H2O Glow Nights at Typhoon Lagoon is a new event, running on select nights this summer at Walt Disney World, themed after the Toy Story short “Partysaurus Rex”. As soon as it was announced, I knew Jay and I would be going; it was just a matter of finding the right date. Finally, with summer starting to draw to a close, and only a few more weeks of the event left, I picked a night and bought our tickets. Jay had actually never been to Typhoon Lagoon, but I’ve gone a handful of times, usually with my brother Robby.
We picked up dinner on our way to the park, and sat in our car eating it around 6:45 pm. We could see people coming out of their cars in droves, since the ticket allowed admission starting at 7:00 pm, with an 8:00 pm start for the event. We hit the gate about ten minutes later. We left our phones in the car, and Jay put our tickets and credit card in his pocket. Fun fact: we discovered chip credit cards still work even if you get them wet! I was worried about not having my phone for pictures, but also didn’t really want to pay for a locker, and I don’t trust leaving it at the chair.
As soon as we were in the park, wrist bands were provided to differentiate us from the day guests who were still milling around.
We dropped our stuff on a lounge chair near the wave pool, and eyed the DJ stand. They were still setting up, and I started giggling as I realized “Partysaurus Rex” is an inflatable, and at the moment he wasn’t inflated. After seeing pictures from other H2O Glow Nights, I had wondered how they set him up so quickly.
Jay wanted to start with the wave pool, and I suggested we start with the best slides so he could experience them before and after the sun went down. We headed to Miss Adventure Falls, which is Typhoon Lagoon’s newest slide. It was less than a five-minute wait and we were on in no time. Sadly, as we got up the conveyor belt, the parrot animatronic was hidden by a curtain, but he was still chattering away. The water was slightly colder than we expected, and we laughed the whole way down. We reached the bottom, and there is no graceful way to get out of a raft like that so we both sort of fell out.
We made our way over to Crush n’ Gusher, which was also a walk on. There was a slight wait to get a float, and then we went right up the stairs. We started with Banana Blaster, and as soon as we took off, I realized Jay had no idea what he was in for. He has this laugh you only hear on roller coasters, and it was much louder than usual, although that might be because he was right behind me. We hit the bottom with a huge splash and handed our float off, before we immediately got back in line. We followed it up with Coconut Crusher and then Pineapple Plunger, which I thought was my favorite, but now I think I had mixed up with Banana Blaster. Jay’s favorite was Coconut Crusher, because of the double hill. They’re all very similar, but with enough differences to keep it interesting.
We spotted two surf boards that seemed very out of place, over to the side of the Crush n’ Gusher pool, and realized that’s where Buzz Lightyear would be for his meet and greet.
We started to head back to the wave pool, but checked the time first. The event hadn’t even started yet, and we had knocked out the four best slides! The wave pool had far less people in it than I’m used to, and we headed out to around the five feet deep mark. I love the wave pool, but I like it better where I can touch. We did two or three waves, and then I left to make a quick run to the restroom, while Jay headed out to deeper waters. I told him just to stay in the wave pool and I’d find him.
Great plan, in theory.
I got back to the wave pool to find it empty and blocked off by life guards, and with Partysaurus Rex fully inflated and the DJ playing “Highschool Musical”. I raced to check the chair with our stuff, and Jay wasn’t there. I found him a minute later talking to one of the lifeguards. They were doing park clear of the day guests and had to empty out the wave pool for that. Makes total sense- you can’t exactly check wrist bands when people are in seven feet of water. The lifeguard confirmed the slides would be open, and I led Jay around the wave pool towards the tube slides. Typhoon Lagoon has two single rider tube slides: Keelhaul Falls and Mayday Falls. We did one right after the other, with maybe a five-minute wait in total.
I’ve never been to Typhoon Lagoon when the waits are bad. Even last year, when Robby and I were there in the dead of summer, I don’t remember waiting more than ten or twenty minutes for anything. Jay asked me how different this was from normal operation, and my only answer was to point at the speaker that was now playing Taylor Swift.
“This is not the usual soundtrack.”
