Disney Jollywood Nights
Disney Jollywood Nights is a separately ticketed, after-hours holiday party held on select nights in November and December at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida. First held on November 11, 2023, the event recasts the park as a glamorous Hollywood Christmas party of the 1930s and 1940s, mixing exclusive stage shows, live music, themed food and drink, rare character appearances and short waits for the park's major attractions. It gave Hollywood Studios a hard-ticket holiday party of its own alongside Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom.
History
Disney announced Jollywood Nights in June 2023, during its Halfway to the Holidays promotion, as the first major new holiday party at Walt Disney World in many years. The inaugural season ran on ten nights between November 11 and December 20, 2023, from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., with tickets priced from $159 to $179. Opening night drew criticism for long lines at food locations and character meetings, and Disney adjusted operations during the first season.
The event returned in 2024 in an expanded form. The party lengthened from four hours to five, running from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. across thirteen nights from November 9 to December 21, with additional entertainment and more check-in points. It returned again in 2025, on thirteen nights from November 8 to December 22, when ticket holders were first able to enter the park as early as 5:30 p.m. By then Jollywood Nights had settled in as the second pillar of the resort's Christmas season, deliberately different in tone from the family-centred party at Magic Kingdom: where that event leans on parades, cookies and cocoa, Jollywood is built around cocktails, dance floors, jazz and evening dress, and guests are encouraged to dress in vintage Hollywood style.
Event
The party's centrepiece stage show is Disney Holidays in Hollywood, performed at the Theater of the Stars on Sunset Boulevard. Modelled on the television Christmas specials of Hollywood's golden age, it is hosted by Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy and features live singers, dancers and a jazz band, with appearances by Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Belle and Princess Tiana in seasonal costumes.
A second new show created for the event, What's This? Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Sing-Along, plays in the Hyperion Theater, while the park's holiday fireworks show, Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM!, closes the entertainment line-up. Around the park, smaller offerings fill out the evening: a Twilight Soirée dance party themed to the Tip Top Club of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, jazz performances over dinner at The Hollywood Brown Derby, a Latin street party, Holiday Fiesta en la Calle, on Commissary Lane, and, in later seasons, Glisten!, an ice-skating show on Hollywood Boulevard. Echo Lake's dinosaur, Gertie, wears a Santa hat for the season, and a giant Christmas tree stands in the lake.
Character meetings emphasise figures rarely seen in the parks, alongside Mickey and friends in party-exclusive outfits. Attractions including Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Dash and Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway operate through the night with waits far below daytime levels, and dozens of event-only dishes and drinks are sold at locations around the park.
The party requires its own ticket regardless of daytime admission, and Hollywood Studios closes early to other guests on event nights. Like Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, capacity is limited compared with a normal park day, though the event's emphasis is on entertainment rather than rides.
See also
- Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
- Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
- Disney's Hollywood Studios
- Disney After Hours
- Walt Disney World