Review — Universal Fan Fest Nights 2026

We were brought out to Universal Fan Fest Nights 2026. Here is our experience of everything Fan Fest Nights offered up

It looks like it is going to truly be an annual thing, with Universal Fan Fest Nights coming and going for 2026. This would be the latest limited-time event that Universal Studios has been putting on that falls in line with its Horror Night in style, but brings us more of the family or general fun for those who do not like to get scared. IPs like Scooby Doo, Dungeons & Dragons, and One Piece, among the many that were out there this year. We had a chance to head out to experience it once again, and here is our review and thoughts on how Universal Fan Fest Nights is holding up. If you want to have more of a visual experience, you can also check out the photo gallery we have for the event as well. For now, let us see if this year shows signs that it will be able to stay.

Unlike our normal review of things, we will just go in the order we were able to experience things out at this year’s Fan Fest Nights. It should come as no surprise that we all went down to Waterdeep to see how the Dungeons & Dragons experience has grown or evolved. I missed out on this one last year, so it was all new to me. Something that was a good thing, as it seems like not much changed for those who did experience it in 2025, but it was still an amazing experience in general. Much like many of the Horror Nights walkthroughs, this one tells a story in the setting of DnD, where Xanathar is threatening the lands. Many prefect performances from the actors, and animatronics on display to fully immerse you in the setting. Specifically, the Mimic, which transforms live, and then the bigger pull of Xanathar, who was made for Fan Fest Nights by the Jim Henson workshop. If the acting and interactivity of all of this were not already a selling factor, these were just the perfect cherries on top of it all. Even those who experienced the whole story a year ago were in awe at how these creations evolved and were able to ignore the fact that it was a similar experience. Maybe, if this goes on for another year, they can further the story to go along with the amazing work all involved put in for this one.

Kicking the Fan Fest Nights off with a massive start, we began to meander around looking for the next little immersion. Before that, though, we all caught sight of the Dungeons And Dragons tavern to grab a quick bite to eat and a libation to quench our thirst. There were many other options out there, as you will be able to see in the Gallery, but I went with an Eldritch Blast and a Gelatinous Cube to partake in. They were both different affairs that you would normally not get in Universal Studios, but also nothing too insane to write home about. The cube was just a stylized Jello of sorts, and the drink was about what one would expect in a theme park. Not terrible, outside of the edible glitter that was on the drink, which followed me everywhere for the rest of the Fan Fest Nights experience. Hells, I am still finding bits of glitter around the office to this day from that. It was a fun choice, but not one that I will make again. Especially as we needed to head off to our next location, and I need as many free hands as possible to enjoy. It was now time for us to enter Jurassic Park.

So, I mention needing hands for Jurassic Park, as this next experience at Fan Fest Nights was more of a photo op experience than it was anything fully immersive. That is not to say there was nothing to help immerse us into the IP, but it was mostly a free roam around to look at props, replicas of the dinosaurs, and a few little performances to pull you into the Isla Nublar setting. That said, there was still a whole lot of fun in this area, even for those who are not fans of just taking pictures. In fact, this one was filled with so many look-alike actors who nailed the roles in look and personality. Including John Hammond, who I could have sworn was the real actor, with how close they were able to get. All of that was fun, but not much else to do. Until the Triceratops was brought out. A full moving animatronic suit that I have only seen a few times in videos before Fan Fest Nights. Not only did it get to have a spotlight, but then a whole mock zoological showcase happened with the actors interacting, as well as fans allowed to join in the fun. Given that there were more kids at this outing, I opted to stand back and let them have the fun, but it was so exciting that I did feel that inner child start to join in the fun vicariously.

From here, we all decided to wrap up the final experience before heading to the other areas of the park where Fan Fest Nights was happening. This time, it was off to Super Nintendo World to go on the hunt for Yoshi. This year, Yoshi was the big push, and there was an Easter Egg sort of experience set up. Well, kind of. There were many different photo ops with the various colors of Yoshi that were out there, as well as a puzzle book given at the entrance to the land to facilitate the scavenger hunt we were tasked with. One that was able to be solved rather quickly, not by just us, but by most of the people in the park. This led to some rather long lines, more than expected, to get the prize for solving the whole puzzle. This prize, a photo with Mario and Green Yoshi. That was it. A good chunk of time wandering about and standing in lines to have the chance to take a photo and add a gold sticker to your crown. It felt like such a waste, and we did not stick around the land long enough to even get our photos, as it felt like it would just cut into the time of the other things Fan Fest Nights had to offer up. The first major dud of the night, to the point we did not even try to head back into the land after the crowds had cleared, as it just felt so uninspired.

