Over time the different opinions on WOC will sort themselves out. I saw it twice and am going to venture an opinion of my own. Maybe more of an educated guess.
1. We saw WOC the first time with an Ariel's Grotto preferred dining package. (I know BlackJack had that planned but had to cancel - which is a bummer).
For us it was the second day of our trip and we took it easy that day at DCA. The weather was sunny but cool for July - mid-to-high 70's. We had dinner at 5:30 and the dinner was great. We got in line for WOC just before 7PM and
got a position on the front rail for the 9PM show - which was almost totally unobstructed. All seven of us thought WOC was absolutely spectacular. I wrote up my thoughts on WOC while the emotion was fresh on the following day. Here is a link FWIW:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2520975
2. I went solo to see WOC on our final night. I got a FP for the 11:15PM show in the yellow section.
After a long day which itself was after four full days in the parks I was tired. I had a decent viewing spot but not great. WOC did not seem as good the second time. I was not sure if I felt that way because it was the second time and not the first, or because it was late and I was very tired, or because the viewing area was not as good. I think it was the latter two reasons. Everyone around me in line before the show was really dragging and most all the kids were falling asleep on their parents. I did not see that on the first night when we were there at 9PM because of course it was earlier.
What I surmise about WOC is that your opinion of it varies greatly with how tired you are (and the lateness of the show) and your viewing area - and of course how tall you are. On our first viewing I could not imagine anyone not liking WOC and being overwhelmed like we were. On my second viewing I
could imagine how someone might be underwhelmed. I was tired and had to drag myself there to see it again that late at night. And my view was quite average compared to the rail in preferred.