My wife wants to go to London next June to see this. I'm not crazy about standing all day in big crowds for a few reasons not the least of which I have a bladder the size of a dime. So my question is how much of a pain in the butt is this to endure? How early do we need to be out on the street and how long does the parade itself last?
If you want to stand and be able to see you will have to be on the mall around 7am...it starts at 10am. There is an application that you can send in to be put into a ballot, the application needs to be in by January and the drawing is in March, if your application is drawn you will be given seats in the stands.
I attended this a number of years ago. the ceremony itself probably takes about an hour. Unless you have one of the (difficult) tickets, you stand behind the invited guests (including "alumni" of the regiments). So in my experience, getting there too early is of no help-. i think I got there about half an hour before it began. You then get to look over people's heads 9although the main guests are sitting. You could also stand along the mall and see them go past- but thats not the same thing