Hollywood & Vine

[HollyJoy]

Anyone ever done a Fantasmic Package for this restaurant? Just wondering how it is. It may be full already for Dec. 8, but thought I'd look into it anyway.

** EDITED to add.... "What is on the Children's Menu for this package? I have two picky eaters"!


THANKS!

 

[wilso]

It's a buffet. There's grown up stuff and kid stuff. Kid stuff includes hot dogs, mac n cheese, a build-your-own-sundae bar, that sorta stuff. They also have those ice cubes that glow in your drink (especially Sprite). The H&V buffet may be the only place in America (except my kitchen) where you can get Barbecued Meatballs!

The food is really good. The restaurant is really noisy.

I don't like the package because:

~If it rains, you lose your $$.
~The seats are way over on the edge. We ended up sitting in regular seats anyway.

 

[HollyJoy]

I'm starting to think about not doing the package... it seems a bit risky. Thanks for the info!

 

[wilso]

You can go to the buffet, and not pay extra for the Fantasmic seats.

 

[gigi1313]

we loved it! both the buffet/restaurant and the show... i think it's worth the risk (you are not paying more for dinner than if you didn't do the package, are you? it's just a perk to get the reserved seating, right?)

 

[Dreamin' Disney]

If you really want to see Fantasmic then you should book the package, especially if you don't want to line up in advance, whether it's 30 minutes, 1 hour or more.

There is no way of knowing how busy it will be and whether you'll get in to see Fantasmic. You will have a nice dinner and get a reasonably good seat to the show.

We've dined at both BD and MM and liked both, but since we have 12 of us on this trip with 6 kids, we will try H&V just so there are lots of choices for everyone in our group.

 

[tink2]

We've done the Fant. package at H&V once and are doing it again Dec. 8th. We love the buffet- very good food and variety. It has something for everyone. And, not having to wait for the show is wonderful for my family b/c of the kids. The package doesn't cost any more than the buffet itself- so if it rains, you got a great meal and didn't loose anything. I say go for it. It's great being able to walk in Fant. 30 minutes early and have a seat. BTW- the seats were fine with us. We were on the right side a little, but could see great.
Good luck with your decision!

 

[lark]

We just did it, on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. It was pretty crowded and a good option if you don't want to wait so long for fantasmic.

We opted for a very early seating, so that we could ride some rides and do other stuff before fantasmic. We had read that during crowded days the late afternoon, during the parade, is a good time to ride tower of terror, the roller coaster, and see the millionaire show, so we made it a 3:30 lunch/dinner. It worked out pretty well. The park was really packed on the day we were there, but we timed it so that we didn't wait for hardly anything.

If you must be in the very best fantasmic seats, it's not a good option, but the seats are fine, and it's nice to be able to exit right near the park exit. It's also just much more sedate to enter in the separate entrance if you're with little ones. As for the food, well, I don't think it's anything to write home about. I did not think it was up to the standard of the best buffets at WDW. There is a separate kids buffet with meatballs, chicken fingers, mac and cheese, etc. The adult food was just ok. It's not cheap -- with tip and tax and everything, it starts to get close to $30 per adult.

 

[BurkeTribe]

My family thought the meal was very good at H&V. The Fantasmic seats were basically a bonus since we would have eaten somewhere in that price range anyway. Some tips:

1)A waitress said to get to the garage/alley entrance door at least 45minutes early, but at our time of year (late Aug.) that was unnecessary, 15-25 minutes would have been fine. You can generally judge how early to get to the garage/alley door by park attendance.

2)The bathrooms and concessions are farther from the FDPackage seats than from most of the regular seats, which is not good for a 4YO who just loaded up on sweet tea and who is prone to wait until the last moment to warn about nature's call. To quote Maxwell Smart, "missed it by THAT much."

3) When it was over, they didn't let us exit by the garage alley door through which we entered (about 100 feet from the park exits) , instead we had to go out the alley door closer to the main Fantasmic entrance, near the shops, which caught is in the traffic jam of people leaving the main seating. Thus their nefarious marketing ploy worked on us-- we bought (too much) stuff in those darn shops while waiting for the massive crowd to thin... but, ah, oh well, the kids are only this young once Next time however, we shall take a cab to leave (not much waiting time for tho$e).

4) Seats were fine, but one or more crowd control CMS seemed a bit inflexible (by training I'm sure), as someone I saw who tried to go down to the front row of a column of seats that hadn't even started filling yet was seemingly told (couldn't hear but saw the scene) that he couldn't , he had to sit where fate of arrival time put him, in the middle of a previous column. So if you want a particular type of row, front or back, don't get in the line of people being seated exactly when you get to the venue, wait back and hop in the line of people seating at the correct moment for the area of seats you want.

 

[mulanrouge]

I was just wondering if there was more than one show of Fantasmic in an evening (two shows?). If so, what are the times like?

 

[gigi1313]

the times vary by season and day and during certain seasons the show is done twice, and i believe in slower seasons there may be days when it is not scheduled at all... check the calendar for when you are travelling to be sure

 

[turnlisa]

I highly recommend doing the FDP but not necessarily at H&V. We ate there last year and thought for the price we weren't impressed. The food was o.k. but I didn't find a lot of things that I wanted to eat. Our waitress was gone for long stretches of time and the place wasn't that busy. We loved the package though since we didn't have to wait in line with the kids. The seats are over to the far right of the theater but in that theater there really isn't a bad seat. You can see everything no matter where you sit. My kids agreed that this was their favorite show at Disney. Actually the words out of my oldest DS's mouth were, "That was the greatest show I have ever seen in my life!" This was after he kept asking why we had to wait so long -- 30 minutes! The 2 hours would have killed him!