There is no Review thread, so yes. Lets hear your thoughts
Alrighty, let's do this! I'll review each experience in its own little section. The only experience I did not attend was the Yoshis, as I wasn't too stoked about it last year and I got my fill watching it on YT. Also, I am explaining my own personal experience and opinions. If you had a bad run on any experiences, or a better run on mine that does not invalidate either of our experiences.
And of course:
HEAVY SPOILERS!!!
One Piece: OH. MY. GOSH. I've only read two chapters of the manga in high school so I am far from the demographic this show was made for, but I was absolutely AMAZED. Ironically those two chapters of the manga had all the info I needed to fully understand the show, and even then they explained everything as needed. The stunts were incredible, the actors did such an amazing job, and the show as so DYNAMIC. Zoro making his first appearance on the bleachers was so hype. It really felt like Universal sat down, looked at every possible entryway the actors could use, and just went ham. The teleporting effect on the Marine General (I can't fully remember his name) was so simple yet so effective. Absolutely INCREDIBLE stunt show. If Universal made One Piece take over Waterworld for the Summer I would NOT complain! I've watched the Waterworld movie and show literally my entire life, we can take a break for something else!!! But that's a tangent.
Jurassic World: ...okay this one was just okay. I liked the photo ops, it was neat reading all the history of the vehicles and the little details like the Jurassic Park 3 ringtone playing was awesome. When I attended the experience most of the character actors I wanted to see went on break, so I didn't really get to meet them. I did get to meet Dennis Nedry (yellow jacket guy with the shaving cream) and he was awesome!!! Otherwise, pretty neat little section but nothing stellar; but I think Universal could really benefit from utilizing this space for something similar every year for both FFN and HHN. The lighting was so simple yet immersed me relatively well. With a higher budget and some more emphasis on story and atmosphere, I could see this becoming a fan favorite aspect of both events. Might I say that the rumor of Fortnitemares in Hollywood would neatly into here...
DND: I didn't get to experience this one last year, so I was pretty happy seeing how low the wait time was! I enjoyed it a lot! I have next to zero knowledge on DND so the giant projector showing you facts about the characters you'll get to meet was really appreciated; good on them for thinking of that. The actors I was paired with had such good chemistry with both each other and the few audience members that actually participated (I tried!). My only complaint was the audio of each room bleeding into each other at times, yet somehow when you're actually in the room the mics are really quiet. But that complaint only really was a thing in the first room with no activity, otherwise extremely immersive! I absolutely love that for the FFN equivalent to mazes they are taking a story approach and guiding you through, with Star Trek and DND.
Scooby Doo: I don't know if this is a hot take, but I actually really liked it! I sadly didn't get to spend a lot of time in it because the night was going so fast and there was so much to do, but from what I saw I really enjoyed it. I loved the atmospheric lighting and the projection effects, and of course the character actors never missed a beat. It was awesome solving clues and all of a sudden the wolf man is crouching down in front of me saying hi to a kid, and then he strolls on over to Daphne and has an interaction with her. I've seen a few people on this thread mention that most of the time the characters didn't really interact with each other but at my time there the opposite was true. Not invalidating anyone's experiences at all, if you didn't get to see that then that's a huge bummer and that is a problem, but I got to see some really cute moments with them. At one point Frank's Monster guided a toddler to Shaggy and they have an awesome interaction with FM causing smoke on a grill and trying to take Shaggy's sandwich. Just incredible. The mystery aspect as well was super fun! Short? Yes. But with me staying very little at the experience and STILL completing everything by a literal hair that's very appreciated. The final reveal was also such a cool idea, but I wish the screens they used didn't look so cheap. Hollywood is
the movie park guys who does the green screen look horrid? Was this as grand as BTTF? No. But for the big budget cuts and how small the space is, they really utilized it well and I really love how creative they're getting with how they utilize the backlot. With three point texas getting a huge rework, I doubt it'll make it for Fan Fest next year (there is no shortage of iconic cowboy movies) but... who knows! I think this is a really good direction for the backlot experiences to go in.
Sailor Moon: It's just a 3D ride. It was super blurry on my run, so that was something. I didn't expect it to be some huge grand show, and it wasn't. I enjoyed it for what it was. I wish they could do was HHN does and really utilize the space for more dynamic shows. But of course, for an event only on its second year that isn't in the cards quite yet.
Forbidden Forest:
When it was revealed the experience was going to be in the extended queue I was sort of skeptical. I had no idea what the queue even looked like but based on the limited concept art it looked potentially small and cramped. But my GOSH they proved me wrong. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! My major gripe was how the audio and lights from people ahead of us bled into our experience, and also how quiet the Professors were in comparison. Not every effect looked like a million bucks of course, but for how small the event space is they REALLY used it to the absolute max. I was spoiled on how the Hippogrith looked on Instagram, so I expected to not be very impressed... NOPE. A video can NOT illustrate the scale and beauty of such a magnificent puppet/animatronic/at this point it's so real it might as well be an actual animal. As with One Piece, I'm not even a huge Harry Potter fan! But I loved this experience! Our Professor was so creative, she would ask the audience what to do next and the knowledgeable HP fan in our party would respond correctly really rewarding fans of the franchise. I'm also amazed at how smooth they made every transition, not once did I ever feel rushed or stopped because the party ahead of us was too slow. Highlight of the night for sure.
But my main issue (thank you to Jerrod for reminding me) is the hours were really restricting on what me and the person I went with wanted to do. We really didn't get to take in Scooby Doo as much as we both wanted to because it was almost 12:45 AM and we wanted to rush to Harry Potter (line ended up going smoothly and we got to run to Sailor Moon literally at 1:29 AM). I understand Scooby Doo not being as long and the lack of the UBE venue inspiring the chance, but if you spend more than 30 minutes buying some food and sitting down to relax you really risk missing something you wanna do. Universal, you spent so long making these immersive sets and filling them with actors and music! Let us SOAK IT IN!
And I think we have it! Absolutely incredible night. No event is truly perfect, but I was more than satisfied. For only its second year, and this year rumored to have sizeable budget cuts, they really did so much with so little. I would more than recommend this event. I had so much fun, even if majority of the IPs featured I'm not very knowledgeable on. Heck, even the person I went said One Piece was the highlight of their night and their a Jurassic Park mega fan! I think this event is going to really evolve into something special, and if this year was the "growing pains" then I can't wait for 2027!
Experiences Ranked (Personal):
1) Forbidden Forest: 10/10
2) One Piece: 10/10
3) Scooby Doo: 8/10
4) DND: 7/10
5) Jurassic Park: 6/10
5) Sailor Moon: 5/10 (Doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it!)