Last week kicked off the second round of DVC Moonlight Magic events for 2022! Amy and I joined a bunch of friends from our DVC Fan Facebook Group to see how this event compared to the year’s past and the EPCOT events earlier this year. Here is a quick recap!
The Food
There is one singular thing that I think DVC can do to make Moonlight Magic successful: Free Food.
The last thing you need is to have people walking around hangry all night experiencing longer than expected wait times for both rides and food, which was the case this week.
The Hollywood Studios DVC Moonlight Magic event followed the same protocol as EPCOT in providing guests with snack vouchers that could be redeemed at various locations throughout the park. One snack voucher was also reserved for the exclusive Moonlight Magic popcorn bucket.
Vouchers could be redeemed at participating food & beverage locations for items marked with the Disney Dining Plan Snack logo on the menu:
Prior to the event (7:00pm – 9:00pm)
- Backlot Express
- ABC Commissary
- Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo
- Catalina Eddie’s
Throughout the night (7:00pm – 12:30am)
- Kat Saka’s Kettle
- Milk Stand
- Woody’s Lunch Box
- Market
- Anaheim Produce
- Rosie’s All-American Cafe
- Hollywood Scoops
- KRNR: The Rock Station
- Snack Carts
Popcorn buckets could be redeemed at one of the following locations:
- Neighborhood Bakery (7:00pm – 12:30am)
- PizzeRizzo (7:00pm – 12:30am)
- Popcorn Carts (9:30pm – 12:30am)
By the end of the evening, lines for most snack locations throughout the park were longer than the rides, which is something I hope gets better with future events.
I made the mistake of not eating a lot prior to the event, which left me hangry most of the evening looking for snacks. I attempted three times to get a Mickey Pretzel, only to be turned away because the stand was out of pretzels.
I guarantee that if DVC can keep people’s bellies full, they will leave Moonlight Magic happy, regardless of how the rest of the event goes. Also, a piece of advice – Pass out the popcorn buckets at check-in!
The Rides
Hollywood Studios’ largest draw right now is that it is home to arguably some of the best rides at Walt Disney World. If you are looking for thrills and excitement it definitely will not disappoint and neither did Moonlight Magic!
Open for guests to enjoy were the following attractions:
- Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Star Tours
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Last queue entry at 11:30 pm)
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Toy Story Mania!
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Our group ended up hitting five rides throughout the night, which is great for a three-hour after-hours event. I’m guessing if you hustled, you could likely ride them all.
Characters and Entertainment
Special character experiences are typically the highlight of Moonlight Magic events, and Hollywood Studios did not disappoint. A few we saw included:
- Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
- Chewbacca
- R2-D2
- Darth Vadar
- Fat Cat (Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers)
The best character meet-up that I missed was part of the DJ Dance Party in the Disney Junior Theater. Rumor has it Goofy and Max did the entire I2I dance from A Goofy Movie. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here’s a clip from the movie:
There was also a special presentation of ‘Wonderful World of Animation‘ at 11:30 pm, the current Hollywood Studios projection and “fireworks” show that plays nightly. I’d use the term fireworks loosely because they are minimal, but this was definitely an upgrade from the special Member Moment at EPCOT’s Moonlight Magic event.
Merchandise
None, Nada, Zilch
Several items were available for sale at the Mickey’s of Hollywood shop on Hollywood Boulevard. All the merchandise being sold could either be purchased elsewhere throughout Walt Disney World or online via shopDisney.
If anyone from Disney Vacation Club is reading this, please give us some real special merch for the event. I saw multiple people that made amazing custom t-shirts for the evening. If they can do it, I know you can and make thousands of dollars in the process. Just take my money!
All in all, Moonlight Magic is getting better but still lacks in several key areas where it excelled pre-pandemic. As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I’m hopeful that as the year goes on and Disney Vacation Club continues to tweak the event’s operations, it will keep getting better. I know that I had a blast and can’t wait for the next!
Let us know in the comments what you thought of the Hollywood Studios DVC Moonlight Magic Event! What did you love? What would you change?
First off, it was nice meeting the two of you on Castaway Cay at the gift shop. We got into the park about 5 and picked up our bands at the DVC kiosk. The line was short and moved quickly. Since it appeared the vouchers were only for snacks, we grabbed a quick dinner at Backlot Express, after knocking off Star Tours, with a walk-on 5 minute wait. We grabbed one popcorn bucket and then our big mistake was getting in line for MFSR, which showed a 55 minute wait (less on TP Lines app). That turned into over 90 minutes. We finished it just before the event started and jumped in the ROTR queue, which moved almost constantly. By that time, our legs were worn out from standing in the MFSR queue, so we headed out, got our free Mickey and fruit bars, stopping to do MMRR, which essentially was a walk-on. We then stood in the snack lines (pretzel line twice, got them the second time), and then left. We did look at the rack of DVC stuff and laughed (we could’ve gotten a 2020 MM tee at the Character Warehouse, which would’ve been a better souvenir).
Overall, we enjoyed the event as it was our very first MM event. A few more savory snacks would be nice, but we did get our pretzels.
How many snack coupons did they give to each person? Are the buckets the refillable kind that we will be able to use for the rest of the week in all of the parks?
Three coupons total with one that can be used for a snack or the popcorn bucket.