We recently attended an H2O Glow Nights Party at Typhoon Lagoon water park. The event takes place every Thursday and Saturday night from May 30 – August 24. This is the 2nd year this party has been offered but it was a first time experience for us!
Disney bills the party as the following:
See the Water Park in a New Light
Parking is free at the Disney water parks and we were able to grab a spot right up near the entrance. There were lots of good spots available since many day guests are leaving around that time.
Lagoona Gator is ready to party!
Typcially, the water parks are not too crowded in the last couple hours before closing so you can likely get a lot done even before the official 8 pm party kickoff.
Overall, decorations are minimal for the event.
From here on out, all the pictures (aside from a few at the very end) are going to be from my Iphone XR. I purchased a waterproof case for it on Amazon prior to the party which ended up working beautifully.
We started off with a ride on Typhoon Lagoon’s newest ride: Miss Adventure Falls. This is a rare water slide with a bit of a narrative to it, as well as a connection to S.E.A.! The ride is “owned” by Captain Mary Oceaneer, whose portrait can be found in the queue for Mystic Manor at Hong Kong DL.
The family style raft ride features a fun show scene as you ride the conveyor belt up to the top.
Speaking of the conveyor belt, why cant every water slide have this?
When we visited Typhoon Lagoon in the morning last year, we waited almost 40 mintues for this slide. Anytime you wait that long for something over as quickly as a water slide is, you’re likely to be disappointed. Here, even though it was still during regular operating hours, we waited less than 5. This is why we suggest visiting the water parks during the last few hours of the day regardless if you are attending the nighttime party or not.
The slide itself is great fun, and fairly long for this type of attraction.
It was about 7:30 at this point, so we decided to take a relaxing ride on Castaway Creek while waiting for the event to get underway.
The lazy river is a real highlight of the park, traveling through caves and under waterfalls along the full circle trip.
Typhoon Lagoon in general is one of the best themed experiences in all of Walt Disney World. The attention to detail throughout is so thorough and well done that you really feel like you are someplace special. The fairly simple backstory: a typhoon ravaging a tropical paradise and creating the water park we have today, does a good job of bring all the theming together nicely.
Off in the distance in the above photo you can see Miss Tilly; the signature ship of the park stranded high on top of Mount Mayday. Miss Tilly acts as the “weenie” of the park.
By the time we finished up with Castaway Creek, it was just about 8:00. This means that if you don’t have a special party wristband, you can no longer get on line for any of the slides.
They also clear out the wave pool completely before allowing those with wristbands to re-enter.
The DJ for the party is set up on the beach right near the entrance to the wave pool. He has some fairly basic theming along with a Rex statue. The party is based on the Partysaurus Rex short which we admittedly have not seen.
We started off our party time with Humunga Kowabunga, which is basically a smaller not quite as intense version of Blizzard Beach’s Summit Plummet.
Aside from Miss Adventure Falls, be prepared to climb A LOT of stairs!
While its not Summit Plummet, its this slide is still intense. We did it once and were in no hurry to do it again.
We continued with the rest of the slides throughout the park over the next hour or so. We were easily able to get them all done within the last hour of park operation and the first hour of the party. We didn’t wait more than 5-10 minutes for anything.
The lazy river was mostly empty throughout the event. It can be a nice way to get around the park if your felling… well, “lazy”.
Back in the old days, Typhoon Lagoon used to offer nighttime Extra Magic Hours. We miss these a great deal as the park is beautiful at night. This is a nice opportunity to relive those old memories.
Also at the party are a few Toy Story 4 meet and greets. Below is the chance to have your picture taken with inflatable Forky. We weren’t waiting on line for this.
You can meet Woody / Jessie as well. Buzz is around too but we didn’t come across him.
The Wavepool is a highlight of the park at anytime, but it does tend to get overcrowded on a normal day. Its much nicer during the party, both with less crowds and more frequent large waves.
We had finished up with all the slides by this point so we decided to start making our way over there.
I could spend all day in this wave pool! So much fun!
Over at the beach, your standard dance party is going on. Songs you would expect to here with a DJ trying to keep the crowd pumped.
There are a lot of fish puns through out the park, almost all of which use fish instead of a certain “b” word which sounds similar… What’s up fishes!?
After a long time in the wave pool, we hung out at the dance party for a bit before deciding to call it a night. I played around with a long exposure app on my iPhone here for a couple minutes but didn’t really like the results.
We ended up getting ready to leave the party around 10 pm. There was still an hour left in the event but we did everything which we wanted to accomplish with relative ease between 7 and 10 pm.
The dance party was still going strong as we headed out.
Overall, we would recommend H20 Glow Nights to some guests, but not all… If you are an AP holder or are have purchases 1 park per day tickets for your trip, then I think this is a great way to add a water park to your stay. The cost for the party is $59, which is $15 cheaper than a regular 1 day ticket. For that price difference, as well as the joy of being in the park after dark, its definitely worth it.
If you already have a water park ticket however, I’m not sure I’d add the party to it. You can still get a lot done if you visit the last 2-3 hours of park operation. I would never pay $74 for a single day at a Disney water park (or any water park for that matter), but if you already have purchased park hopper tickets for your trip, the water parks can be added for just around $20 per person. That’s probably the best way to go if you are already visiting with a multi-day park hopper.
For some folks, even if you already have the water park option added to your ticket, it may still be worth it to attend the party if you really just want to relax in the park after the sun sets. It’s definitely a really cool experience!
That will do it for this review.
Later fishes!
WDW Therapy: A Disney State of Mind 
We found we really enjoyed the water parks by going in the afternoon and staying late, so I can see how the special event would be a good opportunity. I appreciate what you said about who would find it a good deal.
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