Exclusive: I went inside Disney’s most high-tech light parade ever

At Disney World, you’re meant to lose yourself – in the glow of a nighttime spectacular, the rush of a coaster launch, the way a parade seems to glide by as if powered by pure magic. What you’re not necessarily meant to think about is the infrastructure quietly running beneath it all: first the Cast Members, then the control systems, the sensors, the diagnostics that need to be monitored in real time, both before and after the show.

But behind every immersive, cinematic moment lies a question worth asking: How does Disney pull this off every single night, with such precision?

Every generation of floats tells you exactly where the technology was at the time

A perfect example is Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, Magic Kingdom’s first new nighttime parade in years, which will run more than 500 times annually as it sweeps down ...