Time to line up for Fantasmic

[Mystic]

My friend and I are heading to the World in October and are planning to see Fantasmic for the first time. We're planning to spend the day at AK before hopping to MGM for Fantasmic and EMH. Around what time should we get to the Fantasmic theatre? The posted time of go for it when we're there is 7:30pm. How far ahead should we line up?

 

[Mansion Butler]

I usually line up a little before the show starts. It's not really a problem.

 

[cmatt]

30 mins before - people push past anyway :|

ooooh - now im feeling the withdrawls! sitting there in the rain with some 'lays' and a diet coke that tastes funny (compared to the uk)...

 

[laurann40]

My friend and I are heading to the World in October and are planning to see Fantasmic for the first time. We're planning to spend the day at AK before hopping to MGM for Fantasmic and EMH. Around what time should we get to the Fantasmic theatre? The posted time of go for it when we're there is 7:30pm. How far ahead should we line up?

When I go to MGM, we usually make reservations to eat at Mama Melrose's with the Fantasmic deal for priority seating. It may cost a little bit more for your dinner, but IMO its worth it. I used to go stand in line 2 hours early for the show, not fun.

 

[Mystic]

When I go to MGM, we usually make reservations to eat at Mama Melrose's with the Fantasmic deal for priority seating. It may cost a little bit more for your dinner, but IMO its worth it. I used to go stand in line 2 hours early for the show, not fun.

We're on the dinning plan and all our table service meals are already accounted for and we're on an otherwise limited budget. We're heading to MGM mainly for Fantasmic as neither of us have seen it and my friend really wants to see it. I'm not a fanatic about seating, as long as I can see I don't care if I'm in the back row. I just want an idea of when we should be outside the theatre. We're probably eating at Backlot Express for dinner and we'll be coming from AK so I need to know when we need to leave AK so we have time to eat and then line up.

 

[stephdanielle]

A couple years ago when I went with family (there were 8 of us) we waited well over an hour and didn't get the best spot to sit, but both last year and this year when I went with just my boyfriend we waited no more than 15 minutes and ended up sitting extremely close! It may have just been that there were only two of us so we didn't need as much space, but in general I haven't found that waiting any longer means a good seat for sure.

Also, we went to Fantasmic on a night with two shows (last week) and saw the second show...the place was MAYBE half full! So if you're willing to stay a bit later for the second show, it might be a good plan!

 

[LoriMistress]

Line up 40-45 minutes before the show starts.

 

[Mystic]

Line up 40-45 minutes before the show starts.

Thanks. That's what I wanted to know. Will plan to be at the theatre around 6:45 that night so we should be able to stay in AK until park closing or shortly before.

Steph, we're going in October and there is only 1 show otherwise I'd go for the later of the two. I do that with Spectromagic.

 

[DDuckFan130]

Depends on where you want to sit. If you must sit in the front row, center, we've arrived about 45 minutes to an hour before. Believe it or not, while people are directed to the center sections first, they don't head to the front first :lol:

If you don't mind where you sit, we've arrived less than half an hour before and have gotten seats. I think in October you shouldn't have much of a problem, but if there's only one showing, keep in mind that it might fill up faster because of that.

 

[ExBellhop]

Having re-read the original post, I realized that there probably aren't 2 shows that night, and thus, my plan is utterly worthless... but on the off-chance that there ARE 2 shows... go to the second one...

Back to my own stupidity...

-ExBellhop

 

[AnimalMagnetism]

Having been to MGM twice in the last couple of weeks, I went to the second show on both nights, turned up about 10 minutes before it started, and ended up sitting in the Mickey section (ie right in the middle). Theater maybe 1/4 full on both occasions. I've been in September before and there have been two shows on some nights, usually coinciding with EMH nights so if there are two on your night, just turn up to the second one at any time and there won't be a problem. If there's just one show, I'd turn up 45 minutes early.

 

[coltow]

Because it's October, here's my opinion. You want to be at the entrance to the theater 45 minutes before the show starts, it'll take you a few minutes just to get inside. This way you should be seated about 20-30 minutes prior.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

30 mins before - people push past anyway :|

A striaght arm across the throat tends to stop that sort of thing, kids have to learn discipline sometime. Or a verbal tirade from a mad looking Jock tends to work too. Besides the former colonials need to learn the joys of Qing.

 

[joanna71985]

They open up the arena 2 hours before the first/only show. For the 2nd show (if they have one) it opens up 30 minutes prior. I also suggest going to the 2nd show if there is one.

 

[ThinkTink721]

We do the Fantasmic Pkg. also.
It works very well!
:wave:

 

[Mystic]

Thanks Everyone. We're going to plan to be at the theatre 45 minutes before show time. Fantasmic is really the only reason we're even heading to MGM as neither one of us are big MGM fans. We're only going to see Fantasmic because my friend has been dying to see it ever since it opened in California the year she moved from California to Florida. We are going to take advantage of EMH that night but only to the extent of going on Tower of Terror and The Great Movie Ride after seeing Fantasmic.

As I said in an earlier post, the dinner package is not an option for us. We've already got all of our table service dining plan credits accounted for and we're on a limited budget. We're only going to have enough money for breakfast for the length of our stay and a few souvenirs.