Disney in a Minute: What is the Electrical Water Pageant?

We’re here with a series of quick posts, “Disney in a Minute,” bite-sized nuggets of information that can better help you understand a Disney term or planning topic. Enjoy!

Walt Disney World’s Electrical Water Pageant is a lighted boat parade that takes place on the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake every evening, weather permitting. The parade’s 14 barges take a route that passes by the Magic Kingdom entrance and the outdoor dock/beach areas of the Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Contemporary, Wilderness Lodge, and Fort Wilderness resorts. There is no fee or ticket needed to watch this, it just floats by with little fanfare, surprising guests with a few moments of delight.

The barges are outfitted with fence-like structures covered in lights. The lights turn on and off, synchronized with music, to give the illusion that sea creatures are moving across the water. Sea life included in the Pageant are a serpent, a whale, a turtle, an octopus, dolphins, a dinosaur (tenuously themed to ocean life, just go with it), a crocodile, seahorses, and the god Neptune. At the end of the brief show, all the floats are lit with images of a waving American flag, synchronized with patriotic songs.

The Pageant is one of the few elements of Walt Disney World that existed at the time of the resorts opening in 1971 and continues, with only minor modifications, to this day. Check the WDW My Disney Experience app for details about timing during your visit.