Fantasmic dinner or Fantasmic picnic

[Robindianne]

Do both deals get you into the same reserved seating place? Thanks!

 

[bigdaddy511]

All the Fantasmic seating is in the same area, no matter where you have eaten. The seating is all the way to the right of the stadium and still fills up pretty fast, but you are guaranteed a spot no matter what time you arrive.

 

[kathy884]

I've never done the picnic (not sure if that was an option offered last March). Personally, although I loved the Fatasmic fast pass, I was greatly disappointed with the dinner package at Mama Melrose (overpriced mediocre food and slow service). I would never do a dinner Fatasmic experience again. We had to wait about 40 minutes to be seated even with the reservation, and dinner took an hour and a 1/2. With all that waiting time, I could have just stood in line at the Fatasmic show and eaten in line. That's what we did one Christmas - lined up 90 minutes before the show and ate a picnic lunch in line. Do note that we were there on a very busy spring break day when we purchased the dinner package -- unofficial guide gave DHS a crowd calendar rating of a 10, so I'm guessing that on a lighter crowd day it may not have been that bad. // Many people rave about the package and do it on every trip. My personal experience, though, was that this was a big waste of money and time.

Also, we were not on any Disney dining plan, so the dinner package was a cash purchase. It's the most I ever spent for food of this low quality or an extremely expensive fastpass (not a good deal IMHO) any way I slice it or dice it.

 

[SueM in MN]

All the Fantasmic seating is in the same area, no matter where you have eaten. The seating is all the way to the right of the stadium and still fills up pretty fast, but you are guaranteed a spot no matter what time you arrive.

The Fantasmic picnic is a new trial that has not been available before.

I have not seen any reports of where the Fantasic picnic seating will be - the trial dates are December 18-31, so we will have to wait a while for guests to post their experience with it.
I do know for the Fantasmic dinner package, you are not guaranteed a seat whenever you arrive. You are given a suggested time to arrive before the show. If you arrive later than that time, the do begin to open up the dinner package seating for general seating.

 

[Robindianne]

Ah thanks for the replies! We arrive the 19th so I'll just stick with the Brown Derby meal reservation as our tradition until maybe next trip (if the picnic is offered then).

Soon to be in the single digits! Woo hoooooooo!