For the first time in forever, guests will be able to join Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and the Snowgies in front of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom for “Frozen Holiday Surprise.” Instead, Walt Disney World has announced that Magic Kingdom will be home to something new for Christmas 2023. Maybe I’m just giving too much credence to questionable intel and what I want to be true.
If what I’ve heard is accurate, this was truly a last-minute scratch. Being the inveterate optimist, it also has me wondering whether it’s truly too late for the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights during the 2023 holiday season. So frankly, this comes as a surprise and disappointment to me. Perhaps it was a matter of wishful thinking clouding my judgment, but I was pretty confident in that prognostication based on what I’d been hearing. We expected the display to return, and shared that sentiment in our Halfway to the Holidays Predictions for Walt Disney World. We say apparently because there had been rumblings for the last few months that the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights were returning for Christmas 2023. We thus feared that the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights were gone for good, and hoped that fans respectfully voicing their disappointment about the absence of the Christmas Castle could convince Walt Disney World to rethink the decision. The World’s Most Magical Celebration was essentially the celebration that wasn’t, and no one would’ve cared if they stopped doing Beacons of Magic or did the Dream Lights. As we noted last year, that excuse didn’t really pass muster. Then for the last two years, there’s been a bunch of junk on Cinderella Castle as part of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. Colossal crowds congregated nightly for “A Frozen Holiday Wish” in the years prior, so that explanation made sense. They were put on temporary hiatus back in 2020 along with Candlelight Processional and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, as Walt Disney World indicated that “holiday experiences that draw big crowds” would not be presented. Walt Disney World announced the holiday lineup today, and the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights were a conspicuous omission. It would appear that trend will continue this holiday season, and likely beyond if guest feedback doesn’t cause the company to reassess the decision. The dazzling display transformed Magic Kingdom’s icon into an ice palace suitable for Elsa prior to the pandemic, but have since been replaced on a temporary basis by projections. Cinderella Castle’s Dream Lights are not slated to return for Christmas 2023 at Walt Disney World.
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