Universal Fan Fest Nights 2026

[Jerroddragon]

I'll be there Thursday but going to Disneyland Saturday so even if I do end up at USH on Friday, I will be gone before 8 PN

Also HP merch for fan fest and the genetic Fan fest merch is now on sale

 

[Freak]

I’m finally going Friday night! If the word of mouth is true about crowds lightening up, looks like it pays to procrastinate!

 

[theblueblurr]

I’m finally going Friday night! If the word of mouth is true about crowds lightening up, looks like it pays to procrastinate!

That's what I'm hoping to learn for myself in case we go again next year. Good luck!

 

[BriefCasey]

I'll be there Thursday but going to Disneyland Saturday so even if I do end up at USH on Friday, I will be gone before 8 PN

Also HP merch for fan fest and the genetic Fan fest merch is now on sale

How much are they off? I wonder if there will be a bigger discount on the general FFN merch once the event ends

 

[Jerroddragon]

How much are they off? I wonder if there will be a bigger discount on the general FFN merch once the event ends

Up to 70 percent off

The T shirt with all the IPs on it is like 10ish bucks and the jacket is like 18 bucks

 

[BriefCasey]

That really helps. Waiting paid off and I'm gonna grab a shirt on my next visit.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Went last night

Grabbed the T shirt with all IPs on it and they had One Piece Mugs 2 for 10 dollars so grabbed those (the Shopper and Luffy one)
One Piece had 3 shows, most shows were full but the two I went to didn't 100% fill up but assume the next two days should basically fill up
HP said it was 20 mins after the first One Piece show....that was a lie 40 mins later I was on. If you see the line for this in the green house main area at all, its over 20 mins


Final Thoughts

This year Fan Fest is fantastic at the core, I think most the offering that came back were improved in some way

D&D is just a really great attraction, while I think many online would not want it back if its back...I can live its solid and very well done and the actors have free range to make it really fun if they have time to. If they do replace it having the Frieren walkthrough take it over and use the Transformers Meet and greet area to meet the characters would be fantastic and spread the anime crowds out more

Yoshi I like the little show they do, sadly after week one watching the show did become harder but I think this should show USH you don't need like huge shows like One Piece but smaller experiences can bring the hype if done right and with characters people like. Never got to meet Mario and Yoshi because the line was 30+ mins anytime I went. Next year I'd welcome a drone show, villains take over or even Princess take over, like Yoshi can come back but I think we need new characters as the main focus

Jurassic World through the Era's, I liked this fan zone and I think we should have like 3ish of them. These are area's where you can spent 10 mins or 2 hours its on how much you like the IP and how much you want to see. The Raptor show is another great little show and seems to have evolved the actors or someone has pushed to make the characters more dynamic and have them climbing on set pieces and more people are now getting knocked down by the dinos. The triceratops show is cute and mostly the same from what we have seen before but more interaction and people seem to like it, another great little show. The actors here are Amazing, if you get lucky you can see John H and Dennis interact and Malcolm is just a smooth criminal and of course all the other Dinosaur trainers and cast are great as well. I hope we get more fan zones next year because we just need places we can get in and out of quickly if we want

Harry Potter - The Dragon Trainer is great and one again no idea why they don't promote this at all but love seeing the dragon out. The attraction is great for the space the issue is the line. I'm sorry but the line for this is just a joke the general people move worst then HHN because its not a conga line and just not a fan just how this runs and hope they find a way to make it flow better if it comes back. The Puppet at the end is the big highlight and its cool to see a Centaur.

Sailor Moon The show is cute and people were reacting to this more then the last two anime shows we've had so I'd say its doing it job. The Meet and greet is cool but the issue is the line stops and it takes like 45 mins for the next meet to start, this needs to be endless like the minute one leaves another enters, also I think anime has shown its popular enough for more then one character. They should have used the other dreamworks meet and greet to meet the other sailor guardians or a Luna the cat photo op at least.

Scooby Doo Vs the Monsters I am no fan of the mystery side of attraction but not sure why I still hear and see people not like this. Like
1) Your for free walking real movie sets
2) The Monsters all do these cool shows
3) You can take pictures with the gang, I've never heard them say no to this request

For me this is the second best thing at the event, the vibes are amazing, the interactions with the characters with you are great and they have some real fun moments with the monsters and the gang interacting. I think outside the who did it part this is a really fun part of the event and most nights I spend 90 mins to 2 hours here and was never bored. The only thing I'd have changed is you need Trams coming quicker to pick people up, sometimes it was minutes before the next buss came and that causes huge lines besides that would not mind this coming back in some form again

One Piece The bad is the lines for the foods and Characters but the actors are amazing and really do a great job at connecting with people, I just hope next year they find a way to make it where the line to meet them isn't always like 60-90 mins.
The show is amazing, the crowd goes wild at some many moments, I like the ways they do cool things like have Usopp shoot guys off the jet ski's, the admiral teleporting, Sanji having his feet on fire as he fought and little moments the crowd can have with the characters at certain moments.
I hope One Piece gets a real fan zone next year so more people can meet the characters


