Blue Bayou-Fantasmic Timing Issue - Suggestions?

[Sparky McGrew]

Our Blue Bayou dining reservation (F! Dining Package) is for 8:00 pm (Friday, Sept 15) with tickets for the 10:30 pm show. If the dinner takes an hour, that means we will be exiting the restaurant at about 9 pm -- just as the first Fantasmic show is starting. What should our strategy be?

QUESTIONS:
1. How long does the Blue Bayou dinner really take? It it an hour?
2. If we exit just as the first show is starting, what should we do? We don't want our kids to see glimpses of the first show since we want them to be surprised.
3. Should we go to Main Street for 9:30 fireworks and then go back for F! seating? If so, what is best strategy for doing this?

Your suggestions and comments are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[DLRExpert]

Eat slower or go on Pirates, Mansion, Splash, Pooh at 9
They start letting people into viewing area around 10

 

[Elima2015]

You probably won't be seated right at 8:00. We had reservations at 4:50 at RBT (i.e. really early in the evening) and waited 15 minutes for our table. It easily took us an hour to eat. So, just eat a bit slowly. Plus, when you exit the restaurant, you won't really be able to see much. There will be a wall of people standing to watch the show. I'd just hang out right there in New Orleans Square and when the first show ends and crowds start shuffling, walk forward to view the fireworks. If you do end up with a bunch of time, ride Pirates or Haunted. In my opinion, I would not head to Main Street for the fireworks as you want to end up back in the F! viewing area. When we were there a couple weeks ago, they had traffic going one way on each side of Main St - and it was toward the main gate on that side of Main St, so it would be difficult to back track to F! (maybe this is better now without MSEP)

 

[gottalovepluto]

The kids will catch glances of the show, it's huge so there isn't really any avoiding that. One hour might be on the short side for BB honestly, you can wait as much as 15 mins until after your reservation before you get seated. But, what the kids will catch are glimpses through throngs of people. Because of how the restaurant is situated I just don't think there is any avoiding it. Unfortunately, all the close rides- POTC, HM, Big Thunder (I think) you can hear the show's audio from part of the que. There will be spoilers but I don't think it will spoil the awesomeness of seeing Fantasmic for the first time at all.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I would not recommend Splash btw- standing through the late showing of Fantasmic while wet? No thanks.

ETA: can you push back your res to 8:30ish so you have more of a shot of leaving the restaurant around 10pm when it's time to find your viewing place? That's the only way I think you can avoid catching any glimpses of the show...

 

[Sparky McGrew]

Wow, thanks very much for the good suggestions and the helpful info. I think maybe we'll try to make the dinner last until closer to 9:30 and then exit as the fireworks are starting(?). (But that requires perfect timing.) If we get out earlier, maybe we'll do POTC.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

If you ask for a water side table, that might slow down your seating time. It can take 15 minutes or more sometimes to get a table by the water. Take your time ordering, enjoy the atmosphere inside, enjoy your food. Our F! meal took about 90 minutes start to finish. When we left the restaurant, we were just in time to watch fireworks by the ROA. Then we went on HM before lining up for our viewing area.

 

[figment_jii]

I second the recommendation to request a water side table; that usually adds anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes to the wait time. The CM will tell you at check-in what the wait would be and you can gauge for yourself if you want to do that or not. Blue Bayou takes between 60 and 90 minutes, depending on time to be seated and how quickly you eat. Regardless of whether you wait for a water side table or not, I don't think you'll be done much before 9:00 pm. I also would not try and get out to Main Street to watch fireworks given your situation. Movement around Main Street is not necessarily the easiest and, as mentioned, they often have restricted traffic control in effect (e.g., one way traffic on each side of Main Street, one way traffic control into or out of Frontierland/Adventureland). Then getting back to New Orleans Square would probably be somewhat time consuming. They open the dining package viewing areas around 10:00 pm, but guests start to line up before that. Based on when you get out of dinner, I would either check out some of the shops in NOS or ride PotC, Haunted Mansion, or Winnie the Pooh (in Critter Country).