The Power of Dreams

Besides trying out the dining plan, we decided to try out Disney’s Fantasmic Dining Package as well.

Fantasmic is a night show staged at the Hollywood Studios. To get in, people start lining up two hours before show time. My family doesn’t do that sort of wait time. So, while searching for a way for us to see the show, I came across the dining package. We went to Hollywood and Vine for an early dinner. If you have small children, I’d suggest going here as it does have the characters from Playhouse Disney stop by. And even if you’re like my family, with no small children, you’ll like the food.
It is a buffet with a wide selection of food. I had delicious herb-crusted turkey, string beans, rice, and bread and apple butter. Which, by the way, is delicious. For dessert, I had some apple crisp. This was one of our favorite options on the dining plan as we could control how much we ate and not overstuff ourselves. When we were seated, our server brought us our golden ticket. Okay, yellow ticket.


This yellow ticket allowed us entrance to Fantasmic via a special entry point. We showed up about forty-five minutes before the show right next to the theater where Beauty and the Beast is performed. We were told to follow the yellow line and of course made the obligatory Yellow Brick Road jokes. Once inside, we were then shown to a section reserved for dining package users. While it was off to the side, the view was still good. Though we would come to regret sitting in row “E”.

The entire show will be reviewed from this point out so stay away if you don’t want SPOILERS.

The story of Fantasmic is this: We enter Mickey’s dreams, where magic lives. He goes through several of the Disney films, a lot shown on water mist that showered our row. At one point, there are yellow neon dancing apes for the Lion King scene that sail by on floating floats. There is also a Pocahontas sequence, comprised of “Mine, Mine, Mine” and “Savages.” However, the violence is quelled by the love of Pocahontas and John Smith. In fact, that’s a theme in Mickey’s dreams—love conquers all. This leads to a sequence with Beauty and the Beast, Eric and Ariel as well as Snow White and her Prince.

And this upsets the Evil Queen from Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. Especially after her mirror tells her those who love will always be the beautiful ones in Mickey’s dreams. So she decides to rebel. She turns into the hag and recruits some of Disney’s villains to go against Mickey—Ursula, Hades, Scar, Frollo, Jafar and even Chernabog! For those of you who don’t know, Chernabog is the name given to the creature in the “Night on Bald Mountain” section of “Fantasia.” Most people refer to him as the “devil” but that’s his official name according to Disney. Mickey is chased into the Cave of Wonders, releases Genie!Jafar and is pursued by a giant snake. He then encounters Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, clearly the baddest baddie of them all. And that led to our favorite part of Fantasmic—the fire which warmed us from the mists.

Mickey—dressed as the Brave Little Tailor—rushes to pull out Excalibur from the Sword and the Stone. Once he does, he regains control of his dreams. The evil villains are vanquished and the other characters get to celebrate on Steamboat Willie. As the night is illuminated, Mickey’s dream ends.

The show is a good one, though not entirely enjoyable when you’re freezing from cold Florida weather (it’s Florida! Why is it near freezing?) and from water mists. If you do wish to see Fantasmic, I advise warm weather or higher seats and to do the dining package.