The Festival of Fantasy parade returned to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom today, as the resort continues to bring back and expand its entertainment.
The Magic Kingdom's daily parade had been sidelined since the parks reopened following the lockdown in 2020. With the parks operating under limited capacity for much of that time, Disney chose not to bring back entertainment, such as parades, that were designed to provide extra options for capacity crowds.
Disney is still limiting daily capacity with its required reservation system, but the parks now are admitting far more guests than they were last year. So parades should provide a welcomed alternative to help disperse at least some of the crowds from attraction queues.
Disney also has added a new castle forecourt show at the Magic Kingdom, called "Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire." Here is a promo clip from the resort:
As for the parade, Festival of Fantasy returns on the eighth anniversary of its 2014 debut. Starting Friday, reserved viewing for the parade will become available via the Disney Genie+ upcharge service.
On the same day, Disney World is adding the "See Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams" character meet at Disney's Hollywood Studios to Disney Genie+, too.
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My thought exactly, Still A Fan! Parades are people eaters, and I would love to see shorter lines in the mid afternoon again!
It's great to see this parade return. I'm not a parade fan, but this is probably one of the best daytime parades Disney has ever created. However, I do agree that if you've already seen this before, parade times offer a great opportunity to visit popular attractions with slightly shorter lines because guests are camping out and watching the parade. I would still recommend checking this out at least once though before deliberately skipping it to ride.
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I want to see the parade again, but, on most MK days, I think that would be the perfect time to do rides...