paulasc why do you have to make my decision harder?
Here we go again I haven’t cancel the reservation for the restaurant yet, but my wife and I were kind of persuaded by slpeters19, now is no that clear cut anymore.
Seriously thanks for the reply paulasc 
Thanks suemarie19 for the reply,
I think we are in your place when it come to the expectation for those show, our first visit to Disney was last Christmas and we were wow by the Elsa lighting the Cinderella Castle show, we went to MK twice and we were so tired at the end of both day, by waking up so early for the extra magic hour, that we went to the hotel without seeing the final Cinderella’s Castle show, and now we regret it lol. So we don’t want to make the same mistake with HS. We went to AK but left before the show and watched the one at Epcot, but we weren’t impressed by it. So Hollywood Studios was the only park we skipped last time.
My wife is a very good cook, so we usually only pay for food in places where the food is delicious. Doesn’t have to be fine dining but it has to be good.
We actually booked the cheapest of the restaurant, (Mama’s) and the price for the food with the fantasmic show is $45 per adult, our son is only 10 and he barely eat, but he is consider an adult, our daughter is 9 so she is only $19. But honestly is not so much about the money, is about if the actual show is worth it.
At the end we will probably are going to keep the reservation, just to have the piece of mind.
We have as well a fast pass for the show but we are not going to use it because I want to book more fast passes once I’m done with our 3.
I saw Fantasmic 4 yrs ago and it was amazing. For someone who hasn’t been to any HS shows that would be the first choice for me. I just saw Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam and it was also great! I had read bad reviews of it but I have to say that this year’s show is wonderful, especially if you like over the top Xmas stuff. I had seen a video of a past year of it and could see the bad reviews but this year’s was much better and it was great that there were fewer people seeing it than at MK b/c Fantasmic was going on at the same time. It was a HUGE disappointment on my trip that I missed Sunset Seasons Greetings (the TOT projections). Do not count on it going until park close. The flier they gave out said it did, then a cast member told us it ended at 10 so we headed there after JBJB. Turns out it ended at 9, at least that night, and since JBJB was at 9 as well we were too late by waiting for JBJB to be over. I saw it a little from afar but didn’t really see it. There are 4 vignettes told in the SSG.
Thanks Kitty_Ellas_Mom,
We are doing it Thanks guys for all your help!
I would definitely drop your Fantasmic FPP. I’ve become a bit of a broken record about this around here, but I think that having a Fantasmic FPP is actually a negative. Imagine a giant amphitheatre divided into thirds. Left third is FPP holders, centre third is dining/dessert plan people, right third is everybody else. We arrived at 7:20 with an FPP and got the exact same seat on the left side that we would have gotten on the right side with no FPP. And here’s the real problem - the exit is on the right. It took a long time in a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd for us to make our way all the way across to reach the exit.
If I were doing it again (which I’m probably not, I didn’t love Fantasmic anyway) I would do a light Quick Service dinner and the dessert party. Get the reserved seating, have a fun treat, substantially cheaper than a meal combo.
Thanks a lot for that info erinkippen! I’ll check out the dessert party
I did the dessert party and enjoyed it. I did have another liner point out that Mama Melrose is actually about $5 more than the dessert party. For many families that might be a better deal?
Yeah PrincipalTinker, I looked into the desert party, and for the four of us, is only $20 difference, so we are going with the dinner.