I went with a friend last Saturday; we recorded a review on Sunday, but after a bit more time to digest I wanted to share my thoughts:
The Good:
-The experiences themselves are uniformly strong. Even something that we know was a last minute add in Jurassic Park felt like it had a lot of care put into it with little touches like the JP3 ringtone around the Spinosaurus.
-Actors for the experiences or meet and greets are unquestionably the highlighs. Even though I'm not much of a meet and greet guy in a theme park, watching others interact with them and seeing the highlights on social media has been fun (on that note - Sailor Moon seems to be the breakout character of the year for sure).
-Each experience we were able to do (D&D, Scooby, Jurassic, and Potter) felt like they had a strong emphasis on interactivity or bringing guests more into the show. Scooby's an obvious example, where you had a puzzle to watch instead of just watching show scenes and talking with characters, but Potter also had the guests consistently asked to "cast spells" along with the guide, and in D&D the actors encouraged the group to do small things associated with class assignments and to "help" solve the puzzle room before the treasure chamber, which I don't remember from last year.
-D&D, in general, was very samey compared to last year but the actors felt "looser", giving it more of an improv tone that was fun. Don't think I'd do this again if they brought it back a third year, but for a repeat I enjoyed it.
-Loved having some active to participate in for the Backlot experience. I thought they really nailed the puzzle difficulty; not so hard that you had to really sit and think, but not so easy that you could sleepwalk it (although, to be fair, I'd done an escape room at CityWalk before attending, so maybe my group was just warmed up!). I think it you could get a "golden run" of BTTF last year, where you're able to see most or all of the show scenes and get a few character interactions, that was still the better attraction... but from the people I know went, the more common experience at BTTF was getting lucky enough to see a single show scene well, standing in the back and being unable to really hear or see a few others, one short character interaction, and the finale. The ones I saw who really praised it were the ones who got to go multiple times. I think for a one and done guest, Scooby is the stronger of the two, as you don't walk away feeling like you missed as much!
The Mid:
-We had Express so we didn't have to wait in the 90 minute to 2 hour line for Potter, but once we got on I could tell that they were operating in something like a "B-Mode" where they were hurrying us along. My suspicion has been confirmed based on a few clips I've seen online of guests interacting with things like the Monster Book of Monster that were quickly brushed past by the guide in our run. We didn't mind much, and still enjoyed it given that we only had to wait a few short minutes - but if I'd waited 90 and gotten the rushed experience, I'd have been pissed.
-The food feels better than it did last year but still kind of a mixed bag. We opted for the Potter food and found it MUCH improved over the offerrings there from last year, even if it wasn't as good as what you'd expect from a special event offering meal over at Disney. I've also heard good things about the One Piece food, which was strong last year, and it does *look* good. The Scooby food, however, looked pretty rank. The sandwich has been getting clowned on for a reason.
-The congestion in the Backlot was real around the clue booths. We were able to manage it, but if you're shorter or traveling with kids (and this was a very kid friendly event, if they can stay up!) it would be difficult. Fred and Shaggy were pretty open to go talk to, since their puzzles were slightly away from their tents, but if you really wanted to talk to Daphne or Velma it looked like you'd be waiting for a long while. The monsters were much easier to engage with if you go in for the character encounters.
The Bad:
-Everywhere we went we encountered hidden waits. We opted for Express Unlimited, banking on our experience from last year where we were able to do everything + most rides with time to spare and anticipating wanting to do Potter and maybe Scooby twice. Instead, we missed the One Piece show entirely and the only ride we were able to hit was Mario Kart (we did it early, definitely a mistake we won't repeat for next year). Even without waiting in the general line, we still were held outside of D&D for probably 20 minutes before we were let in, and the waits to first see the finale show then to get back on the trams at the end of the backlot was brutal, especially looking at our watches and seeing the last One Piece showtime tick away.
-The wait times for the One Piece food have been well documented, but we hit a nasty one waiting at the Three Broomsticks even though the physical line to order didn't even stretch to the door when we went. Not the worst thing in the world, but when coupled with the hidden waits elsewhere it added to that feeling of a lot of time wasted.
-The information about when things are going to close is not well communicated. The wait time boards all say that D&D is a good way to start the night, but given that 2 out of the 4 main experiences end before midnight, and at least two of the rides close down before midnight, it's much better to save that for the closer. The close time for Scooby and One Piece are well communicated, but you're pretty much on your own to know when the rides are going to close. We didn't run into it as we weren't trying to meet many characters, but from what I've seen here and on our socials the active times for the meet and greets are not well communicated in park or on the app as well.
Overall, I'm glad it seems to be doing well enough to come back next year because the creative team behind the different experiences has been hitting it out of the park. I'd say it's about on par with last years as a one-and-done guest. If you're local and can go multiple nights, you'd probably enjoy this year more. Hoping they expand out to a more diverse IP selection next year (but I'll save speculation for the 2027 thread), and a successful year this year brings the budget up to iron out the ops problems.