Extra Evening in DCA - Need Help Planning

[PowerlineI2I]

Hey Gang -

Long time WDW vet here. My wife and I are planning our first trip to Disneyland in August. On our arrival date (8/11) we are planning to spend the evening at DCA, we should be entering the park around 5/5:30. The original objective of this night was to get PTN knocked out so that we could focus on WOC on our full DCA park day. Now that WOC is out of commission I am trying to make the best use of this day... I'll be going back to DCA the following day for a full park day, so my thoughts were: knock out PTN and jump into the standby line for RSR to close things out. My question is - How early do you all expect I will need to start staking out a spot for the parade, and could I realistically squeeze anything into that window prior to PTN to knock off of the to-do list for the following day. Secondly, where is the best spot to view the parade from in order to jump over to RSR as quickly as possible once the parade wraps? Not planning on using MaxPass for this day in particular. Much appreciation for the assistance!

 

[Winnowill]

Sunday night, we found a place with a decent view of PTN with the parade itself bearing down on us. We probably could have found a better one (we were a little obscured by trees), but we were right by Elias & Co and were able to leave quickly without being caught in the crowds. I'd imagine that, if you viewed the parade from somewhere across from WCT, you can hit RSR immediately after the parade goes by. At that time, though, I'd consider the single-rider line.

 

[HydroGuy]

Two weeks ago we had 3 year old and we want her to be able to see without us holding her. We got a good spot near LM about 40 minutes before the parade. That had the advantage of being near the start of the parade also. We sat on the ground and hung out and did restroom breaks and all while some of our group held a spot.

If I was going with all adult or teens who could stand and see fine while standing, I suspect we could have gotten a fine spot there 15-20 minutes before the parade. Lots of folks sit there so even being in row 3 of viewers you can see fine.

 

[lozzypop]

Note that World of Color may not be running in August. It was under refurb all spring and there appears to have been an issue with the show platform. The unofficial estimate is that WOC won't be back until late in 2018.