Seating for Fireworks

[marvel]

Sorry in advance if this has been asked, but is there anywhere you can pay
to be seated for a view of the fireworks?? We plan to do the balcony seating for fantasmic but are a little concerned about where to watch the fireworks from. I think in October they will only have fireworks on Fridays and the weekends which means only 1 day of it during our stay. We don't want to try and hold a spot for hours and would rather pay for somewhere decent to watch it all from.

 

[Artuero]

I was told that the only reserved seating for the fireworks or a parade was a tour (Celebrations and Imaginations or something along those lines). I believe if you go on the first tour of the day you get escorted to the front of the line of five rides. If you go on the middle tours you get reserved seating for the parade plus three rides. If you go on the last tour you get reserved seating for the fireworks plus three rides. Downside is that the tour takes 3.5 hours. I forget how much it costs, but it wasn't really that expensive ($50 or so). I actually would enjoy the 3.5 hour tour for the information as well as the perks, but going with my 7-year-old and I don't think she would appreciate it as much as she would like actually visiting the attractions.

 

[Parkhopper]

That's the tour we are doing (the 50th Anniversary tour). We have reservations for the last tour of the day on July 14th. I was told that we have reserved seating in the train station for the fireworks.

Suzi

 

[FanOfStitch]

I was there the 16th - 23rd and took the last Imagination tour for the day. We had priority seating right in front of the train station for the fireworks. Awesome view!!! There was no way that anyone could block your view. Castle and all. We also did get front of the line for 5 attrations. (Our guide was new to the tour). The cost was $55 per person. I really thought it was well worth the cost and learned some new and interesting facts. I highly recommend it. If you call and book the tour, just ask for the 50th tour, and they will give you the correct name. I think it was From Imagination to Celebration, but I could be wrong.

 

[trekkie2]

Seems like I read somewhere that if you do the balcony seating for fantasmic, you could stay and watch the fireworks from there. I was sort of planning that so I hope it really works.

 

[ajcceo]

Thanks

 

[FanOfStitch]

You usually go on one attraction for each decade. We went on POTC, Buzz Lightyear, BTMR (We were supposed to go on Splash Mountain, but it was down. They did give us FP tho), Haunted Mansion, and for the life of me I can't remember what the other one was. I need to go to Disney again!! My age is catching up with me!! Also, the rides can change for each tour. It depends on many things.

 

[boosmom96]

Seems like I read somewhere that if you do the balcony seating for fantasmic, you could stay and watch the fireworks from there. I was sort of planning that so I hope it really works.

This works great if you have the 9:00 seating for Fantasmic. It doesn't work as well for the 10:30 seating.

 

[PatriciaH]

I thought they were doing the fireworks every night this year?

 

[Mom2Joce]

Priority seating is in front of the train station? There's no way you could see all the special effects?

 

[MamaKate]

Priority seating is in front of the train station? There's no way you could see all the special effects?

That's why I didn't book the tour. To see all the effects you need to be able to see the castle & Mattahorn. They should have made the Viewing area in front of the castle somewhere.

Also, I believe the 5th ride on the tour is the Storybook Canal.

,
Katie

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I saw the fireworks from the train station about 3 weeks ago, and I thought the fireworks show was fine from there - we could see the whole thing. The only parts you miss are the projections on the castle. You do see the major ones - Haunted Mansion, etc., but you don't see the ones at the bottom of the castle, like Peter Pan, Hitchhiking ghosts, etc. However, I also saw the fireworks from the hub, and never noticed those projections because I was too busy watching the show in the sky. I could also see the Matterhorn from the train station with no problem. I would say that the downsides would be the tall flagpole in the middle of the view - but you forget about that during the show (at least I did), and the fact that you don't see Tinker Belle when she dips down - but she's only out of sight briefly, so that didn't bother me. I would imagine that people who've never seen the show wouldn't know what they're missing, and if you don't like to be in the middle of crowds vying for a spot, this works out well.

Before settling on the train station, the premium viewing was down below, but there were a couple of things that caused problems - they had limited viewing because of the location, and since the tour group get to their seats about 15 minutes before the show, CMs were constantly having to tell people they couldn't stand there, and the guests would jump the ropes anyway, and by the time of the fireworks, it's pretty crowded and people are pretty unforgiving about letting others pass in front of them after spending hours saving their spot.

 

[bpicard9]

Before settling on the train station, the premium viewing was down below, but there were a couple of things that caused problems - they had limited viewing because of the location, and since the tour group get to their seats about 15 minutes before the show, CMs were constantly having to tell people they couldn't stand there, and the guests would jump the ropes anyway, and by the time of the fireworks, it's pretty crowded and people are pretty unforgiving about letting others pass in front of them after spending hours saving their spot.

So does this mean that the tour people don't get "premium viewing" and won't see any of the projects or Tink?

 

[Mom2Joce]

After thinking about it I wondered if there were advantages to both viewings. I am going to have to see if from a distance now

 

[Mom2Joce]

I really don't know what "premium steating" means or where it is. If the only premium seating is at the train station then I would take advantage of that and then try to see it a second night (after seeing once you'll want to anyway) near the castle!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

So does this mean that the tour people don't get "premium viewing" and won't see any of the projects or Tink?

The tour people on the last tour do get the premium viewing. It is located on the top of the train station platform, and they do see Tink fly around. They'll see the projections on the top part of the castle, but the bottom part is blocked by the trees in the hub. It doesn't detract from the show, though.

Someone explained it as:

When you watch from premium viewing, you're watching the show unfold before you & see the effects on the castle, Matterhorn, and on Main Street. When you are down on Main Street, and especially in the hub, you are in the show because it literally explodes all around you. There's so much going on that you're not going to see a lot of the projections anyway - at least not the first time.

 

[bpicard9]

MaryJo - thanks for the explanation. I had just booked the tour and was trying not to read too much about the show but I became worried about missing important parts of the show after scanning this thread.

This will be my DH's and DD's and DS' first time to go to Disneyland and it's been too many years since I've been. Y'all, especially you MaryJo, have been tremendously helpful in our planning.

thanks again.

 

[challada]

We sat in the center hub where Walt statue is at and I would not sit anywhere else for this set of fireworks! It is one amazing show...brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it again!

 

[marvel]

So how long did you have to stake out your spots near the hub??Still confused as to whether the tour will be worth the seating for the fireworks or not??

There doesn't seem to be many options and I hate the thought of fighting it out with someone that cuts in front of the kids just before the fireworks.

My best bet then is to book the last tour of the day??

 

[PryncessChrysty]

So how long did you have to stake out your spots near the hub??Still confused as to whether the tour will be worth the seating for the fireworks or not??

There doesn't seem to be many options and I hate the thought of fighting it out with someone that cuts in front of the kids just before the fireworks.

My best bet then is to book the last tour of the day??

For our first time viewing the fireworks we were in the hub, and after that, I would never sit anywhere else. Granted, I have not sat in the 'premium viewing' area on the train platform, but I don't need to to know that the hub is *the* premiere place to be. What we did was watch the 2nd parade of the day from the hub, then just stayed in our spots for the fireworks. We had to wait there about 1 1/2 hours, but a lot of people did the same thing that we did. After the first 30 minutes passed, the hub are was PACKED! From the entrances of Frontierland and Tomorrowland to the front of the castle there was standing (or sitting) room only. One thing that was cool though was that everyone in the street area in front of the castle stayed seated. The people that were standing started about half way up the actual hub (people on the raised area by the planters) So everyone in our area was able to see with NO problem). Here is a pic of the view from our spot, about 30 minutes before the fireworks started: