While the big news out of last night’s Disney Starlight parade was the debut of the high-flying choreography for Peter Pan and Wendy, there were other recent changes that we’d like to highlight as well. Admittedly, I’m not out in the parks often after sunset, so I don’t spend nearly as much time documenting the theme parks at night – and that includes parades and fireworks shows (some of the best entertainment of the day). To that end, the changes that I’m going to highlight are new to me, and could actually be completely new, but I haven’t seen the parade in a little while.
Glowing Starlight Waltzer Tiaras in the Princess Unit
Starting with the Princess Unit, we couldn’t help but notice that the tiaras on the waltzers are now lighting up. While the tiaras have been present since the debut of the parade, I believe that they only began lighting up recently.
Strumming Up More Glow in the Coco Unit
There’s something different about Miguel’s guitar. The fretboard looks to be completely digital now, which is a change from the physical strings that were present when the parade debuted. Just like the glowing tiaras, I believe this change to Miguel’s guitar is also relatively new. Here’s a closer look at the difference.
This is a pretty significant change, and it introduces a lot more glow to this particular prop. We had to play around with the exposure levels on our camera to try to capture the points of light details on the fretboard.
Moana Unit Changes
The changes above follow December 2025 changes to the Moana unit when the ground performers were handed new glowing props, replacing the fans that they had when the parade debuted last Summer. It’s in that December 2025 article that we point out some changes to the Peter Pan float that were early indicators that Disney was working on getting the flying choreography to work. For more on those changes, check out our earlier article below.
Taking a step back, while these changes are interesting and nice, they don’t necessarily “fix” the parade. Peter Pan and Wendy flying is a real “wow” moment that will stick with guests long after they’ve left Magic Kingdom. It’s wonderful that the teams were able to make this effect come to life. We knew that work on getting this effect working was ongoing, but I’ll admit that I was skeptical it would ever debut. Disney deserves kudos for getting Peter Pan and Wendy flying, but there are still some areas for improvement. The biggest thing I (still) think Disney needs to improve is the number of performers and/or characters that are on the ground.
During my initial review of the parade, I called out the scarcity of ground performers, and my opinion hasn’t changed. I said that the parade feels incomplete at times. I noted that the dead space between parade units can take the wind out of the sails of an otherwise lovely parade. That still rings true, despite Miguel’s digital fretboard and glowing tiaras.
Perhaps I’m just a bit unlucky, but the last few times I’ve watched the parade, there have even been ground performers missing from the already thin lineup. The late parade last night didn’t have ground performers for either the Encanto unit or the Frozen unit. Perhaps the props that they carry were impacted by the rain from the first parade, but either way, their absence was felt.
Overall, Disney Starlight is certainly worth carving out time to watch the parade. Crowds are typically lower in Frontierland and during the second parade (if there’s one scheduled). We love the parade for the music and the wonderful floats. The bones of the parade are really good, and I hope that we continue to see Disney make improvements to the parade as the months and years go by.
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!