It is very rare I do anything without a plan, but there’s an Oliver Queen quote I like to use, “I had a plan. Life had a different one.” When Doug asked if he could come back to visit again, I figured out what we were doing which day, and stopped at that. The only dining reservation I made was for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. I didn’t know what he would want to do, or how much park time he would want to give up for food so I figured we could make it up as we went along. Through some strange twist of fate, this led to us deciding to do the Fantasmic Dining Package at the last minute.
It was the last full park day of his visit. Originally, I thought I would be working the morning and Jay would be working the evening, so I had tried to keep our plans flexible. I wound up getting the day off and Jay was able to trade his shift for a day after Doug left at the last possible second. So, the new plan was to open Magic Kingdom and spend the rest of the day at Hollywood Studios. After doing the After Hours Event a few days prior, there wasn’t much left in Magic Kingdom we needed to accomplish. Mostly Doug just wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion one more time.
As we were driving to Magic Kingdom, Jay asked what the food plan was for the day. “I don’t really have one.” I said from the backseat. Doug turned around to look at me, “You don’t have a plan?” “Not for this! I wasn’t sure what you guys would want.”
Doug pulled up a list of restaurants with availability for lunch and started reading off. Unfortunately, he didn’t know which ones were in Hollywood Studios, so a good bit of the conversation was me saying, “That’s at Epcot. That’s at the Boardwalk. That’s at Animal Kingdom Lodge.”
Then he mentioned Hollywood and Vine, and my brain started spinning. I pulled up the Fantasmic Dining Package on my phone because I wanted to see the prices before I suggested it. I also wanted to see if Minnie’s Holiday and Dine, which is a character meal at Hollywood and Vine that’s on my 2018 wishlist, was still on it. Hollywood and Vine was on the list, but it said Holiday and Dine wasn’t going on at the time. (When I pulled the page up to double check prices for this article, it was listed on those dates and now I’m super sad, but this probably worked out for the best.)
“So, if we wanted to book the Fantasmic Dining Package that would take care of lunch and then we could cancel the Fastpasses I made for Fantasmic and try to get Aerosmith Rockin’ Roller Coaster instead.”
This was when we discovered that we hadn’t taken Doug on Aerosmith when he was here last year because he had no idea it existed and it’s apparently one of his favorite bands. Whoops. I did get him on Toy Story and the Great Movie Ride though, so I think it evens out.
I suggested doing Mama Melrose’s, since it was the less expensive of the dining package options, but Doug didn’t think Italian was a good idea when we were going to be walking around all day. Since Jay and Doug don’t think much of buffets, and since I thought there were no characters at the time, I didn’t mention Hollywood and Vine. That left us with the Hollywood Brown Derby, and I made us a reservation for 1:00 pm
We didn’t leave Magic Kingdom until about 12:05 pm, so that was a little stressful, but we made it with plenty of time to spare. We arrived at the restaurant about ten minutes before our reservation, and were given a pager. I had forgotten Doug likes Hollywood and movie history, so this really was the perfect place for us.
We were seated in no time at all. We had a rather disastrous experience with the Fantasmic Dining Package in Disneyland last year, and a wonderful time at the River of Light Dining Package at Tiffins, so I was curious to see how this would go. For one price, you could choose a soft drink and any entrée’ on the menu. Dessert was also included but it was a set plate. Appetizers were not included but that didn’t stop me from ordering the Cobb Salad. I’ve only been to Brown Derby a handful of times, but their Cobb Salad is to die for. Apparently, the Cobb Salad was actually invented at the original Brown Derby in California, so it’s kind of like the original Cobb Salad.
Bread and sea salt almond butter came out at the same time as my salad. I tore into it. Cobb Salad is the only thing I’ll eat that has egg pieces in it. Since our silverware only had a single knife and fork, they brought me a salad fork.
Jay and I both ordered the Charred Filet of Beef, which by itself was $49. Doug opted for the Black Grouper and Lobster Cioppino, which was $46. If you’re going to be on a fixed price anyway, you might as well order the most expensive thing on the menu!
The food was out in no time at all, and it was amazing. When we weren’t looking, steak knives had magically appeared on the table. Words can barely describe how wonderful it was. The steak was cooked perfectly and tender, the potatoes were delicious, and even the Brussels sprouts were good. I did not sample Doug’s seafood, but he was more vocal about how wonderful his food was than we were, so I’m confident it was equally amazing.
The food was so good and there was so much of it, finishing it was a struggle, but I was determined not to leave anything on the plate. Jay finished practically everything except the brussels sprouts, and Doug only seemed to have lobster shell left. (I don’t actually know how you eat lobster.)
