A Bunch of Questions about Fantasmic, Candlelight for our December trip

[motor58]

Hi All,

I posted also on the Holiday Superthread, but since then I've already added question #4 so I thought I would post again here. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

I will be at GCH Dec 6-11. I had thought we'd do the park the 7th-10th (monday-thurdsay) but I am concerned about show schedules. I have a lot of questions, I am so confused and any help would be appreciated.

#1 Question: I don't see the show schedule up on disney yet for December. How do people book dinner packages without knowing when the shows are? For that matter, on disney's website it says no schedule available at all for Fantasmic. What!? Also if we want the 9pm Fantasmic show, what time is good for dinner? And if we did an early dinner at 4pm, do you just hang out until the show and go on some rides until they allow you into the viewing area?

#2 Question: I am mostly interested in booking a BB Fantasmic! package-even though it's the holiday season will this show most likely only show friday, saturday and sunday nights?

#3 Question: I saw the cancellation policy for fantasmic, holy cow! Any technical problem, weather etc and there are no refunds. Does that happen often?

#4 Question: How crazy is it to try to be there for candlelight processional on Dec 6th? I don't expect any view but is it worth it to be in the area to hear it? Also if we wanted to be at the 5:30 Processional, and then get to our BB F! Dinner reservation at 6:30 or 7pm, could we make it out of the area? From what I am reading the whole area is too busy to move through and getting out of there sounds very bad. Would being further back from the Processional be worthwhile, or should we just not try and do it all that night?

We arrive on Sunday with kids ages 7, 8.5 and 11 and it would be a lot to pull off if we can stay up that late for the dinner and show, and candlelight beforehand......

Thank you so much for any help with this, I so appreciate the boards for planning.

 

[figment_jii]

#1 Question: I don't see the show schedule up on disney yet for December. How do people book dinner packages without knowing when the shows are? For that matter, on disney's website it says no schedule available at all for Fantasmic. What!? Also if we want the 9pm Fantasmic show, what time is good for dinner? And if we did an early dinner at 4pm, do you just hang out until the show and go on some rides until they allow you into the viewing area?

Disneyland generally posts their operating schedule about 45-days/6-weeks in advance, with entertainment being added closer to the 30-day mark. F! is usually on presented on weekends (Fri-Sun) in early December (it goes to a nightly schedule during Thanksgiving week and closer to Christmas). So given that December is over a month away, I'm not terribly surprised that the information is still missing on the calendar. Yes, that means that you can make dining reservation without really knowing what time the shows will be. If you had an early dining reservation, I would do rides or other things like that before heading over to the viewing area.

#2 Question: I am mostly interested in booking a BB Fantasmic! package-even though it's the holiday season will this show most likely only show friday, saturday and sunday nights?

Yes, F! will most likely not go their nightly schedule until closer to Christmas (one or two weeks before at most).

#3 Question: I saw the cancellation policy for fantasmic, holy cow! Any technical problem, weather etc and there are no refunds. Does that happen often?

It can happen and the weather is unpredictable. I don't think full cancellation are that common, but they do have a reduced version of the show that they can present if the stage is wet (from recent rains). I do think F! is going to be very popular for these last few months of 2015 because DLR has announced that F! will be dark for much/all of 2016. So some folks that might not have originally planned to see F!, may consider seeing one last time before it's gone for a year.

#4 Question: How crazy is it to try to be there for candlelight processional on Dec 6th? I don't expect any view but is it worth it to be in the area to hear it? Also if we wanted to be at the 5:30 Processional, and then get to our BB F! Dinner reservation at 6:30 or 7pm, could we make it out of the area? From what I am reading the whole area is too busy to move through and getting out of there sounds very bad. Would being further back from the Processional be worthwhile, or should we just not try and do it all that night?

I've only been once during CP before and it was busy, but I think you could probably still make your dinner reservation if you left as soon as it ended. From what I can tell, the show (processional and narration) is about 35 to 45 minutes in length, so if you make your reservation for 7:00 pm, that would give you a fair amount of time to get out of MS and head to BB.

 

[5forMickey]

Just a note....since you are staying at the Grand you can use Vacation Planning to get your dining reservations for you. They were able to get us reservations for Fantasmic! before the show times were announced and times were actually put on the web for our upcoming trip in November. I know in the past some have been uneasy about using them so just be very clear about if they don't get your first selection to try another day/time.....they were my only option at that point since I couldn't do it myself and it worked beautifully.

 

[motor58]

Thanks 5forMickey, that is all helpful.

I would love to hear more about CP and what I can expect-will the only spot to stand be further down main street? I don't want to wait and try to hold a spot, if we just showed up right before it started how far away would we be?

And if we wanted BB waterside and we weren't seated until 7:30 would that still be enough time to make the show?

I agree, I think with F closing for a while people (like me) are going to want to see it. I've always wanted to do BB and we've never seen F! so I think it's the one splurge we will do. Well, other than staying at GCH