Disney testing allocated seating for Fantasmic! at Disney's Hollywood Studios next week

[DisneyJayL]

This will hopefully be better for my family. It's seven of us so...

 

[FutureCEO]

I like it but then again I don't.

In all the times I've been, we have sat in the way back in the wheelchair/EVC section so it wouldn't really affect me. I ca understand Disney not wanting people to wait but isn't that the guests choice? You should be able to choose your seat and not Disney choosing it for you.

 

[Phil12]

People get to the show early to reserve the best seats. All the early birds go to the center section and then fan out from there in a circular pattern as space permits. The first time I saw the show I was very tempted to buy the dinner package because I assumed they would get the best seats. However, I discovered that those poor soles ended up being jammed into the far right of the theater (stage left).

Do they still do the comedy preshow at Fantasmic?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I don't have a problem with assigning me a section sit in, however I do have a problem with them assigning a seat for me to sit in.

That was my thought also, split the theater into a dozen sections and distribute them on a first come first serve basis like they do WoC at DCA. It will not only allow people to line up later but will also encourage them to come to the park earlier, win/win for Disney.

 

[MatamanKrungle]

Maybe we are just extremely lucky, but we have never had to get to the show more than 15-30 minutes in advance and have always had decent seats. We are a young couple, though, so that probably makes it easier for us to find seats. We have a trip coming up, and we were just going to go to HS for dinner and Fantasmic, so I hope this doesn't make that impossible with how crowded everything is now. I don't really care where we have to sit; the show is just a sentimental tradition for us and it would be really sad to have to completely miss it just because we are entering the park later in the day. I can definitely understand how this would be beneficial for large parties though.

 

[dreamfinder912]

I have to admit I haven't seen Fantasmic on a night where it is only performed once, or gone to the early show, in years. So I'm probably missing some of the bigger "line" issues. If the issue really is people lining up too early, give them something else to do. I'm beating a very dead horse with this, but if you get into DHS at 11am, you have nothing to do by 7 but wait for Fantasmic. Give people something more awesome than a good seat at Fantasmic to be doing for those extra hours.

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to assign seating. Make it all FP+ and give people arrival times. If it's 7000 seats, have 7000 fps. Everyone has a seat. Earlier you click the button (60 or 30 or 7 days) the earlier your arrival time. But there's no way I want my seat or section assigned to me. If I'm getting creeped on or if someone very tall (or lets face it, someone very smelly) sits next to me, I'm going to move. It's that simple.

 

[DVC2007]

So if I am reading this right, even if you have your 3 reserved Fastpass+ reservations, you can get this the day iof at the park like world of color?

 

[YodaMan]

So if I am reading this right, even if you have your 3 reserved Fastpass+ reservations, you can get this the day iof at the park like world of color?

Correct. It's essentially a "freebie."

 

[Matt7187]

Honestly, I would prefer to be given a specific seat, if you get to choose it first come first serve. It would reduce stress tenfold, not having to worry about sitting together, where to sit, people cramming on top of you, etc. if they tell me where to sit and it's a crappy seat, then I'd have an issue. Let me choose my seat, then I'll gladly do it

 

[articos]

I'm interested in how this plays out.....

I think the larger issue in play is that if people sit there for 1 1/2-2 hours, thats time theyre not in the park spending money.

That and it ends up in guest complaints. Specific seating will go over with a thud, and end up taking longer to seat everyone. Rows won't do much better. I'm betting they'll end up assigning sections. This isn't difficult to solve, it's just improvement for the sake of people justifying their jobs.

 

[IMFearless]

I have to admit I haven't seen Fantasmic on a night where it is only performed once, or gone to the early show, in years. So I'm probably missing some of the bigger "line" issues. If the issue really is people lining up too early, give them something else to do. I'm beating a very dead horse with this, but if you get into DHS at 11am, you have nothing to do by 7 but wait for Fantasmic. Give people something more awesome than a good seat at Fantasmic to be doing for those extra hours.

This was exactly what I was thinking. If there was more on offer people wouldn't end up waiting so early.

