We used to do the dessert party every year- it was great. You did have to have one person line up early to pick seats on a chart (although none of the seats were bad). Then you came back about an hour after seat picking time, were escorted to your chairs and given food and drink. We did the dining package at Blue Bayou in 2015 since the dessert party was gone and it definitely was a step down from what we were used to. We got a fast pass and handed what I call a floating cushion (a piece of foam like you have in a boat on the lake) at dinner. We then had to drag the cushions around with us until Fantasmic time. There were separate entries for Blue Bayou and the other places (at least when we were there- not sure if it was always like that)- but at least the night we were there, they were funneling everyone from all dining entrances into the same seating area and were not separating the seating area into sections or keeping the packages separate at all. It was a mess trying to stay in the Blue Bayou line because all the regular FP people were standing around waiting for the other areas to open- and at least our night, they opened the other dining entrances first instead of opening them all at the same time and people were flooding in from there and running to get the best spots, so even though we were one of the first groups in the Blue Bayou line, a lot of the space was taken by people running in from the other entrances. We could not get near the front of the area by the time they let us in. I think we were three or four rows back. It was absolutely packed our night, we were crammed in like sardines. In fact, the people that came in close to show time were having trouble finding anywhere to sit at all. I felt sorry for the CMs because it was not their fault, but people were not happy and were voicing their displeasure- sometimes loudly- it was definitely oversold that night.
All that said--- if the dining packages come back before our trip, with it being the new Fantasmic we are Disney suckers that will totally book it anyway. Fingers crossed that there is some word soon!
