Walt Disney World has announced that they will host the celebratory Super Bowl LIX parade this year on Monday, February 10, 2025. This covers when you can expect to see the cavalcade, players you can expect to see, along with viewing tips and our past experiences watching Super Bowl parades at WDW and Disneyland.
The players featured in the iconic “I’m going to Disney World [or Disneyland]” commercial are usually the ones to appear in the parade down Main Street. Whether that occurs at Magic Kingdom in Florida or Disneyland in California is dictated by the host site of the Super Bowl. There also have been multiple players featured in several parades when the Super Bowl is hosted in Los Angeles, Tampa, or Miami–probably due to the ease of the visit.
I would also imagine that home state teams are more likely to appear at Walt Disney World or Disneyland, as the case may be, when there’s a close call. For example, a Super Bowl in Houston featuring the Chargers could end up with a parade at Disneyland instead of Magic Kingdom. That’s just a guess, though. To the best of my knowledge, there haven’t been any examples of that dynamic in recent history.
In any case, Disney announced via an Instagram story that the winner this year will appear at Walt Disney World: “We look forward to celebrating the winner of Super Bowl LIX – Monday, February 10.”
It’s not always the case that such an advance announcement is made. Disney often doesn’t do anything to publicize the parade itself until after it actually happens. Even this isn’t a full-throated announcement, as you’ll note that it doesn’t contain info about how or where the winner will appear (even if it’s obviously a parade down Main Street in Magic Kingdom) or even the time it’ll happen.
Disney making the announcement with limited info via Instagram stories as opposed to via a traditional press release is likely a calculated move. The company wants guests to show up for the parade so the publicity shots feature backgrounds full of fans. They also want as much free marketing via fan photos on social media as possible.
At the same point, this is happening in an operational theme park, most guests that day are not in the park for the Super Bowl parade, and Disney doesn’t want crushing crowds. It’s all about threading the needle–having huge guest turnout, but not crippling crowds.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will face off in Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana on Sunday, February 9, 2025. Although we always aim to be unbiased and not alienate anyone here on Disney Tourist Blog, I can’t help but admit that I’m hoping it’s Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley at Magic Kingdom in the parade.
As someone who wanted a Lions-Bills Super Bowl, I don’t actually have a dog in this fight. But I also don’t think even Chiefs fans can fault anyone for wanting to see that. Mahomes has already done like a dozen of these (or so it feels), and Barkley was the most electric player to watch this season. He deserves to be on the podium, and Barkley as MVP means he’ll have at least one highlight reel play.
Anyway, as for the 2025 Super Bowl parade on February 10, expect it to step off roughly 30 minutes or less before Festival of Fantasy. That parade has two showtimes on Monday: noon and 3pm. If we’re going by past precedent, the Super Bowl pre-parade will step off between 2:30 and 2:45 pm, just before the second Festival of Fantasy. That’s what happened last time.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that “last time” was 5 years ago. A lot has changed since. And as you can see from our experience below, the parade route was absolute chaos then. If at all possible, Walt Disney World might want to have the celebratory Super Bowl pre-parade earlier in the day to reduce the crowds and congestion.
Even so, that may not be possible. That might be too early to get the winners at Walt Disney World to stage the parade, they might have other engagements, or scheduling may not otherwise allow for it. Although the whole “I’m going to Disney World” marketing campaign is a huge deal for Disney (and involves big bucks), not everything is within their control here.
It may end up being the case that the celebratory Super Bowl pre-parade is actually a cavalcade at some other random time of day, or the appearance turns into something other than a parade. There are no guarantees with any of this, which is another reason Disney’s announcement was intentionally vague.
The last time the Super Bowl champions appeared in a public-facing parade at Walt Disney World was in February 2020 when the Kansas City Chiefs also played and defeated the San Francisco 49ers. The Super Bowl that year was held in Miami and MVP Patrick Mahomes celebrated with a parade down Main Street in Magic Kingdom. We know this because we were there for it, and I told myself I’d never do this again (see below).
The following year, Mahomes and the Chiefs were back in Super Bowl LV, but the hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated them at Raymond James Stadium. Following that victory, Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady and longtime teammate Rob Gronkowski turned to the TV cameras and said that iconic line: “I’m going to Disney World!” But they didn’t. At least, not immediately.
