Bring a lawn chair and take the Metro Gold Line to the Memorial Park Station because you won't find any parking. You'll see some of the most amazing and intricate floats going down the street and it's a whole lot of festive, free fun. read more

The Rose Parade is epic! I'm giving 5 stars for the parade itself and for the general overall wonderful experience we had. However for overnight sidewalk campers and bleacher holders, I have some recommendations/ critiques. First, there are several ways to experience the Rose Parade. 1. At home on TV. ( this has been my option most of the time). I've visited the parade 3x total in person. 2. Buy tickets for bleachers located right at the beginning of the parade route. The upside to bleachers are you have guaranteed seats. The downside is they are costly at least $95 per ticket and you're paying that much for a little space on cold hard bleachers. 3. You can camp out overnight on the sidewalk of Colorado Blvd. This guarantees you a front row seat for free. This is what our family did this year! I'll go into more detail on this. 4. You can show up at 4am and find a kind group of people who camped to share their spot. PARKING is ridiculous!! No matter which option you choose, if you see the parade live and in person, you will have to deal with parking. Pasadena requires you get a parking permit to park on most city streets. You should visit the city of Pasadena Rose Parade website prior to heading over in your vehicle. They have a comprehensive list of parking areas and requirements. SO HERE is the information I WISH we had before setting out on our urban camping experience! 1. Setting up camp on the sidewalk of Colorado Blvd. The website says noon. That's NOT the case. People start using sidewalk chalk as early as 5am on 12/31 to section off their spots. The code enforcement and other people honor this. So bring some chalk and get there as early as possible. 2. Where to set up? First of all the south side of Colorado is more coveted because the sun is not in your face while you sit there all day both the day before and the day of the parade. We were lucky enough to get a south side spot. 2. What do you bring? We had kids who needed to sleep so we brought sleeping bags and camping mats. I recommend a tarp to set down. The gutter is flowing with water and yes, it is a street after all. There are minimalists who bring chairs, a few snacks and a blanket. That way when the parade is over they pick up their things and leave. Then there are the luxurists, these people bring self generated air mattresses and everything but the kitchen sink. Our family was in the middle. We brought a cooler, mini BBQ, snacks and sleeping bags and an umbrella. They are very strict on certain rules. One rule is the NO TENT rule. Don't bother bringing a tent. They're not allowed. They did allow an oversized umbrella which we slept under. Finally, if you don't mind crowds or being on TV you will want to find a spot between the bleachers and up about 4 blocks. These are the most lively spots and news reporters go up and down this stretch looking for campers to interview. Bathrooms are an issue! The Pasadena website says there are plenty of portable toilets but there are NOT. The Starbucks and Fridas Tacos were both nice about using the bathroom so long as you buy something. We ate dinner at Fridas, they were delicious ( another review) & the folks at Starbucks were also very friendly. If you want a quieter experience, find a campsite farther away from the beginning of the parade route. It gets very cold. So whatever you bring with you make sure it's warm. Layer up and make sure you have time the next day to rest. No matter where you are on the parade route, if you're camping out, you probably won't sleep much. We met some great people and made friends everywhere. My only complaint was the woman Employee 3090 who wouldn't let us walk across the street to use a restroom. She was rude and had just let other people go through but decided to enforce her rules only on certain people, not everyone. That was not cool. She expected us to walk all the way around rather than allowing us to cross over at Mill Street. OVERALL, WE HAD A BLAST! Welcome 2016! Our front row seats were amazing. The floats and bands and equestrian shows were all amazing! read more

Rose Parade Route - Festivals Near Me - Pasadena, California

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Great show that happens every New Years Morning here in Pasadena.. and the rest of the year, this is an over-looked piece of history.. enjoy it year-round... not just during the madness of NYE .. or the wee hours of morning New Years read more

First time living in Pasadena, and basically even hearing about rose parade since being in Cali, so I was pretty adamant about going to see the rose parade. I mean, i'm only a mile away, 20 min walk, how lazy do I have to tell people I am to not have gone right? :P I didn't quite make it right on time, but I arrived to the parade around 9:20 and there were still plenty of floats to look at. they were awe-inspring and amazing!! It's pretty hard to believe that it's all made of flowers, it makes you realize why people were crazy enough to spend the night in the cold. I wish that I was able to stay the whole time and to see when the floats did crazy little tricks, aka. the public storage...who da thunk?!?! but sadly i saw that on tv instead of the real thing so makes me want to plan better next year. If you haven't seen this in person, I say it's worth it to go watch it for a little bit, very entertaining. read more

Happy New Year!!!! There's no better way to ring in 2016 than sitting VIP to the world's most beautiful parade.

