Who saw Fantasmic! with FastPass on Fri/Sat & wants to share their thoughts?

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

The DIS Unplugged: Disneyland Edition podcast needs your help....

If you will be seeing Fantasmic Friday or Saturday night using the new FastPass system (or even standby), I'd love to hear from you and get your thoughts.

PM me here on the boards or email me at tom@wdwinfo.com.

Thanks in advance (and stay dry).

 

[McNs]

Well I FOR SURE won't be there but it is the 12th here in NZ so was thinking about how it is going to go tomorrow.

Wishing all the guests and especially CMs good luck, hope it all goes well the first night, look forward to hearing how it goes!

 

[dina444444]

I am planning to go on Saturday.

 

[MouseEXP]

I plan to be there tomorrow rain or shine to see the chaos and where the seating locations are actually at.

A couple of weeks I heard the Blue Bayou section is the seating area in the dead center near the water.

Some Standard Fastpass guests will get a seating spot on the far sides near the water, with everything else being standing room only behind the middle and far left lighting rigs.

They were testing the viewing areas a couple of weeks ago by having the walkway behind the viewing areas near French Market and through New Orleans Square.

The old walkway was used for standing room only, which reminded me of World of Color and how you have to get a spot near the railing to even see the show

 

[millie0312]

We will be there Sat to see it then possibly again Monday depending on how it goes lol I will try to update ASAP

 

[Blue32]

I plan to be there tomorrow rain or shine to see the chaos and where the seating locations are actually at.

A couple of weeks I heard the Blue Bayou section is the seating area in the dead center near the water.

Some Standard Fastpass guests will get a seating spot on the far sides near the water, with everything else being standing room only behind the middle and far left lighting rigs.

They were testing the viewing areas a couple of weeks ago by having the walkway behind the viewing areas near French Market and through New Orleans Square.

The old walkway was used for standing room only, which reminded me of World of Color and how you have to get a spot near the railing to even see the show

Howdy Brian!

I will await your thoughts on this. I really hope they don't change all the seating areas to standing like at WOC. I really appreciated that aspect of F! Being able to sit down with my kids and enjoy the show, and not worrying about whether they could see or not.

 

[figment_jii]

Cross posting with the Fantasmic! Fastpass thread...

Some more information...the FP distribution location is about 50 ft from the entrance to Big Thunder Jamboree/Ranch. Like WoC, you cannot select which show you want to see and the FPs start with the first show (so 8:45 pm today). They still have FPs for the 8:45 pm show and if those don't run out, it might mean no FPs for the 10:45 pm show.

Today's Parks Time Guide announces the start of the F! FP. Nothing that really hasn't already been announced (FPs are along the Big Thunder Trail, starting from Park opening). I guess there is also a flyer outlining the options.

Front, Top

Front, Bottom

Back, Top

Back, Bottom

 

[cmwade77]

Considering major rain is supposed to be hitting just before both show times, what happens to all of the people with tickets from their dinner packages when Fasntasmic! is cancelled tonight?

And if the weather reports hold, they will both be cancelled just minutes before show time.

Also for anyone in the parks today, chances are very strong that even if there is no rain, the fireworks will be cancelled due to high winds.

 

[Blue32]

Considering major rain is supposed to be hitting just before both show times, what happens to all of the people with tickets from their dinner packages when Fasntasmic! is cancelled tonight?

And if the weather reports hold, they will both be cancelled just minutes before show time.

Also for anyone in the parks today, chances are very strong that even if there is no rain, the fireworks will be cancelled due to high winds.

If it works the same way as WOC dining....the F! diners will be S.O.L. There is probably verbiage somewhere on the FP they were issued.

 

[cmwade77]

If it works the same way as WOC dining....the F! diners will be S.O.L. There is probably verbiage somewhere on the FP they were issued.

I have gotten them to refund a portion of the WOC package when there was a problem. Basically I got them to give me the difference between what the food was worth without WOC and what I paid for it. I have also gottent them to give tickets for the same section on a different night. You have to be polite, but insistent, but really I wouldn't pay $61 per person to dine at Blue Bayou without the Fantasmic! ticket. Honestly, I don't think I would pay that anyway, but definitely not without Fantasmic!

I do not envy the people at guest relations tonight and if you are affected, just keep in mind the CMs there didn't come up with this system and they have no control over the weather. Again, be sure to be polite and ask for what is reasonable. It of course would not be reasonable to ask for a full refund, you did get food, but if the value of the food would normally be $20 and you paid $61, then ask for $41 back or a ticket for another day in the same section.

 

[millie0312]

Not sure about the wind up high, but it is cold but very sunny today at DLR, so maybe it won't be cancelled. Hoping to hear how it goes and where the regular FP section is for when I go tomorrow

 

[cmwade77]

Not sure about the wind up high, but it is cold but very sunny today at DLR, so maybe it won't be cancelled. Hoping to hear how it goes and where the regular FP section is for when I go tomorrow

According to Accuweather, there will be rain from 8-10 PM tonight. I know it was poring rain earlier in the day as well, probably until about 8:30-9 AM.

