Walt Disney World nonetheless has not introduced an official debut date for Starlight Night time Parade, which is coming to Magic Kingdom someday in Summer time 2025. Nonetheless, the calendar retains creeping later into June and July, and a trio of suspicious schedule adjustments counsel when then new nighttime leisure is more likely to debut. This covers these adjustments and explains why ‘the place there’s smoke, there’s hearth.‘
It’s been one month since Walt Disney World pulled again the curtain on “Cool Child Summer time,” which I assume is type of a factor, although 97.1% of visitors may have no clue it’s taking place. With that got here the opening dates for each the Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey and Villains Unfairly Ever After, each of which is able to debut on Could 27, 2025. That’s about as anticipated–the larger shock was the omission of an official opening date for the all-new Disney Starlight Night time Parade.
We’ve been masking this saga carefully in When Will Starlight Night time Parade Debut at Walt Disney World? We received’t rehash the whole lot right here, however to rapidly recap, as an alternative of unveiling a debut date for the parade, Walt Disney World teased that Starlight would roll down Most important Road in Magic Kingdom “later this summer season.” The cheap interpretation was (and is) that Disney Starlight Night time Parade has been delayed.
Since then, there have been a few developments on the discounting entrance. Walt Disney World not too long ago launched Rooms Beginning at $99 Per Night time at Walt Disney World in Summer time 2025, with these deep reductions working from June 29 to July 31, 2025. That got here solely two weeks after Disney’s final spherical of reductions, which included the 3-Parks Walt Disney World Ticket Deal, 50% on Children Tickets Deal, Free Eating, and quite a lot of room-only reductions.
This strongly suggests summer season bookings are smooth, which is unsurprising given the opening of Epic Universe, and rising financial uncertainty and journey trepediations as client confidence dips. Some readers have fearful that the tip date–July 31–of the room deal implies that Starlight received’t debut till August. As we’ve beforehand said, that is extremely unlikely. The issue is the dearth of an introduced Starlight debut date, as there’s a lag between reserving and touring. Even when the parade debuts in early to mid-July 2025, it’s too late at this level to seize as many resort bookings as if that was introduced again in December by February.
There’s additionally the fact that broader points exist with bookings–financial uncertainty, plummeting worldwide journey, declining client confidence, and many others–that necessitate extra aggressive offers. Whereas a gap date for Starlight might’ve helped offset these concern, it’s hardly a panacea. Most people doesn’t care a few new evening parade as a lot as anybody inclined to learn a submit like this. Individuals fearful about their employment or financial prospects aren’t going to overlook all that for a brand new evening parade.
In any case, that brings us to the most recent developments with the Walt Disney World working calendar…
First up is that Disney’s Animal Kingdom is scheduled to host Prolonged Night Hours on Wednesday, July 2, 2025 from 6 pm to eight pm (barring an everyday park hours extension, which is able to in all probability occur–pushing that point again).
This alone actually doesn’t increase any purple flags. Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios are frequent backup choices when Magic Kingdom or EPCOT can’t host attributable to scheduling conflicts. In reality, one such battle is coming quickly, when Animal Kingdom is internet hosting Prolonged Night Hours rather than EPCOT on Could 5, 2025. One of these factor occurs a number of instances annually, normally attributable to company park buyouts.
Magic Kingdom usually doesn’t supply Prolonged Night Hours on an prolonged foundation, however that doesn’t occur till later within the 12 months. Magic Kingdom stops internet hosting ExEH when Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Get together and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Get together kick into excessive gear. That usually occurs in mid-to-late September and continues by early January. The traditional cadence is for Disney’s Hollywood Studios to take over ExEH in September and October, after which Disney’s Animal Kingdom in November as soon as the Jollywood Nights Christmas Events begin at DHS.
One of many “alerts” I’ve been awaiting with regard to Disney Starlight Night time Parade is Prolonged Night Hours getting bumped from the schedule at Magic Kingdom.
