Called today at my 90 day - could not get any Fantasmic dinner package!!!

[SnowWhite2]

We went two weeks ago on a Monday. They only had one showing at 7 pm at the same time the park closed. Then on the day of Fantasmic showing, they added an 8:30 show and kept the park open until 8 pm. One of the CM's said that people were upset that the show was run so infrequently - they paid all of this money and the show is not available - that they are trying to add additional showings. SHe also told me to get in line at 5:30 when the line opened. We did and by 6 pm the stadium was full. It did cut into our touring time significantly but we were with my DN who was 8 and was not going to makae it until 8:30 to see the late show.

I have to say that the park was crowded. It was a week after MLK day and was shocked to see the crowds. Waits on popular attractions well over 60 mins. Plus most of the people in the park did not speak English as their first language. Lots of Brazilian tour groups - they made a bunch of rukus at Fantasmic and had to have the manager speak to them several times to settle down.

 

[mmdm1481]

Forgive me for sounding like a rookie...but can anyone explain the Fantasmic dinner package to me? From what I gathered it is dinner at a DHS restaurant with guaranteed seating for the show? Is this correct?

 

[mickeyluvr004]

Forgive me for sounding like a rookie...but can anyone explain the Fantasmic dinner package to me? From what I gathered it is dinner at a DHS restaurant with guaranteed seating for the show? Is this correct?

Yes I beleive that is what it is as my TA got us this last year in Sept and we had the best time the resturaunt was so so but we got perfect seats so we were happy

 

[danielle.st]

Sounds like a lesson in basic economics. Disney obviously needs to start charging admission for Fantasmic. There seems to be more than enough demand for the show's very limited supply. I know I'd rather pay an admission than sit and wait for 2 hours with my ADHD 5 year old! Perhaps if they charged an admission, they could also start adding additional shows back as demand justified.

I think it would ruin Disney if they start charging extra on top of admissions for rides and shows during park hours. It's enough that they charge extra for the parties, at least those are after MK has closed.

 

[Doogan]

I think it would ruin Disney if they start charging extra on top of admissions for rides and shows during park hours. It's enough that they charge extra for the parties, at least those are after MK has closed.

Actually, in the good old days when the parks first opened you had to pay extra on top of admission for all rides with the exception of things like "Carousel of Progress" and "If You Had Wings" which had corporate sponsors. I don't think it really ruined the parks. In fact, in some ways it was better. Once you ran out of "E" tickets you were forced to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. But I digress... I agree that free is always better from a cost standpoint, but when demand gets to the point where it far outstrips supply, then you end up with a lot of unhappy customers anyway. You might as well modify behavior and make a buck at the same time, IMHO. Fantasmic is different than the other closing shows because it's in a theater with limited seating. The same thing goes with ticket price. If they charged $5.00 per day for a ticket it might so crowded every day that the experience would be diminished. In other words, lowering the demand by increasing the price would actually improve customer satisfaction.

Of course, I would never tell Disney this. I would rather they just go back to showing Fantasmic every night for free.

 

[risingsunmom]

Is the seating you get "better" with a dinner package, or just a reserved seat. I guess I'm asking if the dinner package people are all in one section or is it still first come first serve for where you sit?

Do you still have to get in line an hour or two before the show or can you show up right at show time?

 

[mom2aandj]

Is the seating you get "better" with a dinner package, or just a reserved seat. I guess I'm asking if the dinner package people are all in one section or is it still first come first serve for where you sit?

Do you still have to get in line an hour or two before the show or can you show up right at show time?

the reserved seating is all in one section, all the way over to the right of the stadium. I believe our last trip we were able to arrive 30 mins before the show with our reserved seating and had no problems. Now, however, with the sharply reduced schedule of shows, I'm reading that people need to be there 1 hour ahead of time even WITH the reserved seating package. Without it, you may need to line up 1 1/2 or longer before the show.

 

[pianoronni37]

We got the Fantasmic! dinner package last year with Mama Melrose's, and the section is all the way to the right of the theater, under some trees. We were kamikaze-attacked by dragonflies, but other than that the seats seemed fine.

