No photos -- live in the moment -- but parade remains excellent. If anything, I felt the new floats have more of a traditional New Orleans feel. Stunning colors, look great all lit up, see this at dusk or later if you can. Performers were fun and energetic like always. Maybe because it was kick-off night, but felt like riders were instructed to throw out more beads as well. Brought a reformed Disney first timer who was meh about the Christmas parade; he was so excited he asked if we could go back to see this again during the week. A triumph for Universal.
I hear exiting the park immediately after the parade was a bit of a cluster. Apparently not a lot of guests stuck around for Walker Hayes, which having seen his first couple songs is understandable (Counting Crows and Cyndi Lauper no longer the worst shows I've seen at Mardi Gras.) I ended up leaving a little after 9, busy but no real delays.