Trip Report: Disney MGM Studios
Lake Buena Vista, FL
Crowds: Packed
Weather: HOT!
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"I've tried FASTPASS, and I LOVE it!"
Ok, you might have noticed a lack of posts from me for the last week or so, turns out I was on a family, supposedly non-roller coaster related trip to Tampa/Clearwater Beach. Well, as with every trip to Florida they decide to go to one amusement park each summer. They have seen Busch, USF, Sea World and Magic Kingdom. I could not honestly recommend IOA to my family since it was mainly non-thrill ride type folks. (And hey I've done IOA this year!), they had seen USF. This left the choices to be between MGM or Epcot. In the end MGM won out.
So we awoke early in the morning, and after a breakfast a SteakN Shake (Hey Dave Althoff I was finally at a Steak n Shake during breakfast hours, though it's always dinnertime somewhere. [Footnote 1]) Then we took good old Route 441 down to the park (Hey Eric, you remember that route quite well right, and for some reason there wasn't any traffic on it this morning.)
So with a combination of getting a late start, eating a liesurely breakfast, etc, we arrive at the parking lot toll booths around 10:15 (on a 9am opening) While waiting in line to pay that $6 parking fee, we noticed several cars go by without paying unchallenged through a single unmarked line on the far left of the toll plaza. I wonder what that was all about. We did see one car try to slip through and got caught so, we fique either cast member or resort guest parking entrance. We folow the road back and are soon being shown a space in Film 28, head up and catch our tram ride to the park entrance, exit the tram and head to the ticket booths. Folks, Disney needs Fastpass on their admission ticket booths. How about some ticket vending machines like Six Flags uses. "Insert $50 bill, press button" At the very least how about opening all the windows, and instituting some cash-only lanes. The lane we were in was moving pretty good, until two of the groups ahead of us had problems with shall we say "Credit Card Acceptance" So I buy my 1 park 1 day ticket (I never have gotten the gist of "investing in multi day tickets for future trips" I have noted that Disney has restarted the 2 and 3 day tickets again, though they are not park hoppers. (the deal works like this, But a 1 day 1 park ticket for $46. Ok, have it validated for a second day for only $41 dollars more. (No park hopping privileges), add a thrid day for only $37 more. (still no park hopping privilege)) As I mentioned I stood in the ticket line for quite a while.......
So I finally get my ticket and I like the little sleeve they give you with it, (its basically a little cardboard case, protects the magstripe and all. Insert into turnstile and away we go.
First he head down to Sunset Blvd. Towards "Thrill Ride Zone", so I can get my fastpass, and the familt decides to see the Beauty and the Beast Show. Great, only one other person in our group expresses an interest in the rollercoaster, so I take his ticket and my ticket down to the fastpass booth for Rock and Roller Coaster. RnRC is at a dead end, to the left of the Tower of Terror, when you see the inverted blue cadillac you know you're there. System looks straight foward at the ride entrance there are three areas, you can go ahead and enter the normal queue line to the left, enter with a previosuly acquired Fastpass to the right, or go in the center and insert your park ticket into a turnstile and recieve back both your park ticket and a Fastpass ticket. In fact there are several lanes to get FP's so the process is quick and easy. an overhead sign advertises what time a fastpass will be good for, another readout gives the approximate wait in the normal line. I got two FP'es one for Rick and one for myself, and went to join the virtual queue. In this case instead of waiting the posted hour in line in a shaded queue area, I waited by watching the Beauty and the Beast Show. got to sit down watch a show. (Me watch a show, can you tell I'm with the family). The show is not all that bad, and tells the story quite well. Though it seemd to be just an oridnary theme park show, the only thing Disney about it was the theme. Show lets out at 11:45 And what do you know by the time I go to restroom, and walk down to RnRC, I'm within 5 minutes of my FastPass time. Rick and I head to the Fastpass return gate. Maybe theyll let us slide in a couple minutes early. Nope, 12:00 and they mean it, there is a clock posted by the return gate so you can see when your time comes. What I was not expecting is that the tickets are issued in 5 minute increments. I then realized that if they had 1,600 1:00 tickets come right at 1, the system would be pointless, the system issues tickets so that people arrive at the attraction at just about the same rate as people are moving through the attraction.
