Here's my no-hassle WOC viewing technique, tested twice so far. First, buy a picanic meal for 14 bucks, they seem to be available until pretty late in the day and they're good. I bought one a couple Saturdays ago, just before the window closed at 7 pm. The meal comes with a yellow zone fastpass for the 10:15 show. Yellow is as close to center audience as you can get, without buying a 40 dollar meal at one of the sit-downs. That meal gets you a blue pass, which is "house center." They don't seem to be available at all for same day dining, reservations are required. Bleah. Take your picanic meal, in its fancy reusable WOC tote-bag, across the esplanade, and find a nice place inside Disneyland to eat. Watch the first performance of Fantasmic! from the bridge in front of Pirates. As soon as the exit music starts, high-tail it through Adventureland to the middle of Main Street. Enjoy the fireworks. Now leisurely stroll back across the esplanade, wave at Glow-fest as you walk directly to the WOC viewing area, and present your fastpass to one of the thousand-and-one crowd control folks there. They will happily point you towards the yellow zone, no herding into the drippy back walkways of Grizzly River Rapids required. Easy peasy! I'm short, so the back row, up against the flowerbed, works perfectly for me. The viewing area is sufficiently elevated, and you can see the entire panorama of the show. If you want the front-row-of-the-Cineramadome experience, pop for the $6.50 poncho and make your way to the front of the crowd. Trust me, you'll have plenty of room to spread out. Most of the audience wants to stay out of the "splash-zone."

Fantasmic! is a heck of a lot more fun than WOC, but, take away the herding and the crowding and the waiting, and WOC's faults fade immensely, making it well worth experiencing. Plus, picanic and shopping tote! (Get the Asian) I'm thinking the 2 hour free lockers at GRR would be a great place to stash your pre-bought poncho and shopping-tote while you go see Fantasmic! if you don't want to schlep.

That is pretty much precisely what I thought after experiencing the herd phenomena. Why bother? There's no requirement to be in the herd in order to enter the yellow section with your picnic-purchased yellow fastpass.

In fact, if you time it right, and waltz past both the red line-up (along the former San Francisco bathrooms) AND the yellow line-up (at the head of the Grizzly Mountain back passage), and wander aimlessly for a few minutes until the yellow line is released - - you can hit the entry to the yellow viewing area with all the other fools who waited in the back passage for up to 90 minutes.

I was astounded when, after lining up for 90 minutes, they simply released the yellow crowd into the Park, mixing with regular guests, to wander the admittedly short distance to the yellow zone entry.

But in that short distance, savvy DCA guests (perhaps an oxymoron) can simply infiltrate the yellow crowd and show their yellow fastpasses at the ridiculous bottleneck of the yellow zone entry.


I don't know if you can still watch Fantasmic and Fireworks and arrive at the entry at the same time as those who lined up, but if you want to guarantee a prime viewing spot, you can do it that way. If you're good with very front or very back, you can apparently include Fantasmic! and Magical on your evening's entertainment itinerary.


TeeHee, I love how it always pays to be slightly in-the-know at Disneyland.

But Yogi doesn't BUY the picanic basket...

I still can't believe that when it comes down to it, you have to pay to see this show.

If this works (and it seems to be working) then I predict this will become far more common. We may get the beloved ticket books back...on top of an $80 admission price. :rolleyes:

Well, I'm told that viewing from the back, between the fun wheel and the hot dog stand (but as close to the hot dog stand you can get) is fantastic, and old-time free entertainment that comes with the price of your paid admission, OMG!

You are basically in the center, and can see the projections (albeit, reversed, and not quite as clear). Oh, and you will get wet.


BUT - if you're going to eat anyway, there's an AP discount on the picnics, they ain't bad, and they're pretty much in line with Disney Resort food prices.

I'd like to make a horrible prediction that World of Color will have an "unexpected" hiatus in about 3 months.

Well, I don't WANT to make that prediction, but I'll do it anyway.

When they change over to the Christmas version?

Or when/if that happends will it be 2011/2012 holiday season?

When the platform finally decides that it's being pushed past it's design parameters and says "I quit!"

Did the 3-fer again last night, with mom in tow! Bought picanics around 5:30, wandered around the park, went to DL, ate at a table in NOS, watch F! from the bridge, etc. Worked like a charm!


I don't think the platform is being stressed, since they've permanently parked it in show position. :rolleyes: I did notice some continued tweaking with some effects during WOC, and the projection domes took the night off. They weren't really missed. Murphy showed for F!, although Flotsam and Jetsam didn't. Also alternate ending with Mickey staying on top of Lafitte's, which worked great.

I think I've said it before, but keeping the platform in show position is no better than if the Fantasmic light towers were up all day. Lame, lame, lame, bad show. Walt's frozen head starts to thaw.


BTW, saw fireworks from the Menage across the street on Harbor - - awesome view, as close as you can get except perhaps from Toontown Hill. We viewed them from right across the 5, and it still boggles me how cars can just drive by and not even weave.