HS Moonlight Magic - June 16

[WilsonFlyer]

Oh no! Sounds like the MM was decidedly NOT a success. I'm sad to read that, and will set my expectations accordingly. Any specific things you are inclined to share that might make for a better experience for those of us going in July?

Nothing we can do anything about, really. It was mostly parks due to restrictions of what DVD purchased would be my guess. But that's all it would be.

They appeared to only be running 2 trains for RnR. ToT was only running two shafts, and I suspect one of them was all that was in operation originally until a vomit alert forced them to finally open the second shaft. We stood at the front of that line for 30 minutes and nobody would even do us the courtesy of telling us why it was shutdown or whether it would even come back up for that matter (It was near the end of the night so that mattered.). SR was up and down all night for seemingly long periods of time.

I actually think DVD did a very good job with the part they did. It was all handled efficiently and well in my judgement, but if I'm going to wait 70% as long for rides (there are other examples like SDD) as I do on a normal park night, there's no real advantage to going except the apparent crowd is somewhat smaller, and I get a 'free' snack or two.

Not complaining at all, just very matter-of-factly disclosing my observation of it all. If I did ever happen to be there for another one, I wouldn't be heartbroken if I didn't get in, though full disclosure I probably would try. I certainly wouldn't book a trip especially to go, that's for sure. It's a marketing thing. I got what I paid for. I get that.

 

[Spivey378]

We had a great time at MM and did everything we wanted. ROTR was a 35 minute wait for us. We got to ride Runnaway Railway for the first time - so much fun!! The free snacks were great. It was a total blast to be in there for “free!”

 

[CarolynFH]

We had a great time at MM and did everything we wanted. ROTR was a 35 minute wait for us. We got to ride Runnaway Railway for the first time - so much fun!! The free snacks were great. It was a total blast to be in there for “free!”

I’m glad to hear that! What time did you get in line for RotR? Was it early in the event or when RotR was getting ready to close? We’re going in July, and MM might be our only time in DHS.

 

[Spivey378]

I’m glad to hear that! What time did you get in line for RotR? Was it early in the event or when RotR was getting ready to close? We’re going in July, and MM might be our only time in DHS.

It was around 10:30 I believe.

 

[jstaff]

We (2 adults) attended the Hollywood Studios event on 6/16. We stayed at OKW and did not have a car so we relied on Disney transportation.

We arrived at HS at 5:30pm just to have ample transportation time because Disney busses can be slow. Check in for the event was at the very right hand side of the entrances. They had a blow up blue and white DVC sign there and many Vacation club check in people to make the process easy. We checked in promptly at 6pm (they wanted the member's driver's license and the Google Pay "DVC Y" designation). We got our 3 vouchers each and waited to be let in at 7pm.

Positive things=
1. If you wanted a popcorn bucket when you come in at 7pm PizzeRizzo's was a very good place to get it. They had closed the restaurant and were only distributing popcorn buckets.
2. Places to obtain voucher items were clearly marked on the back of the vouchers with times you could start getting them. I would suggest reading them before it gets dark and hard to see.
3. Almost all rides were open but still had long waits until around 9:30pm when the regular park guests cleared out.
4. Many locations to buy food were available which was nice.
5. The busses at the end of the night were all there and waiting.

Negative things=
1. After the park closing at 9pm the My Disney Experience app did not show any wait times for any rides because the park had technically closed. It would have been extremely useful instead of walking back to whatever ride you wanted just to see wait times.
2. Not all rides were running at full capacity from what we went on. (Smugglers Run had no single rider line because they couldn't staff it)
3. Free ice cream carts were very spread out and out of the way. There were a total of 3 free carts for the entire park. There easily could have been many more.
4. People were trying to get free ice cream at other carts around the park and couldn't understand why they could not.
4. No free drinks given (not even water) you had to use a voucher or buy one. So, please bring water bottles or drinks to stay hydrated.
5. Characters were hard to find. We only saw Buzz, Woody, R2-D2, and Chewbacca.

All in all, we had a very good time.

 

[KSL]

Thank you @WilsonFlyer, @Spivey, and @jstaff for your summaries. This is all very useful input that will hopefully help us make the most out of our MM visit in July. Much appreciated!

 

[TexasChick123]

We were supposed to go in July for a quick trip but cancelled. It’s just too hot to go to WDW right now. Also, the events seem less than stellar, so it doesn’t seem to be worth it to fly over for a few nights to go.

 

[Spivey378]

It was around 10:30 I believe.

I checked my photos and it was 10:50.

 

[CarolynFH]

I checked my photos and it was 10:50.

Thanks for checking! That's helpful!

 

[kateandy08096]

Oh no! Sounds like the MM was decidedly NOT a success. I'm sad to read that, and will set my expectations accordingly. Any specific things you are inclined to share that might make for a better experience for those of us going in July?

I'm going to MM in July too and just happy to be able to have the reservation

 

[skshain1020]

We went on the 6.16 and had a good time. We had stacked and done genie + for before the event and so had done all our rides prior to the event starting. We also grabbed a popcorn bucket early at PizzaRizzo and used our snack credits to have a little snacking while we waited for the event to start. Rosie's was very efficient with the snack credits and explaining to everyone exactly what they could and could not get. Kat Saka's was a bit annoying because even though the outpost mix is labeled with the snack credit icon they said it was not included and we could only get the blue buttery popcorn with snack credit. When we walked by later in the evening they had completely taken down the outpost mix label, guess too many people pointing out it had the logo and cost the same as the blue buttery popcorn ::shoulder shrug::

We concentrated on the characters and were able to see everyone, enjoy the dance party and get several photo pass pictures with characters we had wanted to see. Additionally, we knew going in that you just had to manage the expectations and knew we couldn't do rides, characters and snacks all in the timeframe of the event. We also knew that rides like tower have been operating at half capacity for a while now and as such would take longer.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and the dance party is definitely a must do especially if you grew up on things like ducktales and darkwing duck!

 

[NicoleLarson]

I wanted to add my experience after attending the July 14th party. We had an absolute blast. The party wasn't crowded at all, we pretty much walked on everything. The wait times were VERY overestimated. Like Slinky said 80 min, we were off the ride in 20. Smugglers run said 55, off in 15. We had no issues using our snack credits, thank you to all that reported. Got popcorn bucket at PizzaRisso, took less than a minute, VERY ORGANIZED. Other items were a churro, chocolate oreo sundae funnel cake, strawberry sundae funnel cake, mickey pretzel, glazed almonds, Jack jack num num cookies and a 50th anniversary coke. We got several mickey and strawberry bars, never a wait for those. The food lines were definitely the longest, so glad we ate dinner before arriving, great advice. Also try to use up your vouchers before the party starts was great advice too. Those who waited until the end were met with very long lines and limited selection. There was a major thunderstorm, like sideways rain and high winds from 6-7pm so I wonder if that scared some people away and they didn't show. I was a little skeptical before we went from some of the reviews but we had a great time and are so thankful that we got to go. It is a great marketing tool for DVC because all I have been thinking about is adding on after going.