Skip to Content

Is H20 Glow After Hours Worth It? (Review & FAQs)

Is H20 Glow After Hours Worth It? (Review & FAQs)

H2O Glow After Hours at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon is something we’ve had the pleasure of checking out before, and it’s such a cool way to spend an evening. We picked up on a few things when we went, and we thought it’d be helpful to share some tips and insights from our visit to help you plan your time if you decide to check one out.

Ready to learn why we love it? Let’s get into it!

H20 Returning for 2024

Disney’s H20 Glow After Hours will be returning to Typhoon Lagoon in 2024 and ticket sales for this year’s events kick off on March 19th for onsite resort guests (including Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Shades of Green) and on March 22nd for everyone else.

The price varies a bit between nights, but we have the 2024 dates and ticket prices available down below.

What is H20 Glow After Hours?

Over the past several years, Disney has begun offering specially ticketed events that start after the park closes. They call them “After Hours” and, in general, we’ve really loved our experiences at them.

H20 Glow is the water park version of an After Hours event. Like the ones at Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios, your H20 Glow After Hours at Typhoon Lagoon ticket lets you stay far past the official closing time to experience the park and attractions with fewer crowds.

h20 glow after hours

Plus, guests also get free snacks, drinks, and shorter lines on all the popular attractions. More on all of that below.

H20 Glow After Hours dates & times

H20 Glow is held on select nights from May 25 to August 31, 2024.

Ticket prices range from $75-$85 each:

Although the official time for the event runs from 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm, you can actually enter the park at 6:00 pm, which would give you a full 5 hours of fun.

How much does H20 Glow After Hours cost?

Prices for H20 Glow are:

Note: Child prices are the same as adult

  • Adult (ages 10 and up): $75-$85 plus tax (depending on date)
  • Child (ages 3 to 9): $75-$85 plus tax (depending on date)

Compare that to a regular water park ticket, which runs $74 plus tax for adults and $68 plus tax for kids.

H20 Glow Discounts

Annual Passholders and DVC (Disney Vacation Club) members can save $15 per ticket:

Note: Child prices are the same as adult

  • Adult (ages 10 and up): $60-$70 plus tax
  • Child (ages 3 to 9): $60-$70 plus tax

How to buy tickets

If you are staying onsite, including the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Shades of Green, you can purchase your tickets early by calling (407) 934-7639 beginning March 19.

Beginning March 22, all other guests (including those staying onsite who didn’t buy their tickets during the pre-sale) can begin buying tickets online.

What can I expect at H20 Glow After Hours?

All After Hours events have a few things in common:

  • Reduced crowds
  • Attractions
  • Entertainment
  • Free snacks (typically popcorn and assorted pre-packaged frozen treats, including Mickey Ice Cream Bars)
  • Free drinks (for After Hours events in the theme parks, you usually get bottled beverages, but at H20 Glow, you get unlimited fountain beverages)

Capacity limits/reduced crowds

The capacity limit at H20 Glow After Hours is a huge selling point for most people, including us.

Unfortunately, Disney doesn’t disclose exactly how many (or how few) tickets are sold to any of their After Hours events. But after attending several different ones, we can confirm that in nearly every instance that the parks are definitely less busy than what you’d see during regular park hours.

h20 glow after hours wave pool

And, those capacity limits mean that you’ll spend less time waiting in lines, and more time having fun.

At H20 Glow, the capacity limits also made it easy to find a chair/place to lounge, which is also nice.

Attractions and slides

Most people attend the After Hours events for the easy access to attractions, and that is true for H20 Glow, too.

Disney doesn’t ever guarantee which attractions will be open, but you can nearly always guarantee the most popular ones will be.

In fact, on our visit we found nearly everything open, including:

  • Bay Slides
  • Castaway Creek
  • Crush ‘n’ Gusher
  • Gangplank Falls
  • Humunga Kowabunga
  • Mayday Falls
  • Miss Adventure Falls
  • Storm Slides
  • Typhoon Lagoon Surf Pool

Entertainment

What would an After Hours event be without some entertainment?

h20 glow after hours DJ

In all honesty, it is kind of tricky to provide “entertainment” at a water park. There aren’t any fireworks or parades at H20 Glow, BUT there are DJs playing music, plus a few of your favorite Disney characters dressed for fun in the sun.

