A new rumor is circulating that the all-new Disney Starlight nighttime parade will debut in the second week of July. The rumor comes as Walt Disney World possibly tips its hand a bit with some operational adjustments. Keep in mind that Walt Disney World has not officially announced an opening date for the Disney Starlight nighttime parade, only saying that it’ll debut “later this summer”. Here’s the latest.
Disney Starlight Rumored Debut in July
To be clear from the start, this is mostly us just reading tea leaves. Operationally, there are a few things that (likely) need to happen in order for a nighttime parade to return to Magic Kingdom, and it looks like adjustments are starting to be made. Here’s what we’re seeing.
Happily Ever After Moves to 10pm
The first indication that Magic Kingdom could be getting ready for the debut of the Disney Starlight nighttime parade is that they would move Happily Ever After later in the evening. Ideally, this would mean that there would be two showings of the Starlight parade – one before a later Happily Ever After, and one showtime after Happily Ever After.
Starting July 6th, Happily Ever After is scheduled to move to a 10pm showtime. To put this showtime into perspective, the latest that Happily Ever After was shown as part of a typical schedule last year was 9:20pm. A 10pm showing is out of the ordinary and should raise some red flags for fan speculation.
Currently, Magic Kingdom is scheduled to close at 10pm on July 6th, but we’d expect that to move to 11pm or later once Disney Starlight debuts.
Cast Member Blockouts
In addition to a later showtime for Happily Ever After, there are Cast Member blackouts for Magic Kingdom starting July 3rd. Now, Cast Member blackouts for the Fourth of July are common at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. In fact, EPCOT is blocked out on July 4th as we’d expect. What is out of the ordinary is Cast Member blackouts continuing at Magic Kingdom beyond the Fourth of July holiday.
In fact, Cast Members continue to be blocked out from Magic Kingdom and Magic Kingdom alone through at least July 12th, which is the furthest into the future that the blockout dates have been posted. Walt Disney World blocking Cast Members from attending any theme park outside of the normal holiday schedule always raises red flags, and doubly so with the schedule change for Happily Ever After.
Again, this is speculation based on some operational adjustments, but if I were a betting man, I’d expect the all-new Disney Starlight nighttime parade to debut after the Fourth of July rush, but before the end of July. As of right now, I’d keep a close eye on a debut date between July 6th and sometime in mid-July.
As with any rumor, you should treat the information as unofficial unless and until Walt Disney World confirms it.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
