Following the news that Walt Disney World has removed restrictions for Annual Passholders wishing to visit Magic Kingdom, it looks like they have removed blockouts for Cast Members as well. As you may recall, restrictions were put in place for Annual Passholders wishing to visit Magic Kingdom, but those mostly proved pointless following the opening day or two. Additionally, Cast Members have been blocked out completely from visiting Magic Kingdom for most of the month of July. Those blockouts have been lifted through August 14th. Here’s the latest.
Magic Kingdom Cast Blockouts Lifted Following Disney Starlight Debut
Cast Member blockouts for Magic Kingdom were initially lifted through the end of July, but additional blockout dates have been removed. As of publish time, Cast Member blockouts to Magic Kingdom have been lifted through August 14th. A typical cadence of Cast Member blockouts then begins for the Halloween season starting August 16th.
The combination of removing restrictions for Annual Passholders and lifting blockouts for Cast Members signals that Walt Disney World is pretty comfortable with the anticipated crowd levels that will be brought in for the Disney Starlight parade.
There was no Cast Member preview for the parade, so there will likely be some pent-up demand in the coming days, but we should see a normalization into August. Right now, if you’re trying to watch the Disney Starlight parade with minimal crowds, we strongly recommend viewing the 11pm showing after many guests leave Magic Kingdom following the 10pm Happily Ever After fireworks show.
However, we’re sort of in a no man’s land right now with the Halloween season upon us. Walt Disney World has announced that the Disney Starlight parade will not be shown during Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Each of those events has its own nighttime parades to present.
That means that the Disney Starlight nighttime parade will only be presented on non-party nights through the end of the year. That will put some extra strain on those non-party evenings at Magic Kingdom. To that end, we expect that early August will be a lovely time to enjoy an evening at Magic Kingdom before the party season begins August 15th. Once the party season begins, we expect that crowds will increase, as we see every year, on non-party days at Magic Kingdom.
We plan on having a Disney Starlight crowd report in the coming week or two before tracking crowds into the Halloween and Christmas seasons.
For photos, full parade video, and our complete review of the Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away parade, check out our dedicated 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!