Review: Disneyland’s Blue Bayou Fantasmic! dinner package

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Last month, my family and I went to Disneyland for the first time. Some AllEars readers may recall from my newsletter feature that I had booked several dining reservations on Disney property, including two dinner package reservations. We wanted to try the restaurants, but we also really wanted to ensure we had a good view of the night-time shows that require FastPasses. Here are our impressions of the Fantasmic! package we selected.

Our first experience was the dinner package at Blue Bayou at Disneyland park with preferred viewing for Fantasmic! I had been told ahead of time that this restaurant is one of the few whose reservations are difficult to secure, so I booked it as soon as the 60-day window opened. At that time, I also requested a table with a water view, although the cast member warned me she couldn’t guarantee that. (Blue Bayou overlooks the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, which starts off with the boats floating past the lovely Louisiana setting inside the restaurant.)

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Fast-forward two months. When we checked in for dinner I again asked if we could have a water-view table, and I was told that if we had checked in 90 minutes early, they could have accommodated our request. I’m not sure if we would have been willing to wait at the restaurant for 90 minutes, but I would have liked to have been given that option when I made the reservation.

Nonetheless, even though we sat toward the back of the restaurant, we had a wonderful dinner at Blue Bayou. Each meal included a choice of an appetizer, entrée and dessert from a special menu. Diners could choose from a salad, gumbo or shrimp cocktail for the appetizer; surf & turf, jambalaya, chicken breast, filet mignon, salmon, beef strip loin, portobello mushroom or lamb for the entrée; and crème brulee, chocolate hazelnut cake or apple-cranberry galette for dessert. The wait staff will take your entire order at the beginning to ensure timely service.

Our server told us up front that the surf & turf is the best value for our money because it was the most expensive dinner on the menu. Consequently, most of the people in our group did order surf & turf and said they thoroughly enjoyed it. The dinner consists of a Petite Pacific Northwest Lobster Tail and Broiled Filet Mignon, Blue Bayou Au Gratin Potatoes, Seasonal Vegetables and Bearnaise Sauce. Several of us also selected the Blue Bayou Salad with tomatoes, caramelized pecans, blue cheese and cranberries. It, too, was well-received by our group. Our table ordered a mix of the desserts, and everyone was pleased. Personally, I find it hard to go wrong with chocolate cake, though I was too full from dinner to do more than take a bite or two.

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Our dinner package also included commemorative Fantasmic! seat cushions that do not come with any other Fantasmic! packages and cannot be purchased elsewhere. The design of the seat cushion is clever; when you punch out the pre-cut piece to make a handle, the piece becomes a floating keychain. So, you’re really getting two complimentary souvenirs.

After we paid the bill, the server gave us our FastPasses for the early showing of Fantasmic! The tickets indicated that we didn’t need to line up before 8:30 p.m. for a 9 p.m. showtime. That may be true for guests who don’t care where they sit for the show, but we weren’t those people, so we began searching for the queue about 7:30 p.m. And search we did! We asked four separate cast members before finally stumbling upon the correct location, which was not well-marked. (For the record, the queue starts near the river just before you get to the Haunted Mansion.)

At about 8 p.m., guests were given Blue Bayou cards and allowed to walk down the ramp and gather as a large crowd in a roped off area. At 8:30 p.m., the rope was dropped and the crowd surged forward into a single line toward the viewing area. Once we got to the viewing area, we were able to stake out seats front and center — the perfect viewing spot for Fantasmic! (By the way — seating is on the ground so that’s where the seat cushions and blanket we brought came in handy.) As an added bonus, we were able to stay in the same spot and see the Disneyland Forever fireworks 10 minutes after Fantasmic! ended.

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For sure, you pay a premium for the best viewing area for Fantasmic! and one of the most sought-after restaurants at Disneyland. It was $61 plus tax for adults and $23 plus tax for children ages 3 to 9. But we all thought the meal and the seating were excellent and well worth the price. Our only complaint was the lack of clear directions and crowd control involved in lining up to get into the viewing area. Would we recommend the package to other newbies like ourselves who want to experience both the restaurant and the night-time shows? Without a doubt.


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5 Replies to “Review: Disneyland’s Blue Bayou Fantasmic! dinner package”

  1. What time would you recommend eating at for the first fantasmic show? Our reservations say it’s for 4:50pm for the first show at 9pm. But we want to go to the saying are early for the best possible seats. Is that early enough? We are doing December 2.
    TIA

  2. What day/night of week would you recommend going? Thursday or Friday. Going to Disneyland 1st week of December.

    KRISTIN: During the first week of December, Fantastic! only runs Friday through Sunday (like most other non-peak times) so Friday will be your only choice between those two days.

  3. We ate at the Blue Bayou for the Fantasmic dining package during our stay the week of July 13 for the 60th anniversary. We did get a table right against the railing and got to see all the boats for Pirates go by. Our cushions were already at our table as we were being seated and I agree it was the best meal I had the whole trip. But I also agree with Kristin that it wasn’t explained well enough on how to get to the viewing area for Fantasmic. We were also told to go to the area in front of the Haunted Mansion and just before the show a cast member came to the area and told us all to stand for the performance. When I asked why we were given cushions if this was a standing area, the cast member immediatly apologized and told us where to go. The viewing area that we had was perfect and we also stayed for the fireworks afterword. Turns out that was the best view for the fireworks we had all week.

  4. Thanks for the wonderful review! We are WDW vets making our 1st visit to Disneyland next week. We’re looking forward to our BB fantasmic reservation even more now after reading your review.

  5. We were in DL in mid-August for our 2nd visit and we also did the Blue Bayou/Fantasmic package. The food was incredible – best meal of our trip. Service was excellent and of course the show itself was awesome.

    We did not finish eating until almost 8:30 and so we missed the rope drop. There were nine of us and I was worried about finding a seat.

    We were partially blocked by a light fixture but other than that, no complaints. I feel Fantasmic in DL may just be superior to WDW. Overall a great experience! Would highly recommend.