Usually the only enhancement I get for my viewing of the Macy’s parade, is that we are at my in-laws house and their television is twice the size of ours. That and the Blueberry Buckle my mother in law makes every year. This year I shall be swiping my husband’s iPhone and settling in with a new app from MyCityWay. Powered by MyCityWay, the app will give spectators, using both iOS and Android, important parade information plus a comprehensive guide to New York City. And it’s free!
Users will get expected features such as the route map, parade line-up, trivia, photos, videos, and information on parade events, but will also get some never before available access. If you are in the city that day, you will be able to use the view of the guarded Line of March to predict when certain floats will pass your vantage point. Ideal for timing bathroom breaks.
With this app you also have the chance to download a special MyCityWay feature called Clingle. This will enable the user to track certain participants, including 11 marching bands and the Spirit of America and Varsity Spirit Cheer performance groups. On November 22 you can also enter a competition for VIP seating tickets. Just “check in” at famous landmarks along the parade route in a parade scavenger hunt. You’ll be automatically entered if you hit all the spots by midnight.
Also for those in the area, you can receive notification of transportation services that are affected by the parade route. Wish we’d have had that in 2000! I expect this will also be useful in timing those bathroom breaks and coffee runs. Make note of which float you last saw, run to Starbucks and then pick up the same float as it goes by a block or so down. If you have no interest in the parade at all, this would be useful information to have anyway, and the app comes with a comprehensive guide to New York City for free.
If you aren’t in the NYC area, this app will still enhance your viewing pleasure at home. You will be able to find out when a parade participant has crossed a particular destination, in real time, and receive notifications with pictures videos of the crossing. From 3-10 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 23 you will also be able to see the yearly balloon inflation.
You can download MyCityWay’s official 85th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade® mobile app for iOS or Android, or you can access its features at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade® website. “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has always been an event about surprise and spectacle, one that has captured the imagination of the public for 85 years,” said Amy Kule, executive producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “With this mobile app, we are putting fun and useful information in the hands of Macy’s Parade fans, bringing them closer to the magic.”
The one feature I plan on using most? Following and sending messages to Santa. I have a two year old with a few special requests that need to get through!