So 12:00 hits and the greeter admits us to the Fastpass queue which is really a short cut thats goes around the border of the normal queue line. Just as you start up the ramp, both the FP and standby lines merge together. I'm not sure quite how the merge works but I think they admit a specified number of people from both lanes, alternately. Your FP is collected at the merge point, where you start up a long ramp around the side and front of the building, which leads up to the entrance. Normally this ramp would make a nice shaded queue area, but in todays case, they were ushering people at a nice liesurely pace, no crowd at all. But at least both the FPers and regular riders get the entire preshow. Since there was no line between the merge point and the holding area for the preshow, a lot of the theming of the G-Force Record company is breezed by so fast, I had to slow down to take it in, there is in fact a whole section of unused queue area inisde the building.. you then pass a turnstile and go into a hallway outside the 'recording studio' you are held here until the next preshow. You are then ushed into the recording studio, where the preshow is rather stupid. You meet Aerosmith just as they finish up, and are rudely interupted by their manager. Thee band urges their manager to issue everybody back stage passeds and a fast car. (All this is happening on a movie screen behind the studio props.) You see the band exit and get into a limo and take off, then the manager calls and orders you a real fast car, a super stretch limo, which you are told is waiting for you out in the alley. Now lets get one thing clear the whole attraction is indoors. So the doors open and you go down another hallway, and 'outside' into an alley. At night. You can see the launch zone of the track. On a street set, and there are the ususal funny names on the buildings but I can't recall what they were. Above the waiting to be luanched train, is a 'traffiv advisory' electronic sign like seen in most cities. This flashes messages about the highways being jammed, then they just happen to clear up right before the train is launched. Just looking at the launch it looks like any other launched coaster. The spec sheet says 0-60 in 2.8 seconds. Making it faster than OL:FoF's launch. Am I at a Disney park????? To protect you front he launch zone, a chain link fence has been installed that seperates queue area from ride area. See in this case Fastpass gets you to the preshow without waiting, there is still more (though not significant queue beyond the preshow) We make our way around to the station which is themed as the interior of a praking garage, and true to Disney style we get assigned a seat. "How many in your group?" "2" "Row 11" They preload so there are two groups of riders waiting by the queue gates. The train pulls in and it looks like a blue Cadillac limo, complete with fins on the back of the back car. The queue gates open and I notice the seats look exactly like those in Vekoma multi-element trains (seen most often on Boomerang rides) Just the seat backs are molded a bit higher to accomodate the speakers and the outside theming moldings. Even the footplates as you board the train have little guitars engraved in them. So we board the train and they check bars and then you move along nice and slowly, around a 90 degree left hand turn onto the launch zone. Here the traffic light is red, so your train stops, The audio is becoming louder, you read the sign ahead of you (the one you read while in line, with the traffic advisorys) and pretty soon, traffic clears, the band says get ready to rock and roll, the light turns green, and WHAMO. The inside of the ride is VERY much like Outer Limits, except they have several light up 'dark rride' style pieces alliging the track. In fact on one of them the Hollywood sign, you go right through one of the O's. But what is to notice is that despite the unpadded OTSR's, RnRC has NO headbanging! No defensive riding needed.. After this, there really is no reason to ride OL:FoF ever again. This shows what OL:FoF should have been like, nice smooth ride, no headbanging, smooth transitions into elements. (Whcih occured so fast I forget what they were), I did feel one trim brake halfway through the ride. Then there is the ready brake, then you are brought forward into the unload area, which is themed of course to the back of the concert hall. (The brake run is themed as the interstate exit to the concert hall). You then exit out the same side you entered (two stop loading), and proceed to doors which indicate they go backstage, when in reality they go to the on-ride photo shop, then through the gift shop, then finally outside.
So I give this a best of the lauched coasters award, but still not memorable. At least not "I gotta reride it" memorable. I speculate that the ride may be able to handle 5 trains if the trim int he middle is a block brake, but I would feel safer saying the park runs 4 trains, maybe only 3. I mean you have the Brake Run, the Unload Area, The Load Area, The Launch Zone, The Ride Itself. And they seemed to be pushing trains through as soon as one was brought to the launch zone, one was brought up to the load zone.
