Fantasmic in 2012 at Walt Disney World

By Dave Shute

FANTASMIC CONTINUING AN EVERY NIGHT SCHEDULE AT WALT DISNEY WORLD?

Fantasmic is re-opening on February 13 after a rehab, and Disney World’s August calendar is out.

Once it re-opens, Fantasmic is scheduled to show every night through August, except for March 21 and June 6–the two off nights likely due to private parties at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The important point is that Fantasmic is showing every night in August 2012–including the last week, when Disney World shifts from its summer/peak calendar to its Autumn-Winter-Spring operating calendar.

This suggests that Disney World will continue to show Fantasmic almost every night in the rest of 2012.

COMING OUT OF THE RECESSION, GUEST SATISFACTION, AND OPERATIONAL SIMPLICITY

As the recession first unfolded, one of Disney World’s early steps was to shift Fantasmic from its then four to seven nights a week schedule to as few as two nights a week during the slower season–most commonly Sundays and Thursdays.

This resulted in massive guest dissatisfaction, since Fantasmic is a great show and on many top-ten lists, and larger than typical crowds (and thus more dissatisfaction)at the Studios all day on nights that Fantasmic was in fact showing, since those without park hoppers made Fantasmic nights the days they went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. 

These large crowds in turn led to operational complexity. It’s easiest to operate a park if crowds are the same very day, since this allows a consistent approach to staffing. 

This operational complexity, and the loss of the ability to sell trinkets and snacks to the Fantasmic crowds, may well have wiped out the cost savings that came from the reduction in the number of shows.

In the fall of 2011, Disney World returned to an almost-every-night Fantasmic schedule.  The fact that this is continuing in late August–the beginning of the slow season at Walt Disney World–makes me think that such will continue the rest of 2012.

IMPLICATIONS OF FANTASMIC (ALMOST) EVERY NIGHT

The most important thing about Fantasmic showing nearly every night is an increase in guest satisfaction. 

Nearly as important is a reduction in the variation of crowding in the park from day to day.

These two together make it much easier to pick a good day to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios, especially for those without park hoppers. In general, for those who don’t have hoppers, almost any day at the Studios without Extra Magic Hours become a good day.

This creates much more flexibility in designing your Walt Disney World itinerary. 

As a result, I’ll be returning later this month to the design of the Autumn-Winter-Spring Itinerary. Redesign could take one of two paths:

• It could be redesigned to take better advantage of the park hopper that had to be added to it when the Fantasmic showings were cut back, or
• It could be redesigned to take out the hopper entirely.

More to come on the redesign later.

In the meantime, if you are making plans based on the current version of this itinerary, don’t worry!  It still works fine.  It just seems likely that if Fantasmic is showing almost every night, it can be made better!

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