We only had one show on May 4, but we also did the Brown Derby for the FIRST TIME, and I have to tell you, it was one of my FAVORITE things about our entire Land & Sea trip!!!! Best meal I have literally EVER had! If you are GF or have food sensitivities, you will be treated like royalty! I couldn't even believe what came on the Duck plate. I can't hardly describe it, all I can say is to order it! Even the Lobster Bisque was GF! (That's unusual not to have flour in a soup base!) And they had special GF rolls ready for us. I definitely recommend adding any special requirements to your reservation early! Wow, I have NEVER eaten like that! (Only Palo Brunch GF came close!)
By the end of the meal, we were stuffed and were treated like Kings & Queens. Keith was our server, and he was great! You can order ANY app, entree (even the pricey ones) and 3 of the dessert samplers, and it includes coffee/soda beverages. I LOVED the coffee, its made specially. So then we got these Fantastmic vouchers, which originally was the point of the reservation, but the meal was SOOOOO good, it was already well worth $58 pp! It was almost like an afterthought! "oh, we get a show too?"
While we were dining, we were watching the wait times on TSMM (we had used our tier 1 for Aerosmith), and the line never got below an hour. After dinner, we got in line for it and it took a full 80 min. I had to literally RUUUNNNN to Fantasmic because it was 8:45 by then and the show started at 9 and they really want you there earlier than that for the VIP seating. I ran in and said "3 more are coming behind me!" And btw, we had phenominal seats! There were still plenty even about 10-15 min before the show. But by the time the rest of our group got there, they had roped it off.
I had to literally do this:
jumping jacks like a crazy person and waving them 'come on!!!' before the CM at the rope would let them in. They were making them go all the way around to the cheap seats by that point. They had to fight for their priority seats EVEN WITH the vouchers! And the last one, my honey, they didn't hardly want to let him in either, and all three of us were
and finally they opened the rope back up and let him in with us. We all agree, if I hadn't run (it felt good to run after dinner!), none of us would have gotten to use our vouchers at all.
We really enjoyed Fantasmic this time! It was totally redone since we saw it. And the Mickey Ears, SO COOL!!!! Having done it, next time we would go eat at Brown Derby, wait til 9 and then go ride TSMM as much as we wanted (like our friends did!)
But if you are going to do Fantasmic, than DEFINITELY book the dinner! Cuz WOW! The dinner was STELLAR! And the show was fine, but I would NEVER wait as long as people do (or use a FP for it!) I much prefer a great dinner and some show vouchers on the side.
I hope you have as great an experience as we did! Don't push the time if you can help it! They really don't like to let us in, weirdly, even when there was room...