Whatever we exited, and I chalked up one FP, ride and realized I had done two attractions in the time it would have taken to do one. (I hear that when with ride people the TOT/RnRC combo is quite popular) We then had a straw poll for Tower of Terror, again only Rick and I, so I got us two FP's Here the FP pickup is right inside the tower arch, before you head back towards the entrance area. We got FP's, and we stopped by the large concession area by ToT for a Coke. I had heard from family, "Buy a mug, you get $1 refills". So I went up, and asked "Do you get $1 refills of the mugs" "Yes" "Give me a mug of Coke" $4 later I had a mug of Coke, and we were headed to the Great Movie Ride, but not before seeing the Green Plastic Army men perform out front of the GMR. The GMR line was only back to the door of the auditorium, so we walked right through the lobby and past the movie prop displays, which I noticed must change every so often. We entered the 'auditorium' and the line worker was directing people so as to even out the flow of the two lines. (Yes Disney-heads the left line was shorter) The GMR is a MGM classic, and I fear its rumored demise. The GMR is a fantastic example of a dark ride. You ride through in rather large trains, through classic movie sets, and your train gets hicjacked by the bad guys, but everything works out in the end. By the time we had seen the GMR, and the Green Plastic Army Men, and a couple shops, it was time for my Tower of Terror ride. And Whats this Rick is chickening out on me? He does give me his FP to return (Yeah it got 'returned' alright, user smirks). And they head to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, and I head to ToT, plans are go ride, I should get back to the IJ show on time to catch a seat, then we''ll rejoin, if I can't get into Indy we'll meet at 4 at the GMR" (a nice central location) Ok, now Fastpass is making me backtrack through the park, but hey us coaster nuts are not unused to backtracking in parks, right) I get to the ToT just in time for my 1:40 appointment. "Hey can I have a poolside room!" It is the Hollywood Tower Hotel afterall. Here they have taken what used to be a double queue, and reserved one side of it (the right) for FP users only. Here is also where I met an unusual cast memeber I don't know if it was his role but "1:30 or earlier" "If you arent 1:30 or earlier GO AWAY!" First time I have ever head a cast member shout GO Away at a guest. anyway I made sure my ticker was in order and joined the queue and walked right up to the bellman's station. (by the out of service elevators) Here I noticed how FP works here, ToT has two "libraries" They fill one with FP holders and one with regular line people So both lines move at the same speed, just that one is far shorter :) What I couldn't figure out was that FP holders were on the right and were sent to the left library, and regualr lineholders were on the lieft and were sent to the right libray. Not that it isn't 5' difference in waling but why have folks cross paths? This belman also collected your FP ticket. So I watch the library preshow, an introduction to a TZ epsidoe. the back panel opens, and I get in line, and I take the path that heads to the far end of the boiler room, and get assigned the 'right elevator of that pair.. When the seat assigner asks how many I say "1, can I have the seatbelt seat" "You got it" "Row 5, last block please" I later figured out that that was where I would have gone by natural process anyway. oh well one can never be to careful. Okay so the elevator arrives and we enter the car in our assigned order, and I take the seatbelt seat, and fasten my belt while the riders to my side look for their belts. :) The lapbars are lowered, a little speech and then the doors close. TOT is still a special effects masterpiece. You make a stop ont he way up, overlooking a fiarly ordinary hallway, when the lightnning striked and people disappear, then the whole hallways disappers and the whole thing turns into a starfield , even the elvator shaft, except for the window at the far end which finally shatters. Doors close and oyu go up some more, where your car leaves the shaft and tralels along a track some more special effects, then a pair of V'mirrors open up to admit you to the drop shaft. The drop shaft feels incredibly hot, then you drop, you go back up, fake drop, drop, back up, drop, back up, but not quite all the way, final drop. As you drop lighting bolts flash in front of you, and a few other things. When I saw drop and rise, I mean as in fast, no hesitation, and the airtime in the seatbelt seat is excellent, but not violent I love it. Then you finally hit bottom, and doors open where you htis hypnotic pattern, then you car truns around to face the exit doors. Then the final spiel something about a peice of advice about checking into deserted hotels. I could have sworn it used to say something about taking the stairs, but it doens't now. Also as the car was turning to face the exit door, I tried to unlatch my seatbelt for fast unloading, but found I coudlint until the door and gate on the car were open. Okay a trip through the boiler room, past the photo stand, past the gift shop (Will somebody please put those call bells out of kids reach!), then exit, get some water, and decide what to do with the other FP, it's almost 2, oh what the heck, I'd hate to see a good fastpass go to wate. So I sheepishly renter the fastpass return lane, go up to the bellman, hand him my ticket hoping he doesn't realize I just rode, go through preshow, and this time take the near half of the boiler room, Sure its a bit longer, but the seat assigner on the other side knows me, expecially after a special request. This time I get on the left of the two elevators on this half, and I decide to take a normal seat, so I can a)compare the experience, and b)let someone have the good seat. (Not to mention board the ride before I get busted for FP abuse) The lapbars come down pretty close, and I will say that they do cut off most of the feeling of airtime. Exit go through gift shop, "I'm gonna take this bell and shove it down youre throat" :) how do they expect a guy to souvineer shop to a chorus of 50 bells going "ding ding ding dign ding" the whole time. I exit the hotel, and proceed to make a mad dash to IJ. By the clock I would have made it for the 2:15 show, but ACK! Indian Jones Stunt Show is a Fastpass attraction. My first negative experience with FP, but I really can't complain with two ToT rides in 30 minutes, and I got to do more attractions in less time. The system is a hit.
