Thursday July 24th 2025

Wednesday was the day I planned to see Disney’s new Starlight Dream the Night Away Parade. As I documented in my last blog entry I was lucky to see the first public preview on Friday night, but I still planned to see it again using my Wednesday reservation. Mother nature sure made it complicated. Rain started around 2PM with heavy thunderstorms followed by continuous light rain into the evening.

Unlike some days, I wasn’t in the mood to allow the weather to get it my way. I let the last big thunderstorm on the radar pass over my base camp then followed it toward Disney World. The storm was moving slower than I was driving and it didn’t take long for me to be in the middle of it. I arrived at the Magic Kingdom parking lot while the storm continued to dump lots of rain. The Disney parking attendants were all safely out of the parking lots taking shelter. Self parking in a Disney lot can be difficult. If you pick one of the one way aisles without any empty spaces you’ve got to double back a long way. I had to do that once before I found an empty space. Then I waited ten minutes or so for the rain to let up a bit. I got to the Magic Kingdom in a light rain. It continued until about 8PM.

I enjoyed dinner at Columbia Harbor House and a couple covered attractions. I road the People Mover which only gets you wet in heavy driving rain. It stopped a couple of times for a minute or two. That trend continued at my next attraction, the Carousel of Progress. The moving theater stopped twice during the show. I had to watch the same scene twice before the show continued.

The first parade started at 9 followed by fireworks at 10 and the second running of the parade at 11PM. I was in Frontier Land for the first parade. The nighttime parades run from Main Street to Frontier Land. This is just the opposite of the daytime parades. I stood well back from the parade route on the bridge in front of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure for a good overview of the parade. Once again I enjoyed it.

After the parade it was decision time. Should I stay for fireworks and the second parade or try and beat the crowds. The rush for the monorail and ferry after fireworks is always a mob scene. I chose to escape before the fireworks although I did see some from the monorail platform. Getting to the parking lot and back home went smoothly. I arrived home by 11:30 which was pretty good time.