Sorry for bombarding this forum with so many questions, but when Disney phone operator doesn’t know the answer, I need to come here with the hope that you guys do.
I just finished talking with a phone operator from Disney World, and that lady clearly didn’t have a clue of what I was asking her about, I only asked one simple question.
What is the equivalent of Cinderella’s Castle show at Hollywood Studios? Her answer was “I don’t think they have fireworks shows at Hollywood Studios”.
Is anyone familiar with HS night shows? I don’t mean shows like Beauty and the Beast or Indiana Jones. I have seen on youtube that there are at least 3 of them:
Fantasmic
The Tower of Terror (They have projectors creating animations, like they do at Magic Kingdom with Cinderella’s Castle.
The Chinese Theater (Similar work with projectors and lights)
Now which of these shows is the ultimate one to see, meaning like the best to close the night with?
Do these shows play at different times of the night?
Are there more lighting/screen projector in building shows, in HS that I should be seeing other than these 3?
We have fast pass for 8:20 pm to see the Fantasmic show that start from 9:00 pm to 9:30 pm, is this a good way of ending the night?
Can you book dining with Fantasmic show?
Do you get better sitting if you book dining with the show?
Where do I see the times for these 3 shows?
Is the park small enough that I don’t have to worry about missing them?
Any other tips I should be aware of about when to arrive at the shows, best locations to be, etc?
Those are the 3. The one on the Chinese Theatre is Jingle Bell Jingle Bam or something like that.
Pretty sure the TOT projections are ongoing once it gets dark so you should be able to see it on your way to Fantasmic. I’ve seen mixed reviews of JBJB but then there are mixed reviews of most things, including Fantasmic.
I already have fast pass for Fantasmic, what is the difference between the sitting for Fantasmic:
Regular fast pass
Dinner package or dessert party
No fast pass or reservation for dinning or dessert
By the way if I reserve a dinner package or a dessert party can I use my regular fast pass for something else, because it would be redundant having both?
As @PrincipalTinker said, you’ll sit in the centre seating if you do the dessert party, FP, or dinner package. Otherwise you will probably be off to the side. You’ll have to get there early but you have to with a FP anyway.
And yes, you would rebook your FP for something else.
I just finished talking to another lady from Disney but this one knew a lot, I thought the dinning tables where at the show, but she just explain is at some restaurant. My kids are 8 and 10, there is not way they will eat 59.99 worth of food, plus for what we have research so far, the food at this park is nothing to brag about.
Are you looking at the adult Hollywood and Vine cost? That is expensive because it is a character buffet. Mama Melrose is cheaper and your 8 year old will pay the child price but your plan is good too.
What I don’t like about my plan at all, is that with us planning to use Fantasmic as our third fast pass. I’m blocking my ability to book anything as we are standing on the queue for our second fast pass ride (Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster), because what I want to do is enter that fast pass queue, and while there try to book anything from the second tier, especially a show that is happening right at that vey moment, so when we exit Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, we just to go to that show I just booked, get in the queue and start booking another first tier ride, if something is available, we would just leave the current queue and ride the first tier ride, basically wasting the last fast pass to get to the first tier one
So I’ll take a look at that cheaper restaurant you told me, and I see if is worth the price of having that type of flexibility.
Oh I forgot the animation one. I don’t know if that’s still on before JBJB (which replaces Star Wars during Christmas season). The TOT one is also seasonal during the Christmas season.
Do you think you’ll visit again? If so, you’ll be able to see Fantasmic then and I’d pick Jingle Bell. Assuming your next visit wouldn’t also be Christmas time.
That is the negative with fantastic FPP… It ties up your FPP all day and you can’t get additional t1’s. For me, it’s not worth it. I booked Mama’s as the price was OK and we have to eat anyway.
You just need to weigh the added cost of the meal vs QS vs the added flexibility you could gain through the additional FPP.
Thanks jeremy.dmiller, I agree with you! I actually just booked Mama’s as well as PrincipalTinker suggested, the only issue I got is that is for 2:40, so I’ll try to change for around 4:00 pm.
So now I have the flexibility I want to have with the fast pass
I was there the week before Thanksgiving. The projections on the TOT are pretty fun, and run once it gets dark. It’s kind of fun to ride TOT while they are going on. They do projections and have some laser lights, and make it snow on the street heading toward TOT.
As far as Fantasmic goes, I had not seen it till this trip. It was really good. My wife and I did the dinner package cause it did not cost us anymore money since my wife wanted to eat at Hollywood and Vine anyway. We walked in about 8:40 or 8:45 and got a much better seat than the people who did not have FP or dinning package as the seating is right in the middle. I recommend doing that.
We saw part of Jingle Bell Jam but never watched whole show while there. The fireworks went off right behind Slinky Dog for it while we were on Slinky which was really fun.
I’m assuming you’re going for the holiday time. Sunset Seasons Greetings is ongoing and a lot of fun, not much need to plan around it We thought Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam was AMAZING! But, we’re big Christmas people and we did the dessert party (incidentally, best dessert party on property in my opinion). We also did Fantasmic! on a different night and found it, well, lacking. To be honest it’s the only thing we did in eight days that we kind of felt like was a waste of time. We just recently saw it at Disneyland and really liked it so maybe we just got an off night at WDW, but if so it was a really off night.
After reading your comment, there is a part of me that say: Why do we want to pay for that over price mediocre food, if the show is not even that good? We could always go to see the show with not such a good sitting, and use that money for a nice meal at Disney Springs Wolfgang Puck, which wouldn’t be more expensive.
We love Fantasmic. It’s our second favourite show at WDW (behind HEA). I’m always amazed when people say that they didn’t like it. It’s also one of the only nighttime shows with designated seating areas which makes it so much nicer to attend than all of the ones where you have to stand the whole time!
We always enjoy Fantasmic! We have never seen the DL version so nothing to compare it too. We did a dining package and really loved our seats. Some people are not impressed by much. The projections and the fact that they are so vivid amazes me wherever they do them. Sunset Season greeting where they use them on ToT was cool too. When you see the buildings during the day after seeing what they do with them at night it really amazes me. By the way, I was very surprised at H&V because of all the negative talk about it. I went in expecting Shoney’s or worse. It was so much better than that. Of course there were things that did not appeal to me, but the things that did were delicious. However the cost for us was one credit each- so about $34. That is why we did the dining plan. I am not really trying to sell you on any of these. Just offering a different perspective.
