Moana Wave Dancers in Disney Starlight Parade Revamped After Negative Feedback

The wave dancers in the Moana section of the Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away nighttime parade have received new lighted props and choreography, six months after the Magic Kingdom parade’s debut.

Disney Starlight Moana Wave Dancers Updated

As you can see in the photos above and in our initial review of Disney Starlight, one of our consistent issues was the dancers who opened each section. Each group is clad in dark costumes and either wearing or holding a lighted prop: butterflies for Encanto, the diamond-shaped spirits of the forest for Frozen, and, finally, fabric waves for Moana.

While the overall effects for all the dancers were lackluster or static, the waves in particular received lots of negative feedback. The effect consisted of the dancers essentially marching while flapping their arms and holding sheer fabric with dim net lights, as you can see in our POV video of the parade taken in July 2025:

New Wave Dancers With Brightly Lit Bundles of Fiber-Optic Cables

As of mid-December, which you can see in the following photos, the wave dancers are now wielding brightly lit bundles of green and blue fiber-optic cables and performing new choreography.

Lights Reminiscent of Paint the Night

These fiber optic glow bundles are very reminiscent of the fiber optic lights the Fiber Fairies in the Paint the Night parade at Disneyland dance with.

The lights used in Disney Starlight appear to be handheld only, whereas the ones in Paint the Night are a combination of those nearly identical fiber optic handheld lights, along with lights that are attached to the costumes that extend down the sleeves and out past the performer’s hands. The handheld lights appear to be the same for both parades.

Here is a photo of the Fiber Fairies in Paint the Night for comparison.

Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away

Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away is the first new nighttime parade in Magic Kingdom Park in 10 years, officially debuting on July 20, 2025. It features a total of 10 floats themed to Coco, Frozen, Encanto, and more, ending with the original character of Whimsy the Train created especially for the parade.

Watch Tom and Jason’s honest review of Disney Starlight below: