Yet another WoC ?

[gatorfreud]

Ok so I have booked the dining for when we go, but it seems that you still have to line up super early, is that correct? And that you still need to get there to get a spot by the railing for the kids to have any chance of seeing?

So, I don't really care about being in the super center - so my new thought is that we are adding a night, and I can;t get my super HoJo rate for then - it will be about $90 more to stay at DLH that night on AP rate. So should I just take the AG $, and skip dining package and stay at DLH? Then on my check-in morning, get to the hotel entrance, get in and get a FP, then line up early to get a railing spot anyway?

Seems like the dining only buys you a more centered view and guaranteed FP. You still have to muscle in for the railing. So I am just as well to get the FP when they let hotel guests in. I wonder how many reds are given first...

How is my logic? Am I missing any other perks of the dining section?

Thanks!!
Kim

 

[skiingfast]

Staying at the DLH may save you about 45 minutes in the morning waiting for a FP.
You will still buy dinner somewhere so you may or may not save money.
Your view will be best with the dinner package. Either way you may or may not be in the front of a tier. But the dinner and meal deals put you more in front to witness the view that the show is designed to give.

IMO time at the parks is very valuable I would go with a dining package.

 

[brenda1966]

I think the verdict is still out on whether the dining package is better. Yes, it is center, but it appears to have less railing area. From what I'm hearing, it doesn't really matter if you are dining package or FP -- if you want railing you need to be there when they let you in to grab your spot. If you show up at 8pm, you'll be standing behind people.

 

[tink53]

Friends of mine just got back and I was asking her the exact same question. They didn't do the dining, they weren't ON the railing, and they still said it was a great show and they had a decent enough view. I guess it depends on what you're willing to put up with or sacrifice. I've been the person sitting 3 hours in front of the castle for the "Wishes" fireworks and also the person who decides "what we get is what we get". It's totally up to you.

 

[sacteach]

Is the FP distribution random? Or, does it go in color order (all yellow tickets, then blue, then red, etc)?

I saw WOC on 7/4 and we did the picnic since I wasn't sure what time we'd get to the park. We ended up in the yellow section. We got in line around 6:45 and were let into the area around 7:25 I think. The "line" was only about 3 deep when we got there, but by 7:15 it was at least 20 people deep and growing each minute. We were able to get right along the rail in the second tier of the yellow section. We could have been on the rail in the first tier (lowest section) but we didn't want to get wet. We were able to sit in the area until about 8:40. At that point, we had to stand up as more people were squeezing into the area and we didn't want to lose our prime rail spot.

I'm going again later this year and didn't really want to do the picnic again and planned on being there when the park opens to hotel guests. But, I don't want to get there at 9am and end up with a purple or orange ticket for example. If I knew it would be yellow or blue, then I wouldn't pay for the picnic again.

 

[Disney Dreams]

Is the FP distribution random? Or, does it go in color order (all yellow tickets, then blue, then red, etc)?

It is random, but by sections. If it happens to switch in the middle of your group, reports are that CMs assist with getting you entire group the same color. (They are not in the business of dividing family and friends.)

- Dreams

 

[sacteach]

It is random, but by sections. If it happens to switch in the middle of your group, reports are that CMs assist with getting you entire group the same color. (They are not in the business of dividing family and friends.)

- Dreams

That's good to know, but not the answer I was hoping for. So, I could be the first one at the FP machine in the morning and end up getting tickets for the orange or purple section but the person arriving two hours later could end up getting blue or yellow?

So, it does look like if you want a middle section, you pretty much have to buy some sort of meal.

 

[gatorfreud]

I wonder what the chances are that they would start with non-yellow or blue for hotel guests?

Kim

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

I know it's reported to be "random", but I certainly have been wondering. Admittedly, this is only a small sampling, but so far anyone on these boards who has reported getting a red fastpass for the first show of the day has reported the time of day for that distribution to be between 10:30 and 11:30. When I got my red fastpass, it was 10:55 AM. People who have reported getting a blue fastpass seemed to be there earlier. So has anyone on these boards gotten a blue fastpass for the first show at 10:30 or 11:00 in the morning? Has anyone gotten a red fastpass at 9:30?

 

[50sjayne]

We got yellow probably about 10:45-11ish.

 

[NMMickeymom]

We did the WOC dining at Ariel's last week. Our seating was at 5:30, we had a leisurely meal and wandered over to the viewing area about 7:15 ish. In the blue section it seems you have an advantage because of number of stairs available to stand on. In addition to the railings to stand by, you can get to the front of a roped off walkway section where they do not let people stand. We had the big lit characters right in front of us for the pre-show. For our show, the blue section never completely filled up and people had plenty of room to move around. I don't know if this is true for every show but it was very nice for us. We chose the stairs for our kids and they saw everything. It was worth every penny to me to not have to plan how to get fastpasses. Happy Planning!!