Just Got Back - Comments and Observations

[longtimedisneylurker]

Never been to DL but our 1st trip is June 10. Want to take in everything we can. Everyone talks about time and price being costly for WOC. Don't mind a wait but what about cost? Is this not included with DL ticket?

You can definitely see WoC as part of your regular admission without spending extra money. The time investment involves getting over to DCA with everyone's activated tickets for the day and getting fastpasses (do this as early in the day as possible for best viewing location) and then returning later at the line-up time, at least an hour before the show, and waiting in the line-up and the viewing area until the show starts. I certainly would not tell people who have never seen the show and are interested not to waste their time. It's probably worth trying once and making your own judgement. Our family just feels there are other things at Disney that we would rather invest our time and effort into in the future.

As for spending money for WoC, there are a couple current options that give you a WoC fastpass without having to go pick up the fastpass at park opening. You can order picnic meals. These are available online for the first show of the evening and available in the park for the second show of the evening if there is one. They cost around $15 or $16. They are cold meals, some say they are small, more like a snack, but each meal comes with either a blue or yellow fastpass. There is also a premium dining option at Ariel's Grotto or Wine Country Trattoria. You can have WoC dining at WCT for lunch or dinner or at Ariel's for dinner. It's a sit-down meal that you book through Disney dining, and it comes with a WoC viewing ticket for an area which is said to be an even better spot than blue or yellow. So that's how you can spend extra money to see WoC.

 

[Lorelai]

Apologies for getting technical but I would put the two things in different categories. The hotel walk is a variable. You can change it based on how close your hotel is.

The time waiting for F! or WOC is a constant - if you want a good spot.

The time waiting for a ride is variable based on when you want to ride it. If you have a FP it is fairly constant.

Some people like me show up early to the park gates - often 30 minutes early - so as to be able take advantage of short lines in the morning. Those 30 minutes cannot be spent inside the parks so there is no missed Disney - just missed sleep! I trade of that constant 30 minutes in the morning for the variable length of lines on the rides.

So my answer to your question is if there is a constant/fixed time for something and I want to do that activity, then I just have to wait it out because I can't change it. I treat it differently than all the variable times for things. Those I can change and try to minimize.

What I cannot understand is people who show up 30 minutes early to DCA just to ride TSMM with a short line - even though the line later in the day is usually 30-40 minutes long. That 30 minutes early at DCA means 30 minutes lost from DL.

Sorry, I really should go to NA meetings - Nerds Anonymous...

Okay, making our 1st trip to DL this summer and almost fell off my chair when I saw TSMM lines in DCA are typically 30-40 mins. midday. Is that true? In WDW, midday lines for TSMM are about "tough crap, your never getting on this ride" wait time.

30-40 minutes, I can handle w/ a smile.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Okay, making our 1st trip to DL this summer and almost fell off my chair when I saw TSMM lines in DCA are typically 30-40 mins. midday. Is that true? In WDW, midday lines for TSMM are about "tough crap, your never getting on this ride" wait time.

30-40 minutes, I can handle w/ a smile.

We have certainly seen 30-40 minutes in the afternoon, and we have been there at fortunate times in the evening occasionally when there seemed to be a lull and we waited even less time. We usually go to the parks at very busy times though, i.e. spring break, summer weekends, week of Thanksgiving, so more often we have experienced 45-60 minute waits for Toy Story. The highest I've seen though since the opening summer craziness was 65 minutes. I've never been to WDW but have heard the stories, so I'd take DCA's wait time over WDW's too!

 

[kiwitravel]

Okay, making our 1st trip to DL this summer and almost fell off my chair when I saw TSMM lines in DCA are typically 30-40 mins. midday. Is that true? In WDW, midday lines for TSMM are about "tough crap, your never getting on this ride" wait time.

30-40 minutes, I can handle w/ a smile.

Absolutely, and fairly consistently 30-40, never saw the line below 30 but also hardly ever above 45... No FP for TSMM at DL means shorter standby lines, it is the one ride at DLR that we break our 20 minute max wait rule..

 

[HydroGuy]

Never been to DL but our 1st trip is June 10. Want to take in everything we can. Everyone talks about time and price being costly for WOC. Don't mind a wait but what about cost? Is this not included with DL ticket?

You can definitely see WoC as part of your regular admission without spending extra money. The time investment involves getting over to DCA with everyone's activated tickets for the day and getting fastpasses (do this as early in the day as possible for best viewing location) and then returning later at the line-up time, at least an hour before the show, and waiting in the line-up and the viewing area until the show starts. I certainly would not tell people who have never seen the show and are interested not to waste their time. It's probably worth trying once and making your own judgement. Our family just feels there are other things at Disney that we would rather invest our time and effort into in the future.

As for spending money for WoC, there are a couple current options that give you a WoC fastpass without having to go pick up the fastpass at park opening. You can order picnic meals. These are available online for the first show of the evening and available in the park for the second show of the evening if there is one. They cost around $15 or $16. They are cold meals, some say they are small, more like a snack, but each meal comes with either a blue or yellow fastpass. There is also a premium dining option at Ariel's Grotto or Wine Country Trattoria. You can have WoC dining at WCT for lunch or dinner or at Ariel's for dinner. It's a sit-down meal that you book through Disney dining, and it comes with a WoC viewing ticket for an area which is said to be an even better spot than blue or yellow. So that's how you can spend extra money to see WoC.

