Disney Starlight Parade Begins July 20 at Disney World – UPDATED!
Ladies and gents, it’s time to stake out your space: the Starlight Parade will roll down Main Street U.S.A. nightly beginning on July 20, 2025. “Disney Starlight: Dream The Night Away” will have two nightly showings in the Magic Kingdom, at 9 pm and 11 pm. Happily Ever After Fireworks will be shown at 10 pm, in between the two parade runs. Once the parade opens, it should run every night (weather permitting), except when the Magic Kingdom closes early for a special event. Read on for parade details and touring notes!
The Blue Fairy leads off the parade, with the “first star you’ll see tonight” at the tip of her wand. Guests will be invited to wish upon this star, as she brings your favorite characters to life with lights that dance from float to float. Floats themed to characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Pixar films will highlight “Wish”, “Encanto”, “Disney Princesses”, “Coco”, and “Moana”. Tap into the gallery below to see the previously released concept art up close.
The debut announcement was accompanied by concept art for the newly disclosed finale float. Closing out the parade will be a train-inspired float bearing Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck, along with other characters, and with Mickey and Minnie riding in pride of place at the end of the float.
The full list of floats and characters in Disney Starlight Parade is:
- Lead Float: The Blue Fairy
- Peter Pan Float: Peter Pan & Wendy
- Wish Float: Asha, Valentino, and Star.
- Encanto Float: La Familia Madrigal (Mirabel, Isabela, Bruno)
- Elsa
- Ballroom (Princess) Float: Aurora and Prince Phillip, Tiana and Prince Naveen, Belle and the Beast, Cinderella and Prince Charming
- Coco Float: Miguel and Pepita
- Moana Float: Moana, Hei, and Pua. Gramma Tala is represented as a manta ray.
- Finale Float: Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck, Snow White and Dopey, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, Aladdin and Jasmine, and Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.
The parade’s music is an original theme written just for the parade, with some Disney Parks favorites “woven into the score.” Between the floats, dancers and other performers tie the parade together, with choreography by Cindy Wilson. Royal court dancers will precede and follow the Princess unit, a reference to the “Main Street Electrical Parade”.
Starlight Parade Merchandise
As you wait for the parade to start, you can snack on a new popcorn mix, available exclusively at the Main Street Confectionary in Magic Kingdom, beginning on the first night of the new parade. It’s a mix of Bubble Gum and Blue Raspberry Candy Corn popcorn, M&M’s, mini-marshmallows, and white chocolatey drizzle.
Starlight-themed merchandise was also announced. Perhaps you’d like to watch the parade from your Starlight-themed parade blanket, with your Starlight Mickey Ears on, holding a Starlight bubble wand? If so, you’re in luck as all those items and more are in the merch collection. The light-up bubble wand will also interact with the parade as it passes by.
Starlight Parade Touring Notes
As mentioned, the parade will run twice nightly once it debuts, except on nights where Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party are held. It’s likely that the parade will make the current Magic Kingdom crowding on non-party days worse. That’s because in-the-know guests who have visited before may have been willing to give up seeing Happily Ever After for the low crowds on party days. But they’re less likely to give up the chance to see a brand new parade.
To address crowd management in the Magic Kingdom, Disney is making some changes to the park reservation requirements for Annual Passholders. Currently, passholders can enter any park without a reservation after 2 pm, except for the Magic Kingdom on Saturdays and Sundays. Beginning July 20, Passholders will need a reservation to visit the Magic Kingdom on any day, even after 2 pm. Disney has announced that this change will be limited in time, although they didn’t specify how limited.
Update June 20, 2025: Disney has confirmed that the parade will run at 9 pm and 11 pm nightly, and that the Magic Kingdom will close at 11 pm. For better crowd flow, Disney Starlight will run the parade route in reverse of the usual, with the run beginning on Main Street U.S.A. and ending in Frontierland. This will allow crowds from Main Street to begin leaving once the parade has passed them and easing the way for those starting their exit from farther into the park.
Are you excited for Disney Starlight Parade to begin? Will you see it this summer? Let us know in the comments!
(Originally published May 27, 2025. Last updated/republished June 20, 2025.)
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Is the new Disney Starlight Parade a summer-only event? We are going on january 5th.
Hi Gerardo, no, it will be around for a while. You should be just fine in January, I would be very surprised if it runs for less than a yaer.
Thank you Jennifer!
Thank you for this information. My daughter requested MK for her birthday park on July 20 during our trip before we realized it was the new parade debut. How does this affect your crowd levels and touring plan recommendations for July 20th? Do you think the park will reach capacity and close at some point in late afternoon? We have reservations at 5:40 for dining and usually do early entry, leave by noon and come back for dinner and to close the park. Thanks for any guidance you have.:)
Hi Michelle – Crowd levels only apply between 11 and 5 pm, and what’s most likely is that the park will get crowded in the evening and parade spots will start going at an insanely early hour (like 3 hours in advance). It’s hard to predict, but a good bet is that Main Street and the parade route may begin to feel very crowded in the evening, but the crowd is coming for the parade and it’s not likely to bump lines on attractions much. In terms of capacity closures, park reservations are already sold out for APs, but that’s not really a good measure any more. I don’t think you need to worry about not being able to get back in, especially if you are a hotel guest and have a dining reservation. Hopefully those won’t turn out to be famous last words, but those are the assumptions I would make if it were my vacation.