Are Fast Passes for Night Shows Needed

kerry1379

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 6, 2015
Back in 2015, while we were at Disneyland California Adventure, I saw fast passes available for their night time show World of Color. I assumed I did not need the fast passes because I would be able to see the show from many different areas. Except when showtime was nearing, I found that nearly every viewing area required a fast pass. I finally found a non fast pass viewing area and soon found out that I could not see any of the projections.
I don't wish to make the same mistake at Disney World. (I have a special needs son that loves these shows. He looks them up on youtube after our trips for months, even years afterwards just to rewatch them.) From what I have read on various websites and forums, a fast pass (or dining option that includes this) is pretty much needed for River of Light show in Animal Kingdom. Do any of the other park's night time shows essentially require a fast pass to be able to see them?

Thanks everyone in advance!
 
No fast passes are needed for the nighttime shows.
Be sure to find a good spot early for him to see Happily Ever After though. The projections on the castle are beautiful.
 
depends on the park I think. Epcot? no- MK? no, but you may have some limited views depending on crowds. HS? Fantasmic can be a zoo so maybe.... AK? no, I wathed RoL from the other side of the lake(kind of the back) and it wasn't full view but it was cool enough. I've done World of Color too, with a FP, without,and at a dessert party,so I know what you mean when you talk about views. I'd always get a fp for WoC if I went again, but at WDW I usually don't bother, most of it is a lot roomier overall.(that said, I frequently only partially view the MK fireworks shows so there is that)
 
Unlike WoC at DL - you do not need a FP for any of the night shows at WDW.

That said - you mention a special needs son - and that may impact the value added of having a FP for some of them (or booking with a dining option or paying for a dessert party).

At EPCOT - I don't think you ever need anything special here - lots of viewing spaces.

At MK - to really get a center view - you probably need to find a spot 45 minutes in advance. But you can get good viewing 30 minutes - but I admit - that takes experience to know how to wander through that crowd to do that. I think the dessert party at MK is a good option if you want to stay "out of the crowds." The experience of getting "out" of the HEA crowd is just not fun. Patience helps - but it's still just a bit of chaos.

At DHS - for Fantasmic - as long as you don't wait until too close to show time - you should be able to get in standby. Standby will fill up - so as it gets closer to your travel dates - you might ask on here how that is going. I think all seats in the theater are good enough. For Star Wars fireworks - I think reasonably center for these is important (facing the Chinese theater in FRONT of the projection booths) - and it depends on the size of your travel party when you need to find that. A couple of folks can probably find decent viewing 20-30 minutes in advance - but anything over a party of 4 - I'd give longer. Depending on your travel dates - this advice might change once Toy Story Land opens up.

At AK - we got into ROL standby about 5 -10 minutes before the show in the middle of January. Here - if you want to do standby - make sure you ask earlier in the day where to line up - there are multiple entrances to the theatre - and they are NOT close together - so you need to know where to be in advance of the crowds (It's by Dinoland.) Now, we were of the mindset that if we didn't get into ROL - we were okay with that. I'm sure the standby line starts 1 to 1.5 hours in advance of the show. We'd never wait that long for this one. We might do a dining option for this seating if that fit into our plans. But at AK - we would NOT waste a FP on this. We would FP - FOP, Safari, and FOTLK before using one on ROL. If you are going on a night with two showings - the later one will be less busy.
 


If your son loves night time shows and would be disappointed not to see it at AK, I would advise a ROL FP. DH and I were there in January when we thought it wouldn't be busy (but it really was) and I had never seen this show, so we got a FP for it. I'm glad we did - I wasn't going to wait 1.5 hours in stand-by, and our FP was for a half hour before the show actually started. We got seats about 20 min before the show with our FP and it filled up completely. We were shoulder-to-shoulder and I didn't see any empty spots. I thought it was a beautiful show, and loved the music. The only other night time show we saw this past trip was at MK and we got spots last minute out of the way near Adventureland - lots of trees block the castle, but we heard the music and saw most of the fireworks - we know we'll be back in September, so I might try harder for a better spot then. Enjoy your trip!
 

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