On a show like IJ the deal is, say you get there at 2:30 and the next show is 3:30, you can snag a Fastpass and be guaranteed a seat for the 5:00 show, or take your chances getting into the 3:30 show. No standbys are admitted until the 10 minute FP seating window has expired. Again I don't know what ratio of the seats are held for FP holders.
Well Fastpass bit me here, so while the rest of the family was in Indy I was out on the midway. (Which makes 3 visits to park, and not making it in to see Indy yet!) So not wanting to just waste time, I went into the Sounds Dangerous Show. An odd show with very minimal visual and mostly audio, through individual headets. If you have been there earlier and sat in a Sounsations booth you know the gimmick) the idea is the power of suggestion by just auido (once your vision has been taken away in a totally dark room) is enough to convince you that you are really in the action. Stars Drew Carey, and is alright, but I liked the Monster Sound Show with the audience volunteers as special effects artists a lot better. Besides they still have Soundsations so.... I'd say not one of Disney's smarter moves. Neither is taking out Superstar Television but thats another story, from a long time ago.
Got out of Sounds Dangerous, grabbed a Disneyworld tradition, a Mickey Mouse Ice cream bar ($2.25) and waited by the Indy exit. Hoping to rejin then instead of at 4:00 Well with that huge crowd I tried, but no success, so after wating a short while till the dust settled,, I headed to Star Tours. Hmm a FP would not get me on till 4:00, but wait the standby line is only an advertised 20 minutes. I enter the standby line which looks bleak, and is all the way out of the building and through the woods of the Ewok Vilage. But i realized that there is now only one line, since the left lane is FP only. I checked the clock by the show buiilding entrance, and noted that the Ewok Village had taken less than 10 minutes to navigate, now the show building. I did finally get to see a lot of the subtle details, like the advertisement for the very reliable Starspeeder 3000, followed by C3PO's smart alleck comment "If its so reliable why are we always fixing it" and noted the starspeeded on the frist roomdoes look badly damaged. About halfway through the indoor queue I noticed an interesting byproduct of the FP system. Since the FP wait was 60 minutes, and the standy wait only 20 most people were going standby, about when you enter the second room inside, they had a CM, diverting people from the standy lane into the FP lane to even out the two lines for the loaders up top. This CM also collected the FP tickets from those coming up the FP line. So Fastpass may not always be the fastes, but it will be more pleasant option. Star Tours was loading cabins of FP and regular rides alternately. This simulator really is showing ita age, and needs to be replaced. I exited and started to head up to the GMR to wait, since "Hey maybe they will get there early, and by the time Iw alk up there it will be 3:45" I get there and waitr for them, While waiting I go to the food stand there and present my mug and ask for a refill. "We don;t give refills" "The oerson over at..." "I'm sorry sir we don;t give refills in this park" "I'm wiling to pay for the refill", "No refills we can sell you a cup of Coke which you can pour into your mug". While I was having this argument with the food service worker, the folks in line behind me realized what was going on and too expressed their anger, as they also had mugs waiting to be refilled. So I doin't know what the park policy is, but one of these two food stands is lying to me. So Ipiny up $2 for a cup of Coke, which I realize more than fills the mug! Okay so some shyster lyed about the mugs to get my whole family (and appreently other whole familys to buy them) What I forgot to do was to express my anger over being lied to to the Guest Relations staff., By now it isn't the $2 soda, its the fact that I was flat out decieved into buying a product at the park, which did not provide the perks that were promissed. Also Disney says they are Environmentally Froiendly, what is so environmentallyt friendly about making me tranfer a soda from a paper cup to a mug, then toss the paper cup away? They could have just charged my the $2 and put the mug under the fountain head, and saved the park a paper cup, and the landfill a paper cup.
