It’s going to be a quiet couple of years for Walt Disney World, with one bright spot: Starlight Night Parade. We’re already anxiously awaiting its arrival, and wondering when the new light parade will make its Magic Kingdom debut and once again illuminate evenings along Main Street. (Updated November 9, 2024.)
For those who are unfamiliar with Disney Starlight Night Parade, it’s the spiritual successor to SpectroMagic and Main Street Electrical Parade and is slated to debut in Summer 2025. The new nighttime entertainment was first announced during the Parks Panel presentation at the 2024 D23 Expo.
Disney Starlight will use the latest technology to tell new stories about the characters you love, according to Walt Disney World. All of this is brought to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy, in addition to beloved characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios films “Peter Pan,” “Encanto,” “Frozen,” and more. That’s all the company has officially revealed about Disney Starlight Night Parade…
The first bit of good news is that Disney has already posted casting calls that encompass Starlight Night Parade. Auditions for the first (likely of several) casting calls were held in New York City at Pearl Studios in early October. This was not a casting call exclusively for Disney Starlight Night Parade–so it probably is not be indicative of when the parade will debut. But what if it were? What would that mean for the target debut date of the new nighttime parade coming to Magic Kingdom? I was curious, so I did some digging.
On average, the first casting calls appear 5-7 months before new entertainment debuts. This has been the case with stage shows at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, including Rogers: The Musical and all of the returning productions at Walt Disney World. With the latter, the timeframes have typically been slightly condensed, presumably because they’re not brand-new.
On the other hand, casting calls for “The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure” were first posted just over 7 months ago, and Walt Disney World still hasn’t announced an opening date. There’s plenty of time for it to make its late 2024 opening timeframe, but we expected it closer to October 1, so the radio silence is…interesting. But that’s another topic for another day.
The last new domestic parade we have for mileposting is Magic Happens at Disneyland. The first casting call was posted on August 30, 2019 and the parade debuted on February 28, 2020. That’s almost 6 months. I’d expect something similar for Disney Starlight Night Parade once wider casting does begin. But again, that’s not what this first casting call is.
Before we dig into further opening date speculation, let’s take a look at a new piece of concept art shared by Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro during the Disney Experiences panel at D23 Brazil on November 9, 2024. The float features a base of waves with Moana aboard her outrigger canoe atop the crest:
If you’re surprised that Moana has a presence in this parade, you probably haven’t been paying attention to entertainment in the last few years. It might as well be Florida and California law that anything new must include Moana. I would’ve been shocked if this didn’t, so really the only thing worth saying here is that the float looks cool, ambitious, and large scale.
Turning our attention back to the potential debut date for Starlight, the other big recent development is that Universal Orlando has announced that Epic Universe will open on May 22, 2025. This grand opening in the lead-in to Memorial Day weekend sets the most likely timeline for Disney Starlight Parade, which is essentially Walt Disney World’s counterprogramming to the park.
It’s also worth noting that the new park will have lengthy previews prior to that. Epic Universe is not just going to do a cold open on May 22, 2025. Universal has already previews for Annual Passholders and employees. In all likelihood, there will be over a month of previews, perhaps closer to two months, for a wide range of guests.
It’s entirely possible that Walt Disney World will want to capitalize on this, or even get out ahead of Epic Universe’s official opening, by debuting Disney Starlight Night Parade even earlier. In such a scenario, rolling out the new nighttime entertainment offering around the sometime in April or earlier in May could also make sense.
Of course, it’s also possible that Walt Disney World marches to the beat of its own drummer, recognizing the reality that a night parade cannot compete with a brand new theme park. In which case, Epic Universe would have no bearing on Disney Starlight Night Parade. Disney might wait until June or beyond when schools are fully out of sessions and summer tourist season arrives in full force.
Assuming Walt Disney World does disregard Epic Universe in determining the debut date of Starlight Night Parade, let’s look to past precedent for summer time offerings. Most recently, Walt Disney World has debuted the following additions during the summer months:
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure: June 28, 2024
- Disney Dreams That Soar Drone Show: May 24, 2024
- Encanto Sing-Along: June 10, 2024
- Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind: May 27, 2022
- Toy Story Land: June 30, 2018
- Pandora – World of Avatar: May 27, 2017
- Frozen Ever After: June 21, 2016
Here are the summertime debut dates for past parades:
- Fantasmic Return at Disneyland (Dragon Fire): May 24, 2024
- Fantasmic Return at Disneyland (Post-Reopening): May 28, 2022
- Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland (60th Anniversary): April 22, 2022
- Paint the Night Parade at DCA (Pixar Fest): April 12, 2018
- Paint the Night Parade at Disneyland (Diamond Celebration): May 22, 2015
- Main Street Electrical Parade at Magic Kingdom (Summer Nightastic): June 6, 2010
As you can see, those dates are all over the place.
You can make a lot more sense of the openings by contrasting what was finished ahead of schedule or on-time with what was a race against the clock or delayed for whatever reason. In almost all of the June debut dates, construction or other hang-ups were a factor.
The May 24 or 27 opening dates reflect openings in the respective years that were the Friday before Memorial Day. This is Disney’s traditional summer kickoff, so if you had to simply bet on a start date for Disney Starlight Night Parade without any additional info, the safest bet would be May 23, 2025.