That is exactly why After Hours at Magic Kingdom ends its ‘season’ early this 12 months–as a result of it’s a logistical problem to run these onerous ticket occasions and a brand-new evening parade. It’s additionally one of many causes we had hoped Starlight would debut round Could 20, 2025. (And assume that was the plan again when the After Hours schedule was solidified final 12 months.)
In any case, Magic Kingdom relinquishing Prolonged Night Hours internet hosting duties is an indication that Disney Starlight Night time Parade is coming quickly. At this level, it’s a weak sign, although, for the reason that schedule change is just one week and that week is Independence Day. As such, I didn’t even plan on reporting this till we had two consecutive weeks of ExEH being off the schedule for Magic Kingdom.
Which we could not get! It’s doable it is a nothingburger; it’s additionally doable that Walt Disney World will attempt to supply Starlight and ExEH at Magic Kingdom. In any case, one other schedule change simply occurred–and one which’s a a lot stronger sign–that prompted me to deal with this now…
From now by Could 10, 2025 the showtime of Fortunately Ever After at Magic Kingdom is 9 pm. Beginning on Could 11, 2025 Fortunately Ever After will push its begin time again to 9:20 pm. This can be a regular change that occurs all year long, and is mainly pushed by sundown instances. Nothing to see right here.
Nonetheless, one other change simply occurred that’s way more consequential: Fortunately Ever After moved to 10 pm on July 6, 2025. (Be aware that that is solely seen within the My Disney Expertise app; for no matter cause, the schedule exhibits extra dates there than on the official web site.) This variation doesn’t usually occur in the summertime. Normally, the 9:20 pm showtime continues till sundown instances transfer earlier.
Personally, I choose earlier showtimes for Fortunately Ever After. Wait instances drop for different points of interest as visitors seize dinner after which stake out spots for Fortunately Ever After. Then there’s the park-exodus as a excessive share of visitors depart following the fireworks. The sooner all of this occurs, the higher–it means there’s extra time that rides have shorter traces. Extra importantly, Walt Disney World additionally prefers the earliest doable (topic to sundown) showtime for Fortunately Ever After, because it makes clearing the park at closing simpler. In different phrases, they wouldn’t have shifted the fireworks to 10 pm for no cause.
So why does this matter? Effectively, it’s been a very long time since Walt Disney World has had a brand new evening parade. The closest is throughout Summer time Nightastic again in 2010, which was the return of Most important Road Electrical Parade. So not precisely brand-new, however new to a era of Walt Disney World visitors.
Distilling all of that precedent together with expectations for Summer time 2025 crowds, my finest guess for the schedule is as follows:
- Starlight Parade: 9 pm
- Fortunately Ever After: 10 pm
- Starlight Parade: 11 pm
- Park Closing: 11 pm
These are the precise parade and fireworks showtimes from Summer time 2010. (Clearly swapping MSEP for Starlight and Needs for Fortunately Ever After.) Accordingly, the schedule change we’ve been awaiting right here is Fortunately Ever After shifting to 10 pm. That is nearly actually laying the groundwork for Disney Starlight Night time Parade.
There won’t be the choice to deviate an excessive amount of from these showtimes attributable to sundown. If Walt Disney World doesn’t wish to do 11 pm closings of Magic Kingdom, it’s doable the park might shut at 10:30 pm whereas nonetheless sustaining the 9/10/11 cadence for nighttime leisure. Disney’s Hollywood Studios does this usually with Fantasmic.
I actually hope Walt Disney World is aware of higher than to run Starlight solely as soon as per evening. My concern is that they may begin with 2 nightly performances opening weekend, however rapidly swap to at least one per evening (as a result of cheapness). If that does occur, I might see the schedule rapidly altering, as Disney is disabused of the notion that one efficiency is adequate fairly rapidly. Even when that does occur, we’d nonetheless anticipate to see Fortunately Ever After at 10 pm.
After all, that is additionally not definitive. It’s doable there’s another cause for Fortunately Ever After shifting to 10 pm, and with no dates on the schedule previous July 6, this could possibly be a one-off. Once more, that is Independence Day weekend, in order that’s completely doable.
