Feature Article: World of Color at Disneyland - Getting a Great View - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Feature Article: World of Color at Disneyland - Getting a Great View
World of Color at Disneyland - Getting a Great View by Bernie Edwards
World of Color, a new nighttime spectacular, has debuted at Disney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. I had the opportunity to experience the show twice during its first week of performances. World of Color features nearly 1,200 programmable fountains, fire, lasers, fog, water screens with animation, music, and brand-new animation featuring classic characters from guests' favorite Disney and Pixar films. It is a "must do" and should definitely not be missed! World of Color is visible from all around Paradise Bay in the Paradise Pier section of the park, but the prime viewing location is Paradise Park, the new area recently constructed to hold guests during the show. It's directly next to Paradise Bay, across the walkway from the new Little Mermaid dark ride that's now under construction. From there, you can directly view the water screens that are an integral part of the show. I was told there are two different areas within Paradise Park, but based on my experience there really appears to be three: Preferred Reserved Viewing, General Viewing, and the unofficial “Splash Zone.” Access to any of these areas requires a World of Color ticket for every member of your party.
For my first viewing of World of Color I obtained a Preferred Reserved Viewing ticket by enjoying a World of Color Dinner at Ariel’s Grotto; another option is to dine at Wine Country Trattoria. If interested, you should make a reservation by calling (741) 781-DINE. I paid $36.99 for indoor seating at Ariel’s Grotto and enjoyed the meal. The dessert was absolutely fabulous! Except for the expense, this was a very easy way to obtain a ticket for Paradise Park.
Another option to obtain a ticket is to order a special World of Color boxed picnic meal. I didn’t do this myself, so I don’t have any firsthand experience. However, I understand that picnic meals can be ordered online or purchased in person, subject to availability, at the Sonoma Terrace in Golden Vine Winery. A boxed picnic meal currently sells for $14.99 for both adults and children.
For my second viewing of World of Color I obtained a FASTPASS ticket. FASTPASS tickets for the show are available each morning the show is scheduled to be shown, at the Grizzly River Run FASTPASS terminals. Obtaining a FASTPASS gives you access to the General Viewing area inside Paradise Park, or on the bridge between Paradise Park and Ariel’s Grotto. Unlike the World of Color Dinner, obtaining a ticket for Paradise Park via a FASTPASS can be painful. I arrived at Disney's California Adventure at 11:00 am on a day when the park opened at 10:00 am. The line for a World of Color FASTPASS went from Grizzly River Run (the queue actually has switchbacks inside the attraction so don’t think you need to be ready to whip out your Disneyland ticket once you see the entrance to Grizzly River Run), past the Grand Californian Hotel’s back entrance to the park, past Soarin’ Over California, past the Taste Pilots’ Grill, and past the large Sunburst in Sunshine Plaza (where you first enter the park). It took me 54 minutes to obtain a General Viewing FASTPASS and I got, what in my opinion, was a FASTPASS for the worse viewing section for the late show. A friend of mine arrived at Disney's California Adventure just a few minutes after park opening and while he got a General Viewing ticket for the first show, he also had to wait over 50 minutes. If you are going to obtain a FASTPASS, be sure that all members of your party are inside Disney California Adventure; they don’t have to be in line with you, but they can’t be outside the park, at the hotel, eating breakfast at the Grand Californian, etc. I saw many guests get out of line after waiting for 30 to 40 minutes when the Cast Members informed them that all members of the party actually had to be inside the theme park. It was my experience that guests with either a Preferred Reserved Viewing ticket or a General Viewing ticket could enter the "Splash Zone" inside Paradise Park as long as they got there early enough. In my case, I had dinner at Ariel's Grotto at 6:00 pm and was given a ticket with instructions to show up at Paradise Park between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm. Because I was excited, I arrived promptly at 7:30 pm and was given access to the Preferred Reserved Viewing area. (All of the areas are roped off from each other with fire escape routes between them.) However, when I asked a Cast Member, I was told anybody could enter the Splash Zone as long as they arrived before the Splash Zone filled up. Needless to say, I went into the Splash Zone and actually found a spot on the ground right up against the rail, a few yards from several fountains sticking out of the water! I talked to other guests in the Splash Zone and several of them had General Viewing tickets and were also told they could enter the Splash Zone until it reached capacity.
Cast Members were selling ponchos, snacks, and drinks to those guests in the Splash Zone. For the show I watched, about a third of the guests purchased or already had a poncho. I think having one is a good investment because you will definitely get wet, and maybe soaked, watching World of Color from the Splash Zone. However, the view is spectacular and worth considering.
World of Color should be seen by every Disney fan, and preferably more than once! It’s a spectacular way to end your evening at Disney California Adventure. I had the opportunity to view the show from the front row and from the rear of Paradise Park. Both provided a different perspective on the show; I will say that I missed some aspects of the show the first time by being so close. I think the “ideal” location would be in the middle of Paradise Park, however, every location in Paradise Park has a great view of the show. I will also point out that Disney did a very good job of not letting Paradise Park become too crowded. With regards to the crowds, I personally found it much more enjoyable to watch World of Color from Paradise Park than to watch Disneyland's Fantasmic! on the banks of the Rivers of America. On my next trip, I’m going to watch the show from outside Paradise Park to see what it is like, but I already know it will be hard to impossible to see the water screens that are an integral part of the show! If you can get a ticket for Paradise Park, that’s definitely the way to go!
What do you think? Please add your own comments, experiences, or news related to this article in this thread! Reader feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Linear Mode