Anything not covered by LTDL will probably be found here:

"World of Color Superthread" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=37986447

 

[Lorelai]

Absolutely, and fairly consistently 30-40, never saw the line below 30 but also hardly ever above 45... No FP for TSMM at DL means shorter standby lines, it is the one ride at DLR that we break our 20 minute max wait rule..

That is fantastic! It is not unusual to see a 90 min. plus wait midday at Disney Studios in WDW. We always rush to TSM 1st on our Disney Studios day.

I am surprised that there is no fastpass in DCA, but it sounds like they run just fine without it.

 

[lauritagoddess]

As for spending money for WoC, there are a couple current options that give you a WoC fastpass without having to go pick up the fastpass at park opening. You can order picnic meals. These are available online for the first show of the evening and available in the park for the second show of the evening if there is one. They cost around $15 or $16. They are cold meals, some say they are small, more like a snack, but each meal comes with either a blue or yellow fastpass.

We did the picnic and saw WOC last week. I got the junior all-american for both my son and I (it doesn't matter whether you get the adult or kids meal, you still get the same fastpass). We picked the meals up about 6:30pm and it looked like the chicken had been sitting around all day and frankly looked revolting. My son ate it, but I wouldn't touch it. The best part of the meal was the cool reusable World of Color bag the picnic came in, but I still did wind up having to get something else for dinner.

Also we went on TSMM before WOC started and only got over to stand about 10 minutes before it started. We had blue section fastpasses and the area was pretty much full, but we still got in and had a decent view, not down in front, but decent enough. It was worth not being right up front because my son couldn't have dealt with standing there that long.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

We got a world of color fastpass on the day before thanksgiving (so crowded that they threatened to close the entrance--more crowded than any other visit we have ever seen, and we go 3 times a year). This was after sleeping in (I know, against all DIS regulations) and not getting there till 10:30. We STILL got a fast pass, and the line took us all of five mintues. No picnic, no Ariel's dining option, just walking through the fastpass line in front of grizzly river run. We also didn't invest hours into it that night--we just came after the line up time and found a spot.

If you don't make the time to get the fastpass, then you won't see it. I don't really think seeing it from the backside is the same--no matter your reasons for not doing it. I know there are some people who don't think it is worth it, but you will just as many who do.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Please understand that I'm not suggesting to others not to get a fastpass or watch WoC the way it was intended. I'm just saying that to our family, it's not worth the bother because we just don't enjoy the show that much.

We had yellow fastpasses for the last day of our trip last week after viewing from the backside and never used them. Getting the fastpasses was totally easy; there was no line for them at 9:55 AM. (Summer was a different matter though...I waited in line for at least 40 minutes for fastpasses. Many people waited longer than that. Obviously, the craziness has died down a bit.) The only time issue with getting the fastpasses is if you want to be assured of getting the best pass for the first show, you really ought to go over right away, so that does require planning and possibly even leaving or skipping some alternate activity you could be doing early in the morning, like riding something at Disneyland.

And, yes, you can get to the show 10 minutes before it starts and there is still space. That does not mean you have a great view. If your kid is 4 feet tall, he/she will be looking at the backs of a lot of taller people and bobbing around constantly trying to see between them and not having a full, clear view of everything going on. At 5' 3", I had difficulty really seeing everything since we were not the front people in our tier (we had one row in front of us). This seems like one of those shows for which closer is better and not being behind other people is better. If you want that kind of view, then, yes, you need to invest some time. If that doesn't matter so much to you, then you don't need to arrive all that early.

We found we were happy with what we got from the backside because we didn't wait at all, we didn't have to deal with lots of other people around us, it was easy to secure a railing position, and although we couldn't see the round screens, we could see the water screen completely and the surface of the bay and all the laser and water effects this time. This was by far a better experience than we had among the masses viewing from a more proper location. Many others have watched the show from the front as intended from blue or yellow or the preferred dining area and had really wonderful experiences as well.

I agree our way was not for everybody. You probably need to try both ways to judge for yourself what overall experience you are most satisfied with. I was just reporting what our experience and feeling was this last trip and putting this out there as another possibility to consider for those who for whatever reason don't want or aren't able to do WoC "the right way."

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

We got a world of color fastpass on the day before thanksgiving (so crowded that they threatened to close the entrance--more crowded than any other visit we have ever seen, and we go 3 times a year). This was after sleeping in (I know, against all DIS regulations) and not getting there till 10:30. We STILL got a fast pass, and the line took us all of five mintues. No picnic, no Ariel's dining option, just walking through the fastpass line in front of grizzly river run. We also didn't invest hours into it that night--we just came after the line up time and found a spot.

If you don't make the time to get the fastpass, then you won't see it. I don't really think seeing it from the backside is the same--no matter your reasons for not doing it. I know there are some people who don't think it is worth it, but you will just as many who do.

So what's the deal if I want to see WoC? At or near the time DCA opens should I head over to get WoC FPs?

 

[HydroGuy]

So what's the deal if I want to see WoC? At or near the time DCA opens should I head over to get WoC FPs?

This thread tells it all...

"World of Color Superthread" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=37986447