Comparing Universal Fan Fest Nights with Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite – DePaoli on DeParks
I recently experienced both Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite and Universal Fan Fest Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. Here are my thoughts and comparisons of both after-hour separate admission events.
Disney loves a good after-hours event where they can fill the park with paying guests twice a day instead of just once. At Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., they get to do this year-round with their holiday events and Disneyland After Dark series.
Universal Studios Hollywood near Los Angeles has had great success with this strategy during their annual Halloween Horror Nights events. But now they’re trying to get in on the year-round action as they launched the first ever Universal Fan Fest Nights celebrating numerous fandoms.
At both events, there’s plenty of specialty food and merchandise options for fans to purchase. But for this article, I’ll be focusing on the offerings included with your general admission ticket.
Universal Fan Fest Nights, an event of multiple genres
Let me begin with Universal Fan Fest Nights. General admission tickets begin at $74 and can go up slightly based on the night you choose. Unlike Star Wars Nite where the target is fans of just one franchise, Universal Fan Fest Nights is meant to entertain fans of multiple genres.
Ever since the announcement of Universal Fan Fest Nights, there seems to have been some confusion about this fact. When it was announced the event would feature the franchises “Back to the Future” and “Star Trek” as well as multiple anime fandoms, “Harry Potter,” Super Nintendo, and Dungeons & Dragons, guests instinctually thought that each of these fandoms would be celebrated on different nights of the event.
I’m not sure why people make this assumption, as it’s not like Halloween Horror Nights celebrates Michael Myers one night and Freddy Krueger another. But alas, it does seem to have been a messaging problem that still affects people’s initial impression of Universal Fan Fest Nights. Perhaps it’s simply because the franchises cross the boundaries of multiple genres.
The multiple genres is one of the things I like about Universal Fan Fest Nights for general admission ticket holders. Unlike Halloween Horror Nights, where as a horror fan I feel pressure to see every offering before time runs out, with Universal Fan Fest Nights I knew my priority was “Back to the Future” and I didn’t feel any immense pressure to see the things I was less interested in.
I began my Fan Fest adventure heading straight to “Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley.” The tour tram takes you down to the studio backlot exactly where “Back to the Future” was shot during production for the movie. Just to step foot on this ground feels sacred to any “Back to the Future” fan.
It wasn’t my first time walking through this backlot, but it certainly added to the thrill seeing those Lyon Estates markers and a recreation of Hill Valley 1955 for me to walk into. Being surrounded by elements and moments from the film was such a fun experience.
As you walk around Hill Valley, you begin to recognize certain characters including Marty McFly, Doc, Biff, Lorraine, George, and many other familiar folks from the film. They perform key moments you’ll recognize from the movie and interact with guests for some live action role playing. The approximately 45-minute cycle culminates with lightning striking the clock tower and sending Marty back to the future.
As many guests of the event come in cosplay, it did become a bit confusing trying to figure out who was cast as part of the event versus some very impressive “Back to the Future” fan wardrobe. An easy fix for this would be a requirement for cosplayers to wear a visible button or lanyard provided by Universal Fan Fest Nights in order to avoid confusion.
Since “Back to the Future” was my main priority for the event, I spent a good chunk of my time in Hill Valley both at the beginning and end of my Fan Fest experience. But I also enjoyed the overall vibe of the event as I experienced nearly everything else it had to offer.
The “Star Trek” and Dungeons & Dragons experiences are the offerings most similar to what guests get at a Halloween Horror Nights event. They’re both indoor experiences with impressively detailed sets for guests to walk into. But unlike Halloween Horror Nights, you’re not just walking in a conga line. Instead, these experiences feature pulsed storytelling led by characters.
Although the production value of both was truly appreciated, I just didn’t find myself that into them since I’m not too familiar with either franchise beyond their names. In order for something like this to be truly successful, I think it needs to appeal to non-fans as well, just like any theme park ride.
In fact, that might have been part of the problem for me. With the wild and impressive pre-shows guests have come to expect from theme park rides these days, these walk-through experiences felt more like pre-shows with no ride at the end. But perhaps for fans of these franchises, they may have loved it the way I did “Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley.”
