Review- The Premiere of Jollywood Nights at Hollywood Studios
The new and much anticipated Jollywood Nights kicked off last evening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I have been excited to attend this new party ever since it was announced in the summertime! The premise of the event is an old-fashioned, glitz, and glam Christmas, with special speakeasy types of bars and holiday foods. Dressing the part was also suggested so we did just that. Disney was kind enough to invite us out to cover the festivities, but I also wanted to give it an honest review from my perspective. Let’s chat, shall we?
Jollywood Nights is a four-hour party with a lot to pack in. New shows like Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Singalong & Disney’s Holidays in Hollywood are offered, plus an old favorite, Jingle Bell Jingle BAM which closes the night at 12:30.
I have to say, hands down, the Nightmare Before Christmas Singalong was my favorite part of the night. The Frozen singalong is replaced by this whimsical show during Jollywood Nights. Truthfully, I wish they did this show daily during the holidays at the Studios, it beats Frozen in my opinion. They use the larger-than-life Jack Skellington puppet that is featured during the fireworks at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. The whole audience gasped when he came out on the stage, it was amazing to see!
Disney Holidays in Hollywood is in the Beauty and the Beast theater and runs four times a night. This show features dancers, singers, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Minnie and Mickey, and more. It’s a nod to old-fashioned Christmas shows but with modern additions. Changing lyrics to classic songs for one. The choreography was great, plus it was nice to see the Muppets.
Also throughout the park are various cocktail & food locations plus live entertainment and a DJ.
The Twilight Soirée at the Tower of Terror was one I was looking forward to. There is a band and specialty cocktails, however, the line for the bar was at least a 45-minute wait. Speaking of lines, all the special food stops had extremely long lines. We never got to eat anything because we only had four hours to see everything and didn’t want to miss out.
There are character meet and greets throughout the park, including Phineas and Ferb and the Rescue Rangers. Also Max as Powerline & Edna Mode. There is festive music playing basically everywhere you go, which is a nice touch.
Jollywood Nights ends with Jingle Bell Jingle BAM. If you recall, this show used to be a staple every night at the Studios during the Christmas season. I wish that was still the case! It was pouring down rain, but we stayed to record the show. As you exit the park, cast members pass out Jollywood Nights coasters as a complementary souvenir. That was great because they really didn’t have any party merchandise, I only heard about one t-shirt that was apparently sold out.
Here are some closing thoughts on Jollywood Nights, keep in mind that it was only the first night of a brand new party.
Jollywood Nights is a great concept, perfect for a date night or outing with friends. It’s not really geared towards families, but the fact that wait times for all the rides are extremely low is great. Rise of the Resistance has a virtual queue during the event. We didn’t get to do the rides however, we had a lot of ground to cover.
The special food and drinks looked wonderful. There were quite a few things that I was really looking forward to trying. With the lines being as long as they were, we had to pick and choose what we wanted to do. Again, it’s a four hour party, I wanted to see the shows and sights, rather than stand in long lines for a drink or snack. The good part was that some of the usual walk ups for soda, popcorn, etc had virtually no lines.
I wish we were able to see more of the music entertainment, but with the rain being so hard, a lot had to be stopped. Another plus of the party are the special photo locations, Photopass
is on hand plus they will take photos and videos with your camera too.
All in all, we did enjoy ourselves. We have tickets to go back to Jollywood Nights in December. Again, it was the very first party and I’m sure there are kinks to work out, that should be kept in mind. The party was extremely crowded, which made it a little harder to take advantage of all that Jollywood Nights has to offer. I do feel that Disney has the right idea with this old fashion themed Christmas party. It was really cool to see people all dressed up in throwback costumes, I too had fun getting fancy for the evening. My advice would be to make a plan before you go, to prioritize what’s on your must do list. I wish the party was maybe an hour longer, just to have more time to soak it all in. We had a good time with friends, and I’m looking forward to going back to Jollywood Nights in a few weeks!
A Summary of the new #jollywoodnights at Hollywood Studios!
Did you go to opening night of Jollywood Nights too? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
The Premiere of Jollywood Nights at Hollywood Studios
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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