A chaotic scene unfolded at Magic Kingdom Park this week after the debut of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, as guests reported dangerous crowding issues that made it difficult for cast members to manage the throngs of people attending the parade. While Walt Disney World Resort has worked to control crowd sizes with the Disney Park Pass reservation system for Annual Passholders, many park-goers still face frustrating and potentially unsafe conditions.
Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away premiered on Sunday, July 20, following several surprise soft opening performances. The sparkling procession, the first nighttime parade at the Magic Kingdom in nearly a decade, features floats inspired by Wish (2023), Frozen (2013), Coco (2017), and more. The Blue Fairy leads the way to fulfill Geppetto and Pinocchio’s wishes before guests’ eyes.
As expected, the parade has drawn large crowds, and the new demand for prime viewing spots has added additional stress to the already crowded park. Walt Disney World Resort has attempted to alleviate this by requiring Park Pass reservations for Annual Passholders. Still, the number of people attending Disney Starlight has overwhelmed the crowd control efforts in some areas of Magic Kingdom Park.
On Thursday, Reddit user u/B2utyyo shared their experience, noting that cast members struggled to handle the flow of people between the Happily Ever After fireworks and two parade performances:
“Loved Disney Starlight last night but they are gonna have to work on the crowd traffic flow transitions between parade to fireworks to parade because it was such a mess they weren’t prepared for even though this was Night 4 .
They blocked off the Casey’s to Plaza ice cream walkway after the 1st before the fireworks even though that’s only way to get to the bathroom there since Crystal Palace’s are closed for refurbishment so if anyone needed restroom on that side of the castle they were at a loss We straight up got yelled at, which is rare, just trying to go that way to get to Tomorrowland and the only way they wanted people to go across straight through the middle of the fireworks crowd which became impossible to do cause no one was directing the traffic flow. We tried and I immediately turned around because it was futile.”
As crowds rushed to claim spots for the fireworks and the next parade, the guest reported overwhelming congestion:
“Then getting out fireworks crowd just a nightmare because not only did you have masses wanting to leave the park but then you have the masses wanting to rush to a claim a good spot in front of the castle for the 11pm parade. People were pushing people from both ways and trying to ram through with strollers. It was so bad you couldn’t see where you were stepping and were calling out where the curb dropped off so people did trip because we knew if someone fell down they would be trampled.”
While many guests shared frustration over these crowding issues, others defended the park’s efforts, acknowledging that it’s difficult to anticipate and resolve crowd flow problems, especially during the early days of a new parade.
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“You’ll have to cut them a little slack. There have been some operational changes brought about by the introduction of the new parade that have mixed things up a bit,” u/SeriousStrokes69 wrote. “Internal stuff that wouldn’t make sense to you as a guest. But there was no way for them to be able to ‘practice’ the transitions before the parade actually went live (they gamed it out, but obviously that’s not the same). There’s just no way to practice that without a live audience actually having to be present for the PAC folks to deal with.”
u/ghost_of_apaol agreed:
“‘Even though this was night 4’
I mean that’s 4 data points. I’d say give it some time. I’m sure they’re well aware.”
Still, u/B2utyyo, a long-time Walt Disney World Resort Annual Passholder, emphasized that this was the worst crowd experience they’d seen at Magic Kingdom Park:
“As a Passholder I’ve seen many MK fireworks shows and that definitely was the worst I’ve seen. I’m meaning I’ve seen the transitions between Happily Ever After the 50th Anniversary and back.”
Is Magic Kingdom Park struggling to control crowds during Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away? Disney Dining would love to hear your opinion in the comments!