Thankfully, for there, we all took off to the backlot of Universal Studios, where one of the other bigger events was going down for Fan Fest Nights. Scooby Doo and the gang had been called out to solve a mystery surrounding the Universal Monsters and needed our help. Another scavenger hunt, of sorts, but with more immersion, puzzles to solve, characters to interact with, and monsters roaming the area. After taking a short little tram ride down, we were let off, given our clue book, and let loose to solve the mystery of who was shutting down the film production. From there, we went from location to location on the actual movie sets to figure out which of the members of the crew were behind unleashing all of the real monsters to halt production. A true Scooby-Doo mystery. One that would have hit harder had the crowd down there been a little thinner. Each member of the gang had their own little puzzle station that lines up with the book, but it was next to impossible to get close enough to solve before some random person just blurted things out. While the cast did a great job to help cover that up when they could, it was still a bit of a bummer to have that immersion spoiled by humanity. That said, all of the cast, monsters, and sets that were built were spectacular. Then the full stage performance to show off who was the true evil mastermind before getting on the tram to head back was so much fun. Even though it never changed when we were there, apparently, it would be a different character each day. A fun little bit to make each puzzle feel like it was planned out and not something that could be spoiled, unless you were on-site.

While we may have missed out on some of the fun that Scooby Doo was built toward for Fan Fest Nights, that does not mean we did not have a lot of fun wandering about and solving what we could along the way. So much time, in fact, by the time we made it back up to the main park, we had missed out on the One Piece show and the Sailor Moon show. From what we saw, the Sailor Moon show was mostly just a little sit-down affair with a photo op with the characters after. One Piece looked as if they themed the Waterworld show to fit in the anime setting. It was sad to know we had just missed the final showing of it, as the action and explosive show in general is always a blast, and I can only imagine how it would have all played out with the new theming just for Fan Fest Nights. Sadly, it would not be, so we grabbed one last snack and opted to look around for merch before we went down to the final big excursion of the night. There really is not much else to say on all of that, as it all felt like the usual things you could pick up at Universal Studios, just with the specific branding for the event or the IPs at the event. Along with the “exclusive” pricing for it all, we did not waste much money picking up any of that. Even the basics of the Xanathar small plushie were close to $40 USD, so that was an easy skip, so we could head off to the Wizarding World to check things out.

For Fan Fest Nights 2026, the Wizarding World was allowing us all to head deep into the dark forest to learn more of the darkness that was held within. This included going through parts of the line management that I had never seen used before at the parks, which in itself was a bit of a treat. This was a massive draw to the area, and one of the longest lines we had to stand in all day. All so we could be brought to the paths and go through a bit of a live experience in the setting. One, that while performed well and had some fun photo ops to have, felt like it was more of the conga line rush we would see at things like Horror Nights, and less of a celebration of the IP. I missed out on so much of it all, as I was placed in the back of the group. Most of the time, I missed what the actors were saying, or would walk into the area well after the effect played out. I could see what they were going for, but just like the Scooby Doo experience, this one fell flat due to the crowds and how the line management was happening. The cast members did their best, but it felt like the layout and timing worked on paper, but would not work with the human swarms out there. I think I heard cast members telling me to move along more than any of the performances, just because those in front were taking their time and not allowing everyone to enjoy the experience. Not the best way to end the night, but also not a problem that the performers could truly manage. That was more of a logistics thing.

I will say I had a good time at Universal Fan Fest Nights 2026, in general. There were more faults than highlights, that is for sure, but many of those fell on the participants more than the performers or the layout of the area. Which was a sad thing, as that does make me not want to try to come back and deal with that, so I can have the amazing things as we did for Dungeons And Dragons, Scooby Doo, or Jurassic Park. I was a bit let down that there was more of a focus on photo ops and “influencer bait” than anything truly immersive. For Universal Fan Fest Nights 2027, I hope that the team sees all of that and aims to bring the magic that some of them have to all of the IPs they will include. Then we can all be excited to see what the following years have to offer up, and maybe not feel like we are paying a higher price for a lesser experience. Maybe then, the masses will have learned how to be respectful, too, so all the hard work can truly shine and not be about who can capture the best pic or video.

Universal Fan Fest Nights is another limited experience of Universal Studios and ran from April 23^rd until May 16^th, 2026. Passes, all food, and drinks were purchased by us.