Disney nighttime parade - Begins July 20, 2025!!

[buzzrelly]

Not that it will matter, but I emailed Disney my frustration this morning. We live in Pennsylvania so we have to buy the most expensive annual pass which cost over $3000 a year for two of us and we travel down about three times a year. I feel liked if you are a resort guest annual pass or no annual pass, you should not have to make reservations. Also, please note I am not saying that the cost of my pass should get me special privileges. I’m saying the fact that I’m a resort should negate my need for park reservations. I say to all who get that less expensive Florida annual pass. I wish I could so please don’t take that as a act on entitlement

I totally agree! These Park Reservations are super aggravating and I literally just emailed WDW this morning to implore them to use common sense and fix this. We are DVC members and visit several times per year with on site stays...they know we are going to go to the parks, why does it matter which one?? Grrr

On another note, does anyone have a guess what time the parade will be? It's still not showing on the calendar...HEA starts at 10...will it be just prior to that? After that? Any guesses?

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

On another note, does anyone have a guess what time the parade will be? It's still not showing on the calendar...HEA starts at 10...will it be just prior to that? After that? Any guesses?

It’s been a few years, but the Electrical Parade ran at 9 and 11 pm with fireworks at 10. Park hours were until midnight. Let’s hope for the same this summer.

 

[DL1WDW2]

I understand the need to have the option to be able to control capacity at a theme park . It is really for our safety in an otherwise uncontrollable environment …

I do wish I had the option for more days at a time with my annual pass.
If I have family to plan with , then 4 days are automatically reserved for each theme park leaving me just one free day for the rest of the year. It can be tricky especially with holiday visits and worries about crowds and “unpredictable capacity.”.
Usually I have to make sure to remeber to reschedule a day on the calendar as soon as I have used one.

 

[buzzrelly]

It’s been a few years, but the Electrical Parade ran at 9 and 11 pm with fireworks at 10. Park hours were until midnight. Let’s hope for the same this summer.

That would be great. It’s funny, we used to see the MSEP all the time when it was around but we usually just caught it, nothing we planned for so I couldn’t remember what time it ran.

Thanks!

 

[SL6827]

Why are they waiting till half the summer is over before starting this parade? To save money or another reason? Will it be running from now on, or the end of the year, or when?

 

[Joanna71985]

Why are they waiting till half the summer is over before starting this parade? To save money or another reason? Will it be running from now on, or the end of the year, or when?

Disney never gave an approximate start date, just Summer 2005 (and as summer goes until mid September, this still falls within summer). Also, the parade has no end date. So it is going to be running indefinitely (just not on party nights when that starts in August)

 

[Dave006]

Why are they waiting till half the summer is over before starting this parade? To save money or another reason? Will it be running from now on, or the end of the year, or when?

Well most of the floats only arrived recently. You kind of need the floats to practice. It will run on a schedule that Disney has not announced but it is unlikely to run on party nights. It will run forever or until Disney decides to drop it for yet another nighttime parade.

Dave

 

[Lovedisneydonald]

I’m looking forward to seeing the new parade, but I really dread the crowds it’ll bring. In the past, nighttime parades at Magic Kingdom have made evenings incredibly hectic, and I’m not looking forward to going through that again haha.

 

[SL6827]

Well most of the floats only arrived recently. You kind of need the floats to practice. It will run on a schedule that Disney has not announced but it is unlikely to run on party nights. It will run forever or until Disney decides to drop it for yet another nighttime parade.

Dave

Oh, ok.

 

[Princess Katelet]

So I just booked a last minute trip for July 24-31, without knowing about this new parade. We don't actually care about the parade, but we care very much about MK. I understand the crowds will be high, but will those crowds all be parade watchers, leaving the rides wide open for those who don't want to see the parade?? I'm toying with moving my dates up if the MK is just going to be awful all evening in general, but if the parades and fireworks are actually going to keep the crowds on Main Street and out of the ride queues then maybe it's not such a bad thing. Does anyone have a good guess how this will play out?

 

[elvispursley]

So I just booked a last minute trip for July 24-31, without knowing about this new parade. We don't actually care about the parade, but we care very much about MK. I understand the crowds will be high, but will those crowds all be parade watchers, leaving the rides wide open for those who don't want to see the parade?? I'm toying with moving my dates up if the MK is just going to be awful all evening in general, but if the parades and fireworks are actually going to keep the crowds on Main Street and out of the ride queues then maybe it's not such a bad thing. Does anyone have a good guess how this will play out?

The parade route typically isn’t just on Main St. I’ve found it difficult to navigate the parks leading up to and during parades due to the crowds lined up from Frontierland to Main St. I think it’s probably a good bet that everything will be busier for the next bit as MK hasn’t had a nighttime parade, let alone a new parade, in years. I’d plan for it to busy.

