Originally Posted By Mr X I was looking over the link to those picnic meal/show viewing package and it sounds pretty interesting. I would say though, for $15 it's obviously a bit pricey (I would say the meal value is perhaps $8-9 and the rest is just a paid for fastpass, which is fine). So, and I'm hoping this topic will expand as more people get a chance to try it, how are they? I looked at the descriptions and the fried chicken and the vegetarian ones look nice. Are they good? Are they filling? I have two other questions someone like Doug or SD can probably answer right away... 1) where are you allowed to eat it? must you go outside to the picnic area, or since it's "park food" is there a location provided within? 2) if the show is cancelled, are you just stuck with a $15 plate of food (I'm heavily assuming the answer is YES lol)?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< 1) where are you allowed to eat it? must you go outside to the picnic area, or since it's "park food" is there a location provided within? >>> It's definitely "park food" since you bought it inside. "Picnic" seems to be just a more pleasing term than "box lunch" which is more of what it really is. The odd thing is that unlike the F! dessert/reserved seating combo, the picnic/box lunch is not designed to be eaten during the show. They give them out from 2-6pm and most people probably eat them as soon as they get them. So, they're a late lunch or early dinner. And I think your cost analysis is about right: it would probably be about the equivalent of a $10 counter service meal, and the rest is for the FP ticket. My personal theory is that the real purpose of the picnic lunch is to address the issue of AP holders that can't get to the park until after work, at which point all regular FPs will be gone. By allowing them to book online and charging them $15 for what amounts to their dinner, which they'd have to eat anyway, they end up being able to see WoC without spending the entire day at the park and without spending a whole lot of extra money. Plus, Disney gets to pick up incremental revenue on a meal that otherwise probably would have been eaten outside the park.
Originally Posted By DlandDug I will add a little secret I learned at an interview session on Friday. They sell only the first viewing picnics online. There are 425 of them. The picnics for the 10:15 viewing are sold over-the-counter in the park. There are 400 of those. Yes, you can eat the meal anywhere and at anytime you prefer. Most folks on Friday were sitting in the patio area where the meals are distributed. The chicken meal looked good. I have had the Taste of Asia and Antipasti. Both were quite good. No idea what happens if the show is cancelled, as this has not happened yet. (Despite wayward fountains running amok and wreaking havoc...!)
Originally Posted By DlandDug Oh! Should have added that the meal includes beverage. So there's an additional savings of about $12 right there...!
Originally Posted By Mr X Well what do you know. I correctly predicted exactly which posters would show up with all the answers. Thanks, guys. Anyone who has tried this please feel free to chime in on how it was...sounds good to me and I wish they'd come up with more stuff like this for the Tokyo resorts (I would GLADLY pay extra for dinner if it meant getting a show pass, which at this point are simply random chance and I've consistently (even up to last week!) been the unluckiest loser ever to visit Tokyo Disneyland as I have NEVER won one of those vaunted lotteries).
Originally Posted By Mr X ***So there's an additional savings of about $12 right there...!*** Geez, talk about overpriced! I knew that beverages were expensive in the parks but this is ridiculous! Now that meal-ticket combo sounds like an outright bargain! ;D
Originally Posted By EmmaJayne I think $15 is quite reasonable... If the vego meal is any good I would definitely go down this track.. something different for dinner and the seating.. sounds good to me! Of course it's different looking at this as one single person compared to $75 if it was for my whole family..
Originally Posted By FerretAfros But you have to figure in that the entire family would need to eat sooner or later. Unless you brought your own picnic in from outside, or have stuff stored in a fridge in the hotel room, you will likely pay close to $10 for any meal in the DLR area. No matter what size group you have, the extra $5 (or less) for the FP seems like one of the best deals out there.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub The AP discount reduces the price to $12. I am surprised the sandwiches made at the sourdough bread company aren't includes as a choice.
Originally Posted By cheesybaby What seating area/color do you get with the Picnic Meals? We have our Picnics purchased for 6/25. I'm wondering what zone we see the show from.
Originally Posted By LuLu When we checked in Tuesday, Picnic ticket holders were waiting to get in at the Orange section in PP (not the bridge part of Orange). So right next to the "preferred" diners Blue section. And there appeared to be over a hundred, already waiting at about 7:05. So get there early for a good spot! I'll post more about this in my topic about Preferred Dining Viewing. My price for a Picnic with Deluxe AP discount is 12.99. Is it cheaper with Premium AP?
Originally Posted By tashajilek ^^ Premium get 20% i believe and deluxe gets 15%. I would also like to know about the other prefered dining options at Ariels or the trattoria. Do you eat your meal hours before the showing? and do you get even better viewing then the picnic?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Do you eat your meal hours before the showing? >>> Yes. Seating for the 9pm shows is from 5-7pm (or maybe 7:30pm). The earlier the better, since you want to get to the line for your viewing area about 90 minutes before the show in order to get the best spot. <<< and do you get even better viewing then the picnic? >>> Yes. Basically, the very center section, from front to back, is for dining package ticket holders.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle The picnics sound pretty reasonable to me, and the vegetarian one sounds really nice! >>you want to get to the line for your viewing area about 90 minutes before the show in order to get the best spot.<< 90 minutes?! I knew you'd have to line up early, but I didn't realise it was THAT early... does that mean you're basically standing in one place for 90 minutes before the show starts?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Yep, and that is with reserved spots. The crazyness of some people. Not sure if I would bother.
Originally Posted By tashajilek " The earlier the better, since you want to get to the line for your viewing area about 90 minutes before the show in order to get the best spot." So everyone is standing for the WOC show, are there rows kind of like movie theatres?
Originally Posted By tashajilek I just read all of my questions on the world or color/reserved seating thread. Duh! i should have researched first.
Originally Posted By Ursula Dave, paying $40 for dinner and waiting 90 minutes is so much more appealing to me than getting there at 6 am and waiting the whole day, or waiting with a Fastpass for three hours or whatever it is. We might just do this dinner thing every time.
Originally Posted By tashajilek ^^ I might be going in August, i will definitely be doing the dining option.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< 90 minutes?! I knew you'd have to line up early, but I didn't realise it was THAT early... >>> The return window on the FP is one hour, with the END of the return window being 30 minutes prior to the show (perhaps 15 minutes for the later shows). So, if wanted to minimize wait time, you could show up 30 minutes prior. And, for the first show, there's a pre-show that starts at 25 minutes prior. But to have your choice of the best seats in your section, I'd recommend 0-15 minutes prior to the start of the return window on your FP. If you see the first show, then you end up standing (or sitting) in your viewing area for 60 minutes, then the pre-show starts. If you have other than the first show, then you'd stand elsewhere for about an hour, then be let into the viewing area and have about 15 more minutes of waiting until showtime.
