There’s a new nighttime parade in Magic Kingdom — Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away!
The last time Disney featured a nightly parade in Magic Kingdom was the much-beloved Main Street Electrical Parade, which ran for the final time in Walt Disney World on October 9, 2016. There’s been a lot of people clamoring for the return of a nighttime parade, and in 2025 they have it with Disney Starlight.
The parade consists of ten specific floats, beginning with an iconic float featuring the Blue Fairy and finishing with the title logo. There are also floats featuring Wish, Encanto, Frozen II, Disney Princesses, Coco, Moana, Peter Pan, and Mickey & Friends. It follows the traditional Magic Kingdom parade route but, like its predecessor the Main Street Electrical parade, it goes in the “reverse” of many other parades, beginning at the Firehouse of Main Street, going around the castle hub, then through Liberty Square and finishing at the back of Frontierland.
Disney’s site tells visitors to “Find a sweet spot under the stars to watch Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away—a shimmering processional inspired by the classic Main Street Electrical Parade. It’s a star-kissed constellation of Disney dreams, brought to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy.”
The parade’s floats incorporate new technology, including digital vignettes, and of course feature familiar and beloved characters. I enjoyed the Coco, Moana, and Peter Pan floats in particular, but it’s always fun to see the princesses with their princes, and of course, Mickey and the gang.
There’s even a little nod to the Main Street Electrical Parade’s train:
The parade was set to debut on July 20, 2025, but there were some soft openings in the days just before. We attended about a week after its official start. We found the parade to be delightful and enjoyed it very much, but there are some areas that could be improved and some things to be aware of.
Right now, this parade is VERY popular, and while initial fervor might die down a little, it’s likely to always be so. We saw many visitors staking out their spots on Main Street as early as 6 PM for the 9 PM parade (and I’m sure some were even earlier, that’s just when we arrived at the park). We chose to watch in Liberty Square and when we arrived there at 6:30 PM, there was plenty of open space. But we watched the lines get more and more crowded as the night went on, so that by 7:30 it was getting harder to find a spot. By 8 PM they were announcing that both Main Street and the castle hub were at capacity and advising visitors to watch the parade in Liberty Square and Frontierland. But at 8:30, they announced both of those were also at capacity and that visitors who did not already have a pot should plan on viewing the 11 PM parade instead. Cast members I spoke to told me the 11 PM parade has no problems with availability, so keep that in mind: if you don’t want to devote hours to staking out a spot, you probably want to stay through fireworks and then watch the late parade.
The main complaint most visitors are voicing about the actual parade itself has to do with the walking cast performers in the parade: the general lack of them, their sparse placement, and how difficult it is to see them. It’s true that there aren’t many, and the few there are hard to see. This is an example:
This isn’t a bad picture: they’re just lit that dimly. A few others carried lit signs but themselves were all in dark clothing:
That concept was a little more successful in its implementation. In general, though, the criticism is somewhat justified. There are very few walking performers, mostly toward the latter half of the parade only, and the few there are, they’re poorly lit. Those dancers are working hard; they’re not the problem. They just need better designed lighting.
Overall, we felt like the floats themselves were beautiful and told an engaging story. As big fans of the old Main Street Electrical Parade, we really enjoyed having a nighttime parade to go to again.
One other thing to be conscious of, though: as mentioned above, the parade is followed very closely by the fireworks display, which is then followed by a second performance of the parade. How you navigate the park during this time depends on what your priorities and plans are:
If you’re going to the first parade and leaving the park afterward, like we did, just try to get moving as soon as you can towards the front. Our night they opened a backstage area to the right of Main Street, behind Casey’s and the Emporium, for us to use for a quick exit. I don’t know if that practice will continue.
If you’re staying for fireworks, once the parade ends you have a very small amount of time to find a spot for viewing. The best thing to do here would be to watch the parade from a spot around the hub that will allow you to then stay put and see the fireworks and the castle projections. If you’re watching the parade from Main Street you can try to move up a little, or watch from there, but if you’re watching from Liberty Square or Frontierland, you’re going to have a hard time securing a prime fireworks viewing spot at that late point.
If you stake out a fireworks spot first, though, in the hub, you should be more than fine for the second Starlight parade. Even if your fireworks spot isn’t an ideal parade view, enough people leave after the fireworks that you should be able to find a good spot somewhere along the parade route.
And lastly, if you’re not interested in the parade or the fireworks at all, it’s probably a really good time to go on rides! But be conscious of certain areas possibly being blocked off at times by the parade.
Disney Starlight takes place twice nightly at Magic Kingdom, currently at 9 PM and 11 PM with the fireworks show in between (remember to check current entertainment schedules before you go). The parade is subject to cancellation during inclement weather and does not take place on evenings when Magic Kingdom is hosting either Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
