Eeee-va
Happiest robot on Earth
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2009
- Messages
- 2,579
So we did the Reserved Dining for WoC at 4:40 PM. Long story short: Worth it to me, but make your way toward seating before the time on the FP. More details below though. 
First off, I had expected the parks to be utter madness but I really didn't find them that bad. Honestly, it felt more crowded to me when we went last summer in June a few days before the blockouts.
As I mentioned before, we initially requested 4:00 PM, but when I called back a couple days later to confirm, they said they didn't have me down for World of Color.
I got the time moved to 4:40 PM though. We checked in around 4:30 with no problems. (Later a man in a suit who, from another post, may have been the head of the restaurants in the parks? asked us how we were/did we plan to go to World of Color (when we said 'yes' he said he guessed that from our salads!) and when did we book our meal. So I explained our situation to him. He listened politely. 
)
Service was pleasant but, ah, leisurely. For the 9 PM show, I would suggest a reservation no later than 5:30, just in case. The place was about deserted when we arrived, but got crowded later.
Menu:
The "appetizer" was something like a crostini with a garlic spread; I think there were sun dried tomatoes in the bread? We also got bread with olive oil. The square pieces were plain; the triangle ones had too many herbs for me.
The salad (pretty good!):
I got the steak, medium well. The tip end was a little tough but the rest was good. Pretty darned pink by the time you got to the thick end. I initially thought the potatoes were OUTSTANDING so saved them for last. A few weren't cooked perfectly but most just melted in my mouth. I wasn't impressed by the green beans but I don't like green beans. I ate them anyway.
Someone else got the seafood pasta. I don't think she liked the look of the mussels and she didn't eat it all, as it was too spicy for her.
The picky eater in our group liked the herb-crusted chicken breast fine; she just didn't eat the peppers in the pasta.
A lot of people seemed to be getting the steak. One of the members of my party noticed the lamb and said it was a pretty good size.
For dessert, it appears you get 1 tiramisu for every 2 people, if you were counting. I don't like strawberries but I thought the brownie things (which were warm, almost hot!) and tiramisu were both pretty good. The others could take or leave the tiramisu. You could definitely taste the alcohol (or you could if you don't really drink...) but the only other place I've ever had tiramisu it tasted even stronger, so I guess Disney did OK.
Finally they handed us:
By then it was something around 6:20, so we went to Paradise Pier to ride the carousel and then back to Blue Sky Cellar. Around 7:20 we headed over to check out the seating situation. There was a kind of throng of people...we asked a CM where to go and were advised they were already seating (despite the FP clearly stating no early or late arrivals).
It was a veritable maze of ropes but we finally reached the viewing area. We stood just behind the ropes that formed a walkway on the right side, with a center view of the Fun Wheel. There was tons of room to sit before the show, but they asked people to get up about 8:15 (not us, but people, so we got up anyway).
The view really was practically perfect; no heads in our way. The actual area was, I estimated, about half full (someone else here said 30-40%). Since people paid a good amount of money to secure these spots, I don't think they'll fill up that area TOO full. But I would suggest you get there around 7:15 or even earlier, especially if you have kids. Our spot was not a good place for kids to see the show, due to the wall.
Where we were, we got VERY lightly misted, then heavily misted starting with the Pocahontas scene, and then it felt like heavy rain (!) for the stampede. So be aware of that.
Here's what the area in front of us looked like after the show:
Overall I didn't notice any crowd control problems at all; it was all very pleasant.
SPOILERS (ish) BELOW!
We were RIGHT by one of the "stages" for the pre-show:
Here's the kind of vistas we got:
As for the show, even just BEING there, let along SEEING it, really made me feel like a kid again. I am just wowed by the attention to detail and all the effort put into entertaining people. (even more spoilers) I was literally jumping up and down before the show (even the fact that they changed the colors of the lamps for the section you're in astounded me!).
And the show was gorgeous and beautiful and wonderful! I'd liken it more to a GREAT fireworks show than Fantasmic!--it didn't give me the raw emotion Fantasmic! can (seeing the live characters just chokes me up!). But the fountains and projections were MAGNIFICENT. It was pretty breezy; I'm sure on a still day they'd be even better. But it was just glorious.
(end spoilers)
I'm not sure how the rest of the viewing area works, but I think the reserved dining package is fair enough (it looks like you KNOW what section you will be in, and you get a meal that's good, if not huge). That said, if you don't get to the viewing area fairly early (certainly by the beginning of your "window"), you might not get a good spot, which would be annoying. You could probably get a FP to almost any tier and as long as you're there very early, get a good view. But I think with the dining you increase your odds, since the space isn't crowded at all. I'm not certain about how many good spots there are; I'm sorry that I was a bad scout and didn't really look around much.
But it went out without a hitch for us and it worked great! Pricey but great. Not sure I'd do it again (being cheap and all), but if you're going in the first few weeks I would highly recommend it. Especially for the first show--they do a pre-show for the first show only. At least today, if you were in the center (as I was), you're far enough away from the action that you don't feel obligated to participate, but close enough that you can if you want.
