Hi all,
We’re a party of 5 looking to go to Fantasmic the Monday before Easter, predicted CL9. First timers to the show (and WDW) so would like fairly decent seats but ideally (along with everyone else I know!) would like to avoid queuing for ages before the show starts as kids will be getting tired and grouchy. I do not want to pay for dining or dessert party packages and we will not be going to the Star Wars Fireworks that evening.
I know that show FPs are not generally thought to be worthwhile, but we will have already been to DHS the week before for rope drop, so I don’t mind using a tier 2 FP for Fantasmic if it might save us a bit of queuing time or get us a better seat.
So my questions are:
At such a busy time how long before the show would we need to line up WITHOUT a FP?
If we got a FP for the show would this wait time be reduced at all and by how much approx.?
I don’t think there is reserved seating for Fantasmic FP from what I can work out, can anyone confirm one way or the other?
I’m partly asking as ideally we’d like to ride Slinky in the dark so need to factor that around the show time start of 8.30pm, but also am in a dilemma about whether we want to sacrifice a ToT/RnR tier 2 FP for a Fantasmic one. As we want to ride SDD as late as we can I think that also rules us out trying to get the Fantasmic FP as a 4th one. We’re not hopping from another park that morning so not really trying to maximise our FPPs that day, more trying to do everything between dusk and park close!
Thanks in advance for any help or insights.
Brizz
Have you considered a Fantasmic! dinner option, if there are any available?
Yes, I’ve considered and discounted dinner and dessert party packages as it’s just getting too expensive 
We have the free QS dining package and are already having some time off site and have other TS meals booked; we just can’t justify spending more money on food when it’s very likely we’ll struggle to use all our credits anyway. A combination of larger portions than we’re used to and the heat means I think we’ll share a lot of our meals and snacks.
I had the same considerations for our trip the week after Easter. I did decide to go for the Fantasmic Dessert VIP package because I wanted to remove some from stress from the day. This may not be needed if we get there early enough but for us it was just one less thing to think about.
I have read on other posts that if you arrive 45-60 (with or without FPP) before the show you will be fine and be able to get good seats. The stadium is very large but it is first come first serve type seating; FP is located on the left, Dinner and Dessert Packages are center, and the right side is for standby lines. I also have read that close to the show start time they begin to open up the FP and VIP sections for the standby lines to fill in the empty spaces.
Thanks Dina, I’d love to take your approach and reduce the stress too 
I wonder how close they open up the FP section… Getting to our seats for 8ish would be great, but an hour or more standing in a queue might tip us all over the edge! 
Not sure what time they start opening up the FP section. I can’t find the post I read it on but I will keep looking. If I remember correctly the poster said they walked in 5-10 before the show started. I would think this could work if it’s not a peek season time frame. Around Easter I would try for at the very least 30 min before showtime as you mentioned.
I’ve only seen Fantasmic once before in 2015 and that was using the dining package. I would do that again this time but we want to try Sci Fi and that’s not included in the dining package. Since the seating worked out great last time that’s why I’ve opted for the Dessert package since the seat section are the same from what I’ve read.