The parade was always a highlight for us. It is so different than anything we can see elsewhere. Fingers are crossed that they replace it with another parade before we go back in 2018.

What a terrible idea...the Electric Light Parade is my family's favorite part of Disney. Seeing it confirms that we're really at Disney. I certainly hope they plan on replacing it with something at least as good !

they should do what is required to bring back spectromagic, best parade by a mile, never been the same since

Spectromagic is dead. it was supposed to return after a year long run of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Unfortunately though they didn't have the foresight to take care of the already worn out floats and left them in the Florida sun to bake for that year. When they realized their mistake it was too late and most of the floats were damaged beyond repair. Instead of fixing or recreating the floats, they decided to spend the money on an all new parade. Hence why we have the Festival of Fantasy parade.

The reason is obvious if you've been to MK in the evenings over the last few years. MK is inundated with evening crowds looking for night time entertainment. Until recently your only choice at night was fantasmic at HS and illuminations at Epcot. Both of which are very tired, old shows. While electrical parade isn't much better, at least with Wishes it's sort of a package deal and you get a 2 for 1. WDW has been working diligently at adding new nighttime entertainment at HS with its Star Wars fireworks and AK by keeping the park open later and with its new shows. If the goal is to spread the crowds among the new offerings to relieve the congestion at MK, the next step is to get rid of its evening entertainment in hopes the crowds go to the other parks.

I miss spectromagic, I hope they are bringing that back in the interim!

Return of SpectroMagic?

Well thats certainly a bummer. This is (was) something my family looks forward to every trip. Next trip is in November, so looks like I will only be seeing this parade again on home video. Where is Spectromagic? (I know, if they are cutting costs, why would they bring that back)
Very disappointing Disney.

I've heard no mention of the possibility of SpectroMagic returning - is it dead? Did they dismantle it? Is it overseas? If we aren't getting Paint the Night, and they don't have the $$$ to build a new parade, it would seem to me that Spectro would be the logical choice. No night-time parade at MK seems a foolish route to go IMHO.