World of Color dinner package not so great

[skiingfast]

Oops, you're right about the seating vs. standing. I stand corrected there. But if you read about WOC WCT here it is explained that for both the dinner and the lunch you get "Disney Dining Reserved Viewing ticket." The WOC picnic calls it a "ticket that promises you a vantage point." Clear as mud IMO.

The problem would be worse if Disney said, there were a bunch of different tickets and areas to view from with them. That would lead to a lot more questions. This is why everything is left with simple desriptions.

 

[nunzia]

I saw the show 2 nights ago and loved it.

My sister hates crowds (note that this is a "hate" not "dislike"; but no need to go into the reasons here) so got the Premium Viewing Tickets at WCT. Fully worth it, food was good, although not perfect, and being escorted into a prime viewing area 30min before the show started was magic. Kinda like the show itself.

Did the Fantasmic dessert last night, and same thing again.

Although both are high cost for an average-income family, they were fully worth it for us. Avoiding crowds and having to line up that early is priceless.

And you still lucked out because we have had premium viewing tickets, still got there way before 30 minutes and still had fairly crappy view.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

And you still lucked out because we have had premium viewing tickets, still got there way before 30 minutes and still had fairly crappy view.

And this simple TRUTH negates all the "blame the victim" and every other attack that has been done by experts and vets on this thread who have the audacity to call others trolls because they did not like their WOC experience. You can read the enormous amount of written material, you can pay extra on top of the hundreds you paid for your ticket, you can forgo more time on rides to get in line super early, and then do your best to run to get to the preferred spots in your area, and still there is nothing at all guaranteed about anything associated with WOC except which area you can be in. You can do everything "right" that the attackers said you should do, said you should have known, and WOC can still suck. And that truth is ultimately what makes people upset.

I'm sure the OP (and others here) are not the only people who were confused and feel misled about the WOC process. I'm also sure that posting about their confusion has helped others avoid similar issues, and for that I'm always grateful when someone posts a poor experience here, even when they are so predictably attacked by people wagging their fingers and telling them they should have known better.
My opinion is that saying you should have read a now *43*-page thread to prepare yourself for viewing a 30-minute show is utterly insane when one should be making the point over and over that this show is completely flawed in how one gets to view it. (BTW, at the end of the current thread as I type this reply, it should be noted that skiingfast and Hydroguy even agree with the same idea Nunzia stated: that even the primo WCT/AG dinner's preferred seating does not mean good viewing at WOC. Good viewing in the premium seating is "not the rule, it's an exception.") There are no guarantees, simply ways to improve your chances--ways that many others also have adopted or else there would not be people already there 90 minutes before the ropes drop.
So, frankly, my time here over the past year to plan my DLR trip has ultimately led me not to feel empowered with knowledge about how to go have an awesome WOC experience but rather that one is subject to too many chance variables for me to lose an hour or more of my once-in-a-lifetime DLR time with my young family to be subject to disappointment. I love the look of the show, all I've seen on YouTube, and yet still plan to do no more than wander over by TLM and see what we can see because the viewing opportunities seem so poor for someone with small children.

I will say that I'm glad I read this thread because someone made a point I had not considered: When someone talks about their experience, you really need to know if they attended on a night with only one show or one with multiple shows that could thin the crowds as some people opt to try later instead of the entire park being crushed into one viewing. Or if they were there in high season with shows running every night, or low, where the weekend is your one shot.
As someone going in what will most likely be a low season with only one show on weekend nights, I can now see that the crowds for the shows will be really bad because everyone will be either someone who is just there for the that Saturday night and only has one shot at seeing the show OR like me, someone who has been waiting all week for the weekend to come so we can see those shows they don't run on the weedays. In other words, high demand with low supply. I now will evaluate people's description of either dense crowds or light ones based on these criteria, making me better able to tell if their experience is at all predictive of what mine will be.

 

[sonnyjane]

And this simple TRUTH negates all the "blame the victim" and every other attack that has been done by experts and vets on this thread who have the audacity to call others trolls because they did not like their WOC experience. You can read the enormous amount of written material, you can pay extra on top of the hundreds you paid for your ticket, you can forgo more time on rides to get in line super early, and then do your best to run to get to the preferred spots in your area, and still there is nothing at all guaranteed about anything associated with WOC except which area you can be in. You can do everything "right" that the attackers said you should do, said you should have known, and WOC can still suck. And that truth is ultimately what makes people upset.

