Returning for its second year, Universal Studios Hollywood’s Fan Fest Nights is gearing up to take fandom to the next level. There are new experiences, including the ONE PIECE stunt show, the Scooby-Doo mystery on the backlot, the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Japanese short film, as well as a Sailor Moon meet-and-greet, and the Forbidden Forest walkthrough.
Fan favorite experience, Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep, returns, as well as colorful Yoshis meet-and-greet in SUPER NINTENDO WORLD. With so much to do, is there enough time to experience it all? We’ll break down each experience and give you a guide on how to best tackle the night.
What Is Fan Fest Nights?
This Universal Studios Hollywood annual after-hours event is dedicated to celebrating fans and their favorite fandom. It’s specially designed to transport guests into an immersive world through interactive experiences. This event allows guests to interact with their favorite characters and amplify the theme with curated food, drinks, and merchandise.
The event begins at 7:30 PM, but if you want to get an early start, there are options to purchase an Early Access ticket.
ONE PIECE: Grand Pirate Show
ONE PIECE returns to Fan Fest, but it’ll be more than just the meet-and-greet photo op this time. Catch the Straw Hat crew at the Waterworld venue in the brand new stunt show ONE PIECE: Grand Pirate Show. The venue is transformed into Midori Island, where the Straw Hat crew is searching for Pop Greens. Unlucky for them, the Marines and other adversaries had the same idea. Chaos ensues, pyro, flames, explosion!
This live show is one of the best shows Universal Studios Hollywood has ever put on. The stunts and fight choreography are perfectly crafted to highlight each character’s strengths and powers. The way they showcased Buggy the Clown’s Chop-Chop fruit power is so creative. We were blown away by the entire show – from story to light, sound design to pyrotechnics. There are plenty of hilarious laugh-out-loud moments and cameos to satisfy the fans.
ONE PIECE fans should definitely make this the top of their list. And don’t worry, there is no splash zone in this show, so don’t worry about getting soaked if you end up in the front row.
For us, this was our favorite experience this year. We would go again just to see this show – totally worth the price of admission! After the show, you can line up and meet the Straw Hat crew at their photo op located right outside the Waterworld venue.
Scooby-Doo Meets the Universal Monsters: Mystery on the Backlot
This year, the Scooby-Doo gang takes over Little Europe, and they need your help to solve the mystery. There’s a phantom director who has unleashed the Universal Monsters in the backlot. Gather clues and help Shaggy, Daphne, Fred, Velma, and Scooby-Doo solve the case.
The best part about this experience is getting to walk around in Little Europe. The original filming location for classic Universal Monsters movies. This setting is perfect for this Scooby-Doo mystery. A character is stationed in a different location, so guests will have to walk to each spot to find different clues. However, due to large crowds, it can get overwhelming and lead to a lot of waiting just to get to the front.
The concept of this Scooby-Doo experience is great, but the execution could use a bit of tightening. For example, the pamphlet gives you a list of suspects and clues, with blank pages to take down notes. The instructions are tedious, and it begins to feel like work rather than a fun, immersive experience. For fans who like to crack the case, this is something you may end up dedicating a large chunk of time to.
Keep in mind that you do not need to solve the mystery to complete this experience. If you’ve had your fill of walking around and seeing the Scooby-Doo gang and the Universal Monsters, you can make your way to “The Big Reveal”, which is a short stage show where they unveil the Phantom Director.
We loved exploring Little Europe and solving puzzles, but with so much to do at Fan Fest Nights, we didn’t feel we could dedicate enough time to fully experience it. You may want to dedicate at least an hour to this, and that’s not including the time to take the tram down and back up to the park.
Our suggestion: Save this experience for later on in the night, once the crowd thins out.
Forbidden Forest: Search for the Hippogriff
Venture into the Forbidden Forest and encounter magic creators to help a Hippogriff in need! This is a brand new walkthrough experience in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Each group is guided by a professor who leads you through the treacherous forest, using spells should danger arise.
This is an outdoor walkthrough, and the production design is excellent. We encountered pixies, a giant Arcomantula, and even a centaur. The Hippogriff is breathtaking. It stands tall and has a wingspan of 20 feet. Seeing the Hippogriff made us really feel as if we were surrounded by the magic of the Wizard World.
However, if we weren’t standing close enough to the professor, we couldn’t hear anything he was saying. We missed a lot of the story due to this. Being at the front of the group is not a guarantee, but if you can manage to get to the front, it’ll give you the best experience. Overall, it’s a gorgeously designed experience, but unless you’re a Potter fan, there are other experiences to prioritize.
