RUMOR: Paint the Night Electrical Parade Packed Up to Leave Disneyland, Where is it Going?

Tom Corless

RUMOR: Paint the Night Electrical Parade Packed Up to Leave Disneyland, Where is it Going?

According to sources at the Disneyland Resort, the Paint the Night Electrical Parade is all packed up to be shipped off, but where is it going?

paint the night signage better

Paint the Night debuted at the Disneyland Resort in May 2015 as part of the Diamond Celebration and ran through the end of the event in September 2016, only briefly for the holiday season in 2016 before vanishing again. The Main Street Electrical Parade returned to Disneyland Park in January 2017 and will be running through August 2017 (at least), meanwhile, Fantasmic is slated to return to Disneyland this summer and a brand new Disneyland fireworks show is reportedly coming in early 2018. With all of this nighttime entertainment, apparently it has been decided that they can afford to let Paint the Night go somewhere else.

Where will the parade go? Many expect that it is going to the Magic Kingdom since the Main Street Electrical Parade was taken away from Walt Disney World’s flagship park in the Fall of 2016. However, it is hard to image that it can successfully run a new parade in addition to a brand new (and very popular) fireworks show in Happily Ever After. Other parks at Walt Disney World seem an unlikely home for the parade, and Hollywood Studios can’t currently handle such an offering in its current state.

Simply because I have zero confirmation of where the parade is going, it may be worth mentioning that Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disney are both without a nighttime parade as well. Regardless, the smart money would still be on The Magic Kingdom.

HKDL PTN Tink2

We’ll wait and see what happens, but regardless, the Paint the Night parade is packed up and ready to go, we just need to fill out the recipient’s address…

Author

  • Tom Corless

    Tom has been regularly visiting the Walt Disney World® Resort from the time he was 4 months old. While he has made countless visits in the last 28 years, he did not become a truly active member in the Disney fan community until the summer of 2007, when he decided to launch the WDW News Today website and podcast. Tom has since become an Orlando-local and is a published author on Walt Disney World. Contact Tom at tom@wdwnt.com.

43 thoughts on “RUMOR: Paint the Night Electrical Parade Packed Up to Leave Disneyland, Where is it Going?”

  1. Considering that my family can’t make it to DW as often as we would like and considering this summer will be the last time will be coming to DW at least for a long long time (paying for private school) it would make our trip complete if the paint the night parade came to MK.

  2. I don’t see what the difference would be if it came to MK at WDW. The attraction isn’t terribly different than the Electrical Parade — just more modern in terms of lighting and technology, of course. Economically, it makes more sense to transport it to MK at WDW than to ship it overseas to one of the International parks.

    It would make the experience at MK at WDW more magical for the guests — Happily Ever After and Paint the Night. Sure sounds like a thrilling experience and wonderful way to end the day in the parks!

    • I have to disagree that Paint The Night “isn’t terribly different” than the Electric Parade.
      For us its like junior high drama vs broadway’s finest show. We were fortunate enough
      to see it twice at Disneyland. If it comes to a park near you Do Not miss it! Simply beautiful
      and amazing technology.

  3. It probably won’t be going anywhere. It could be just going into storage. It states that they heard this rumor from “sources”, but who are these sources? This has been a rumor now for almost a year. It could already be on WDW property. Who knows? It definitely wouldn’t be coming for the summer. Probably something for Christmas season or next year. If it’s only getting packed up then it will take months for entertainment, drivers, etc. use to the parade.

  4. Please bring it to Florida. I miss having a nighttime parade and it might ease some of the congestion when trying to find a spot for fireworks. These last few months since we lost MSEP have been brutal since nobody pushes forward with the parade and the back of Main Street by Confectionary ends up just as crowded as the front. (As opposed to when I used to watch it after MSEP, where there was a lot more space and I didn’t feel as cramped.) I mean it might not be the case anymore since Happily Ever After can really only be viewed on Main Street, but I can dream, right?

    Side Note: I really hope they don’t get rid of Remember…Dreams Come True that early. One of the main reasons my friends and I want to head to Disneyland for our senior trip is to see the show, and it’s especially important to me since it’s the last remnant of Wishes now that we have Happily Ever After, and I’d love to see one more showing of fireworks over the castle live with the opening and ending of Wishes.