I'm sure the OP (and others here) are not the only people who were confused and feel misled about the WOC process. I'm also sure that posting about their confusion has helped others avoid similar issues, and for that I'm always grateful when someone posts a poor experience here, even when they are so predictably attacked by people wagging their fingers and telling them they should have known better.
My opinion is that saying you should have read a now *43*-page thread to prepare yourself for viewing a 30-minute show is utterly insane when one should be making the point over and over that this show is completely flawed in how one gets to view it. (BTW, at the end of the current thread as I type this reply, it should be noted that skiingfast and Hydroguy even agree with the same idea Nunzia stated: that even the primo WCT/AG dinner's preferred seating does not mean good viewing at WOC. Good viewing in the premium seating is "not the rule, it's an exception.") There are no guarantees, simply ways to improve your chances--ways that many others also have adopted or else there would not be people already there 90 minutes before the ropes drop.
So, frankly, my time here over the past year to plan my DLR trip has ultimately led me not to feel empowered with knowledge about how to go have an awesome WOC experience but rather that one is subject to too many chance variables for me to lose an hour or more of my once-in-a-lifetime DLR time with my young family to be subject to disappointment. I love the look of the show, all I've seen on YouTube, and yet still plan to do no more than wander over by TLM and see what we can see because the viewing opportunities seem so poor for someone with small children.

I will say that I'm glad I read this thread because someone made a point I had not considered: When someone talks about their experience, you really need to know if they attended on a night with only one show or one with multiple shows that could thin the crowds as some people opt to try later instead of the entire park being crushed into one viewing. Or if they were there in high season with shows running every night, or low, where the weekend is your one shot.
As someone going in what will most likely be a low season with only one show on weekend nights, I can now see that the crowds for the shows will be really bad because everyone will be either someone who is just there for the that Saturday night and only has one shot at seeing the show OR like me, someone who has been waiting all week for the weekend to come so we can see those shows they don't run on the weedays. In other words, high demand with low supply. I now will evaluate people's description of either dense crowds or light ones based on these criteria, making me better able to tell if their experience is at all predictive of what mine will be.

Tigerlily, I just want to make a few things clear in order to help you plan your trip better.

First of all, I had to highlight the first part of your post because you claim that vets attacked people, but if you read this post carefully, you'll see that we all basically agree that the WOC dining package is NOT a good idea, and we only recommend it if you were planning to eat at one of those restaurants anyway. You also said that the poster that showed up 30 minutes before the show in the preferred area got in line "super early" and did exactly as they were told. That's not true. If you read the tips on these boards, you'll see that it is recommended that you show up more than 30 minutes prior - about 90 minutes if you're in the general viewing area and an hour if you're in the preferred viewing area - IF you absolutely must have a front row spot. If that's not important to you, then yes, you can show up later, but if you need a front spot, you need to put in more than 30 minutes, even with the preferred package, and we write that.

I also would like to address the last part of your post regarding the differences in crowds if there is one show or two, and about it being on the weekends only. You seem to be a bit confused, perhaps mixing up Fantasmic! in Disneyland with World of Color in DCA. Whether or not there is one show or two does not increase the crowds for the first show. There is a limited number of passes distributed for each show. If you don't have a pass, you can't watch from the viewing area. That means if the cap is say, 5,000 people, you will never have more than 5,000 people at the show, whether there is one show that night, two shows, or even three. 5,000 is the maximum you can have, so it makes no difference if there is one show or two as far as capacity goes. And also, while I can't speak to the future, in the off-season, to date, WOC has been offered every night (with a few brief exceptions). It is NOT a weekend-only show in the off-season, so there is no rush of people to see it on the weekends, since it has been playing every night since opening in June 2010 (with the few exceptions I mentioned). So, don't worry about having to catch it only on the weekends, because as of now, it is still running every night.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

First off, let me unequivocally state that I was not talking about you or several other vets who were sympathetic with people's WOC frustrations and confusions, and I apologize for giving the impression that I might have meant you.
So let me be a bit more clear with what I did mean. Examples:

Hydroguy: "Second, there is good information on how to work the WOC show. It is always disappointing to see people who cannot find time to come here before their trip to research something but can find time to come here afterwards to complain. This was the OP's first post and it was the best they could do?"
Later in another post: "OK, I am starting to smell a troll here. Controversial statements made by folks with low post counts is usually a good indicator."

So, apparently no complaints are allowed unless you've read *every*thing on these boards and understood it as the author intended, but browbeating is fine. Again, I think someone who went to DLR's website should be able to get sufficient information to have realistic expectations and an OK experience--not an amazeballs experience, but an OK one. And again, I disagree generally that complaints are somehow unacceptable on most any level, particularly since even people who made "mistakes" can teach others how to avoid them.
All that before you get to the troll accusation. I also did not read anything "controversial" in the newbies' statements.

skiingfast: "The Disneyland.com website explains everything very simply."
So the implication, perhaps unintended, here is that if you are confused or got a wrong impression, it must be that *you* are somehow lacking, not that the information or descriptions are. If he were replying to/about me, I would feel conscended to.

As you can see, I've been here for a year (I lurked a few months before officially signing up and posting), and I still have some details wrong, despite sincere attempts to learn and plan, like thinking that WOC was like the other big nighttime shows in going to weekends only for the low season. In that year I also have been attacked/had my intelligence insulted when I once stated that WOC seemed very confusing with the different options, none of which come with any real guarantees (as much as I find the F! package's $60 price egregious, I will say that it comes with far more guarantees for your experience than any WOC arrangement), and just made the entire experience sound difficult and not fun, so I really feel it when I see that process repeated on someone else.

