This could be great if it has the tone of Unleash the Villains, but not all the problems that messed up Unleash the Villains
With Maleficent coming out mid-June - I have to think this will be a "Villains All-Nighter", but only a guess on my part.
Hope it is indeed May 23 and not June 13 (the ONLY Friday the 13th this year) - I can't go in June!
I enjoyed the Monstrous Summer All-Nighter last year, it was a nifty event, but Villains had a better "theme" to it and just amazing fireworks at 1AM.
What they goofed on at Villains, my take on it...
A lot of the problem with Villains, Sep 13, was HS cannot absorb and move crowds or serve enough food to the crowd that attended. Also a lot of CM no-shows simply because the roads in were gridlocked. I got off a resort bus at 3PM but both guests and CMs driving in by 4PM (presumably when locals get off work) met a huge backup into HS. Not the CMs' fault, was management's fault for not staffing up properly and having a way to get CMs (and guests) in efficiently.
TDO massively and inexplicably underestimated the crowd for Unleash the Villains.
People were lined up to meet Oogie Boogie near Echo Lake for hours, then when they got to M&G a different character was there. I saw a lot of unhappy, frustrated and stressed out CMs and guests that night! People were leaving the park in droves well before the fireworks at 1AM which was the capper for the night.
As I left the park about 1:15AM (I positioned myself near the exit as the fireworks started so was able to get out quickly), waiting for the resort bus, I heard several people complaining about the day, and clearly exhausted. I've never heard that many people grumbling on leaving what should have been a fun and exciting event day.
I do hope if this is Villains Party #2 that TDO gets this right, and staffs up the MK properly. Confident MK could handle the crowds, double or more than HS can handle reasonably. Open enough food locations would be great too. One issue with the May 24 All-Nighter was.. for a few hours in the middle of the night (I think 2AM to 5AM), they closed Pecos Bill and the only "full" QS open in the whole place was Cosmic Ray's.
Folks are hungry walking around that late and it's a no-brainer to keep multiple food locations open all night. Maybe Pecos Bill, Pinocchio Haus and Cosmic Ray. Even just some food carts...