For this year I think the big things missing were not using the Plaza and French steeet, I can't fault them for Walkign dead not being used but I wish they would have used the Plaza. If the Plaza was even just live anime music cool but also could have been a BTTF fan zone, bring back many of the characters and do a smaller verson of last year. Have the Under the sea dance and music moment and mostly just have the characters taking pictures with people and talking to them. I think this would have made many happy who missed it last year and just have eaten up people

French street this year could have been Wicked with new meet and greet characters and if they wanted to do a little show cool, close off the Parisian Courtyard and do a under 10 min dance/singing show. Just bring a group in have them wait a few mins do the show and repeat. I think this would have done well also.
Next year the Monsters or Monsters and Scooby Doo could take over this area but who knows if they will use it as a Fan zone but think it would be good use of the space

Final note its hard to beat BTTF because that attraction was just amazing but I think this year is mostly better, not everything but espcially compared to other after dark events they are doing a great job, doesn't mean they can't improve but think it was still very much worth the ticket price. Thank you to all those who created the event and all the amaazing TM's and actors who made this all come to life. Here is to year three coming in and ready to do even better

 

[Disneyland/DCA]

The plaza should have been themed to bttf II and Mel's dressed up like Cafe 80s. And they could have played actual music from 2015

 

[BriefCasey]

Fighting back being dead tired to report that i saw the final One Piece showtime, and that they actually made Luffy say something completely different before he did those flips and got on the boat Sanji was on as they were making their exit. Not sure if that was for all showtimes for the final night, but that was freaking sick to see. Felt like a special send-off to the show since there was still no curtain call like they do with Waterworld.

He said: "My name is Monkey D. Luffy! And I'm gonna be..." [flips] "KING OF THE PIRATES!". Sounded like it was still pre recorded like the rest of the show dialogue, but in a way, the bit in the commercial became real. XD

EDIT: Clip found.

 

[Mr_Pendington]

If that would be the case, one has to wonder how it fell apart; and if things might be still mendable post 2026. I'd love to see what modern JHCW could do with the turtles .

With Paramount now owning WB, who helped create Universal's cash cow (Hogsmeade) their gonna have to get alot closer. I could see it happening!

 

[Jerroddragon]

I went today

No new merch on sale, maybe they are waiting until after the 3 day weekend

 

[BriefCasey]

I thought I'd share more highlights and additional food review from the last two visits I did:

For food, I managed to grab the Chopper Cupcake earlier in the day and then a Sailor Moon mystery one before leaving the event that night. I personally did not like the frosting on the Chopper one. It tasted too sweet that it gave me a slight headache a bit later. Made me glad I didn't finish it. I've yet to dig into the SM one, but that ones' contents seem more promising. I'll provide a finalized rank once I have.

I also decided to take a more closer view for one of my last viewings for Sailor Moon, and while it was nice to do that and have a more immersive view, there were two interesting things I noticed from guests while doing so. For one, I actually heard someone in the group in front of me (presumably a repeat visitor with some first timers) warning their group about it being harder to keep up with the subs if they sit closer while deciding where to sit. I also noticed that there were a lot of empty seats in the front two rows despite it being the final night (which wasn't the case when I decided to take another visit to Kung Fu Panda today). Makes me wonder if it tended to be like that on prior nights.

Not to toot my own horn, but it's refreshing seeing firsthand that it's not just me (and at least one other) who's noticed the same issues I have. Not only that, when I touched on that and the hours compared to last year/HHN while ensuring some brisk closing feedback at guest services, the TM I spoke with did bring up the possibility of rotating subbed/dubbed screenings before I could get to it, which either means that they've indeed been getting feedback about it with these same things suggested, and/or there are TMs who have similar thoughts. Either way, it seems the issue is definitely known, even if it may not seem like it.

In other words, I unexpectedly left having some hope for this particular field of FFN. Just hope whichever IP holder for the theater next year can also play ball as well (which I coincidentally also heard mention of the topic from that same visit, so I also learned that's indeed a factor).

Side note, I think I have a hard read up my sleeve on what we could potentially get next year, I'll save it for the eventual 2027 speculation thread.

I went today

No new merch on sale, maybe they are waiting until after the 3 day weekend

Same, was bummed to find that out and effectively come out of that empty handed aside from getting to have the OP food one last time. Heard from the TM taking my order that the day after FFN is the only other day they're doing it.

Will say though, I noticed that the shirts with all featured IPs were nowhere in sight. Makes me glad I made grabbing mine my first order of business when I last went on the 15th. Guess my rule of thumb is to try and get them within a day of word getting out about discounts. Really thought they'd immediately discount though, considering that's what they do with HHN and I didn't even get a chance to get Chainsaw Man stuff for a friend.