Jollywood Nights Review

The newest holiday party offering at Walt Disney World Resort, Jollywood Nights, takes place select nights at Hollywood Studios from 8:30pm-12:30am. My friends and I were excited to try out this new event and I thought I would do a little review for you today.

First of all, the opening night of this party did NOT go well according to the guests who were there. After receiving some feedback, Disney made a few changes. I am happy to report we experienced none of those issues during our party date. Overall, I liked the event but I think it still needs a few tweaks here and there.

When you arrive and do not have regular park admission for the day, you are given a special entrance where you are checked in. You got a bracelet, lanyard, and event guide and then if it is before 7pm, you had to wait until they let you in the park.

We were there around 6pm and the time passed quickly. We met some former cast members who shared some amazing stories with us about their favorite guest encounters (if you know me personally, I posted the stories on my Facebook page. If not, I am happy to share them if you ask!). 

Once we entered the park, we had a bit of time before the party started, so we took advantage of a low wait time at Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway, stopped for a quick popcorn snack (because I was really hungry since we hadn’t had dinner in order to try some party food), and then wandered towards the Muppets 3D area of the park. By this time, it was almost 8:30 and we found out they started offering party food and beverages early. One of the things on my list was the tiramisu puff at PizzeRizzo and since it was early, there was no line. I also got a meatball with polenta and it was easily the best thing I ate all night. The tiramisu puff was disappointing, unfortunately.  

We didn’t have a specific plan, but we each had a couple of things we definitely wanted to do. For us, it mostly involved food stops and shows. The rides were just a bonus and not what we focused on, but the ones we did end up experiencing had very low wait times. We did try to ride Slinky Dog Dash, but decided against it when the wait time was 40 minutes. While this is a pretty low wait for this ride, we wanted to experience new things and opted to walk on Toy Story Mania instead since it was only a 10 minute wait.  

After a food stop at ABC Commissary, where my friends tried a couple of things, we then we ended up at the “What's This? Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Sing-Along” show. I am not a huge fan of this movie, but since it was a special show for the party only, we felt like we should at least see it. They used the Jack Skellington puppet from the Halloween fireworks show and it was very cool to see close up. It is quite impressive.

If you love the movie, this show is perfect for you. Oogie Boogie came out for his song and everyone got to sing along thanks to the lyrics being projected on the stage.

It was a one and done for me, though, and I don’t need to see it again. But there were plenty of people around us in the audience who were totally into it and probably saw it more than once.

The party was definitely themed for adults versus kids. It was fun to dress up and to see what others chose to wear. I saw a lot of sequins in the park and I am here for it. It was cold, so I had to add a sweater and tights to my outfit (thanks to shopping at Disney Springs), but I still think it worked.

There were specialty drinks located in several locations around the park, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, even party specific beverages with zero-proof spirits. I had a sugar cookie martini that was delightful and my friend raved about the Old Fashioned she had (not my style…I tried it and thought it was gross lol). 

The other beverage I tried was a shimmering cocktail at the Tip Top Club near the Tower of Terror. On paper, it sounded amazing. In real life, my friend Mattie described it as “what you want sunscreen to taste like.” It was way too heavy on the coconut rum and it was also sweetly acidic. I would not get it again. 

I felt like the area was way too compact for the amount of people so we didn’t get to enjoy it for long. The best part of the Tip Top Club was definitely the live band.

The show I was most excited for was “Disney Holidays in Hollywood” and it did not disappoint. I would see that one again and again and think it should become a regular holiday rotation at the park during the day. The singers and dancers were all phenomenal and Kermit and Miss Piggy were a fun addition. They had a live band on stage and this former music educator was very pleased. It felt much more special than pre-recorded music and featured some extremely talented musicians.

We did take a quick ride on Rock N Rollercoaster and we literally walked right on. That is always awesome. My friends also sampled a couple other snacks from Fairfax Faire that they enjoyed. 

The last event of the evening was the projection and fireworks show “Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM!” which began right as the party ended at 12:30am. This is an older show they had several years ago during regular park hours and was themed to a Christmas Disney Channel special called “Prep and Landing.” I do wish they would have done something new for this party because this show is not great. It is fine, I just don’t think it landed (pun intended) with the crowds they way something newer would have. We stayed, but I wouldn’t feel like I missed out if we had chosen to leave instead.

My takeaways: the food was good, the shows were good, and the crowds were manageable. If you wanted to do rides, you would have easily gotten everything done with the low wait times. If you wanted to meet characters, you would have waited in line a good amount of time as every line I saw was quite long. They did have some fun and unique characters out, like Phineus and Ferb and Santa Stitch.

I don’t feel like my money was wasted, but I am not jumping at the opportunity to go again. If I had to pick a party to spend my money on, it would definitely be Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. For the admission price, we all felt like more should have been included at Jollywood NIghts. If you wanted to eat or drink anything, you had to spend more money. Every other special event at Walt Disney World has at least some kind of included food or beverages, and this event felt like they wanted to get you in the door to spend more money for 4 hours. It would have been nice to maybe get one or two drink/food vouchers with your admission price. I would for sure consider going again if they made a couple of changes, but Magic Kingdom wins the Holiday party award in my book for this year.

Did you get to experience Jollywood Nights? What is your take on it? Does it sound like something you want to experience?