Like most after-hours events, the specialty meet & greet characters seem to have been very popular. Characters from “One Piece” had continuous lines every time I walked by. I spent a bit of time in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter enjoying the “Hogwarts Always” projection show as well as visiting Super Nintendo World. Even with new offerings beyond what is typically available during regular theme park hours in these lands, I found myself more interested in the franchises that don’t regularly have any representation during a park visit.
Overall, I loved my time at Universal Fan Fest Nights, having stayed for the entirety of the event. Sure, there were some things that felt like year-one tests that I would like to see expanded further. I will be disappointed if “Back to the Future” returns and the tram doesn’t get up to 88 miles per hour through some special effect. After all, the King Kong 360 3-D tunnel is right near Hill Valley. But for a year-one event at a super reasonable price, I believe Universal Fan Fest Nights was an unforgettable theme park experience and I hope this is just the beginning for it.
Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite 2025
On the other hand, Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite returned for its fifth run in 2025. Disneyland After Dark is an ongoing after-hours series of events at Disneyland Resort, each with a different theme. One of my favorite memories of all time at Disneyland Resort is the original Disneyland After Dark: ’90s Nite. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for this year’s Star Wars Nite.
General admission tickets for this event ranged in price from $169-$189. The park seemed pretty quiet throughout the run of the event based on the night I went and from what I saw on social media. I think part of the problem might be that there is so much “Star Wars” representation in Disneyland already between Galaxy’s Edge and Tomorrowland, that paying an expensive upcharge for a few additional things isn’t worth it for most guests.
Once again, character meet & greets seem to be the priority for a lot of people. I believe this event is only worth the cost if the meet & greets excite you or if you don’t really care about the theme and just want extremely short lines for rides. If you don’t feel it’s worth waiting in long lines for characters, I do like the fact that some characters are handled “pandemic-style,” where you see and interact with them from a distance as you pass by.
A lot of Disneyland After Dark events offer a cavalcade throughout the park. Although this one technically did, it was just a short march of guests who arrived in costume led by Mickey & Minnie and ending with a photo moment in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was not a produced cavalcade worthy of waiting along the parade route with anticipation.
There was also no additional nighttime spectacular for party guests to enjoy. I understand why a new fireworks show shouldn’t be produced for these events anymore, as we’ve learned in the past that Disneyland fireworks are cancelled often due to winds. And even though “Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga” is a fantastic projection show offered in Galaxy’s Edge, it’s not worth an upcharge ticket since it’s already available during normal park hours for Season of the Force.
A Gathering of the Resistance with Rey, plus Lightsaber Instructional and live music at Rivers of America are all only available during the after-hours event. But they all felt like budget-friendly productions not worthy of the asking admission price.
One baffling offering was Choose Your Path on Main Street U.S.A. From what I experienced, we simply scanned a QR code on a sign and selected either the dark side or the light side of The Force. The winning side apparently affected the lighting on Main Street U.S.A. But this was unclear to me and my friends and therefore felt anticlimactic.
Overall, Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite was the most lackluster of all Disneyland After Dark events I’ve attended. As the price of Disneyland After Dark continues to rise, I think they’re going to have a hard time selling tickets if the quality doesn’t rise as well.
Which after-hours theme park event is best?
Based on the cost of general admission, the party offerings and the lengths of the events, Universal Fan Fest Nights definitely beats Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite for me. With Universal Studios Hollywood now producing a hard ticket event outside of the Halloween season, hopefully the healthy competition won’t allow Disneyland After Dark to rest on its laurels.
What do you think? Did you attend either or both of these events? Do you think it was worth the price of admission? Would you return in future years? Leave a comment and let me know.
Jeff DePaoli is an event producer and voiceover artist living in Los Angeles. He can be heard as the voice of Disney Trivia on Alexa as well as the host of “Dizney Coast to Coast” podcast, where he and his special guests share honest opinions on all things Disney at DizneyCoastToCoast.com. DePaoli’s opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent Attractions Magazine.
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