It’s possible but not extremely easy to do both, and you will miss the first few minutes of 930 Halloween screams (which will be projections only, no pyro bursts). If your family love Halloween things then Halloween Screams is great. We love Nightmare before Christmas and Haunted Mansion and both of those play a part of the Halloween Screams so we love watching that. But if your family tend towards more classic Disney & Pixar, WOC - One is a fantastic show that weaves through Disney, Pixar and also includes a big Marvel and Star Wars sections. So it’s a very great choice.
There is a standby section along the bridge that goes towards the Lamplight Lounge that has a phenomenal view of the fountains and great views of the water screens and Mickey Wheel. For a front of the rail spot in that standby area you want to head to area around 60 min. in advance. You may be able to snag one at 45-50 min. in advance. And anything closer than that you will be behind people.
For the reserved viewing you’ll be in the show area in front of the Lagoon and as long as you get a railing spot in any section you will have a decent view of everything, but the closer you are the more spray you will feel/wet you will get. And also, the closer you go towards the Golden Zephyr/Jumpin’ Jellyfish, the more distorted some of the water screens are. We usually like a railing towards the back in the reserved viewing area and will bring dinner/snacks and eat while we wait in the 45-50 min. before showtime.
Right now the only other virtual queue is for Haunted Mansion Holiday. I do believe you can hold both of them at once, since one is an attraction and one a show. I haven’t checked or verified that though as it’s been a few years since DLR had both a ride and show available for VQ and the Haunted Mansion ride VQ has only been up a couple weeks now. But it was the case the last time there was both a ride and show with a VQ.
It means based on historical data of tracked wait times for the date it is expected that the wait times between 9 (or 10am) through 5pm will be at a 3 (out of 10) meaning they are expected to be on the lower end of what is possible. Middle of the day can still get fairly busy but if it is truly a 3 crowd level, you should be able to breeze through most of the morning, with only the very middle of the day being a bit backlogged at headliner attractions and then as the evening goes on, lighten back up, especially during parades or nighttime shows. What a 3 doesn’t mean is that walkways will be clear and/or the park will be staffed to output/throughput the most efficiently and so you may experience Disney staffing a lower level due to lower demand and therefore more lines build for things like a QS with only 1-2 registers staffed or less entertainment offered to draw crowds into and away from lines like you would see in the 7-10 crowd level range. With a later August date when more and more schools are back in session, you could do alright and still get a lower crowd overall. But being a Monday when all passholders are unblocked and being a weekend adjacent day on a value day (meaning 1 day tickets are priced their cheapest), I would brace for it to be a mix of moderately busy at least. And not staffed to maximize any chokepoints.
The most common recommendation is to start at DCA, knock out all the priorities there before lunch (easy to do & even easier if you’re willing to spend $$ on the skip the line Multipass and Singlepass options), then hop to DL and maximize the rest of the time there. If you choose WOC for your nighttime show, you could back-track for WOC and then still hop back to DL for the last hour or so of DL operations.
Yes, Matterhorn, Space Mtn, Millenium Falcon, Radiator Springs Racers and Incredicoaster all have Single Rider Lines. Space, Incredicoaster and Racers all get very long at night and Incredicoaster doesn’t necessarily save time if it is all that long. But Racers and Space still can save time even if long. There isn’t a way to plug it into the plan, but you can make note of it and then it will save even more time on your plan when you use it.
Also, for Monsters Inc if that is at all a ride you’re wanting to do and you’re willing to split up in groups of 2 ask the CM at the front if they are giving out buddy passes. If they are they will give you the buddy pass and direct you up the exit to be loaded as groups of 2 when they need to fill in the 3rd row. They used to do this sometimes on Toy Story but I haven’t seen it in a long while. Monsters Inc still does it. And Soarin’ and Indy don’t officially do one, but they do commonly call down the line asking for parties of 2 or a single rider. So if you’re willing to split up again like that, you can. But not guaranteed to get 2 calls for parties of 2 as often to really save time for the whole group.
Re-ride any favorites of the day. Or take time to see some of the smaller or more walkthrough attractions you skipped. If you go with DCA, then both Avengers Campus and CarsLand have great lighting/nighttime ambiance. Also the Animation Building in Hollywoodland is a great diversion just with the vaulted lobby having 360 degree screens that show animated clips and art-work for classic Disney and a few Pixar shows with music and lights, it’s about a 20 min. lip and one of my favorite places to soak in some Disney animation magic. There’s also the Animation Academy where every half hour there’s a character drawing lesson and they post the schedule in the lobby in the morning, so you can see if there’s a favorite that evening you want to aim to come back for. Turtle Talk with Crush (same as in Epcot) and Sorcerer’s Workshop (a hands-on walkthrough demonstrating how animation works & is unique to DL) are also off the lobby and fun diversions. If you choose the DL nighttime show I would ride the train in a full loop around to see all the stations and scenery. The railroad has some unique and scenic views plus between the Tomorrowland and Main St train stations there’s a diorama of the Grand Canyon that then moves to back in time with dinos (all animatronic). So a fun little unique bit. Also, Galaxy’s Edge is so beautiful at night and waits for Millenium Falcon can get quite low so I would definitely check that out if you want a re-ride. Tomorrowland IMHO is also much improved with nighttime ambiance and ligting, so I usually like to save all the rides we want to do in Tomorrowland (except Space Mtn unless we’re doing it last) to do at night, so I’m walking through that lit-up better ambiance.
Any more questions, feel free to definitely ask! Happy to help with all planning!
