THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! Fantasmic! is finally BACK at the Disneyland Resort!

After an absence from Disneyland Park that lasted over a year, Fantasmic! has returned with updated scenes, special effects, and more! Returning with the show are its dining packages — which we experienced firsthand! Come with us as we try out Rancho del Zocalo and watch Fantasmic! on its returning night!

The dining packages for Fantasmic! include meals at one of three restaurants, Rancho del Zocalo, Blue Bayou Restaurant, and River Belle Terrace. They vary in cost based on the restaurant, but at Rancho del Zocalo, you’ll pay $35 per adult and $25 per child for lunch or dinner. The package includes a 3-course meal and reserved seating for one of the two Fantasmic! shows. So let’s get into the finer details of our meal and show!

Atmosphere

When you walk up to the restaurant, you’ll see signs directing you to where to check in for your Fantasmic! Dining Package and where you’ll order your meal.

Here you’ll find menus letting you know what’s available for kids and adults. You’ll be able to see your food prepared and plated right in front of you since Rancho del Zocalo is a quick-service restaurant!

Then you can grab a seat at whichever table you’d like and enjoy!

Menu and Eats

The 3-course adult meal includes the option of one entree — Potato Tacos, Chile Verde Riblets, Sweet and Savory Carne Asada, and Sweet and Spicy Shrimp Tacos. Each entree is served with radish slaw, cilantro-lime rice, Korean potato salad, and refried beans.

We grabbed the Sweet and Savory Carne Asada, which we thought had very tender, flavorful, and juicy beef. The marinade gave it a sweet flavor, reminiscent of bulgogi beef. It was cooked great, not too rare but not too dry or overcooked!

While the cilantro lime didn’t have much flavor, it wasn’t bad. We didn’t taste too much cilantro — it mostly just tasted like Mexican rice with hints of lime. This might be a good thing to note if you usually don’t like cilantro. The refried beans weren’t anything special, just tasted like beans with a bit of cheesy flavor in some bites.

We also tried the Sweet and Spicy Shrimp Tacos entree! Our reporter isn’t always the biggest fan of shrimp, but he liked these! The shrimp was fresh and flavorful, the texture wasn’t too soft, and it also had a little crunch at first. To us, these tasted more spicy than sweet, so if you don’t like spicy flavors we say skip these. There was a refreshing flavor from the cucumber and other vegetables that sort of balanced out the spice though.

In both of these entrees, you could really taste the Korean fusion. In the beef, the sweet marinade flavor was sweet and tasted like bulgogi-style beef, the greens on top of the beef also reminded us of Korean food. And the cucumbers and other refreshing greens in the tacos gave us the same vibes. The spicy mayo sauce in the taco instead of salsa added to the fusion!

We also grabbed the Cortadilla, which is a moist cake that’s served chilled. The vanilla frosting was sweet, however there was only a thin layer of it. The actual cake also had a sweet vanilla flavor, and inside was fresh and sweet fruit jam.

For the size of the entrees plus dessert and seating $35 doesn’t seem like a bad price! We would definitely recommend this experience if you’re looking to hit two birds with one stone. But perhaps most importantly, how was the new Fantasmic! show?

Fantasmic! Experience

While crowds were SUPER heavy for this first showing of Fantasmic!, we weren’t too worried, because we knew we had a spot reserved thanks to this experience.

We were brought to a great spot to watch the show! Everyone in the reserved section is required to sit, so there will be no standing or placing anyone on your shoulders.

We thought it was a fantastic place to watch the show, and we really enjoyed not having to crane our necks to see over anyone’s head. The show was great, even after a year-long hiatus! You can check out all the details of Fantasmic! on our post.

Disney’s Fantasmic! Has FINALLY Returned

Overall

If you’re looking to make sure you’ve got a great spot for the show without stressing about getting there an hour (or more) early and are willing to PAY for that experience, we highly recommend this dining package! The meal was great quality and quantity to justify the price as well, and we had no issue seeing the show — plus, we got to rest our legs!

The other two restaurant options are table-service meals, so the prices of those packages are a little higher. If you want the experience of a nice sit-down restaurant plus the benefit of reserved seating for the show, those locations might be of interest to you. Plus, Blue Bayou Restaurant gives you a really cool view of Pirates of the Caribbean!

We’re so excited to see Fantasmic! back in action at Disneyland! As always, you can count on us to bring you Disneyland news, tips, reviews, and more, so stay tuned here at DFB for all the latest!

Want to learn more about Fantasmic! dining packages? CLICK HERE!

When do you plan to check out the updated Fantasmic! show at Disneyland? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by the Disneyland Resort to attend their media preview of the Fantasmic! dining packages. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

The post REVIEW: Is The Fantasmic! Dining Package WORTH IT? We Tried It Out! first appeared on the disney food blog.