Fantasmic Package ? To Do or Not to Do

[plymouthmom]

Hello All,

I have the Fantasmic package booked for Monday January 19th. It is my son's 14th bday and we have 3:30 reservations.....yep that is the only time I could get 2 months ago. We will be at the Brown Derby. I want the night to be fun, just worried about some of the posts I have seen of late that say that the package isn't what it used to be and with such an early reservation what are we ( 6 of us, 4 are kids) gonna do from dinner's end until the show?

 

[pumba]

after we ate our dinner, we walked around and enjoyed the sites. My hubby likes to sit on the benches in front of the stores and just people watch. I like to SHOP....it is also good to walk off your dinner and just relax a bit before going in to Fantasmic

Have fun

 

[santa's surpriz]

I have reservations that same night!!! We are eating at Mama Melrose's at 5pm. My plan is to meander over to the location of Fantasmic after dinner since it is not right centrally located to anything. (If you are not familiar with the locations, check out a DHS map at the Disney's website.) Basically, you need to head to another area of the park. With 6 people eating, it will probably take an hour to hour and half to finish up at the Brown Derby.So you are really looking to kill 2 hours before the show. Take in a few attractions and I am sure that you be able to stop by and watch some "streetmosphere" on the way. I would by no means cancel your Fantasmic, it really does not cost you extra for the preferred seating.

 

[plymouthmom]

Good Advice, I thought we had to somehow stay there and hang out near the amplitheater. So if I understand correctly, we can eat, go hang out perhaps take in a few rides and shop then return?

 

[nosy parker]

I wonder if it's a Brown Derby problem? I had the same issue for my ressie next week. Called almost 180 days out and could only get a 3:30-4:00 ADR for the package. I have no desire to eat dinner then, so what I opted to do was book my dinner at 5:00 and just attend the show without the 'reserved' seating. There are 2 shows that evening (6:30 & 8:00) so I will catch the second show. I assume it will be less crowded since the people who are on the pkg must attend the first show. I keep hearing that there are no bad seats so we'll take whatever is available. I plan to go early but not an hour + before.

 

[Inkmahm]

There really ARE no bad seats for Fantasmic. The ones you get with the dining plan are off to the side though, NOT "preferred" just reserved. They are definitely not the best seats inthe house.

Brown Derby always seems to have a really early cutoff for dining and getting the reserved seats. I think about the latest that they do is 4:30 or so from my experience. If you're there during a really crowded time of year it may be worth it to get the guaranteed seats. Otherwise, I'd just walk in with the rest of the crowd and skip the dinner package.

 

[plymouthmom]

We are there mid January. Not thinking this is a super busy time of year but with Fantasmic only two nights a week now... I am thinking of seeing if I can get later reservations and take our chances with the seats. With four kids and such an early dinner, I just have a bad feeling about this.

 

[lucas]

Hello All,

I have the Fantasmic package booked for Monday January 19th. It is my son's 14th bday and we have 3:30 reservations.....yep that is the only time I could get 2 months ago. We will be at the Brown Derby. I want the night to be fun, just worried about some of the posts I have seen of late that say that the package isn't what it used to be and with such an early reservation what are we ( 6 of us, 4 are kids) gonna do from dinner's end until the show?

We'll be there the same day and practically the same time! We are doing the dinner package on 1/19 and have Brown Derby ressies at 3:45!!! See you there!

We are there mid January. Not thinking this is a super busy time of year but with Fantasmic only two nights a week now... I am thinking of seeing if I can get later reservations and take our chances with the seats. With four kids and such an early dinner, I just have a bad feeling about this.

I think it will be a busy weekend. That is Martin Luther King holiday weekend. I like the idea of having reserved seats even if they aren't the "best." To get the best seats you probably have to line up way in advance and I hate doing that.

ETA: We've never seen Fantasmic - we tried to get in once and we were too late, even though the show had not started. It was totally full. There was absolutely no place to even stand.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

You might want to take not to a mention in this week's All Ears newsletter (allears.net).
Apparently they have changed the way the package works. You no longer go in through the back entrance but instead now you have to line up with everyone else. There is still the roped off seating area, but there is no bad seat to see Fantasmic, so I don't know if that alone would make the package worth it.
We did the package once, didn't care for the restaurant (Mama Melrose, not awful, jsut not our favorite) so decided after that to take our chances and we've never not seen the show (it's my favorite, so I was nervous the first time, but it worked out fine!)
Just a thought...

 

[plymouthmom]

Well I came up with a new plan....thanks to a great CM at DVC Member services. She said, why don't you have dinner after the show. She did concur with the "everyone goes in the same line now" story that I have also seen on All Ears. So, we won't eat in the middle of the day. Yes, we will have to wait in line but now we have a 7:20 reservation at Brown Derby instead of 3:30. Will work better for all of us. Now we can just head out later in the day as we will be in the park for EMH.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I looked on allears very quickly but couldn't find where this change was written. Is it in affect now? We are going the first full week of December. I changed a Mama Melrose reservation for Hollywood and Vine just so we could have the benefit of the reserved seating and avoid waiting in line. I'm confused now.

 

[dzorn]

Does anyone have the link from allears I looked and could not find it.

Denise in MI

 

[lucas]

Finally found the blurb. Here is the quote from the ALLEARS® HEARS section (right before the ANITA ANSWER section):

"We just got back from the World on October 18. Very crowded but fun. We had a party of 10 and I had made reservations for the Fantasmic Dinner Show Package. It has changed. They no longer let you in the back way. You have to enter with the HERD of people. They only have a small roped off place to sit, so in my opinion it is not worth booking the package. No real advantage. The only reason I booked it was because there were 10 of us and it would have been much easier to go in the back instead of with the herd. Just some information to anyone thinking about booking that. We ended up not even sitting in the reserved section and had wonderful seats!"