Free snacks & drinks

What is it about swimming that always makes you so darn hungry?!

Thankfully, just like the other After Hours events in the theme parks, you can also get free drinks and snacks (ice cream bars and popcorn) at H20 Glow.

h20 glow after hours snack stand

But, also like the other After Hours events, it can be kind of tricky to find the darn snack stands.

You need to look for the giant, inflatable neon/glowing pillars – but all the foliage makes them really tough to see from any distance.

And, the treat locations are very spread out in the park.

The drinks were a bit easier to find. Usually, you’d grab both drinks and snacks in 1 spot. But at H20 Glow, you have access to fountain beverages, and we found that Disney just left stacks of cups close to nearly all the dispensers.

h20 glow after hours

Tip: If you know you’ll want to hit up the free snacks a couple of times, it may make sense to pick your chairs near one of the free snack stands. Doing that will keep you from having to carry melting ice cream long distances.

H20 Glow FAQs

Are the restaurants open?

Yes! The app says that they are closed, but lots of the Quick Service spots were open, plus several of the bars.

h20 glow after hours quick service

Are towels provided?

Yes. Complimentary towels are available at Singapore Sal’s for onsite guests.

Towels can be rented for $2, but on our visit, after asking if we were onsite guests, we were given towels for free.

Are there lockers available?

Yes! There is a small fee, but there are lockers available.

What happens if it rains?

As you know, lightning and water don’t mix. Disney is very strict about keeping guests safe, and they will close the attractions/slides if lightning has been detected nearby.

Because most nights don’t typically sell out, we’d recommend waiting until your trip dates get closer before you purchase a ticket. That way, you can check the forecast for the evening of your event and potentially avoid having your evening be interrupted by storms.

But even if your visit is months away, you should still keep an eye on the ticket sales. If you do see a bunch of events selling out, it may be worth it to go ahead and grab your tickets.

Which should I do – a regular water park ticket, or attend H20 Glow?

It depends. If you prefer to spend all day at the water park, then you’ll definitely just want to purchase a regular park ticket and go during the day.

BUT, if you are like us and 5 hours is plenty, and you can stay awake long enough to make it to 11 pm, we think H20 is a good value. With shorter lines, you can get a lot done – and free snacks are a nice bonus (especially if you have hungry teens).

All in all, we had a blast and were very happy we went!

Lilo and stitch h20 glow after hours

H20 Glow After Hours Review

Below is our review from 2022.

After missing out on previous H20 Glow nights in years past, we were excited to finally get to check one out.

We arrived shortly after 6 pm and found quite a long line at the front of the park. We were a little surprised at the wait (which was about 15 minutes or so), but once things started moving, we got in quickly.

h20 glow after hours wristband

After tapping in, we collected our wristbands and complimentary light-up bracelet. The bracelet was fine – but, with a name like H20 Glow, we were kind of expecting to see more, I don’t know…glowing?

That was probably the biggest disappointment of the evening. We wanted EVERYTHING TO GLOW. Was that a practical request? Probably not. But aside from the bracelets, some string lights, a couple glow-in-the dark hula-hoops and mini bowling sets, and a bit of up lighting at the entrance, there wasn’t a lot of glowing going on. Really feel like this was a missed opportunity.

h20 glow after hours

After making our way inside, we stopped by the Singapore Sal’s to grab our towels. It took literally 2 minutes to do that; the line moved very fast.

Towels can be rented for $2, but on our visit, after asking if we were onsite guests, we were given towels for free.

The lockers nearby are also available to rent, if you’d like. We decided to risk it and left our stuff “hidden” under our towels. And by hidden, I just mean we draped our towels over our stuff and crossed our fingers that everything would be there when we got back. (Spoiler – it was!)

