Not Fun: A Cancelled H2O Glow After Hours at Typhoon Lagoon

Everyone knows that summer Florida afternoon thunderstorms are a common sight. They normally dissipate quickly, but what if one started when you were at the gates of Dinsey’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, about to attend a pricey Disney H2O Glow After Hours event?

Before I flood you with details about my experience on July 30, 2024, I should probably introduce myself: I’m Ella, an intern on the Statistics Team at TouringPlans. I can normally be found creating simulations to predict first-hour attraction wait times, but today I am telling you about – to put it plainly – standing in the rain for three hours.

Note that the organization of this post is bit odd: as it happens David (who also works at TouringPlans, more on him later) was there the very same night and co-authored this post with me. His experiences are in GREEN, and my (Ella’s) are in black. Plus, our time shifts around a bit, so please bear with us as we tell our story!

In the beginning …

It began on a dark and stormy night… actually, it didn’t. It had been a very nice day for Central Florida in late July. My dad and I were staying at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, so we spent the morning at the pool and had lunch at the other monorail resorts, taking it easy in preparation for my first visit to a Disney water park. There were some clouds in the sky, but no afternoon thunderstorms – just some much-appreciated shade from the cloud coverage. The sky first turned foreboding in the late afternoon as we walked from our room to the Great Ceremonial House to catch an Uber to Typhoon Lagoon.

On the ride over, our driver asked us about the weather, so we both scoured the weather apps to get a good idea of what would be happening the rest of the night. At that point, it said that there were storms on three sides of Disney property and that they would stay in place for about an hour before dissolving.

With an H2O Glow ticket, you can enter the park at 6 p.m., an hour before regular hours are over. Our Uber dropped us off at about 6:20 p.m., and we immediately noticed that many guests were leaving. And even though it was after 6:00 p.m., Disney was not admitting after-hours guests like us into the park.

After approximately 7 minutes of waiting near the ticket booths, we started seeing rain drops. A minute or two later, it was pouring. I guess it only makes sense since we came to Typhoon Lagoon: we were getting the theming we paid for! We were fortunate to be under a roof, and we expected the rain to pass quickly.

We all felt bad for the lines of H2O Glow guests stranded in an uncovered area between the ticket booths and the entrance points. Upon scanning the crowd, I noticed a familiar face in that drenched horde: it was the one and only David from TouringPlans!

David’s entrance experience

I mostly write software for TouringPlans, but Ella and I thought it’d be fun to step out of our normal roles to generate some content for our website. We hoped to create a definitive overview of H2O Glow After Hours for our blog, but what we got was a tale of woe.

My family arrived a bit after 6:00 p.m. On the drive over, it was not raining, but I saw lightning and heard thunder. My daughter was reluctant to get out of the car due to the atmospheric rumbling, but I put my faith in the multitude of lightning rods that Disney has around its parks, and we made our way to the park entrance. There were long lines at the entrance points, and Disney clearly was not letting people into the park. No one explained what was going on (the park should have been open to both day guests at After Hours guests prior to 7 p.m.), but I assumed weather was the cause. So we waited, optimistically using that time to apply sunscreen.

After several minutes, Disney started admitting H2O Glow guests, and we moved closer to the entrance points, exposing us to the open sky as the deluge began. Despite some protection from the H2O Glow After Hours sign in front of the entrance points, we got pretty wet. Apologetic Cast Members eventually admitted us (each After Hours guest needs to put on a wristband, so the process is slow), and we entered the park in moderate-to-heavy rain.

With no attractions operating, our plan to drop our bags on a chair and rush off to a few slides before the party started was no longer valid. So what could we do? Stores and restaurants were open, and I thought about trying to make our way to a covered eating area for some respite. But even though we were in swimsuits, wandering around in the rain was unpleasant, so we quickly grabbed cover. In our case, we huddled in front of lockers near the restroom, waiting for the storm to pass. Many others did the same, and throughout the evening we found guests along the sides of buildings and in stores, trying to stay dry.