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Makes Her Debut
For the first time, US fans will get to see the anime short film “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon the Miracle: Moon Palace Chapter Deluxe”. This is located inside the DreamWorks theater and would not take up much of your time. This short film originally debuted as part of Universal Studios Japan’s popular Cool Japan.
The most exciting part about Sailor Moon being a part of Fan Fest Nights is the meet-and-greet. Located in a separate line outside of the DreamWorks theater, you can meet Sailor Moon! For fans who want a chance to meet Usagi, definitely make this the priority. Due to her popularity, the line fills up quickly, and it will be closed to ensure she can greet each guest.
Our suggestion if you want to meet Sailor Moon: Make this your priority. Head to her meet-and-greet line and prepare to wait, as she will take the time to interact with each guest. You do not have to watch the short film in the DreamWorks theater to meet her.
Yoshi Meet-and-Greet and the Return of Dungeons and Dragons
Don’t forget to head to the Lower Lot for colorful Yoshis photo-ops and Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep.
The Yoshi photo-op is simply that, a dedicated place to meet different color Yoshis. There is no specially designed experience, but it does take place inside SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, which is pretty immersive in itself.
For Dungeons & Dragons, it is almost identical to last year’s experience, with a few notable improvements. The audio is much louder and clearer for the actors, so you won’t miss any of the story or dialogue. They’ve also made it a bit more interactive and gave clearer directions to guests to move into specific areas in a room.
We were fans of this last year, and we were happy to experience it again.
Since these are technically returning experiences, we saved them for later in the night once we’ve gone through the new additions. Do keep in mind that SUPER NINTENDO WORLD closes earlier than the event itself, so if you want to meet Yoshi, you have to get in before it closes.
Overall Thoughts on Fan Fest Nights 2026
This event really is made for the fans. It’s clear that Universal Studios Hollywood took great care to ensure every experience feels immersive and fun, and best of all, they’re not afraid to try new things.
The ONE PIECE stunt show is top tier – and we haven’t been able to stop talking about it since our visit. Getting to meet Sailor Moon was so special. Growing up watching the anime, and getting to interact with her in person brought up a lot of emotions.
The Scooby-Doo experience can be fun, but it can also be time-consuming, especially if you want to try to do everything. The concept of being in the middle of a Scooby-Doo mystery is great, but the clues and directions felt too tedious, and the large crowd deterred us from wanting to finish solving clues. We do love seeing the characters and Universal Monsters roam around Little Europe and mingle with guests.
Unfortunately, the Forbidden Forest walkthrough didn’t work for us. Not being able to hear the professor unless you were always at the front of the group made us miss out on a lot of the context and story.
We love that Universal Studios brought Fan Fest Nights back for a second year. It’s such a unique and fun way to celebrate fandom, and there are already so many improvements since its debut in 2025. The production design was fantastic, and there’s so much detail in every experience. We hope to see it return year after year and make it even bigger for the next one.
How To Best Use Your Time at Fan Fest Nights
Before you head out to Fan Fest Nights, make sure you know which experience you want to prioritize. If you’re a ONE PIECE fan, you should absolutely make that the first thing you do upon entering. The Waterworld venue can hold a large crowd, but keep in mind there are only three showtimes: 8:30 PM, 10:00 PM, and 12:00 AM. Take into account how long you’ll be waiting in the queue before the show and plan your evening accordingly.
Food-wise, the longest wait was at the ONE PIECE-themed restaurant “Sanji’s Galley”. The ONE PIECE bar was also very crowded. We ended up not getting food there due to the long wait time and opted for the Sailor Moon Bento Box instead.
Sailor Moon fans – if meeting Usagi is a must for you, head to her meet-and-greet line as soon as possible. The line can get long. For us, even though the event began at 7:30 PM, her photo-op didn’t start until 8 PM. By the time it was our turn, it was 8:40 PM.
We also noticed that the Search for the Hippogriff wait time was pretty high, hitting 110 minutes at one point. We kept track of the wait time using the Universal Studios app, as it fluctuates.
Universal Fan Fest Nights is an after-hours, separately ticketed event exclusive to Universal Studios Hollywood. All experiences and activations are included every event night for guests to enjoy. Tickets are available for purchase here to attend the event which runs for 11 more nights: April 24-25; May 1-3, 7-9, 14-16, 2026.
