Ariel's Grotto Ressie?

[3boys~n~1princess]

I made a reservation for Ariel's Grotto for November 20th at 8:20pm for the 10:15pm show. Is this a good time? I wasn't sure at all what to pick and when the CM was on the phone with me she said she had no idea what times to recomment, Can someone please help me?

Thanks so much!
Jessica

 

[Princess Row]

That is a perfect Ressie time. I believe we have a six thirty for the earlier show. The CM on the phone said to make your ressie if it was for a later show. So that sounds perfect. :]

 

[3boys~n~1princess]

Thank you so much! I am so excited

Jessica

 

[HydroGuy]

I made a reservation for Ariel's Grotto for November 20th at 8:20pm for the 10:15pm show. Is this a good time? I wasn't sure at all what to pick and when the CM was on the phone with me she said she had no idea what times to recomment, Can someone please help me?

Thanks so much!
Jessica

You may find out your AG reservation is too late. Getting a place to view WOC is easy - getting a good place to view takes work - and early arrival.

If you dine at 8:20 you will be lucky finish by 9:30. By the time you go to get in line it will be closer to 9:45 - which will likely put you behind a lot of people already waiting to get in or possibly already allowed in.

I personally would not bother doing AG so late. Either do it earlier or skip it. My two cents.

 

[3boys~n~1princess]

Thanks Hydro for the advice. So what then is the best way to have good viewing? Do I grab a fast pass when the park opens and then wait in line far in advance to get good seats? Thanks so much for your help!
Jessica

 

[Raindown]

Thanks Hydro for the advice. So what then is the best way to have good viewing? Do I grab a fast pass when the park opens and then wait in line far in advance to get good seats? Thanks so much for your help!
Jessica

You can still do the AG dinner, but I would get the earliest reservation for the show you plan to watch.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

My times were different, but I'll share our experience.

We had a 5:20 ressie for the 8:15 show. The staff really rushed the meal. I'm sure they are told to speed things along, but the courses came very fast. We asked for coffee twice and never got any. We got tired of waiting for it and just ate dessert. We were out in less than a hour, and this was for a table of 11.

We started to hang around the lighthouse area at 7:00 and were repeatedly told to leave. We were worried about getting a rail position because of our little ones, so we sat on the benches around the picnic lunch area.

They completely cleared the viewing area at 7:30. My husband had taken some of the kids to ride the swings and had a difficult time meeting up with us.

It was a total mob scene around the lighthouse, so we stood as close to the bridge area as we could. They let the mob into the viewing area at 7:45. We made it to a rail on the middle level.

It wasn't the best place to stand. The families below us put their kids on their shoulders. Which made us have to hold our smaller children. Which made the people behind us angry. It was a domino effect of people trying to get a view.

I think the blue section is a better area to see the show. The meal was fine, but for well over $400 it wasn't worth it. We like the show, but it wasn't worth the hassle and expense for us. We will do a picnic lunch in the future if we want to see WOC.

 

[HydroGuy]

Thanks Hydro for the advice. So what then is the best way to have good viewing? Do I grab a fast pass when the park opens and then wait in line far in advance to get good seats? Thanks so much for your help!
Jessica

Jessica, start here: World of Color Superthread

How can I be sure to get a good viewing spot for me and my younger children?

Guest feedback on WOC has been mostly positive with a bit of not-so-positive. In retrospect it appears Disney did not do a very good job of designing the viewing area. I am sure they tried hard, but some things are hard to know until you have finished.

The viewing area is all designed for standing with a few benches. It was originally designed to handle 9,000 people per show. Eventually they realized they could only fit in 4,000 per show.

The bottom line is that there are some great viewing spots and many average and poor viewing spots - which depend a lot on how tall you are and how early you arrive to wait in line for admission to the viewing area.

When we saw World of Color for the first time from an excellent viewing spot, we were all blown away at how good it is (see my review here). In my opinion it is worth the effort to get a good viewing spot, especially if you have children. If you do not, you may be frustrated with the experience and your and your children's ability (or inability in many cases) to actually see the show.

Further, when there are multiple shows each night I think one's opinion on WOC depends a lot on how tired they are and whether they are seeing an early or later show (on nights when WOC shows multiple times). I posted my personal thoughts on this here. Use the viewing chart thread information by S. S. Columbia to make sure you get a good spot and, if possible, see an earlier show - especially if you have younger children.

 

[3boys~n~1princess]

Thanks everyone for all the help! I called and changed the reservation for 7:15. That is an hour earlier so I hope that is early enough. It it my first time going during the Christmas season and our first time taking a visit alone! Either way I am sure we will have a great time

Jessica

 

[HydroGuy]

Thanks everyone for all the help! I called and changed the reservation for 7:15. That is an hour earlier so I hope that is early enough. It it my first time going during the Christmas season and our first time taking a visit alone! Either way I am sure we will have a great time

Jessica

Good decision. I hope it works out for you!

 

[sacteach]

You may find out your AG reservation is too late. Getting a place to view WOC is easy - getting a good place to view takes work - and early arrival.

If you dine at 8:20 you will be lucky finish by 9:30. By the time you go to get in line it will be closer to 9:45 - which will likely put you behind a lot of people already waiting to get in or possibly already allowed in.

I personally would not bother doing AG so late. Either do it earlier or skip it. My two cents.

I shared my WOC experience on a different thread, not sure if we completely lucked out or what. We had a 7:10 reservation for AG on Friday, 10/22 (same day walk-up reservation). We were done around 8:30 (watched the crowds for the early show enter the viewing area). We got our tickets for the 10:15 show and were told to arrive by 10pm to move to the viewing area. We checked out elecTRONica and got to the Terrace area around 9:50. We sat at a little table and just hung out. There was no line, no big mob/crowd. There were big lines/crowds below us on the "street level" for the color sections. At 10pm, the CMs came over and walked us over to the preferred viewing area. We walked to a spot on the rope and the show started 15 minutes later.

We had a great meal, a very minimal wait (25 minutes total), and a great view!