The boys’ plates were cleared while I was still picking at mine, trying to eat every last bite. I was finished by the time dessert arrived. Dessert was the only thing I didn’t love about this meal. It was a two-flight dessert of Brown Derby Original Mini Grapefruit Cake and Banana-Toffee Cake. The Banana-Toffee Cake was good, but the banana flavor was overpowering and distracted from the toffee. As for the Grapefruit Cake, I tried one bite and that was it. I don’t care for grapefruit to begin with, and it wasn’t any better in cake form. The boys seemed to really enjoy both, however.
A couple of to-go sodas, and we were ready to go. It was a little past 2:00 pm and our first Fastpass wasn’t until 3:25 pm Fantasmic was scheduled for 7:00 pm, so we had plenty of time. We went to watch the movie at Launch Bay, and I had to drag them to go see BB-8. It was a ten-minute wait and he’s so cute!
We hit Star Tours, Tower of Terror, the Beauty and the Beast show, and the Walt Disney Presents museum, so Doug could see the Galaxy’s Edge Star Wars land model. We wound up standing in line for Tower of Terror again since it was only a thirty-minute wait, and headed for the Fantasmic theater right at 6:15 pm. We went in through Fastpass, and they tore our tickets in half, letting us keep half so we’d have a way to get back in.
Holy cow, the reserved seating for the Dining Package was almost full! There was still plenty of seating but I’m glad we were such a small party. They were only letting people enter from the left side of the section and the seating was to the right. We had to cross over in the VIP rows to climb down to our seats.
We only had to wait about half an hour until show time at this point. Doug went on a snack run and came back with soda, a Mickey pretzel (my favorite!), and nachos.
Fun fact: Since he did not grow up in the United States, Jay only knows the song “Don’t Stop Believing” from the Fantasmic pre-show music.
Fantasmic was wonderful and amazing as always. We were pretty much dead center, but far back enough that we didn’t have to worry about getting soaked by the water mist. Which was good, it was surprisingly cold!
Every time Mickey sets off the fireworks, my heart soars and I get goosebumps. I love this show so much.
As soon as the show ended, we joined the mass of people trying to get out. The only Aerosmith Rockin’ Roller Coaster Fastpass I had been able to get had been 7:15 pm to 8:00 pm so we had to get over there in the crush of people. Somehow, we made it in only ten minutes, and I’m still not sure how that worked.
Aerosmith was still posting a forty-five-minute wait, despite it being less than a half hour before park close, so I was super happy to have Fastpass. We went in and it was quickly obvious Doug was right when he said he’d never done it before.
We didn’t tell him it was a launch coaster, and he was distracted enough that he never saw it launch while we were waiting. I just told him to put his head back as I felt the coaster set for launch. Aerosmith launches on a slingshot mechanism, so you can feel it roll backwards before it takes off. We were actually seated in rows five and six, which is the pull car that launches the coaster so those are actually the fastest seats on Aerosmith. Pretty cool for his first time!
Jay and I were singing, “Dude looks like a lady!” at the top of our lungs the whole way through.
We got off Aerosmith and I had given Doug the choice of trying to rush to Tower of Terror a third time before park close, or going to get spots for the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular.
Naturally, he picked Tower of Terror.
We booked it out of Aerosmith and made it to Tower of Terror with two minutes to spare. We had encountered one of the best Bellhops Jay and I had ever seen, a young man named Curran. He was spooky, he was themed, and he was into his character. Thankfully, he loaded us on the elevator for our final trip of the night, and scared the crap out of Doug while he was at it. Pretty much the perfect end to a perfect trip.
The Fantasmic Dining Package is not as much of a bargain as the Rivers of Light Dining Package at Tiffens since it doesn’t include an appetizer, but you do get seating for a much better show. Since Fantasmic is extremely difficult to get into if you don’t have either a Fastpass or a dining package, it’s a great way to free up one of your other Fasptasses. I honestly found it to be a great value, and while it’s not something I’d do every time, it’s definitely great for a special occasion, or if you’ve got someone visiting. (Or if you’re visiting!) The food was amazing and every bit worth the price alone, and I look at it as getting seating for Fantasmic and a Fastpass for something else, which adds to the value.
It’s certainly better than Disneyland’s Fantasmic Dining Package.
Cost: The Hollywood Brown Derby option that we did is $62 per person, plus tax and tip. Hollywood and Vine is $59 per person and Mama Melrose’s is $42 per person, plus tax and tip.
Value: Great to do for special occasions or if you need to maximize your Fastpass options.
Duration: Lunch took a little over an hour, and then four hours later we arrived forty-five minutes early for a half hour show, so all together it was a little over five hours spread throughout the day.
Add Ons: None.
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