Just back last night! A few thoughts.

[BillyFan]

What a weekend we had! We got to the Park around 1:00 Thursday. Thursday was great! Not very crowded, weather was warm, called Disney Dining and got ressies for Blue Bayou for the next day, saw the little girl from Little Miss Sunshine on Thunder Mountain, went commando until closing.
Started Friday commando-style again. Did all of Fantasyland within an hour and collected FP all morning. it was lucky we did that, because from Friday evening on thru the weekend, it seemed more crowded than it did in July!!!!
We saw the Billys a few times, alway our favorite, and my husband got a shout-out during the show. Turns out Kirk recognized him and came out and talked with us after the show!!!
We also saw Ed Bagley Jr at Storytellers Cafe Sunday morning. He was having breakfast with his family, so we didn't want to bother him. However, he made eye contact with my husband outside of the restaurant as we were leaving, so my husband told him he appreiates everything Ed does for the environment and topped if off by saying he gave up hairspray for him. Ed thought that was very funny, sine my husband is BALD
It was very windy and smokey at DLR that day, so we headed out around 1:00 on Sunday, driving up I-5 thru a tremendous amount of smoke and fire. But we got home safe and sound!
If you have any specific questions, I'll try to answer.

 

[BritBrit]

Sounds like a great time!

Did you ride Nemo? What day/time? When would you recommend going?

We (three adults) will arrive around 11:30am on Thursday and plan to tour DL until 6pm (then hop over to MHT). We also have all day Friday at the parks. I just want to make the most of our time. Should we try to ride Nemo on Thursday or first thing Friday morning? Or should we use Friday morning to collect fastpasses? We have no problem going commando!

 

[KCmike]

Did they have fireworks going with all the Santa Anna winds and fires going on?

 

[BillyFan]

Def collect FP on Friday. It is your best defense against the crowds in the evening. We collected while we were also riding all thru the mornings and early afternoons, and usually had at least 5 or 6 sets of FP to use in the evenings! It was very nice when the lines were long and we could walk right on to all of the best rides!
Now as for Nemo, don't tell anybody else our newly discovered trick, but we went up to the wheelchair entrance and asked if there was a room we could watch the ride from, without having to actually go in the subs. "Oh sure, head right through the exit and tell the cast member you'd like to use the observation room." two minutes later we were watching the same thing you see from inside the sub, except it is on a large flat screen! And you're all alone. It was great. Later when we were eating dinner at the Plaza and waiting for fireworks, I told a woman sitting near us. She took her grand daughter over and was back in about 15-20 minutes!

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

Wow, you just had a star studded trip there! I'm jealous, we never see anybody! The hairspray comment cracked me up too, your DH is quite the character! LOL

Glad you had a great trip!

 

[BillyFan]

We saw fireworks on Friday and Saturday. No tink on Friday, but she was back on Saturday. BTW, we watched the show from in front of Small World, and if was fantastic! You don't get the exact same show as in front of the castle, but the projections on Small World are incredible! I can't imagine they had fireworks last night, because it was so incredibly windy and smokey during the day.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Def collect FP on Friday. It is your best defense against the crowds in the evening. We collected while we were also riding all thru the mornings and early afternoons, and usually had at least 5 or 6 sets of FP to use in the evenings! It was very nice when the lines were long and we could walk right on to all of the best rides!
Now as for Nemo, don't tell anybody else our newly discovered trick, but we went up to the wheelchair entrance and asked if there was a room we could watch the ride from, without having to actually go in the subs. "Oh sure, head right through the exit and tell the cast member you'd like to use the observation room." two minutes later we were watching the same thing you see from inside the sub, except it is on a large flat screen! And you're all alone. It was great. Later when we were eating dinner at the Plaza and waiting for fireworks, I told a woman sitting near us. She took her grand daughter over and was back in about 15-20 minutes!

I wish I'd known this two weeks ago! We tried the dash to Nemo several times, but the line was already very long by the time we got there, so we never did ride it. DS7 was quite disappointed; he was willing to wait in line, but of course he had no idea that would have meant standing around for more than an hour.

Next time if we still can't hit the line early enough, we'll try out your tip! Thanks!