Back to you, Ella …

Still outside the park, I saw this little beauty brought out by Cast Members:

The fact that it said temporarily didn’t dampen our hopes too much, and nobody got out of line to leave. Soon, people began entering the park and were told to go to the gift shop or find other cover. We waited for entrance point lines to shorten and then made a mad dash through the rain from our covered spot near the ticket booths. With our wristbands secured, we stepped foot into a Disney water park for the first time! We were greeted by this lovely sign explaining some of the park’s backstory:

Heading to the gift shop, we saw that it was the in-park check-in location for the event, plus it offered protection from the rain, so there was a large crowd. We thought that the next best thing to do would be getting a locker for our bag. We headed towards the locker area, but since the park was closed, locker rentals were unavailable. By true coincidence, we ended up right by David’s family. We stayed dry under the eaves covering the lockers and chatted for a bit, marveled at the rain, and watched kids splash around in ankle-deep water on the sidewalks.

The rain slowed, and we hoped the park would open soon, so we parted ways, with my dad and I heading to Leaning Palms for some supper. It was around 7:00 p.m. by now and only just sprinkling. On the way over there, we saw Cast Members wheeling out carts of ice cream novelties, which we took as a good sign.

My dad and I enjoyed our chicken and shrimp bowl; it was very well seasoned and fresh. The shrimp were even a little spicy, which tasted great, even if my stomach didn’t appreciate it. Sadly, all of the covered tables were taken, so we ate standing. As we ate, we were able to grab a table as a family left, and we sat down to work on our game plan.

We were very excited to meet Phineas and Ferb right near our current spot, so we considered staying where we were, but we didn’t want to put our bag in a sandy area in order to claim a chair. As we searched for a better chair, we heard a park-wide announcement that all attractions were closed due to weather. Based on that, we knew it would be at least 20 minutes until anything in the park would open, so our game plan changed. Prioritizing our top attraction, we headed to Miss Adventure Falls.

Locker rentals had opened up, so I got a locker while my dad went to Mini Donuts. We celebrated finding a dry place for our bag with heavenly donuts covered in chocolate sauce!

After that, we changed from flip-flops into water shoes and prepared to do as many attractions as we could once the park opened again. As we began our mission, we were distracted by people with popcorn. It was 8 p.m. now, and the H2O Glow event had started! Even though the attractions were not open, we were able to get “free” popcorn and ice cream novelties.

As sprinkles of rain continued to fall, we ended up at a building adorned with shark jaws, and outside that building was one of the tables with snacks! We grabbed some wet popcorn and Mickey-shaped ice cream and then ran for an awning on the side of the building. There were some chairs and barstools there, so we made ourselves at home along with about 10 other people. As we snacked, we pondered whether this was the check-in location for the old Shark Reef section of the park, and when I looked up I saw David walking towards us.

Checking in on David and his family …

During one of the lulls in the rain, my family moved deeper into the park and found some chairs under an umbrella. This was more comfortable than standing outside a restroom, but my family was wet and cold, so I was sent in search of towels, which are included as part of the H2O Glow event. I went to Singapore Sal’s, near the front of the park, which had become a refugee camp for guests and lifeguards seeking shelter from the rain.

There had been a run on towels, and the first cashier I visited had none. Fortunately, a guest directed me to a different cashier that had just received a shipment. Warmed by towels, we relocated to a drier, more-spacious spot with tables and lounge chairs near the entrance to Humuga Cowabunga (which was the first slide we planned to ride). This was close to one of the four designated “free snack” locations, and we headed there just after 8:00 p.m.

Since there was nothing to do in the park other than eat free ice cream and popcorn, the snack stand line grew quickly. Disney distributed Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Bars, Mickey’s Premium Cookies ’N Cream Ice Cream Sandwiches, and popcorn as quickly as Cast Members could dish them out in the light rain. My family consumed several of each.

Complimentary fountain drinks were available in separate locations near the snacks, but that offering was a bust for me: the first station I visited was self-service and was out of the two first drinks that I tried to get. The second one was a Coke Freestyle machine staffed by a Cast Member who told me it had only lemonade and Powerade. I walked away thirsty and thought about taking a photo of people taking cover from the rain in odd spaces when I discovered that Ella was one of my potential subjects.

And back to Ella

By now, we had been here for about 2.5 hours. My dad grabbed more snacks before we joined David’s family again under a covered, sandy area where a few Cast Members were also taking shelter. We chatted about how the night had been and things we could mention in this blog post until 9:02 p.m. Finally, the nearby Cast Members told us that the park was closed for the night and that the event was canceled. It was pouring again as we schlepped back to the locker to grab our things. At the park exit, Cast Members offered more Mickey Bars and distributed “vouchers”. The vouchers explained that our tickets would automatically convert to single-day tickets valid at either water park within the next year.