Prior to the Epic Universe announcement, we thought the single most likely date for Disney Starlight Night Parade to debut would be May 23, 2025. Now I’m not so sure that this is the odds-on favorite. Having the parade debut in the shadow of Epic Universe would likely result in it being, well, overshadowed.
The much savvier move would be to debut Disney Starlight Night Parade a week earlier or later. May 16 or 30 would make sense, as that offers a bit of breathing room. Obviously, we’ve offered a fairly wide range of dates–but the point is that there are a lot of variables, and Epic Universe is another complicating factor. (There’s also the fact that After Hours at Magic Kingdom has its last date on May 19–I would hope Magic Kingdom would have a full slate of late closings for Starlight, but honestly, who knows.)
Nevertheless, let’s talk ranges. Personally, I think the earliest the Disney Starlight could debut–assuming the date is being purposefully chosen and there are no hiring/fabrication impediments to picking an earlier date–is April 25, 2025. That’s the Friday after Easter, and that week will be when spring break crowds fall off a cliff.
If Disney were savvy, they might target a date in late April or early May in order to pull forward demand into the shoulder season. This gives more time before the summer tourist season starts, to whatever extent that’s still a thing. It could capture locals and diehard fans, leaving summer open to regular ole tourists. If you look at the above entertainment debuts, this is precisely what Disneyland has done with Pixar Fest and the last time Main Street Electrical Parade returns.
I’d bet against that. While it’s a smart approach, it’s also one we’ve never seen from Walt Disney World–just Disneyland. The Florida parks are more reactive or conventional–it’s hard to imagine them debuting something huge during shoulder season. More likely, they’ll offer ticket deals and call it a day. In fairness, Disneyland has different demographics, not to mention summer weather.
On the other end of the range, the end of June is the latest that Disney Starlight Night Parade is likely to debut. While there have been openings around then in recent years, those have all been due to construction. Assuming no issues with development or casting or rehearsals, it’s hard to see Walt Disney World voluntarily opting for a date that late.
Again, debuting later is a bad idea because then it “competes” with Universal’s brand new theme park. It would be crazy to position Starlight against Epic Universe. Walt Disney World would be much better off moving the parade forward and trying to capture as many tourists and gain momentum by doing the opposite–not competing head-to-head against a brand new theme park in an unwinnable battle. I’ve gotta think Walt Disney World realizes this, and would see the opportunity in grabbing attendance and occupancy before Epic Universe hits and causes whatever damage its opening is going to inflict upon Disney.
My personal hope is that Disney Starlight Night Parade debuts at least a week or two before Memorial Day and as part of a larger package of entertainment. They’ve already announced the new Villains stage show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, now we just need a fresh festival at EPCOT and a drone show at Animal Kingdom to round out such a theoretical celebration.
I’ve already laid out all of this when making the case for a return of Summer Nightastic, so I’m not going to rehash that here. The animating idea is turning 2025 into a summer/season of spectaculars, anchored around new and reimagined entertainment.
Honestly, what I’d really like to see–that seems like wishful thinking–is a 2-week soft opening of Disney Starlight as a ‘surprise and delight’ kinda deal. More importantly, to give Magic Kingdom operations time to find its footing with crowd control and scheduling. They’re gonna need it.
By the time Starlight debuts, it’ll have been 9 years since a night parade last rolled down Main Street. That’s an eternity in Walt Disney World terms, especially when you account for everything that’s happened in between–especially the Cast Member turnover and loss of institutional knowledge. I suspect that very few frontline Cast Members working Parade Audience Control (PAC) are still around from then. More importantly, I fear that very few Magic Kingdom managers still are–meaning they’ll have no clue how to handle PAC unless they fly in a team from Anaheim.
Regardless of when it debuts, I am beyond excited for Walt Disney World to finally get a night parade again. More than anything that’s gone missing from Walt Disney World in the last decade, I miss the night parade. In particular, I miss SpectroMagic, which is the parade at Magic Kingdom that I remember when I was growing up, and which was the parade that was running the first several years Sarah and I visited Walt Disney World together.
In all likelihood, Walt Disney World will have enough runway with Disney Starlight Night Parade that they’ll be able to announce a debut date that fans can plan around months in advance. Ideally, I’d love to have an announcement during the ABC Christmas Day Parade–that’s when many families start planning and booking vacations for the following year.
That might be deemed too early, and likely to cut into winter and spring break bookings. (I disagree–winter is inherently attractive for weather along with other selling points; ditto spring break, which is also a school recess.) Regardless, I’d hope we hear some sort of tease about the parade then, along with an opening date announcement no later than February.
Bringing a night parade to Florida should provide a desperately needed goodwill win for Walt Disney World and offer new nostalgia to a whole generation of fans. After all of the price increases, nickel & diming, launch of Lightning Lanes, cuts to things like Disney’s Magical Express, Extra Magic Hours, on and on—fans could use positive news and a reason to feel less cynical. Even though it obviously cannot “compete” with Epic Universe, it’s a really big deal for Disney fans…and there are a lot of us! We’ll keep you posted about all of the developments regarding Disney Starlight Parade.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What’s your predicted start date for Starlight? Looking forward to Walt Disney World’s first brand-new night parade in decades? Are you excited by Magic Kingdom getting its own light parade in Summer 2025? Has your Walt Disney World experience been negatively impacted by the lack of a night parade? Any floats, franchises, characters, nods to SpectroMagic or Magic Street Electrical Parade, etc., that you’re hoping to see out of the new Disney Starlight night parade? Any other questions or comment? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!