We jumped in line for Gangplank Falls, which is Typhoon Lagoon’s other family ride. This one is extra fun, because you get to take a giant raft to the top of the slide yourself!
We hopped off the ride and came to the Mickey Raft photo spot, where we found another couple trying to take a selfie. We took the picture for them, and then headed into the “Forgotten Grotto”, which is really just a path that cuts under the mountain that makes up the center of the park, alongside the lazy river. I was disappointed we hadn’t seen any Photopass Photographers yet. Last summer they were everywhere, and with the way social media had been hyping up Photopass at the water parks, I thought there would be a ton of them for H2O Glow.
We came out of the tunnel to find our first Photopass Photographer we’d seen all night, hanging out with Woody and Jessie. Their wait was short, so we jumped in line.
Now we were near the walkway to Miss Adventure Falls, so we went back for our second round, this time in the dark.
IT IS SO MUCH BETTER AT NIGHT! WE EVEN SAW FIREWORKS!
We then hit Crush n’ Gusher, once more doing Pineapple Plunger, since Coconut Crusher was temporarily down, before we jumped in line to meet Buzz Lightyear. I told him I liked his surf boards, and he was not too happy that Jay liked Zurg’s better.
Since we had to walk by Miss Adventure Falls to get to our next destination, it seemed silly not to ride it again. We did another round in the wave pool, which was now functioning more like a normal wave pool, instead of the colossal waves Typhoon Lagoon is famous for. I have to admit it was a nice change to experience, but the big waves were back before too long.
Then we hopped in the lazy river to check out the special “glow elements” listed in the brochure. There were floats not usually found in a water park, like giant rubber ducks and penguins. A few of the clear floats lit up, but the special floats were hard to find. We grabbed normal ones for the first part of our trip around the park, and snagged rubber ducks when two girls got out by Keelhaul Falls.
We jumped out over by the body slides on the right side of the park. I didn’t get to do the body slides when Robby and I visited Typhoon Lagoon in May, so it’d been more than year since I’d done them. We went up the line for the Storm Slides, and both wound up doing the Jib Jammer. It was lots of fun, but we didn’t feel the need to go again.
We went on Crush n’ Gusher again, doing Coconut Crusher twice, and then I went to see Buzz again, since character photos were apparently the only photos I was going to get.
It was almost eleven at this point, and we jumped on Miss Adventure Falls, thinking we’d do one more run there, and then hit the lazy river and wave pool before heading out. For whatever reason, we thought the event ended at midnight. Actually, I know why we thought that, because every other Disney special event we’ve ever been to ended at midnight.
Instead, we tried to get in the lazy river and found out it was closed. It was a little disappointing, but completely my fault for not checking more carefully. I’m really happy our last ride wound up being Miss Adventure Falls though, since it worked out this way.
H2O Glow Nights is a fantastic event, and I really hope they bring it back next summer. I will say the price tag seems a little steeper, now that I know it’s a three-hour event instead of four, but we literally did everything in the park in that time frame, including multiple trips on Miss Adventure Falls and Crush n’ Gusher, which are easily the best water slides at Disney World. I am still extremely disappointed in the lack of Photopass Photographers, and wish I’d sprung for a locker to take my own photos, although that would have taken time away from our fun, in going to get it out of the locker and put it back.
(For the record, I bought a waterproof phone case, but am terrified to try to use it.)
I’m hoping if they bring H2O Glow back next year, they change up the theme. I know they went with Partysaurus Rex for H2O Glow because of the Toy Story Land opening, but I’d love to see characters I can’t meet every day. Despite the small disappointments, I am extremely happy we went to H2O Glow Nights, and I texted Robby the second I got back to my phone that he needs to come back to Orlando before they’re over.
Cost: Tickets are $55 plus tax. Annual passholders get them for $49 plus tax.
Duration: The event itself is three hours, from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm, but you can enter the park at 7:00 pm.
Value: 10/10, hope to do again.
Add Ons: There were specialty drinks at some of the bars. I don’t swim well enough to mix alcohol and water.