However, about 1 minute before showtime, it began to downpour out of nowhere. People were still waiting for the show to start, but of course, because of the characters on the float, there was no way it could begin.

So just remember, a Fantasmic! dinner package can only guarantee a seat if there is no inclement weather - if the weather turns nasty, there are no rainchecks. DH and I heard a bunch of people complaining about their "reserved seats" that night, but we had read ahead of time that there are no rainchecks, so we just ran out of there to get dry!

We just came back the next night, without a reservation, and walked right in about 45 minutes before showtime. It worked out fine.

 

[Tina G]

Same thing happened to me. I just called this AM and could not get a Fantasmic dinner pkg at Mama Melrose's for Sunday night 5/10. So I just made a regular ADR there as we wanted to eat there anyway and I'll have to think more about what we want to do.

 

[danielle.st]

Actually, in the good old days when the parks first opened you had to pay extra on top of admission for all rides with the exception of things like "Carousel of Progress" and "If You Had Wings" which had corporate sponsors. I don't think it really ruined the parks. In fact, in some ways it was better. Once you ran out of "E" tickets you were forced to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. But I digress... I agree that free is always better from a cost standpoint, but when demand gets to the point where it far outstrips supply, then you end up with a lot of unhappy customers anyway. You might as well modify behavior and make a buck at the same time, IMHO. Fantasmic is different than the other closing shows because it's in a theater with limited seating. The same thing goes with ticket price. If they charged $5.00 per day for a ticket it might so crowded every day that the experience would be diminished. In other words, lowering the demand by increasing the price would actually improve customer satisfaction.

Of course, I would never tell Disney this. I would rather they just go back to showing Fantasmic every night for free.

I wonder, how much were tickets back then (adjusted for inflation, of course)? Sounds more like having a walk around type of pass that some amusements still offer. Those tickets tend to be quite a bit cheaper than the ones for rides.
It would ruin the park for me if they started charging extra for certain shows or rides because they are in higher demand. I think it would ruin it for a lot of us who are more frugal or have less disposable cash.
When we were at Epcot in December, a guy was getting on a Friendship boat and asked the driver how much the ride cost, had his wallet out and everything. The driver told him $10 and the guy started getting the cash out, the driver laughed and said no, it's free. It's part of Disney that the rides and shows are included in your admission.
I'm sure there are a lot of people who would pay extra for somethnig like a boatride across the lagoon. But there are more people, IMO, who would resent being asked for yet more money when they are already paying so much. JMO though I hope we never need to find out how many people would pay extra!

 

[Doogan]

If you really want to know...according to this fascinating page on AllEars adult admission was $3.50 ($17.31) and tickets were as follows:
A Tickets $.10 ($0.51)
B Tickets $.25 ($1.27)
C Tickets $.50 ($2.53)
D Tickets $.75 ($3.80)
E Tickets $.90 ($4.56)

The numbers in () are adjusted for inflation to 2007 figures according to http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi (I don't know anything about them. It was the first thing that came up when I Googled).

I remember when I was junior high being able to get in free because my friends in high school worked at Disney. We'd have about 10 tickets which we'd burn through in a couple of hours. We'd then be stuck wandering the park people watching, riding "If you had wings" over and over and just generally having a grand time.

I was so excited when they switched from that one ticket per ride scheme. Can you imagine realizing it was going to cost your family or 4 almost $20 to ride through POTC?

Still from an economics study standpoint (and I'm sure there's an MBA thesis waiting to be born here) I'll bet that the ticket per ride scheme tends to load balance the rides better. Because people are "paying" more for the more popular rides, it would tend to limit the number of people willing to go on the ride multiple times. If you only have 2 "E" tickets left are you really going to go on POTC twice or go on something else?

It's all academic since I can't see them going back. Still, if they hadn't ever done it we would never have heard Sally Ride comment "It's a real 'E' ticket ride!" when asked what it was like experiencing a shuttle launch, would we?