To clarify, yes, there certainly is a cap, but from people's descriptions that range from shoulder-to-shoulder sardine packing to breezy, plenty-of-elbow-room experiences, there are obviously some showings that are at capacity and some that are far under it. The size of the crowd is something over which you have no control, but might be predicted by when you see the show (early vs. late show, high vs. low season). However, some people describe their experiences as being general, with that whole "Follow these set steps to a nice WOC experience" idea (that some people then turn into the "If you had a bad time, it's your own darn fault" if you complain), when the experience is tied to these other issues. So again, people who followed all the "rules" can have poor viewings and people who end up at an under-capacity show can get really lucky without following any of the rules. Which is why I don't get the finger-wagging when anyone says that had a poor experience: You can't say with any certainty that you could have shown them a way to a good one. Improved odds are not certainty.

 

[DLKiwi]

And you still lucked out because we have had premium viewing tickets, still got there way before 30 minutes and still had fairly crappy view.

I'm sorry to hear that.

I've since told my party that we should consider ourselves lucky that it worked out with only 30-40min (it was a bit more than 30min) waiting in the premium viewing area.

I've read lots of people say that they ended up with crappy views so wouldn't go for WOC dining unless they were going to go to WCT or Ariel's anyway.

I'd make a recommendation that follows my own personal situation:
"If the incremental cost increase of WOC preferred dining (above your normal dining budget) is worth a chance at a better view, then I'd recommend it."

 

[HydroGuy]

First off, let me unequivocally state that I was not talking about you or several other vets who were sympathetic with people's WOC frustrations and confusions, and I apologize for giving the impression that I might have meant you.
So let me be a bit more clear with what I did mean. Examples:

Hydroguy: "Second, there is good information on how to work the WOC show. It is always disappointing to see people who cannot find time to come here before their trip to research something but can find time to come here afterwards to complain. This was the OP's first post and it was the best they could do?"
Later in another post: "OK, I am starting to smell a troll here. Controversial statements made by folks with low post counts is usually a good indicator."

Sorry you did not like my posts, but it nevertheless is true on this forum and any other Internet forum - when folks with no track record and post counts of "1" or "3" start making highly controversial statements - that is often an indication of a troll. Some people think it is fun to make up several user accounts - all by the same person - and use those to cause controversy. And then step away and laugh as everyone argues about them. That is what a troll does and that is what appeared to be happening here. It has happened in the past on this forum and those account were closed by moderators. And rightly so.

The ironic thing is that I agree with those folks in this thread who have a negative opinion about the WOC viewing experience. What I do not agree with was the implication that others were misleading them, that others were drinking the Disney Koolaid and could say no wrong, and that others were not giving good information. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Every respected expert in this forum will tell folks the same thing - the WOC viewing experience is flawed. Then they will tell folks how to make the best of a flawed situation if those folks really want to see the show. That is far different than portrayed by some early posters in this forum like the OP and a few others.

Finally, as I said in my first post in this thread, I have little tolerance for folks who cannot find time to come to this forum to get advice on WOC or any DLR experience before their trip, but somehow can find time after their trip to come here to complain - often about things that were entirely avoidable if they had asked here in the first place. Everything the OP experienced was avoidable.

Other folks take a much more reasonable approach after a bad experience. They come here after their trip and say they learned their lesson and should have spent more time before their trip researching - and only have themselves to blame. Someone like that is much easier to encourage and help.

 

[nunzia]

I'm sorry to hear that.

I've since told my party that we should consider ourselves lucky that it worked out with only 30-40min (it was a bit more than 30min) waiting in the premium viewing area.

I've read lots of people say that they ended up with crappy views so wouldn't go for WOC dining unless they were going to go to WCT or Ariel's anyway.

I'd make a recommendation that follows my own personal situation:
"If the incremental cost increase of WOC preferred dining (above your normal dining budget) is worth a chance at a better view, then I'd recommend it."

I should be claerer..we've lined up at over an hour out and gotten great viewing and lined up over an hour out and gotten semi crappy viewing..our crappiest viewing was no meal, late to the FP machines (had to meet local family who had a one day one park ticket and could not get to DCA until after noon) and had far to the right but waterside...and guess what? Crappy views are STILL WORTH DOING! I have gotten to where I love this show..and will even watch it from the 6th floor VGC platform for that very cool different perspective. I will continue to do the dinners (PLEASE bring in Carthay as an option) and still take my chances. I'm short, so if I don't get rail or the steps, then I may as well just drink my wine and look up to see the high water parts. Hopefully they will fix the viewing problems, as are rumored, but it is still so worth seeing. Even with expensive Fantasmic dessert seats your view can be not perfect...everyone wants perfect, hotel room, show seating, Blue Bayou waterside, etc., and really..just being able to be at Disney and experience it all is perfection to me.