Show questions

[77catwoman]

I am WDW vet and live in Orlando. We are heading to DL on our way back from HI in December. (7-11)

I have questions about all of the different nightly shows. Are the following every night:
World of Color
Fireworks
Fantasmic
Aladdin.

I have been gathering info from various threads but I am not sure. Will any of them be impacted by the holidays and/or the 60th anniversary celebration? I believe that WOC will be a new show because of the anniversary, if I am remembering correctly.

Are there historical show times anywhere? I am trying to get an idea about which date to plan which thing because it will be important with both the time change from HI and attempting to get back more on Florida time. So the latest shows will have to be early in the week and earlier shows toward the end.


If you had to miss one of the above, which would you choose? Which would be your top priority to see, particularly in comparison to WDW.

TIA!

 

[figment_jii]

Historically DLR is in full Holiday-mode by December, so most things should be running nightly. Last year, F! did not start running nightly until Friday, December 12. Here is a link to the December 2014 calendar as recorded by wdwinfo:
http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneyland/park-hours.cfm?month=12&year=2014

At this point, we know that Believe...In Holiday Magic fireworks will not be presented. Instead the new show for the 60th anniversary (Disneyland Forever) will be presented. There hasn't been any indication whether WoC will present the 60th anniversary version or Winter Dreams (yet). F! and Aladdin should not be impacted by the 60th. It's also not known for sure if the Christmas Parade will run concurrently with Paint the Night (the new 60th anniversary parade).

Note that no one has seen the new fireworks show yet, but I'd easily say see the fireworks because they'll be new and they look to have some pretty impressive elements. So that would be my highest priority show.

Aladdin is very well done stage show. Have you seen Beauty & the Beast at DHS? Aladdin is live action, but of a much higher caliber. So if you like how B&B is presented, I would definitely go see Aladdin. It's fairly long (~45 minutes), but very well done.

F! has similar elements at DLR and WDW, but the DLR version is overall much more impressive. DHS has better "seating" (because it has an actual stadium), whereas DL has either ground seating or standing room only (depending on where you're FP is for and when you get there). The major elements that you hear folks talking about are the Peter Pan sequence, the new dragon, and the use of the Mark Twain at the end. If you like F! at DHS, then I would see it at DL!

The last show, WoC, is hardest one for me to make a recommendation for...there is nothing quite like it at WDW, so it's probably worth seeing because it's unique to DLR. That being said, I don't personally find WoC to be that impressive. It's largely a mist screen show with water cannons (admittedly cool cannons with colored lights). The problem is the viewing area (which maybe they're fixing during this lengthy refurbishment). I don't really want to spend 90+ minutes waiting to get a rail spot, but if you can't see the water surface (below most of the viewing area) over the person on in front of you, you'll miss out on a lot of the show. So, I have a hard time recommending WoC from a viewing standpoint, but some folks really love it and it is unique to DLR.

 

[77catwoman]

Thank you very much. This is incredibly helpful. According to that, Fantasmic wasn't running during the week at all, which would certainly be a bummer but at least it prepares me that it might not be an option for us.

I really appreciate your input and the comparison to WDW. That really assists me in planning.

 

[SMD]

Aladdin typically doesn't run at night, with the last show being around sunset. The 6:20 show is more likely during the summer. I just checked a times guide from November last year and the last show is 4:45 during the week. I wouldn't wait until the last show of the day on that one anyway. Another one that isn't listed in the guide is the Carsland lighting at dusk. You'll want to check the sunset time for the day and stake out a spot around 10-15 minutes before that time. They'll play Winter Wonderland and light the neon signs. It lasts less than 5 minutes.

We also know that DL is adding a nighttime parade. We have no idea yet what the timing will be or if it will run once or twice per night or if it will run 7 days per week.