  5. Wasn’t the excuse for not taking it to Florida that some floats were too big for main street?

  6. Please! Come to Disney World In Florida! We need that parade for the 50th birthday for Disney World!

  7. When they said MSEP was coming back to DL from WDW I always thought they would do is swap night time parades.

  8. Wait… Do you think WDW can’t handle a new fireworks show AND a night parade?? I mean, they’ve only been doing just that for the last 30+ years. Not the same entertainment team, and you just need ops to clear the street. C’mon, have some sense.

  9. It is not going to WDW. After how they ruined and Damaged MSEP, they dont deserve another parade from Disneyland.

    • Disney World ran the full MSEP and did nothing to it? The ruin came to SpectroMagic when MSEP came to Magic Kingdom and storage went badly. Anything else happened in transport, since I saw the initial return of MSEP back in 2010 (sometime during the Summer Nightastic promotion, not during the first day) and I was there for it’s last day over here, and there wasn’t a difference in the parade from its first day to its last. The first time I ever saw a float missing was on its return to Disneyland this year, where one of the Pinocchio floats was (unfortunately) missing.

      • Solution: Let’s import (build a copy of) Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights. It’s by far the best version of the Main Street Electrical Parade, and it’s quite visually spectacular. At least it would make up for the disappointment that is Happily Ever After.

  10. I was under the impression that some of the floats don’t fit in areas of the MK parade route.

  11. Sorry #teamWdw but i hope or goed to Disneyland Paris… the new Firework show over here is bad… Disneyland Paris needs something good, something realy good.

    But it is bitter sweet that Paint the Night is leaving Disneyland after a short run. I guess MSEP is a good fit but it is so old. I rather see a updated version like the Japanese have.

  12. Fingers crossed for WDW Magic Kingdom! That rumor about them not fitting is false just to let u know. Please Keep us in the loop. This would be the cherry on top of my ice cream if this comes this summer hopefully June or July!!

    • Same here! I hope it comes this July. How do you the know the floats actually fit? And… they said attendance has been down for DW. I’m sure this and happily ever after and Pandora will help. Pleeeease come to DW

    • Agreed. If it can fit at Dl it certainly can fit at Magic Kingdom. It did have problems navigating the street at DL when I was there in May 2015.

  13. Make something bigger and better for WDW. When you put TV panels on a float, you are lame. I can watch TV at home.

  14. The floats arnt packed up and arnt going off property …. that a load of BS I work in the parade wearhouse ????????????

  15. That’s sad. Paint the Night is way better than the MSEP! I was anxiously awaiting its return!

  16. I work the parade it’s not leaving California it’s moving to Dca sometime next summer they have been testing the floats on Dca for sometime now they are going to move the floats over to Dca since that’s where MSEP were stored last it was at DCa In the early 2000s. Florida execs didn’t like that paint was so big and technical for theirs resort.

  17. They better get a nighttime parade for WDW pretty soon because walking around there at night with nothing to see but closed food kiosks is getting old.

  18. Yeah! Please Paint the Night to Walt Disney World because WDW needs a nighttime parade so badly!

  19. This is a spectacular parade that I had the pleasure of seeing during the opening month at DL since we were there for my son’s high school graduation trip. That being said it was too large of a parade for Dl as a couple of the floats had problems navigating the streets. Specifically the Rust•Eze semi truck from Cars comes to mind. It actually got stuck trying to make a turn into the hub coming from Fantasyland & they had to stop the parade long enough to move guests back to make the turn. The Magic Kingdom at WDW on the other hand provides more room and would be a fantastic place for this parade. Here’s hoping they send it to Florida as I would love to get to see it again but this time at the Magic Kingdom.

    • PTN was designed with DLR and HKDL’s parade route in mind. (Mind you, large floats have trouble making turns on occasion in every park, including MK).

  20. Lol It’s not going anywhere. DL isn’t going to give up a parade so soon after what they paid for it. DL only sends their floats off to WDW after they’ve outlived their usage. Additionally, the weather would be horrible for PTN, they wouldn’t put a brand new parade throught that. If WDW wanted PTN, they would have to pay for their own or wait until DL’s done with it.

  21. It’s not like Disney doesn’t have the money to actually have Steven and his team at WDI-CE design and build a unique ‘Paint The Night’ style parade for MK exclusively.

  22. WDW can have the Electrical Parade back! I didn’t like it as a kid and it hasn’t gotten any better with age. The music is annoying. Paint the Night has a thousand times better music, lighting and themes. So I say we keep it at Disneyland. ????????

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