I finally got to have the Rose Parade experience in person. I arrived their around 2am to reserve a spot. However, all the spots on the street behind the blue honor line were already taken. We did get a great spot still. It is recommended you take foldable chairs, heater and/ or lots and lots of blankets. It was very cold. This is definitely going to become a tradition of mine to come to this parade! read more

Always a great show! It's even better live even though you might get hit by flying tortillas and what not....maybe future fans will come up with creative projectiles to entertain us with...how about Taco Bell's Doritos shells, I like the nachos flavored ones. read more

The Rose Parade is great! If you're the kind of person who likes Disneyland, you'll have a good time. And it doesn't have to be some stressfull all-night preparation. I took the gold line to Sierra Madre Villa station, and probably didn't get to the parade route til around 10 and I still saw tons of amazing floats and bands. If I was going again, I would bring a chair because sometimes there is a bit of downtime between floats - though standing for 2 hours is manageable, if you've been out the night before it would be nice to have a spot to rest. Surprisingly, there aren't many people walking around selling food - I think bacon-wrapped hotdogs and cotton candy were all I saw. And the gold line was selling paper tickets so if you don't have a TAP card and don't want one, you can do that. read more

It might be just me, but this was the most disappointing parade I've ever seen. I was bored. Nothing special. I didn't like the music at all and the floats left a lot to be desired. Where was the "WOW" factor? No ice skating, no surfing dogs.......sorry I wasted 2 hours. I did like Micah on Ch 5, but Mark and Liza lacked a connection and spark. Very dry, no humor, no special knowledge like hosts from the past. This may be my last parade. read more

Cruelty to the animals pulling, carrying, and forced to finish the route without a break!

Went to see this live 1/1/2015 as it is on wife's bucket list. We sat in freezing cold ticketed metal bleacher stands. Wife got coffee spilled on her since the organizers like to pack every one in tightly. Seating spot maybe 18" wide per person and I am not a linebacker size body. Well, with cost of seats, program, transportation and lodging, I think it is better on TV. We only did this once to mark it off of things to do. Also this year looked like only 80 floats whereas in the past there seem to be 100 floats. read more

this was my first rose parade and i had a great time! i arrived after the parade started, sometime after 9am. there was absolutely no traffic to pasadena at this time. however, they closed the main streets leading up to the parade. taking side streets, we parked in the paseo mall lot (for $22). minus one star for the hefty price tag. the floats were beautiful, but my favorite parts were the marching bands! i was dancing in my place and waving like a maniac! im curious as to how the city houses so many people in their hotels during this time each year. if anyone knows, please hit me up! read more

We bought tickets for our 4 kids with a parking pass. They have never been. It was a really nice experience for them at least once in their life. It was a great way to start off the New Year with being up close and personal at the Rose Parade. They had a great time.. Check that off their checklist. read more

Probably the most horrible coverage to date. I walked the floats yesterday and saw floats that I didn't see on TV. You guys better get better. Wow read more

Never been . Its one of the things experiences as a californian even if you call yourself an American it's something in your lifetime that you should attend. It's rather unconceivable the amount of effort diligence passion and pride the entire people involved put into. It's one of the few last pure American icons iconic whichever fits. I plan on doing it the real way not Bandstand. Looking forward to it hope you folks out there reading this take a chance and go. Because you never know. Tomorrow's not promised for No One take advantage of today. No Remorse no regret we don't care what it meant another day another day another sorrow another breath Metallica read more

This is a really great parade and is a lot of fun to attend. However, if you get there on the morning of the parade, you're going to have a very tough time seeing anything. There are tons of people (which is a testament to how great the parade generally is) so it's impossible to see anything unless you're 7 feet tall. Still if you're able to get a good seat up high somewhere or can have somebody save you a place overnight or in the early morning I'm sure it would be an awesome experience. I know the parade is always a great event but it's gotten crowded to the point where it can be unpleasant if you don't have a place set up. read more

The Rose Parade will always be an Incredible Tradition! I Love the Rose Parade! I got to go when I was a kid and I Loved the smells of the Roses! read more

The Best Party of the Year!!! 23rd consecutive year that we camp overnight to receive the New Year with 200,000 of our best friends. No sleep and cold are greatly overcompensated by the fun, revelry, entertainment, camaraderie, people watching and overall good times. Arguably ours is the best site in all the 11 miles (5.5 each side) of the route. We take with us 2 tables, 2 grills, one smoker, one patio heater, one butane floor heater, one chimney (yes a chimney), two inflatable sofas, inflatable beds, one large trash can (maybe the only one in all the route since the city removes anything that can be removed for the parade) and this year (2015) we will even be able to have power on our site (from a business on our back that we also use for parking and restroom). We have about 30-40 guests for the midnight party, 15-25 stay all night, and about 100 guests for the Parade itself. Safe at night (with reasonable precautions). I stake my place at 6am the 31st (even when you can't set up until Noon) but is the only way I can guarantee the same large spot every year. The Alexito's Parade (aka Rose Parade) is the excuse for the all night party, but is worthy to stay to watch it, just even if it is only so the marching bands have someone to listen to them. Oh, Just remember not to mind Santa, be naughty, or you get bored. read more