Okay, enough of this, the park is about to pay me back in sheer memories. Soon after starting my soda, I met up with the gang. We talked for a few minutes over plans, how they also were denied when they tried to obtain their promissed $1 refills. and then we headed for the Studios Tour. I've been here three times, and the tours have been moved around three times. Now the entrance to the Tram section of the tour is moved back by where you enter the walking portion. (On my first visit the two used to from a circle, so that whichever one you started at, you ended up where you started if you did both of them. Then on my second visit the walking section was shortned (everythin past the set you get to walk around had been cut out.)
So after finding out where the tours start (they now star tand end a reasonable distance from each other) we notice in our Funguide that the walking segment closes at 6:30, and the tram tour at 9:00 So we take the walking tour. We enter the newly rearnaged entrance go up the ramp and we are the first family up to the holiding area. Here they try to cast an audience voluntter, then my whole family volunteers me. (thaks a lot guys) and Brad (the CM at the turnstiles (and our tour guide) agrees While waiting for his queu to start the video on the overhead monitors we talk about the :Legend, the Holiday World Legend that is. I had my HW Legend logo shirt on (The white one, not the orange one) Brad had ridden the Legend, and a "Hey we're fellow coaster fans" bond grew. He said coaster fans should have exactly the personality type they need. I wonder what that meant. So then we wath the movie on the overhead monitors "the Lottery" (hey isn't this hsown near the end of the tour??????, along with the video from the final room which used to have all the props from "the Lottery" which explains how it was made." Moving it here up front gives a good oreintation for the attraction. We are then ushered past the turnstiles, and my group is admitted first, and shown to a desingated door to wait besides, the doors open and they make SURE I am in a position to the first person into the second room. The first room is about special effects suing animals, A nice change and was a good show, then right before the automatic doors open, a CM comes out and addresses me by name (hey thats a switch), and I am ushered through the doorr before it is opened for the rest of the audience., They make sure my group is positoned in the Red Zone, which gives thre best view in the room, (so named becuae of the red strips on the handrail). Here Laura directs me backstage, and I find out I am to be AL from Home Improvement, okay I have seent he show a few times but nothing to be familiar with, this shoud be good impromtu acting. (Sarcasm) I go through wardrobe (Velcro is king), and meet with the director while the audience gets in and positioned, Hey good, all my speaking lines will be on the teleprompter, and Laura will be just offstage pantomiming what I should be doing. Should be easy enough. Next oto the teleprmpter is a video monitor so I can see exactly what everybody else is seeing on the overhead montiors. And them I find out I'm gonna be miked, yep standard studio wireless microphone. "so whats gonna go wrong" Then I get intorduced on stage, by name even! (8can you tell I am hamming this up, and loving every minute of it) Then I pretty much ad lib my way through the performance, which through split screen technology, I appear ont he house monitors talking to, and standing next to Tim Allen. Neat, and hey I got the ususal applause at the end of the skit. And feleing slightly relieved. (And guys, I will have you know I did not stutter one while on stage) I've done other things (like call Bingo) on a stage, and while on a microphone I put on a false voice that somehow obliterates the stuttering) So while everybody else is starting to be heard into the next room, I get unmiked, return the wardrobe, get thanked by Laura, and then Laura escorts my into the next room, where something I haven't seen happen happens. I've done the Tour a few times and usually the audince volunteerquietly rejoins the tour and thats it. Here a room full turned from the watching the overhead monitors to applaud again! Hey. Brad said maybe I should stand by the attraction Exit and sign autographs.... We then do the tour as usual, the sound stages, and hey there was stuff going on on all the stages., then the tour of the 101 Dalmoations props in that final room, before exiting the building. Then I thnak Brad an he thanks me, and its off into the park.
Here I get the fun job of runing halfway cross park to get the family )and me) FP's for Star Tours. (Okay its a ride I guess I can do it again, twist my arm) When I got back with the group about to board the Tram Tour, my mom says that Brad was concerned I was no longer with them. They reassured him I was on a Fastpass seeking mission.
