Starting next month, you'll be able to get reserved seating assignments to watch the Fantasmic! show at Disneyland Park. It will be the first assigned-seating scheme for the popular night-time show since the old Fantasmic! dessert parties on the old Disney Gallery balcony kicked off the whole premium upcharge trend at Disney back in the 1990s.
Fantasmic Fastpasses will be distributed at Big Thunder Trail in Frontierland. If you don't want to arrive early to get a Fastpass, you can book a variety of Fantasmic! dining packages that will include access to reserved seating area.
The big news here is that Disney will be changing the River Belle Terrace to a table service location for dinner on nights that Fantasmic! runs, and that you will have to buy the $42 Fantasmic dinner package to dine there on those evenings. The package includes a three-course meal and the Fastpass.
If you are looking for a lower-prices option, you can pick up a Fastpass "grab and go" meal at the Aladdin's Oasis , with a choice of chicken or lasagne, for $20 for adults. Kids can choose from chicken, pasta or mac 'n cheese. Pickups start at noon and run until 7pm and include your Fastpass for the night's showing.
If you're missing the old Fantasmic! dessert party, the lower-priced reboot is over at the Hungry Bear, where they will be serving desserts 90 minutes before the show for $30. But you'll have to walk back around the river to the reserved seating area for the show, instead of watching it from seats above the crowd as the lucky few did back in the olden times of the past century. ;^)
Finally, if you're a theme park high roller, there's a Blue Bayou package that includes a three-course meal, Fantasmic souvenir and a Fastpass, for $61 for adults.
Disneyland will continue to offer "standby" viewing areas for the show, but the new reserved seating and Fastpass distribution will change the dynamic of hundreds of guests (or more) sitting down hours before showtimes some evenings, effectively blocking the way around the Rivers of America in front of Pirates of the Caribbean (which is why Disney built that crossover bridge back in the early 1990s).
What do you think of this change?
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It's assigned "seating" areas, a la World of Color.
Compared to what WDW wants you to shell out, this is a pretty good value. Not sure about the Blue Bayou, but the others are a little more affordable.
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Is it really assigned seating as in chairs? Or just assigned sections?
Table service at River Belle Terrace is an interesting change, but what of other restaurants on the New Orleans side?
Anyways, I wonder if Fastpasses are required for the second or third performance.