UPDATED FOR 2025. Paint the Night Parade is arguably one of the most popular nighttime parades ever run at Disneyland Resort. It’s been around for a few special occasions, including the Diamond Celebration and now is back for the Disneyland Resort 70th Celebration. You can “celebrate happy” with us and all your Disney favorites during this incredible parade down Main Street.

Beginning May 16, 2025 you’ll once again be able to see these iconic floats, hear the catchy music and celebrate magical memories at Disneyland Park with Paint the Night Parade. There are so many details in each float that it’s likely you could miss a few without knowing what to look for!

All Disneyland tickets purchased now are good throughout this special celebration—and remember, you can make your theme park reservations up to 180 days in advance. Our team here at Get Away Today is only a phone call away (855 GET AWAY) for any questions on ticket types, best hotels to stay at and so much more.

• Dates: Paint the Night Parade begins May 16, 2025 with no end date announced at this time.
• Parade Times: We anticipate the parade will run twice each night, most nights during the 70th Anniversary celebration. Times may vary, but all will be after sunset. Entertainment schedules are typically released about 6 weeks in advance.
• Where to Watch: The parade route runs from “it’s a small world” toward Matterhorn, past the castle and on Main Street. The second show runs in reverse. Find a spot along the parade route or book one of the Paint the Night reserved viewing packages (details to come).

While the lights are all easy to spot, can you guess how many points of light make up the entire parade? According to Disney, the parade contains more than 1.5 million sources of light including floats, illuminated performers and more.

Can you imagine not only putting all of those lights together, but also programming every single one of them? It’s no wonder we are all so amazed by the technology of Paint the Night!

Look out for Tinker Bell and friends. It’s hard to miss Tink since she’s the centerpiece of the first float, but did you notice that her fairy friends are a part of the float as well? Past versions featured Iridessa, Silvermist and Rosetta dancing with the other fairies in front of Tinker Bell’s float each night.

Disney Sidekicks! We love that Tigger, Genie and Lumiere are recognized as some great Disney sidekicks in Paint the Night. Did you realize that these are puppets in the parade?

While they are motorized on the bottom, all of the upper body movements are controlled by puppeteers at the base of each vehicle. We can only imagine how much of a workout that is for the entire parade!

Your Favorite Monsters. When Sulley and Mike appear, you’ll want to keep an eye on those doors. Not only will they keep moving positions, but they’ll occasionally “open” to show a monster friend or two.

How many Monsters Inc. and Monsters University pals can you spot?

Lightning’s Top Sponsors. The Cars float is one of the most photographed floats of the parade, with Mack stretching over 53 feet long!

Disney didn’t forget any detail here as you can easily point out Rusteze decals on both Mack and Lightning McQueen. In case you didn’t know, Rusteze is the rust preventive company that sponsors Lightning throughout his racing journey. We love when Disney remembers to pay attention to these details even outside of the movies!

Spinning Slinky Dog. The Toy Story float featuring Slink, Buzz and Woody is a huge fan favorite. You can also find Jessie and the Green Aliens tagging along near this display!

Take a closer look at Slinky and you’ll notice that every disk is actually spinning. According to Disney, those disks continuously spin at 120 RPM throughout the parade and are synced to match custom video content. Do you think he gets dizzy with all that circling?

Incredible Crime Fighters. The Incredibles float is another big hit, celebrating the iconic Incredibles franchise. You’ll find Mr. and Mrs. Incredible at the front, with Frozone and Violet on top, and Dash racing around the entire float. But where’s Jack-Jack? Keep your eyes open and you might just see him pop in and out, with all his different forms!

The Enchanted Mirror. Belle’s float in the parade contains a video screen meant to represent the Enchanted Mirror from Beauty and the Beast. With over 500,000 pixels, it’s one of the largest video screens in the entire parade.

While you probably won’t miss this large screen, you may not have realized what it was representing from the tale as old as time.

You’ll also notice Rapunzel and Cinderella here, with a few regal chandelier and swan dancers mixed in. Princesses always love this part of Paint the Night!

Ariel’s Swimming Companions. How many fish friends can you find when Ariel and King Triton float by? The float has a total of nine fish along with eight flowers and more than 200 blades of grass. It might be hard to count all the grass blades, but try and look for all the fish and flowers when you watch Paint the Night.

Mickey’s Big Finale. Mickey and friends are there to finish the Paint the Night Parade and let you know just how much they want to do this again!

Did you know that the glowing vehicles that Minnie, Goofy and Donald ride are controlled from behind-the-scenes? What seem to be handles for steering are actually lights to make sure the characters are lit up enough to be seen by everyone.

Mickey’s float is perfect for the finale, since it holds almost 7,000 pixels that are each individually programmed.

We don’t know about you, but we are sure excited that Paint the Night Parade is returning for yet another amazing Disneyland celebration. What’s your favorite float in this nighttime spectacular? Do you think we’ll see any new floats added during the 70th Anniversary of Disneyland for Paint the Night? Let us know in the comments.

If you haven’t already, now is the time to book your Disneyland vacation. There’s so much to do and experience during “celebrate happy” at Disneyland Resort. Book any of our Disneyland packages online now or give our Disney experts a call at 855-GET-AWAY. We can’t wait to help you do this again!