Now I get to wait in the Virtual queue while taking the Backlot tour. The Backlot Tour entrance has been moved from my past visits from a spot near the MGM studios arch, to a spot back by the Backlot Commisary. In fact it is the former entrance for the Walking tour. The preshow does a making of Con Air film, then you see the water effects tank, the same exct tank, and same exact 'skit' as when it was part of the walking tour. (Close eyes may spot a 20,000 leagues under the sea boat), then when you leave this staging area the route has been diverted down a ramp, past some restrooms, and into an indoor queue area as you go through the prop room, then you go back outside to board the tram in your assigned seats. (Hint: Have the most excitable (and water phobic) persoon get in the tram first) :) The tram rtakes you on a tour past Wardrobe, Set design, where ((( NOTE A new Facade for Star Tours is being put together and is on display now, why does the park need a new facade for Star Tours, I hear on the rumour sites that a new show is coming......)) Coming out of the tunnel, you go down the residential street, then through the boneyard, then through their showpiece Catastrophe Canyon, I won't go into details but its your typical anything that can go wrong will type stunts, at whcih point you see the New York set, and are returned to an unloading area to go in and see an exhibit on Transportation in Movies, then of course a Gift Shop.
We exited the Tram Tour, and found that not only had we waited our length in the Star Tours virtual queue, our hour window was about to slam shut on us. So we book it to Star Tours, and enter the attraction through the FP line, and walk right up to the attraction, and this time, well I had more fun watching my family react to the simulation that I did watching the simulation.
This would be my last FP of the day, but I must say that the system really prooved beneficial to me, well except for that Indy incident, but overall I got to expeience more attractions, more times than I would have under normal operations. (uh oh I just said I liked FastPass, I better put up the flame proof shield)
After Star Tours, we decided it was time for dinner, and one thought rang out, an indoor air conditioned restaurant. Since we just came out of Star Tours we checked the Si Fi Dine In, but it had a 2 hour wait, and paying $10.50 for a burger, fries, and slaw was not exactly sounding appetizing. We walked around the lake and saw a similar crowd at the kitchy 50's themed table service restuarant, So I suggest the Hollywood & Vine Cafeteria, afterall cafeterias are known for moving people through. So we get to the Hollywood & Vine, and learn they have changed formats to an All You Can Eat buffet setup, for only $16.50 per person, what's more that price included non-alcoholic beverages (w/ free refills), and desert. Not bad when considering the $10.50 the other place wanted for a sandwhich platter. I would highly recommend it for speed and value. And you do get to eat on real china, drink out of real glasses, and eat with real silverware and cloth napkins. Menu: Flank Steak, Pan Seared Sammon, Roast Turkey, and on and on and on.......
After spending a considerable amount of time making sure Mike Eisner got the raw end of offering me that buffet deal :) The family decided they wanted to see the Sounds Dangerous, I know this was my chance to see Muppetvision (again) but I didn't want to split off anymore. I went and saw Sounds Dangerous as well (again). Or rather heard Sounds Dangerous, then we got the family together in a private booth for a showing of Soundsations. You had to see some of my relatives reactions, they bought the sound effects hook, line and sinker. We played a little bit in the sound effects arcade, Soundworks, then checked our watches, 8:00. Hmm, the tram driver this morning did say he recommended getting to Fantasmic an hour to 90 minutes early. Fantasmic is at 9:15, (and 11:00), but we did want to get home at a decent hour.(Had to leave for home the next morning). so we make our way to Fantasmic, and whats this EVERYBODY, and I mean everybody is headed towards Fantasmic, Not a real line but the crowd continued all the way back in a steady throng to the stadium where Fantasmic is held. We may have gotten to the stadium at 8:20, a full 55 minutes early, but we got seated (psuedo assigned seating) in the second to last section of seats. then they were giving folks Standing room only spots in the back of the stadium. The stadium was full by 8:45., and Disney provided NO type of informal entertainment to keep our minds off the fact that we have to sit here for 55 minutes. I mean the only entertainment is the "announcement" that Fantasmic is only XX more minutes away. The group decided they needed to do the Wave, for 40 minutes.... At around 9 we did get to see some fireworks from another Disney park, and Fantasmic started at 9:15 on schedule. Fantasmic WOW!!!! What a night show. Fireworks, Lasers, Live Actors, Floats in the lake, fire smoke, film on water curtains. WOW this is THE ultimate ''grand finale' I think it may even beat out illuminations The pagentry, the whole spectacle. It was too cool.
At the end Disney does route people down some service roads, and you come out at next to the main street type area. (perfect for exit through retail) We exited through retail but didn't buy anything. We then had no trouble exiting the park, and catching a parking tram. 9though our tram could have used better speakers, I mean they cut out "This is our stop for <static>. Again please exit to the <static> and enjoy the rest of your day at <static>"
Had no trouble exiting the park, and getting home.