First off, I had expected the parks to be utter madness but I really didn't find them that bad. Honestly, it felt more crowded to me when we went last summer in June a few days before the blockouts.
As I mentioned before, we initially requested 4:00 PM, but when I called back a couple days later to confirm, they said they didn't have me down for World of Color.
I got the time moved to 4:40 PM though. We checked in around 4:30 with no problems. (Later a man in a suit who, from another post, may have been the head of the restaurants in the parks? asked us how we were/did we plan to go to World of Color (when we said 'yes' he said he guessed that from our salads!) and when did we book our meal. So I explained our situation to him. He listened politely. ) Service was pleasant but, ah, leisurely. For the 9 PM show, I would suggest a reservation no later than 5:30, just in case. The place was about deserted when we arrived, but got crowded later.
Menu:
The "appetizer" was something like a crostini with a garlic spread; I think there were sun dried tomatoes in the bread? We also got bread with olive oil. The square pieces were plain; the triangle ones had too many herbs for me.
The salad (pretty good!):
I got the steak, medium well. The tip end was a little tough but the rest was good. Pretty darned pink by the time you got to the thick end. I initially thought the potatoes were OUTSTANDING so saved them for last. A few weren't cooked perfectly but most just melted in my mouth. I wasn't impressed by the green beans but I don't like green beans. I ate them anyway.
Someone else got the seafood pasta. I don't think she liked the look of the mussels and she didn't eat it all, as it was too spicy for her.
The picky eater in our group liked the herb-crusted chicken breast fine; she just didn't eat the peppers in the pasta.
A lot of people seemed to be getting the steak. One of the members of my party noticed the lamb and said it was a pretty good size.
For dessert, it appears you get 1 tiramisu for every 2 people, if you were counting.
I don't like strawberries but I thought the brownie things (which were warm, almost hot!) and tiramisu were both pretty good. The others could take or leave the tiramisu. You could definitely taste the alcohol (or you could if you don't really drink...) but the only other place I've ever had tiramisu it tasted even stronger, so I guess Disney did OK.
Finally they handed us:
By then it was something around 6:20, so we went to Paradise Pier to ride the carousel and then back to Blue Sky Cellar. Around 7:20 we headed over to check out the seating situation. There was a kind of throng of people...we asked a CM where to go and were advised they were already seating (despite the FP clearly stating no early or late arrivals).
It was a veritable maze of ropes but we finally reached the viewing area. We stood just behind the ropes that formed a walkway on the right side, with a center view of the Fun Wheel. There was tons of room to sit before the show, but they asked people to get up about 8:15 (not us, but people, so we got up anyway).
The view really was practically perfect; no heads in our way. The actual area was, I estimated, about half full (someone else here said 30-40%). Since people paid a good amount of money to secure these spots, I don't think they'll fill up that area TOO full. But I would suggest you get there around 7:15 or even earlier, especially if you have kids. Our spot was not a good place for kids to see the show, due to the wall.
Where we were, we got VERY lightly misted, then heavily misted starting with the Pocahontas scene, and then it felt like heavy rain (!) for the stampede. So be aware of that.
Here's what the area in front of us looked like after the show:
Overall I didn't notice any crowd control problems at all; it was all very pleasant.
SPOILERS (ish) BELOW!
We were RIGHT by one of the "stages" for the pre-show:
Here's the kind of vistas we got:
As for the show, even just BEING there, let along SEEING it, really made me feel like a kid again. I am just wowed by the attention to detail and all the effort put into entertaining people. (even more spoilers) I was literally jumping up and down before the show (even the fact that they changed the colors of the lamps for the section you're in astounded me!).
And the show was gorgeous and beautiful and wonderful! I'd liken it more to a GREAT fireworks show than Fantasmic!--it didn't give me the raw emotion Fantasmic! can (seeing the live characters just chokes me up!). But the fountains and projections were MAGNIFICENT. It was pretty breezy; I'm sure on a still day they'd be even better. But it was just glorious.
(end spoilers)
I'm not sure how the rest of the viewing area works, but I think the reserved dining package is fair enough (it looks like you KNOW what section you will be in, and you get a meal that's good, if not huge). That said, if you don't get to the viewing area fairly early (certainly by the beginning of your "window"), you might not get a good spot, which would be annoying.
You could probably get a FP to almost any tier and as long as you're there very early, get a good view. But I think with the dining you increase your odds, since the space isn't crowded at all. I'm not certain about how many good spots there are; I'm sorry that I was a bad scout and didn't really look around much. But it went out without a hitch for us and it worked great! Pricey but great. Not sure I'd do it again (being cheap and all), but if you're going in the first few weeks I would highly recommend it.
Especially for the first show--they do a pre-show for the first show only. At least today, if you were in the center (as I was), you're far enough away from the action that you don't feel obligated to participate, but close enough that you can if you want. 
Awesome review, thank you! Our PS is for 5:30 so it looks like we'll eat and then head right over.
Oh well, wait and see.
to read in the morning 