Even though we weren’t the first people in, there were still lots and lots of chairs available, and snagging 3 near the wave pool was easy.

We started off by spending some time trying not to get tossed about in the wave pool before we moved over to our favorite – the lazy river.

I lost track of how many times we went around, but we floated and floated and had a blast relaxing.

h20 glow after hours typhoon lagoon lazy river

We could hear the DJ from part of the lazy river, and the music was fun.

After a couple of loops, we could not ignore the rumbles from our stomachs any longer, so we headed out in search of snacks.

Although we could have gotten some free snacks, we saw people with churros, and we couldn’t get them out of our mind. We HAD to have churros. So, we found a snack stand selling them and handed over our money to Mickey. But, although we did pay out of pocket for that snack, we did grab some free sodas to go along with them.

typhoon lagoon h20 glow after hours

After downing our churros and Diet Coke, we felt brave enough to check out the slides.

Now, the slides were not a walk-on, but the wait wasn’t that terrible. And, to be perfectly honest – we only did 1 slide. That wasn’t intentional, it was just that we were having a lot of fun going between the wave pool and the lazy river, so we stuck with those.

Later in the evening, we found ourselves hungry again, and clearly the only cure for that was an ice cream bar.

h20 glow after hours

Grabbing one should have been an easy task, but it wasn’t.

We walked. And walked. And WALKED all over the park looking for the “free” treat stands. Once we finally found one, it was about 30 minutes before the party ended and the popcorn stash was greatly depleted, but they did still have plenty of Mickey bars.

We grabbed those and headed back to our chairs by the wave pool to enjoy them.

From our chairs we could see the dance party, and we watched the characters from afar, but by the time we made it over there, they had already left the stage for the night.

Mickey and Minnie h20 glow after hours

The park was starting to thin out for the night, so we grabbed our stuff, dropped off our towels, and headed out where we were happy to see Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, and Lilo and Stitch waving to guests along the path.

h20 glow after hours

What we liked (and didn’t like)

We honestly had a really fun evening. 5 hours is about the maximum amount of time that we’d probably spend at a water park anyway. The crowds were very manageable, and the fact that we didn’t have to worry about getting a sunburn or frying our feet on hot concrete was amazing.

h20 glow after hours

Our only complaints were the lack of snack stations and the fact that we were disappointed in the “Glow”. We took the name to be literal, so we were kind of sad to see that wasn’t the case. But, neither of those things ruined our night!

Would we do it again?

Definitely! It was a fun way to spend the evening, and with our AP discounts, we felt like we got a good value for our money.

The following products and services give us a commission on sales.

Get our free Quick Start Guide

Have our guide delivered right to your inbox with our 6-step Disney World planning process to make it less overwhelming. Snag our free guide ➡️

Take our course

Check out our course that will help you learn all about Walt Disney World planning with dozens of videos and downloadables for each step along the way. Get access now ➡️

Our recommend travel agency

We partner with Small World Vacations, Diamond Level Authorized Disney Vacations Planners in business since 1996. Get a quote now ➡️

Want to stay deluxe on a moderate budget?

It’s 1 of our top fave ways to save! By renting DVC points, you can stay in deluxe accommodations for a fraction of the price. Check availability ➡️

Private car service

Quicksilver Tours will transport you in style. They assist with luggage at the airport, provide car seats, and include a free grocery stop. Book your car ➡️

Need a stroller, wheelchair, or scooter?

Buena Vista Scooters is a company with a great reputation who offers in-person resort drop off and pick up of strollers, scooters, and wheelchairs. Book your rental ➡️

Amazon recommendations

Check out our Amazon shop with trip essentials we love. Start shopping ➡️

WDW Prep merch

Get WDW Prep merch to show off your Disney knowledge (especially fun for spotting others during your trip!). Check out the WDW Prep merch shop ➡️

Heather Thomas

Team RP

Saturday 4th of June 2022

Thank you for all the detailed info! Where in the park are the free snack stands?