The new route for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade had spectators raving yesterday.
The picture-perfect weather might have helped.
“I like it better. You get a better view. I can see the balloons coming on 42nd Street and turning onto Sixth Avenue,” said ToniAnn McCullough, 40, of Netcong, NJ.
“Standing here, it’s like I’m at the grandstand. You see the view from different angles.”
The parade bypassed Broadway this year to steer around the pedestrian malls Mayor Bloomberg had installed over the summer — sending floats, bands and balloons on a slightly longer, zigzagging route down Seventh and Sixth avenues, south of Columbus Circle.
The new route created more viewing space along the wider avenues, and made the parade seem less crowded than in the past, attendees said.
Five-year-old twins Bela and Lucas Olaya, of Bloomfield, NJ, kept their eyes skyward most of the morning to see their favorite cartoon characters float by.
“It goes around the corner, and I get to see the balloons close up, and I can look straight at them,” Bela said of the parade’s path as it turned from 42nd Street to Sixth Avenue.
Her favorite: SpongeBob.
New balloons, including the Pillsbury Doughboy and Sailor Mickey, joined returning champs Spider-Man, Ronald McDonald and Buzz Lightyear. And the slight winds meant they were allowed — with an OK from Bloomberg and city emergency-management officials — to float at the maximum height of 50 feet.
Watching the parade, the mayor admitted his favorite was Snoopy the Flying Ace.
“I’m very loyal,” he said. “There’s an old saying, ‘You dance with the woman that brung you,’ and Snoopy’s been with me a long time.”