Just wanted to let you know that I did the ROL dining package. We did Tusker House breakfast at 10:40am on an EMH and used it as our lunch. It was perfect because we started off with breakfast and then it moved over to lunch foods. It was by far the best buffet we had at Disney. Character interaction was good. It was nice to see Daisy!
When we were walking to Dinoland to go on a few rides that evening around 7pm, I saw they were already letting people in with their tickets. This was like 90+ minutes before the show. I asked the CM and said they open it up if people want to come in that early but not to worry. I still kinda did but we went over and did the 2 rides and came back at 8:10pm because I was getting a bit nervous. There was still a huge amount of rows to be filled. As long as you are there 15min before start time, you will get a good seat. Don't be the people that wait for 60-90min. There really are no bad seats. Once you do go in, you can come and go as you want as long as you show the other half of the ticket. My husband went and got us some drinks and the kids an ice cream. There were CM's selling the annoying light up toys but no one selling drinks or snacks. They would make a fortune setting up a bar at the walk-in.
That all said, we talked to a CM earning her ears for awhile. She was in charge of moving all the rude people that didn't want to move to the center of the row like they asked a hundred times. Anyway, she said the first show is jam packed and the second show was walk-in and only half filled - all week she was there. This was last week during Spring Break. I was really surprised. We ended up doing Kali about 6 times in a row not getting off at all (always loved that about night time at AK) and we peeked in the stadium before we left and sure enough, not even half filled. Now when we booked this, there was only one show and I didn't know how popular it would be. But if I didn't have a younger one, I would totally do the second show as it is after the park closes and not only is there no worrying about seats but the leaving and bus service is less crowded too.
Just a thought for those worrying about the packages. Of course if you are using express bus service or want to hop to MK for the evening, having the dining package is still worth it. I would never use a FP for it. That was total chaos when we walked by. SO many people.