Gronk was there the following day, but backstage on a cavalcade float posing for photos. There was no parade due to COVID and the phased reopening. We know this because we were also there (there was nothing better to do at the time and I thought it’d be cool to catch a glimpse of Tom Brady in real life). Brady ended up doing a publicity visit to Walt Disney World a few months later, and I didn’t see him or Gronk.
Every year since, the Super Bowl parade has been at Disneyland. We went to yet another of these in 2022 after the hometown Los Angeles Rams celebrated their Super Bowl LVI victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. I couldn’t pass up seeing former Detroit Lion Matthew Stafford, plus Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams. It was awesome, and after that, I told myself that I’d definitely do this again!
Last year, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes visited Disneyland following the team’s Super Bowl LVIII victory against the San Francisco 49ers. Kermit (non-derogatory) appeared in the victory parade yet again, surrounded by other characters.
If you do attempt to catch the celebratory Super Bowl pre-parade at Magic Kingdom on February 10, 2025, we would strongly recommend asking Cast Members for timing and other details before staking out your spot. Do not rely on Walt Disney World to publish this info because, as discussed above, they probably won’t. And don’t be afraid to ask more than once–sometimes Cast Members early in the day won’t have specifics, but details will firm up later.
If you want a front-row view of the parade, prepare to stake out your spot well over an hour in advance. If this does end up being a pre-parade before the second Festival of Fantasy, some guests will likely start lining Main Street immediately after the first Festival of Fantasy. When we did this before, even an hour ahead of time wasn’t enough.
For those willing to wait an absurd amount of time, the curb directly behind the flag pole facing Cinderella Castle is the best spot, assuming it’s not blocked off for film crews and Disney photographers. Rather than opting for the curbs lining Main Street, I’d recommend Town Square as a fallback option. The curb in front of Tony’s Town Square is a good option, as is the elevated patio above.
Personally, my favorite spot is the Main Street Train Station overlook, but that’s often also blocked off for VIPs. If it is, a good alternative is the ground directly below that. These areas all tend to fill up later than the curb along Main Street. For the Chiefs photos in this post, I was on the top level of the Train Station before moving to ground level (technically, the stairs leading down to ground level).
To each their own, but I’m also willing to be a bit farther away if I give myself a bit of elevation, as opposed to being three or four rows deep. You can’t control cameras, phones, or shoulder kids immediately in front of you–so having height and no one blocking you is a smart move.
Anyway, here’s my photo report from February 2020, documenting my contemporaneous experience (and photos) from the last Super Bowl pre-parade at Walt Disney World…
Hours after leading the Kansas City Chiefs to a dramatic victory in Super Bowl LIV, Mahomes headlined the celebratory parade, which was attended by a ton of Chiefs fans.
As a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, I’m more or less indifferent to the Chiefs. I can empathize with their fans, who have been denied a Super Bowl berth (let alone a championship) for so long. I think everyone assumed they’d win one back in the 1990s during the Elvis Grbac/Rich Gannon era, but they always came up short in the post-season after strong regular season showings.
Not quite the same as having your hopes dashed when Barry Sanders retired in his prime…or Megatron retired in his prime…or [insert one of the literal hundreds of ways it has been painful to be a Lions fan]. Still, I can recognize that the Chiefs organization and its fans deserved this.
Plus, I know there are a lot of Walt Disney World fans from Kansas Missouri, so we decided to head out to Magic Kingdom to see and photograph the Super Bowl parade.
This turned out to be one of my 5 worst ideas of the year. I know it’s only February, but I churn out some colossally bad ideas with regularity. It’s a talent, really. This being among the top/bottom five is really saying something.
Suffice to say, I won’t be doing this again until the Lions win the Super Bowl. The upside is that by the year 2085, I’ll have a hover-board to get above the crowds.
The Super Bowl parade always causes a spike in crowds at Magic Kingdom, but I’ve never seen anything like this. The parade route was among the most packed I’ve ever seen it–busier than most peak season holiday dates. I’d attribute that to a mix of the Chiefs fandom, the Super Bowl being in Miami, and this month simply being busier than normal.
It was fun to be part of the communal energy of the Chiefs fans, but it was also unpleasantly crowded. The elevated post-Super Bowl crowds could be felt throughout Magic Kingdom, not just along the parade route. After Patrick Mahomes, I was probably the second-least excited person to be there. (At least he was getting a fat payday out of it!)
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you attended the Super Bowl parade at Magic Kingdom in previous years? What was your experience? Something you’d never do again, or return to with glee? Or would it depend upon whether you’re a fan of the winning team? Do you agree or disagree with our thoughts here? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
