My Disney H2O Glow After Hours Review

My daughter and I attended the second session of Disney H2O Glow After Hours on Saturday, June 4. It was my first time at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon since they reopened, and I was excited to be back! I never attended the previous H2O Glow Nights, so I can’t write a comparison. That’s okay, Disney H2O Glow After Hours holds up very well on its own.

The party officially starts at 8:00, but you can enter Typhoon Lagoon as early as 6:00. That’s the time that the water park closes to the public, so there’s no overlap. There was a bit of a line to get in, but it moved quickly.

I had been slightly concerned that the storm in the tropics would affect our evening. Even at a water park I didn’t want to get rained on! Fortunately, there was only one brief shower, and then the weather was near perfect for the rest of the evening.

With Disney After Hours, there aren’t usually a lot of extras like MagicShots. Popcorn, ice cream bars, and fountain drinks were included in the price. For the previous H2O Glow Nights, there were Pixar characters. The Pixar theme was gone for Disney H2O Glow After Hours, but I don’t think that most people noticed.

What Disney H2O Glow After Hours does offer is a chance to ride everything that you want. Repeatedly. Every single ride that I saw had a posted Wait Time of five minutes. We walked onto everything that we wanted to ride! I know that our event wasn’t sold out, so I’m not sure what the cap is for ticket sales, but there was no crowd at all.

There were plenty of places to pick up our free popcorn and ice cream novelties. They had Mickey Bars, Mickey Sandwiches, and dairy-free fruit bars. The boxes for the popcorn were small, but you could have as many as you wanted.

Instead of offering bottled soda like the other Disney After Hours events that I’ve attended, the drinks were serve-yourself fountain drinks. There were piles of cups near the drink machines. This makes sense at Typhoon Lagoon, since there is a Refillable Mug program at the Disney water parks. I’m not a fan of soda, so at other Disney After Hours events I’d always get a boring bottle of water. With Disney H2O Glow After Hours, we found a Freestyle machine and were able to enjoy something different! I know that this isn’t a big deal for most people, but it was nice to have choices.

There were a couple of dance parties taking place. The main one was on the beach near the Typhoon Lagoon Surf Pool. You couldn’t miss it! That dance party included characters. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Lilo, and Stitch were all there. When the characters weren’t present, the Cast Members would bring out lighted Hula Hoops.

We didn’t purchase any food, and there was no event merchandise. We did rent a locker for $10, and I was glad that we did. There are two sizes for lockers, the $10 one was big enough to hold my backpack and all of our stuff. The larger size costs $15.

A special shout out to all of the Cast Members. I didn’t see one who wasn’t having a great time! Their enthusiasm was infectious, and seeing them having fun made it an even better evening. I included this in the email survey that Disney sent me the next day. Cast Members can sometimes make or break your day, and the people who were working that night helped to make Disney H2O Glow After Hours a spectacular event.

Near the end of the evening, once the characters left the dance party, they gathered at the exit. Goofy was by himself, Lilo and Stitch were together, as were Mickey and Minnie. They were socially distanced, but it was still possible to take a quick picture. Waving goodbye as we left was the perfect way to end a great event.

Overall, I can’t recommend Disney H2O Glow After Hours highly enough, especially if you’re a water park fan. We were able to do everything that we wanted, and it was fun to see Typhoon Lagoon after dark. This is one of the better ticket values at Walt Disney World. An adult ticket is $75, plus tax, while ages 3-9 costs $70. As Annual Passholders, our tickets were just $59 each! A child’s Annual Passholder ticket is $54. Honestly, if you’re on the fence about whether to attend H2O Glow After Hours or buy a regular water park ticket, I’d recommend the special event. You’ll end up with five hours of fun, no waits for rides, free snacks, and some unique character sightings. H2O Glow After Hours was very well done. After the wall-to-wall crowd at Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite, I needed this.

H2O Glow After Hours runs from 8:00 until 11:00 Saturday evenings, now through August 27.