Dining package? Chrissy Metz - popularity?

[Disney.fan]

Our Epcot day will be December 4th and the narrator is Chrissy Metz. While we'd love to see the Candlelight Processional, we'd prefer not to take time for a table service meal. Wondering if anyone has insight from last year on the popularity of Chrissy Metz and how likely getting a stand by seat would be (party of 4) with getting in line about half hour prior for the middle or last show? Thanks!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Spice road table & maybe day of regal eagle are options.

Disney added a ton of dining package places this year, we have no idea how/if this will impact standby availability. Personally I’d do a dining package if CP was something I wanted to see for sure.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Metz will likely be one of the very popular narrators. On the other hand, she's narrating earlier in December, which might be a little less crowded - but it's hard to tell. We prefer the less stressful (and more expensive) approach of getting a dining package. The past several years, with less restaurants to choose from, we took advantage of the lunch option for the packages - eat 1:00/2:00, enjoy several hours of EPCOT, and then the show. Not sure if the lunch options will still be plentiful since they're back to offering packages from most of the EPCOT restaurants again. But we did not want to wait in the uncertainty of the standby line. If we were going to do that, we'd probably just stand in the back behind the audience and watch a show from there.

 

[Debbie Jean]

Spice road table & maybe day of regal eagle are options.

Disney added a ton of dining package places this year, we have no idea how/if this will impact standby availability. Personally I’d do a dining package if CP was something I wanted to see for sure.

I think that the effect that the additional restaurants added this year with dining packages cannot be overestimated. It will be interesting to see how this affects standby… I can’t help but think it will decrease availability… a lot.

Asking about standby experience from the past may bear no relation to this year… what happens when you have twice as many restaurants offering dining packages?