Doing Fantasmic WITHOUT the Fantasmic Package

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

Is it feasable?!

I'm asking as we want to have dinner at 50s PT. I have H&V FP down for another night, but would much rather do Raglan Road or another DTD restaurant instead...

Has anyone done Fantasmic mid August without the package

 

[Bob P]

Sure, lots of people do it every night of the year. Just get there early and enjoy it!

 

[Lizzybear]

We did it in mid-June which i'd venture to say is as busy as mid-August if not busier and we turned up early and got a seat just fine. There's something like 6000+ I think, plus room for 3000 to stand! You should be fine, the time flies when you chat to your 'neighbours' anyway

 

[Robo]

No one can predict EXACTLY how large the crowds will be or how early you should go to find a seat for Fantasmic! on any given day.
It has totally to do with the whim of the crowd at MGM on that day, and the general crowd LEVELS.
How much time you wish to "invest" in waiting is a personal decision. We never do the formal Dinner Package, and have always seen the show (dozens of times).

(Take all of these as "average" numbers, sometimes the crowd will be MUCH greater and the theater can fill up much sooner.)

VERY Busy days:
If you go to the first show of the evening (or "only" show that evening), if you arrive about 75-120 minutes before show-time, you can sit just about anywhere.
45-60 minutes before: Good seats
20-40 Minutes: will vary between seats at edges and rear of theater to SRO or even "closed" to further guests.

Busy days:
If you go to the first show of the evening (or "only" show that evening), if you arrive about 50-60 minutes before show-time, you can sit just about anywhere.
40 minutes before: Good seats
25-35 Minutes: will vary between seats at edges and rear of theater to SRO or even "closed" to further guests. (The crowd of "last-minute" arrivals can be slow to get seated before show-time.)

Off-Season (not busy days):
You should be OK to enter by 10-20 minutes before, but you'll likely be seated to the outer edges, and/or way at the back.

If you do the Fantasmic! Dinner Pkg. you still must enter by AT LEAST 35 minutes (safer at 45 minutes) before show-time and still be guaranteed "pretty good" seats (not my "first choice" area, but fine), regardless of crowd-levels.

If there are TWO Fantasmic! shows in one evening, the second one will have lower crowd level than the first one. You can arrive a bit later and still find a seat.

Be aware that the second show waiting area will LOOK like the show is "too crowded".
That's because they HOLD the 2nd crowd outside the theater while the CMs CLEAN it after the first crowd has exited.

Then, they will let those waiting together in that big group IN... all at once, and there will be PLENTY of room.

(The theater holds 10,000 guests!)

We like to eat our evening "meal" while waiting for Fantasmic! to start.
You can bring in items from the counter-service places in MGM, or they DO have concession stands at the rear of the theater serving "baseball stadium-type" food and drinks. Yes, even beer, sold strictly ONE-at-a-time, one-only-to-a-person, so a single person can't go and buy beer for other members of a group... all guests wanting to buy a beer must be present in-person at the counter.
We have a hot dog, maybe a pretzel, later some popcorn or cotton candy (Disney Health Food).

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

Wow, thank you for the speedy, and very thorough information - much, much appreciated!

It's not that H&V/MM are definate no-nos, it's just there are places I'd much rather eat! I think we might be giving the Fantasmic Package a miss this time... I can do getting there 45mins beforehand...

Do you by any chance know when the 2 showings (or just 1) are at MGM? If there are 2 showings when we go, I'll definately take the 2nd showing!!

 

[Belle1111]

We love Fantasmic but have never done the package.

We usually get there early enough to get a great seat, eat some pizza from outside the auditorium, and enjoy the preshow music and the crowd. It's a really festive time- the sun is setting and everyone's in a great mood.

The time goes really fast for us and we have kind of made it a tradition!

We also usually do Fantasmic on a day that we haven't spent at MGM. (We love park hopping!)

 

[tina&jefffromtoronto]

For what its worth we did the dining package at H&V to get the guaranteed seats at end of August and I really didn't think it was worth it. We had not seen the show before so I was a little disappointed with the side seats we ended up with. The dinner was ok but not great. Not one of our better meals that trip.
I don't think we will do the package next time- the beer & pizza wait sounds much better!

Tina

 

[mog]

We did it on August 7th this year. We had dinner at 50's Primetime and then went to the late (second) show of Fantasmic. We did not arrive extremely far ahead of time - maybe 30 or 45 minutes early. At first we were worried because it looked like a big crowd, but as the previous poster said, it was just because they were holding everyone outside. Once they let us in, it was not as many people as it looked like and there was plenty of seating!

 

[english rose 47]

You can always count on Robo to have accurate info!!We are doing 2 TS meals at MGM. H & V for latew breakfast (JOJO for DGS) & Scifi for thr all the kids (Car tables) so wont be doing a package. We want to sit near the back anyway ,hopefully not so nopisy and with luck a quick exit!!

 

[Bob P]

You can find historical times for Fantasmic here:

http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/calendar/historical/archive/default.asp

But August 2007 hours and times will not be released until around February 1.

 

[TommyTutone]

For what its worth we did the dining package at H&V to get the guaranteed seats at end of August and I really didn't think it was worth it. We had not seen the show before so I was a little disappointed with the side seats we ended up with. The dinner was ok but not great. Not one of our better meals that trip.
I don't think we will do the package next time- the beer & pizza wait sounds much better!

Tina

The seats were not the best, but they were fine for our trip last week. The nice thing is that the side they do seat you at is the first ones out of the park via the 'quick' side exit so you can beat the masses to your bus/car/boat.

 

[whogirl'smom]

We are doing Fantasmic on DH's birthday after dinner at Mama Melrose's (ADR at 4.30 just to be safe!) I've heard that the seats toward the back are better . Any opinions on this? If they are, then we wouldn't break our necks trying to get toward middle or front !

 

[DaisyD]

We never get the package! We get there an hour early and get better seats then those on the package. There is als food in the arena so DD sits and eats a pretzel or something til the show starts.

 

[Silvite]

Yes!

 

[welovedis]

Fantasmic is our favorite show, we've seen it more times than I can count.

Another favorite of ours is to get out of the show, but not take the quick exit, we head down Sunset to the snack shop-Beverly Sunset. They sell really grat candies and other delectable treats. We get 2 slushies to share and 2 of their caramel or chocolate covered apples. They will cut them into quarter & box them for you. Then we hit a bench on Hollywood Boulevard right near the Sorcerer's Hat & drink in the atmosphere. The twinkling lights, the music and the quietness of the park are a perfect way to end the night!

 

[disgram]

We did Fantasmic! the 25th of August and with out the package. We arrived only a half hour early and got great seats about the 2nd row from the bottom on the left. We thought these were great seats!!! Our video came out beautfully!