At times we've just gone to the restroom, and lined up for F! because there was nothing else left to do.

 

[IMFearless]

And if this is the issue for others they will still arrive ahead of time even with an assigned seat, they're not going to risk getting stuck in standby for RnR or ToT, people have likely been at the park long enough to do all 5 rides by the early evening and just want to sit down at that point.

 

[Jon81uk]

People get to the show early to reserve the best seats. All the early birds go to the center section and then fan out from there in a circular pattern as space permits. The first time I saw the show I was very tempted to buy the dinner package because I assumed they would get the best seats. However, I discovered that those poor soles ended up being jammed into the far right of the theater (stage left).

Do they still do the comedy preshow at Fantasmic?

I've read that dinner package seats are now the centre section. Fastpass gets the right and standby the left currently.

 

[IMFearless]

I've read that dinner package seats are now the centre section. Fastpass gets the right and standby the left currently.

It was like this in March. We did F dinner package and were seated dead center.

 

[Tink28]

I can't see them setting up a system for an individual seat, it would never works as so many people are stupid and will sit in the wrong seat and them get into arguments with the person who has that assigned seat as they then won't want to move, they need a better system, maybe assign by sections or something to reduce the lines.
I have booked the dinner package and as travelling in Dec with my Mum hope we won't have to queue for too long as she won't be able to handle it.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Do we know if the "day of" Fastpass+ selection has to come after the 3 are used?

 

[Mammymouse]

As a few posters have said before me if there are enough attractions open/updated/repaired then there won't be such a crush at the few remaining that are functioning. This goes for all 4 Parks. Our first visit to Disneyworld was in 1984, we are DVC since 1997 and annual passholders, so we have seen many changes over the years. But even though the changes have mostly been good and welcomed, the state of the Parks in the last few years has mostly not continued that trend. Fantasmic is my favorite night show and the seating is always a challenge, but I don't think any king of assigned seating is going to do anything but frustrate fans in a less than half day Park which is why, in my opinion, Fantasmic lines are unacceptable

 

[YodaMan]

Do we know if the "day of" Fastpass+ selection has to come after the 3 are used?

No, it will not. Basically when you go to a kiosk to book your FastPasses, you will be offered the additional FastPass to see Fantasmic that night. But it remains to be seen if all the paper FastPasses will be at one central kiosk or if they will be dispersed throughout the park.

I would personally be upset if I got my fastPasses at the Tower of Terror kiosk and was told I had to go to a separate kiosk if I wanted to get a Fantasmic fastPass, but I'd also be irked if the FastPasses were distributed to all 4 kiosks and I had to "hunt" to get a specific seat (like being near the center or near the front, etc)

 

[IMFearless]

The obvious thing would be to make the whole of Fantasmic FP+ only but have it unlinked from the system, meaning that you could have it regardless of which park your other three are in etc.

Make the whole theatre into blocks of seating, it could be allocated based on availability but with the ability for guests to choose from the available sections where space remains.

In terms of filling the theatre, divide the queue line into sections from the outset, basically like a concert where you have to go to door number x or whatever and stagger the return times for the Fastpasses accordingly, that way they could fill the theatre in a relatively fast fashion from furthest seats to nearest, and close off a section as it fills.

Keep those with mobility issues in a separate queue line.

Disney is expert at moving and corralling huge volumes of people in an organised sheep like fashion, it just requires someone to give the details some thought and to try out some scenarios.

I'm glad this is being improved because although not a massive problem there is definitely room for improvement, it is positive that management are looking at what can be improved, this used to be standard Disney procedure to improve any thing they could, perhaps it's a promising sign that the older more proactive styles of management are returning.

 

[roj2323]

Having worked Fantasmic 40 or 50 times over the years I can tell you with some certainty that this test is going to go very poorly. it's not that I don't understand why they want to do the test, after all people show up an hour and a half to two hours early for fantasmic on a regular basis which turns Sunset Boulevard into a complete mess but this problem did not exist to the extent in which it currently does until they gave fantasmic fastpass. If they want to fix the problem they should either stop offering fastpass all together or they should make it a fastpass only attraction for the first show.