For any other options, you had to talk to Guest Services, and that line was at least 100 people deep. While waiting, one Cast Member tried to deter people from getting in line, stating that no refunds would be granted. We also heard that any Guest Services location could help, so we got out of line and committed to pursuing this later, excited to not have to stand in the rain for much longer.

There still remained one issue: how are we getting back to the Polynesian? David’s family drove, so they left immediately. A few minutes after we got out of the line and said our goodbyes, two buses pulled up. A Cast Member said that they called a few Disney Springs buses, so onward we went to Disney Springs. We looked around at the Co-op and the pin store before heading back to the Polynesian. Those who tell you to wear comfortable shoes when at Disney World offer great advice: that short time in flip-flops at Disney Springs was a miserable experience for my already-hurting feet. We finally arrived back at our room close to 10:30 p.m.

David’s exit experience

Walking through the parking lot of a water park in the rain at night was a new experience for me, and I don’t recommend it. After dodging cars and puddles and looking in some wrong rows, we found our car, got in, and left Typhoon Lagoon with minimal trouble. That changed once we approached our first intersection after leaving the park as traffic ground to a halt.

I saw plenty of horrible traffic in the Orlando area this summer, but traffic generally flowed well on Disney property. That was not true on July 30. A combination of the weather and the number of people on the roads turned my 6-mile drive into a 75-minute ordeal, and Ella was no doubt resting in her Polynesian room well before I got back to my off-property condo. I visited Guest Services at Animal Kingdom the next day to request a refund. By that point my Glow Nights admission had converted to 1-day water park tickets automatically, but after about 15 minutes, I got a full refund.

Ella’s final thoughts …

I guess you could say it wasn’t a terrible experience. We got a refund the next morning without issue at Hollywood Studios guest services. We had free snacks and got to see Typhoon Lagoon. The food at Leaning Palms was definitely better than expected. We did go to get wet, and that we did, just maybe not in the way we intended. I would love to do another H2O Glow to actually experience the event. We didn’t have the best time there, but now we know what the worst case is if we go again.

… and David’s

Unlike Ella, I had been to Typhoon Lagoon before, and it’s my favorite water park of the several that I’ve visited in the United States. I was looking forward to the rides and the wave pool, and my family structured our week so that my young daughter could stay out very late this one night. But it wasn’t a great night for my family.

The uncertainty of the night was stressful, and the only communications we got from Disney were periodic “all attractions are closed” announcements until the event was called off around 9:00 p.m. I would have appreciated updates via push notification or in-park announcements about what Disney’s plans were at various points in the night.

During the last hour we enjoyed several free snacks — but the included beverage offerings were broken in at least two of the stations. Once the event was canceled, Disney was left with thousands of guests who paid $75+ per person to sit around for 2+ hours in the rain, possibly eating free Mickey Bars and popcorn for one of those hours. Those guests weren’t going to be happy, even with Cast Members handing out Mickey Bars by the exit.

Disney clearly has procedures for when an H2O Glow event is cut short due to weather, but I think they could use some improvements. To minimize hassle for guests, it’d be nice if all options (including refunds) were available instantly via app or web so that no one feels it’s necessary to queue up in a Guest Services line late at night in the rain. It was interesting to see how Disney handled operations during this storm, and it made me wonder how Disney prices this sort of event for profitability, knowing that it will be canceled on some days.

All in all, although we enjoyed talking to Ella and eating snacks, my family was cold, wet, and tired. We all walked away disappointed at the end of the night, my 8-year-old daughter saying, “This was not fun. I thought it’d be really fun.” That captured my family’s sentiment well.

Still, if the schedule and my budget allow for it, I’ll try H2O Glow in the future, and I’ll hope for better weather so that I can body surf in an uncrowded wave pool and blast through Crush ‘n’ Gusher to my heart’s content.

How would you have felt about this experience? What might Disney have done to make waiting in the rain with uncertainty more pleasant? And what’s a reasonable approach to guest recovery for a partially executed party like this? Let us know in the comments!