Benefits of the Fantasmic Dining Package at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Fantasmic! is the night time spectacular held regularly at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  The schedule for Fantasmic! performances changes periodically, so if you are inclined to take in this 25 minute show of land, water, and fire features, check the Times Guide for specifics. (Click here to read about Fantasmic!)

Guests wishing to have a reserved seat in the Fantasmic! Amphitheater, can take advantage of a special dining opportunity known as the Fantasmic Dining Package.  We have done this twice and have a third time reserved for our upcoming trip.

Here’s how it works:

• Make an ADR for the Fantasmic Dining Package at one of the 3 restaurants featuring the package at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on a night when Fantasmic is being performed.
• The 3 restaurants are Hollywood Brown Derby, Hollywood and Vine, and Mama Melrose. 
• Hollywood Brown Derby and Mama Melrose offer the Fantasmic Dining Package for both lunch and dinner ADR’s.  Hollywood and Vine offer only dinner time ADR’s for the package, as they have character dining for breakfast and lunch.
• At the end of your meal, pick up your Reserved Seating Pass from your server.
• Head down Sunset Blvd. 30-45 minutes before the first showing of the evening, if there is more than one Fantasmic! performance that night, and turn right just before the Beauty and the Beast stage/theater.
• A Cast Member will be waiting.  They will check your pass and you will get to make the long and lonely walk through the “back door” so to speak of the Amphitheater. See video below:

• Find a seat in the reserved section.
• If you want a snack, be sure to have your reserved seating pass with you, as you won’t be allowed back into the reserved section without it.
• Enjoy the show.
• Use the main entrance to exit, as the way you came in will now be closed—this is especially important when thinking about strollers, etc.

You can make the Fantasmic Dining Package work to your advantage by knowing that there is a specific charge for the package.  The Walt Disney World web-site lists it at $60 per person, and it very well could be, unless you having the Disney Dining Plan.

We use one of our table service credits to purchase the Fantasmic Dining Package, and it works to our advantage, as normally, an appetizer isn’t included with the Dining Plan.  But, if we use the Dining Plan to eat at Mama Melrose with the Fantasmic Dining Package, we get an appetizer with our meal—as it comes with the package.  Get it?

If you are using the Dining Plan, and eat at Hollywood Brown Derby for your Fantasmic Dining Package, it will cost you 2 table service credits.

Hollywood and Vine, being that it is a buffet style restaurant, offers the Fantasmic Dining Package for 1 table service credit on the Dining Plan.

We have now done both Hollywood and Vine and Mama Melrose for the Fantasmic Dining Package.  You most likely won’t see us at Hollywood Brown Derby for this, as it would take 2 table service credits, but I won’t count it out forever.  Out of the two that we have tried, our favorite was Mama Melrose and we have it reserved for our next trip.

So, for what it might cost for the meal itself, guests get a meal and reserved seating to Fantasmic!  In my book, it is a bargain.  It is even more of a bargain when using the Disney Dining Plan, which we add to our tickets each trip, saving us 20% or more off the cost of eating.  (And, we’ve gotten the dining plan for free on 5 of our 8 trips!)

As the video below demonstrates, the Amphitheater hold thousands of people.  For me, the reserved seating that the Fantasmic Dining Package provides gives me peace of mind knowing I’m not going to have to battle the crowds.

Enjoy the show!

This link will take you directly to the Walt Disney World web-site for the Fantasmic Dining Package.