After-Dark Excitement at Walt Disney World

If you think  sitting at home watching the fireflies light up the night sky is exciting, wait until you see what Walt Disney World has in store for you this summer, it’s Summer Nightastic! Now through August 14, Magic Kingdom,  Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios have nighttime entertainment excitement planned creating even more summertime energy.

Magic Kingdom (map) is illuminated not once but twice each evening as it hosts both Main Street Electrical Lights Parade and Summer Nightastic Fireworks Spectacular.  23 floats and half a million twinkling lights, synthesized music and characters old and new are packed into one sparkling parade down Main Street USA as the always amazing Electrical Lights Parade returns for the first time since 2001.

The sky above Cinderella’s Castle seems to explode in vivid colors during the fireworks Spectacular while a story of pirates and fairies unfolds.  With special visual effects, it appears that Captain Hook and a band of buccaneers have taken siege of the castle.

Enter if you dare to the Service Elevator of Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studio (map) where a summer time only drop sequence and new effects take place making this attraction more frightening than ever before.

Put on your dancin’ shoes as five nights a week, guests are invited to join a DJ and live band to dance the night away at the Rock ‘n Glow Dance Party held on Hollywood Boulevard under Sorcerer Mickey’s Hat.  Keep your eyes open for special guests as you know how those Disney characters like to party!

If music and concerts are what you are after, head to Epcot (map) for the Sounds Like Summer concert series where live tribute-bands will perform nightly concerts through July 31.  The American Gardens Theater hosts daily blasts from the past as the sounds of Janet Jackson, Bon Jovi, U2, Chicago and The Rolling Stones fill the night air.

All these activities are free with admission to each of the theme parks.  For updated information and times, be sure to check the entertainment guide upon your arrival.  With a summer celebration this dazzling, you may need sunscreen at night!

Photo images provided by WDW News, Garth Vaughn, photographer