 

[Minnie1222]

So I just booked a last minute trip for July 24-31, without knowing about this new parade. We don't actually care about the parade, but we care very much about MK. I understand the crowds will be high, but will those crowds all be parade watchers, leaving the rides wide open for those who don't want to see the parade?? I'm toying with moving my dates up if the MK is just going to be awful all evening in general, but if the parades and fireworks are actually going to keep the crowds on Main Street and out of the ride queues then maybe it's not such a bad thing. Does anyone have a good guess how this will play out?

If things are similar to past events, we should see a drop in wait times during the parade. But, MK will also have a surge in attendance and all the rides will be packed during the pre and post-parade hours.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

So I just booked a last minute trip for July 24-31, without knowing about this new parade. We don't actually care about the parade, but we care very much about MK. I understand the crowds will be high, but will those crowds all be parade watchers, leaving the rides wide open for those who don't want to see the parade?? I'm toying with moving my dates up if the MK is just going to be awful all evening in general, but if the parades and fireworks are actually going to keep the crowds on Main Street and out of the ride queues then maybe it's not such a bad thing. Does anyone have a good guess how this will play out?

We’ll be there July 27 - August 1.

The expectation is that parade times will be 9 and 11 pm with fireworks at 10.

If past performance still predicts future results, guests will start to line up for the parade at about 8 pm if not earlier. This leaves the attractions lines fairly short from 8 pm through close and is a good time for rerides on the headliners.

The vast majority of the crowd will leave immediately after the fireworks so don’t be in the wrong place if you want to stick around.

Crowds for the 11 pm parade will be considerably smaller than the early version so it won’t be necessary to start lining up an hour early for that one.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

If things are similar to past events, we should see a drop in wait times during the parade. But, MK will also have a surge in attendance and all the rides will be packed during the pre and post-parade hours.

Attractions won’t be packed after the parade, but the line stacking procedures will be fully in place to make the lines appear longer than they really are. This, along with intentionally inflated wait times are designed to discourage late riders and are very effective.

 

[Minnie1222]

The expectation is that parade times will be 9 and 11 pm with fireworks at 10.

Good to know! I didn't realize they'll have two parades.

 

[brockash]

So I just booked a last minute trip for July 24-31, without knowing about this new parade. We don't actually care about the parade, but we care very much about MK. I understand the crowds will be high, but will those crowds all be parade watchers, leaving the rides wide open for those who don't want to see the parade?? I'm toying with moving my dates up if the MK is just going to be awful all evening in general, but if the parades and fireworks are actually going to keep the crowds on Main Street and out of the ride queues then maybe it's not such a bad thing. Does anyone have a good guess how this will play out?

If you're not interested in the parade, then the evening/night should be great for you. While everyone else is staking out spots; you should have lower waits for rides.

 

[scrappinginontario]

So I just booked a last minute trip for July 24-31, without knowing about this new parade. We don't actually care about the parade, but we care very much about MK. I understand the crowds will be high, but will those crowds all be parade watchers, leaving the rides wide open for those who don't want to see the parade?? I'm toying with moving my dates up if the MK is just going to be awful all evening in general, but if the parades and fireworks are actually going to keep the crowds on Main Street and out of the ride queues then maybe it's not such a bad thing. Does anyone have a good guess how this will play out?

My thoughts differ from others based on past experiences. I think the first few months of the parade MK will be packed each evening. Wait times may dip a bit during the parades and fireworks but general attendance will surge.

That being said, I’ll take your dates over dates in Aug when the parties start. Non-party nights normally equal massive MK crowds making evenings almost impossible to navigate. I’m hoping I’m wrong but the few times we’ve visited MK on non-party nights in late Aug have proven to be ones where we accomplish very little and spend our evenings shuffling around then eventually leaving having accomplished very little.

 

[vinotinto]

My thoughts differ from others based on past experiences. I think the first few months of the parade MK will be packed each evening. Wait times may dip a bit during the parades and fireworks but general attendance will surge.

That being said, I’ll take your dates over dates in Aug when the parties start. Non-party nights will normally equal massive MK crowds making evenings almost impossible to navigate. I’m hoping I’m wrong but the few times we’ve visited MK on non-party nights in late Aug have proven to be ones where we accomplish very little and spend our evenings shuffling around then eventually leaving having accomplished very little.

I agree with all of this!

 

[Joanna71985]

That being said, I’ll take your dates over dates in Aug when the parties start. Non-party nights normally equal massive MK crowds making evenings almost impossible to navigate. I’m hoping I’m wrong but the few times we’ve visited MK on non-party nights in late Aug have proven to be ones where we accomplish very little and spend our evenings shuffling around then eventually leaving having accomplished very little.

Unfortunately I see non-party nights being *packed* this fall (last year, the second half of MNSSHP were absolutely jam-packed. especially on Saturdays). This year, with Starlight opening, I see it being even more so from the get-go

 

[TheyCallMeStacey]

This is adding some complexity for our one-day park hopping trip! The original plan was to start at MK and hop to EPCOT. we're trying to maximize our LLMPs for some harder to get MK options, otherwise we'd start in EPCOT. I know it's speculation, but if they were to discontinue park hopping to MK on that day, is there a typical time they enact that?