Honest Review- Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away Parade! Last night, guests were treated to a soft opening of the new nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom, Disney Starlight, Dream the Night Away! It officially begins on Sunday, July 20th. Fans, including myself, have been super excited about a new nighttime parade at Walt Disney World. It has been nine years since the Magic Kingdom has had that type of entertainment, so it was definitely appreciated and needed. The streets were talking, as they say, about a soft opening yesterday afternoon, so we decided to get to the park asap! We arrived there around four hours early because we didn’t know what to expect and if others were anticipating the parade. We got our spot on Main Street and we waited it out. At 7 o’clock, an announcement was made about the parade, and people started to cheer. It was pretty great. The Photopass cast members came around with the Disney Starlight sign for people to take pics with. The cast members were also selling the new wand that came out for the parade. The excitement was building fast!
Once the parade time hit, Main Street went dark, and the crowd went wild! It was so exciting to be there for this after waiting for so long for a new nighttime parade. Looking down the street towards the kickoff area at the front of the park, you could see the magnificent first float, which was the Blue Fairy! This float is huge, with swirls of light on the side. It’s actually perfect to lead the new parade.
You could see the other floats following, and it truly was beautiful. Each float has so many lights, it’s so reminiscent of the nighttime parades that came before it. Other floats were from various movies; Wish, Encanto, Coco, Peter Pan, Moana & Frozen. There is also a Disney Princess Float with some of your favorites. The finale was my favorite! The train float had so many characters, Mickey and Minnie were at the very end. You will want to wait and look behind the last little Disney Starlight sign, because an animated Jiminy Cricket is on it. Just gorgeous, all of it! Now that the details are out, let’s get to my honest opinion and thoughts.
Overall, the Disney Starlight Parade is very beautiful. The floats are elaborate and the lighting is so well placed, everything just flows together. Disney did a great job there. Now, I want to be transparent on what I felt could be improved upon. There were too many empty spaces between the floats that were very dark. Where there were performers, walking the parade route, you really couldn’t see them well because of how dark it is. I’m not sure if there needs to be more lighting on their costumes, but they were kind of hard to see. The only walking character was Tinker Bell, and honestly, I didn’t even see her at first because of the lighting or lack there of. I think if they put more characters or something that is lit up between the floats, it would look even better.
Now, let’s talk about the musical score for the parade. Most of us die-hard Disney fans can recognize tunes from classic attractions and parades pretty easily. The music is so prominent that it truly sticks in our heads and hearts. With Disney Starlight, I’m not sure they have that same effect with the music. It did have parts where they played music from the Main Street Electrical Parade, which made my heart (and eyes) swell a bit. The nostalgia was definitely there. However, that’s really the only part of the parade music that stuck in my head. Maybe after seeing it again I’ll pick up the tune, I’ll give it a go.
All in all, I do feel that this parade is visually stunning and was definitely overdue at Magic Kingdom. Years ago, when the Main Street Electrical Parade left, you could feel a void in the evenings at the park. Maybe it’s because we were used to seeing more evening entertainment than just the fireworks. As for the floats, the train at the end was my favorite. Yes, it has Flynn and Rapunzel on it, so points there in my opinion. The other floats were great, but the Wish float, I don’t get. The film itself didn’t do great at the box office, and Disney parks put the merchandise on clearance shortly after the movie came out. So why did they do a whole float for Wish? A lot of people asked the same question. The Coco float is fantastic, the Encanto float has Bruno on the back. Was I supposed to talk about him yet? The Peter Pan float is huge, I really liked that one. Disney Starlight is also much shorter than its predecessors. Both SpectroMagic and the Main Street Electrical Parade were closer to 20 minutes long. This one runs about 11 minutes long.
It’s hard to not compare to the previous nighttime parades, but if we don’t do that and take this new one for what it is, I feel that people will really enjoy it. That feeling when the lights went out and you could start to see the Blue Fairy coming, it was pure nostalgia and Disney magic. I have heard so many people complain about Disney losing its roots and not listening to the fans about what we want and what we miss. With this new parade, it just feels like Disney has listened, and this is reminiscent of classic Disney and what the magic is all about. Will they make changes or improvements? Quite possibly. But I highly recommend that you see Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away! In my opinion, it’s just what Magic Kingdom needed and has been missing. I truly loved it and I hope that you do too. I’m sharing a link below of the full parade if you’d like to see it ahead of your visit! Enjoy!
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Michele Atwood is the Owner/Editor of The Main Street Mouse and its subsidiaries. Co owner of the House of Mouse Expo & Lost Princess Apparel. Author of the books “Moving to Main Street U.S.A.” “How Many Sleeps Till Disney?” and “How Many Sleeps Till Disneyland?”
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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