MousePlanet Mailbag

Staff writer Steve Russo  wrote about his disappointing experience with the Fantasmic! Dining Experience package in his February 13, 2009 article “ Fantasmic! Fiasco.”  This week’s mailbag includes reader reactions, as well as other recent experiences with Fantasmic! since the Walt Disney World show was reduced to twice-weekly showings.

Sharon writes:

I read with interest your article on the Fantasmic! Fiasco. My family and I were at Fantasmic! the same night you were describing and had a similar experience. We had one major difference: we got to see the show, but only because my son is in a wheelchair and they squeezed us into a handicapped section (I view that as lucky more than anything).

We had booked the dining package with dinner at Mama Melrose. Our server told us to be there “eh, around 30 minutes or so beforehand.” I remember needing to be there earlier than 30 minutes when we did this a few years ago, but policies change, so 30 minutes it was. By the time we ate dinner, made a bathroom stop and got our coats from our locker, we were walking down Sunset with just a couple of minutes to spare. As we were walking down the street we kept hearing announcements about it being standing room only. We showed up at the entrance right at the 30-minute mark, right as they were announcing that the theater was closed. They had it blocked off, but my husband showed our dining ticket and they let us through. No problem, once we got to the top of the walkway, we’d have reserved seating, you know, because we’d booked the dining plan.

We started to head toward the right side of the theatre, where we had reserved seats before, and were told to “move away.” We explained that we had reserved seats and flashed the card. The cast member all but laughed at us and said that we would have needed to be there an hour and a half before if we wanted those seats. We had been told 30 minutes by our server, the card said 30-45 minutes before, and the reservation time that Disney had given us for the package would not have allowed us to eat and get over there with an hour and a half to spare!

In all fairness to the cast members it was pretty clear that it was packed already. My husband started to argue a bit and they sent us over to someone else, who sent us over to someone else who called about available handicapped seats. The cast member then took us over to the available seats and we enjoyed the show. We ended up in the Hades section, which I think all things considered were better seats than the equivalent in the reserved section.

I can understand it being busy, but we had paid for seats that had disappeared. As a kicker to all this, one of our party was a cast member who had a discount coupon for the restaurant. After going back and forth between ourselves and the restaurant we decided to do the package, so we almost lost out on a 50% discount and the show!

It was really only luck (and my son’s wheelchair) that kept the evening from being a total disaster. I was sorry to read that you didn’t have that luck and yours was a disaster. I was surprised at how chaotic it all seemed. I know it definitely didn’t feel like that when we did it before. All in all, I would really think hard before I did Fantasmic! again. Our next trip is likely with a Walt Disney World rookie, so I guess we’ll see. I hope they can add some shows and improve the experience for everyone.

Thanks again for the article (and all your hard MousePlanet work). I really enjoyed reading it and learning it wasn’t just us.

Thanks for those kinds words and for sharing your experience. Your description of events that evening mirrors my own, except we weren’t able to get those seats. I’m glad you could be accommodated.

We did have a first-timer with us (my son’s girlfriend), and unfortunately Fantasmic! is one of the things she missed. As you said, I’m hopeful they’ll improve things so she’ll be able to see it next time.

Stephane M. writes:

I was quite outraged when I first heard about this cutback and like you, predicted the worst. I think the idea is that the American Idol nightly show will be taking some of that crowd away from Fantasmic!  Apparently, they believe it will be enough to reduce the crowds, but I can tell you that I do not plan on even going to the American Idol attraction once, nor does anyone in my 15-person group. I’m sure we’re not alone and I’m sure the Fantasmic! situation will remain chaos until they show it more…

I’ve heard some more recent reports that, while people were being turned away from the early Fantasmic! showing (on a two-show night) the Dinner Package seating was not filled, indicating they’ve at least found a way to control access. The same report also said that people were ignoring the cast member’s directions on where to sit and pretty much “sitting wherever they wanted” so it’s not all rosy just yet.

Arnold van B. writes:

Thanks for your article, as disturbing as it is, about the current situation with Fantasmic!  Like you, Fantasmic! has always been a “must see” for my wife and I when we visit Walt Disney World. We will be there again in early April mainly to see The Ventures perform at Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival. However, we made a dinner reservation at the Hollywood Brown Derby for the explicit purpose of getting reserved seating for Fantasmic! Only time will tell whether we encounter a fiasco as you did in January. Here’s hoping that Disney management takes this problem seriously and does something to correct the problems you experienced.

Enjoy that Ventures trip! Thanks for writing.

Kenneth G. writes:

It will be interesting to see what happens the next few weeks with American Idol now open. This could draw 1,500 people a night away from Fantasmic!, helping alleviate the problem. If this doesn’t do the trick, then adding one or two nights of Fantasmic! may be needed. It’s also possible that the show begins to feel more like the one here in California where you need to get there 2 hours before.

Excellent points. Personally, I don’t think Idol will have the impact some hope it will, but I’m waiting to be proven wrong. Time will tell.

Donald writes:

I wanted to let you know that I was at Disney World last week and did go to one of the Fantasmic! shows on Monday night. I say one of, because there were actually two different showings on Monday (February 2). The first was at 7 p.m. and the second was at 8:15 p.m. later that night. This was actually better than expected, since the park was scheduled to close at 7 p.m. and did not have the extended hours that night. There were several big-ticket attractions left open from 7-8 p.m. (American Idol finale show, Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, Toy Story, etc.) so that people could do things prior to the 8:15 showing of Fantasmic!

I guess the non-publicized hours helped with the lack of park attendance, because the place was virtually empty. The 7 p.m. finale at American Idol had approximately 200 people (for a theater that holds probably five times that many). The Fantasmic! seating was crowded in the middle three sections of the bleachers, but there was absolutely no one sitting in the two sections to the far left of the amphitheatre. If your statement of 7,000 seating capacity were correct, then I would guess that there were no more than 3,000 at the show that night. Remember, it was a little colder that day and it did have sporadic rain showers that day as well. But, when it came to show time, the sky was great, the show was as good as I remember in recent times (though I have noticed fewer characters over the last couple of years) and the crowd, by Disney standards, was non-existent.

Thanks for sharing your experience although, considering the light crowds at both Idol and Fantasmic!