One other sign is that Solid Members are blocked out beginning July 3, 2025 and working by (a minimum of) the rest of the schedule. This solely applies to Magic Kingdom–all different parks are extensive open at some stage in summer season, as is Magic Kingdom previous to July 3.
It’s not in the least stunning to see Solid Member blockouts at Magic Kingdom over Independence Day weekend. It’s way more stunning, a minimum of within the final couple of years, to see blockouts spanning nearly your entire month. There wouldn’t usually be blockouts as soon as the vacation weekend is over.
That is doubly true coming on the similar time when Walt Disney World is providing extremely aggressive reductions to lure vacationers and VIPASSHOLDER Summer time Days to entice Annual Passholders. Given the summer season softness, the expectation could be that Walt Disney World would need all the heat our bodies it might probably get, as there’s no alternative price and the meals & beverage and merchandise gross sales make unblocked admission for just about everybody “value it.”
The plain exception to that’s if and when Disney Starlight debuts. There’s solely a lot house on the parade route, and Walt Disney World would favor that not be “clogged up” by Solid Members and Annual Passholders. They’ll’t retroactively add blockouts for the latter, so that is their finest play.
For no matter it’s value, these dates are all barely sooner than the final credibly rumored goal date I’ve heard for Disney Starlight Night time Parade. However that date has bounced round between late June and mid-July, and it’s additionally my understanding that the aim is to have the parade prepared as quickly as doable at this level.
I’m nonetheless barely skeptical that July 6, 2025 is the debut for Disney Starlight Night time Parade. Normally, as soon as one thing is delayed, it solely retains slipping–it’s uncommon for any date to be pulled ahead once more as soon as the goal is moved later. On this case, I really would enable for the likelihood, as it might be an enormous whiff for Walt Disney World to overlook Independence Day weekend for Starlight Night time Parade.
Although the Fourth of July is not the foremost vacation for attendance that it as soon as was, it’s nonetheless symbolically significant. I might see Walt Disney World management doing the whole lot in its energy to have the parade debut that weekend, even when it’s the Sunday evening as most everybody heads dwelling!
One other risk is that Walt Disney World nonetheless doesn’t know when Starlight goes to be able to roll, however they’re laying the groundwork for that to occur by shifting Prolonged Night Hours away from Magic Kingdom, shifting Fortunately Ever After to 10 pm, and blocking out Solid Members beginning July 3, 2025.
It’s higher to do all of this now so individuals can plan across the calendar, somewhat than making adjustments on the final minute to accommodate Starlight. I wouldn’t wager in opposition to this risk, during which case the most recent schedule updates are higher considered as steerage for the Starlight timeframe versus a definitive debut date.
Not one of the above three schedule adjustments are robust alerts in isolation. However they’re not taking place in isolation. There may be nothing else that explains all three of those strikes aside from the debut of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away. It’s nonetheless doable that is only a narrowing of that date vary, but it surely’s positively not nothing–the place there’s smoke, there’s hearth.
In different phrases, we will in all probability safely slender the opening date vary from Independence Day weekend to mid-July. In case you’re visiting Walt Disney World earlier than then and are hoping for the parade to debut throughout your journey, it’s advisable to mood your expectations.
Whereas it’s nonetheless doable that Disney Starlight Night time Parade will “win” its race in opposition to the clock and the schedule might be adjusted for earlier dates, I’d wager in opposition to it. We’ll hold you posted about all the developments. We must always know very quickly if Disney Starlight Night time Parade is debuting on or round July 6, 2025.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What’s your predicted begin date for Starlight? Assume these are robust alerts when considered in mixture, or are we greedy at straws attempting to foretell the opening date? Wanting ahead to Walt Disney World’s first brand-new evening parade in a long time? Are you excited by Magic Kingdom getting its personal gentle parade in Summer time 2025? Another questions or remark? Listening to suggestions about your experiences is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!