Accuweather is usually pretty accurate, but weather channel says from 8PM onward. When the both agree when the rain will start, the chance of rain not starting then is extremely slim. So, there is very little chance of Fantasmic! running tonight.

At bare minimum, it will be modified show due to the massive rain earlier this morning and the fact that the island will be too slippery in many backstage areas. And they may push forward with the modified show, just because of the mess that would happen if they don't perform something. But if the rain comes in at the rate they say, it won't be pleasant for anyone watching the show.

 

[DahliaRW]

Just got back from f! We got gold fastpasses, which was standing up behind the light tower. Blue is the whole front sitting section. It was absolute chaos lining up to get in. Think mob of people in too wide if a line up area. Eager to hear where the dinner packages were, we have bb reserved Sunday. We got the rainy show version, even though it wasn't raining because things were still wet. No Belle float (which probably wasn't rain related but rather casting). It sprinkled a bit during the show, but nothing even remotely like the downpour this morning.

 

[MouseEXP]

So I took a quick trip to the park tonight.
The whole experience was a LOL moment.
I got there about 5 minutes after the FP guests were let in.
Every Cast member I talked to had a different take in where the certain views were located.
The good news is that it looks like the Blue Bayou FP is located slightly to the left and near the water.
Some FP users are still able sit near the water, but you better get to the holding area early.
While others were shoulder to shoulder behind the center and left light towers
Other issue is that 5 minutes before showtime there were still a lot of open sitting areas near the water I'm assuming were for the River Belle.
Lucky for Disney that the threatening rain turned people away from the park.
Saturday will be even a bigger cluster since the weather should be much nicer.
It was obvious that Fantasmic / Disneyland viewing area was not built to handle this type of system.
I do not know what happened during the second show.

 

[CassieF]

What time did you get your gold fp? I was in blue (got mine at 1 after initially being rejected from the first machine, which apparently happened a lot that morning) and when we were in the queuing area about 10 minutes before the set time they had CMs attempting to clear people out of the walkway to avoid people lining up early. It was partially successful but we got screwed by waiting back because they ended up letting people in 5 minutes early, so despite being there before a bunch of people, then following instructions, we were behind a huge mob.

We ended up with a good viewing spot, second row, a little left of center. Good for viewing, but not great for photography because of the railing. There was a lot of confusion from both guests and CMs about where to go when entering the viewing area and they were not checking fp well. No areas were roped off, so you could go anywhere and there weren't CMs telling people exactly what was where, It also appears as if they might have forgotten to save an area for one of the reserved areas as they made a portion of the sitting blue section stand up and move while new people filled in.

I'm still not exactly sure what sections are where, but BB is front and center sitting as well as standing in the old dessert seating section. Blue was to the left of the seating section as well as standing behind and possibly over by pirates lair. I know the bridge is gold. I'm not sure where standby went but supposedly they are queuing them up along the thunder trail and bringing them in shortly before the show...at least that is what we were told would happen if we wanted to go to the second show without a fp.

I'm sure once they figure it out and maybe rope off and clearly label sections things will go more smoothly. I'm sure the morning rain prolonged the fp distribution...does anyone know what time they went from blue to gold, and then into the second show? It did clear up and was a beautiful day but I'm guessing the threat of evening rain held off some people as well. It sprinkled a little around the Peter Pan segment and they did their modified routine but otherwise the show went on as usual. I'm not sure how the second show turned out. I wish you could grab FP for both...

I'm very interested to see how this develops and how it will be once it's settled. I'll be going again Monday and Tuesday so I can update if anything changes

 

[millie0312]

Thanks for the updates! I'll be going to the second show tonight and will update as well

 

[DahliaRW]

We got our gold fp at 945 am. They didn't check them well, we still have 2. I didn't see anyone actually taking blue fps! The bridge was not gold, I was in gold and it was the section up behind and to the sides behind the light tower. The bridge they filled in last minute, was assuming standby.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Anyone see where dessert party people were placed? Sounds frustrating. Thanks to all who shared their experience!

 

[CassieF]

We got our gold fp at 945 am. They didn't check them well, we still have 2. I didn't see anyone actually taking blue fps! The bridge was not gold, I was in gold and it was the section up behind and to the sides behind the light tower. The bridge they filled in last minute, was assuming standby.

This is what is so frustrating...in typical disney you get a different answer from everyone you ask. The bridge is a decent place for taking pictures so we inquired for future shows what zone it was located in...

Also, another thing we found super frustrating was we stopped about half an hour before the queuing time to talk to a F! CM about some questions (biggest question was where to line up, since the fp just said frontierland but also inquired about zone locations, which color fp was distributed first, etc) and he was so nice but didn't know anything aside from where to line up (by the light tower) so he went to ask his lead only to come back and say his lead wouldn't even tell him. He said his lead said "they don't need to know anything besides where to line up". No wonder no one know anything if they won't even tell CMs basic info!

 

[CassieF]

And if gold is distributed first, why is blue seeming to be the better section?