CleveRocks
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster worshipper
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2005
- Messages
- 9,589
Everyone needs to calm down and take a deep breath ...
THERE IS NO MORE SPECIAL ENTRANCE. This is NOT a temporary situation. This was done as a cost-cutting measure ... fewer CMs are needed to staff the current configuration than were required to staff the special entrance.
This set-up does NOT render the Fantasmic Dinner Package useless. It is still very very helpful.
I went in February, and the idea of the new set-up very much concerned me, just like it's now concerning all of you. I was in Disney's Hollywood Studios twice before my Fantasmic Dinner Package ADR. I made it my business to ask as many relevant CMs as I could about the set-up ... these are people who work the Fantasmic theater and crowd, not people at an information booth or a food stand. I got identical answers from all the CMs I asked, and believe me, I asked enough questions that I embarrassed and annoyed my wife (she wanted to pretend she wasn't with me).
They said as long as you are at the theater entrance by 45 minutes before the show, you will be guaranteed a seat in the reserved section. At that point, they explained, there won't be a line ... the entrance will have been open for some time, and all you have to do is just walk in and go up to the special FDP podium at the top of the amphitheater and show them your FDP voucher.
It worked exactly this way for us. It was a 7:00 p.m. show. We had a 4:25 p.m. ADR at Mama Melrose's. Our waiter was very nice and attentive, but rather slow (it was him, not the kitchen ... it took him close to forever to take our dessert order and then also to get us our check and our FDP voucher, etc.). The voucher clearly stated that we would relinquish our rights to a reserved seat if we arrived at the theater fewer than 45 minutes before showtime.
We got outta there by a few minutes after 6, and we high-tailed it to the theater entrance ... we got there by a few minutes before 6:15 p.m. You have to walk the equivalent of a couple of city blocks from the entrance (on Sunset Blvd.) to the actual entrance of the amphitheater ... you enter at the back, which is also the top. We handed our voucher to the CM at the podium ... she ripped it in half and handed one piece back to me, and showed us along the way to the roped-off section all the way to the right.
There were plenty of reserved seats still there ... plenty. But there appeared to be NO SEATS remaining in the rest of the theater. I made conversation with the people next to us, who happened to get there a lot earlier than we did. They told me there was an announcement around 6:00 p.m. that the show was STANDING ROOM ONLY.
At 6:30 p.m., two CMs removed the rope dividing our section from the rest of the theater, and an ocean of standees flooded into the section at that point. No seats left by about 6:32 p.m. [PLEASE NOTE: This is totally normal. The procedure was EXACTLY THE SAME when they had the special FDP entrance ... the removal of the rope 30 minutes before showtime was always a part of Fantasmic ... it is NOT new, it is NOT a result of the single entrance set-up]
LESSON LEARNED: If I DIDN'T have the FDP and showed up at the theater at 6 o'clock and perhaps earlier than that, we wouldn't have had a seat (standing-room-only was announced at 6, but the condition could have been present much before that). People started lining up outside the Sunset Blvd. entrance at 5 p.m. (yes, 2 hours before showtime). While others were waiting in line, we were enjoying a pretty decent meal.
Two hours before showtime, there is a line. But they open the theater (at least for the first show of the night) 90 minutes before showtime. In the time interval spanning from 90 minutes before the show to 45 minutes before the show, the theater absorbs that entire line. By the time you can show up 45 minutes before showtime, THERE IS NO LINE ANYMORE. You just walk right in. And you walk right in and you have seats waiting for you.
The FDP worked out very very well for me. It made the difference between standing and having a seat.
I, too, have read of isolated problems with CMs not enforcing the reserved seating area. These are RARE problems, not common problems.
The fact that there is not a separate entrance is meaningless. It doesn't change the rules or the follow-through. Even with the separate entrance, you still had to be there 45 minutes in advance. So now you go through the same entrance as everyone else ... doesn't change a thing.
THERE IS NO MORE SPECIAL ENTRANCE. This is NOT a temporary situation. This was done as a cost-cutting measure ... fewer CMs are needed to staff the current configuration than were required to staff the special entrance.
This set-up does NOT render the Fantasmic Dinner Package useless. It is still very very helpful.
I went in February, and the idea of the new set-up very much concerned me, just like it's now concerning all of you. I was in Disney's Hollywood Studios twice before my Fantasmic Dinner Package ADR. I made it my business to ask as many relevant CMs as I could about the set-up ... these are people who work the Fantasmic theater and crowd, not people at an information booth or a food stand. I got identical answers from all the CMs I asked, and believe me, I asked enough questions that I embarrassed and annoyed my wife (she wanted to pretend she wasn't with me).
They said as long as you are at the theater entrance by 45 minutes before the show, you will be guaranteed a seat in the reserved section. At that point, they explained, there won't be a line ... the entrance will have been open for some time, and all you have to do is just walk in and go up to the special FDP podium at the top of the amphitheater and show them your FDP voucher.
It worked exactly this way for us. It was a 7:00 p.m. show. We had a 4:25 p.m. ADR at Mama Melrose's. Our waiter was very nice and attentive, but rather slow (it was him, not the kitchen ... it took him close to forever to take our dessert order and then also to get us our check and our FDP voucher, etc.). The voucher clearly stated that we would relinquish our rights to a reserved seat if we arrived at the theater fewer than 45 minutes before showtime.
We got outta there by a few minutes after 6, and we high-tailed it to the theater entrance ... we got there by a few minutes before 6:15 p.m. You have to walk the equivalent of a couple of city blocks from the entrance (on Sunset Blvd.) to the actual entrance of the amphitheater ... you enter at the back, which is also the top. We handed our voucher to the CM at the podium ... she ripped it in half and handed one piece back to me, and showed us along the way to the roped-off section all the way to the right.
There were plenty of reserved seats still there ... plenty. But there appeared to be NO SEATS remaining in the rest of the theater. I made conversation with the people next to us, who happened to get there a lot earlier than we did. They told me there was an announcement around 6:00 p.m. that the show was STANDING ROOM ONLY.
At 6:30 p.m., two CMs removed the rope dividing our section from the rest of the theater, and an ocean of standees flooded into the section at that point. No seats left by about 6:32 p.m. [PLEASE NOTE: This is totally normal. The procedure was EXACTLY THE SAME when they had the special FDP entrance ... the removal of the rope 30 minutes before showtime was always a part of Fantasmic ... it is NOT new, it is NOT a result of the single entrance set-up]
LESSON LEARNED: If I DIDN'T have the FDP and showed up at the theater at 6 o'clock and perhaps earlier than that, we wouldn't have had a seat (standing-room-only was announced at 6, but the condition could have been present much before that). People started lining up outside the Sunset Blvd. entrance at 5 p.m. (yes, 2 hours before showtime). While others were waiting in line, we were enjoying a pretty decent meal.
Two hours before showtime, there is a line. But they open the theater (at least for the first show of the night) 90 minutes before showtime. In the time interval spanning from 90 minutes before the show to 45 minutes before the show, the theater absorbs that entire line. By the time you can show up 45 minutes before showtime, THERE IS NO LINE ANYMORE. You just walk right in. And you walk right in and you have seats waiting for you.
The FDP worked out very very well for me. It made the difference between standing and having a seat.
I, too, have read of isolated problems with CMs not enforcing the reserved seating area. These are RARE problems, not common problems.
The fact that there is not a separate entrance is meaningless. It doesn't change the rules or the follow-through. Even with the separate entrance, you still had to be there 45 minutes in advance. So now you go through the same entrance as everyone else ... doesn't change a thing.
Hope you had a great vacation!
