As we continue to keep an eye on the rumored early-July debut date for the all-new Disney Starlight nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom, we have a small update to offer. When we first wrote the rumor, Cast Members were blocked out of Magic Kingdom through July 12th. Now, the blockout schedule has been updated, and Cast Members will remain blocked out of Magic Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom alone through July 19th.
Starlight Watch: Cast Member Park Blockouts
The Cast Member blockouts technically begin before the July 4th holiday, but that is to be expected due to anticipated high crowds. What is abnormal is continuing the blockout past the July 4th holiday period. Typically, we see Cast Members blocked from entering the Walt Disney World theme parks during periods of anticipated high crowds – think major holidays…or new offerings.
With Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Cast Members were blocked out of Magic Kingdom for a period of time during the preview period, and after the attraction opened. This allowed Walt Disney World to manage anticipated high crowds surrounding a new major offering debuting.
Fast forward to July 6, 2025, and we see the same thing. Cast Members are blocked out following the July 4th holiday period, and only at Magic Kingdom. That should be a red flag for fan speculation surrounding something big happening at Magic Kingdom. Right now, the only major offering set to debut soon at Magic Kingdom is the Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away nighttime parade. Officially, Walt Disney World has only said that the new parade will debut “later this Summer”, but with some sort of rehearsals already rumored to be underway, it’s possible that a July target date isn’t out of the question.
While monitoring Cast Member blackouts is certainly one good indicator, it is not the only indicator that the Disney Starlight nighttime parade could debut in the second week of July.
Starlight Watch: Happily Ever After Showtimes
Beyond Cast Member blackouts, another indicator that we’re watching is the showtimes for the Happily Ever After fireworks show. Starting July 6th, showtimes move to 10pm, which is an unusually late showtime for the nightly fireworks show. In recent years, the latest that we’ve seen the show scheduled is typically 9:20pm during the Summer months. A 10pm showtime is an indication that something is causing the standard schedule to be thrown out of whack.
In fact, Happily Ever After moves to 10pm starting July 6th, and continues the 10pm showtimes through July 12th, which is the furthest into the future that the calendar shows any info for as of today.
In theory, a 9pm showtime for the Disney Starlight nighttime parade would be exactly the type of thing that would cause the Happily Ever After nighttime spectacular to be pushed to a later time than we’ve seen in recent history.
Speculation is that we’ll see Magic Kingdom park hours pushed to 11pm or midnight once the Disney Starlight nighttime parade debuts, with parade showtimes of 9pm and 11pm. Of course, all of this remains speculation as Walt Disney World has not officially announced a debut date for the parade, much less a show schedule.
For more on the Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away nighttime parade coming to Magic Kingdom this Summer, check out our dedicated parade page below!
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!
