I know Disney said there were no plans “at the time” for the highly acclaimed Paint the Night Parade to move to Florida, but a lot has changed since the Fall of 2016.
Drooping attendance at Walt Disney World since last summer has had many an executive at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts examining the idea of moving the Diamond Celebration blockbuster out east to help bolster what they hope to be an explosive Summer 2017 in Orlando.
While Disney’s Animal Kingdom will debut Pandora: The World of AVATAR (and possibly, hopefully, Rivers of Light), the other 3 parks just don’t have a whole lot going on as far as new offerings for this year. Just in case AVATAR isn’t enough to convince someone to go to Orlando in 2017, Disney may want to bring Paint the Night to Walt Disney World. Rumors also persist that a new nighttime show for the Magic Kingdom is in development for a debut later this year.
Now, management at the Disneyland Resort is putting up quite the fight, but the decision will be made above them one way or the other in the next few weeks. I would assume that attendance for the returning Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland Park will play a role, but the possibility of the “limited” run for that event until June being extended indefinitely (or glowing away for a Star Wars fireworks show in California) and sending Paint the Night away to the Magic Kingdom seems to be fairly likely.
