Hello there Joseph, and welcome to planDisney!
In my opinion, there's really nothing that says "quintessential Disney entertainment" quite like sitting down to enjoy
Fantasmic! after a long day at
Disney's Hollywood Studios. A big chunk of what we do at planDisney is living and observing the guest experience within the Theme Parks and I was only too glad to be able to watch the show for myself this week (all in the interest of research of course), to share my findings as I walked the pathway to the Fantasmic! amphitheater seating areas from the entranceway on Sunset Boulevard.
The path itself winds through a variety of turns and elevations as
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™ looms above - but the length of time that it takes to traverse varies a lot depending on how clear or crowded it is. The shortest amount of time that it has taken us to walk the entire pathway from Sunset Boulevard to our seats in the Fantasmic! amphitheater has been just over a minute at a brisk pace, unencumbered by bags or strollers without any other guests in the way to slow us down. On the other hand, if you find yourself wedged within a crowd of performance-goers winding down from their day slowly churning forward en masse, this can sometimes take well over 10 minutes to cover the same amount of ground as the Cast Members do their best with crowd control. (It is during these occasions when we've even been able to purchase a snack from the
adjacent dining locations like Fairfax Fare and have enough time to finish it in line before making our way to a seat.)
Generally I've observed that folks may begin forming a line for each upcoming performance anywhere between half an hour to an hour ahead, just across from
Hollywood Scoops. Depending on the time of the year, you may encounter only one listed showtime which could result in more folks and Fastasmic! fans queuing up sooner to get ahead of the crowds. For your visit during the hectic holiday season at the end of the year, this tends to be quite busy and fill up quickly so it may be a good idea to grab a frozen treat as you patiently wait!
On the bright side, you may be treated to a few presentations of
Sunset Seasons Greetings projections on The Hollywood Tower Hotel with synchronized music and perhaps a few flurries of magical snow that is definitely more enjoyable to look at than it is to taste. I hope that this helps, Joseph;
come on back to planDisney again soon for any more tips, tricks or advice ahead of your Disney adventures at the end of 2023!
Here's to Fastasmic! evenings during the festive season,
Prince