I visited DCA for a half day on Sunday (we live north in Ventura County and didn't want to drive back late, so even though I love it, we didn't plan to see World of Color). It was an early entry day (7-8), with the park opening to all at 8 AM.
It seems like they are no longer doing a line for RSF FP before park opening. When we arrived on Buena Vista Street around 7:50 a.m., there was no line built up for Fastpasses around Carthay Circle towards Hollywood Blvd (as we had seen and done last summer). Everyone was just gathered at the rope drop. We opted to go line up at rope drop in Condor Flats, as our plan was to go to TSMM first and we figured we'd get out of the way of all the guests making a beeline for Carsland. As such, I can't speak to what happened at rope drop with RSR FP, though there was definitely not a line, at least not one that I saw extending to Carthay as before.
We fast walked past GRR and the Wilderness Creek trail, through SF to Paradise Pier for TSMM after rope drop. We practically walked on to TSMM and then hubby went on Screamin' with a 5 minute wait. Meanwhile, I walked over to get an RSR FP. There was no line outside of the Bug's Life queue area, and I waited about 2 minutes to get 2 FP for 11:40 a.m. -12:40 p.m. This was at about 8:25 a.m. I then went to get a Soarin' FP (9:05-10:05) and met back up with my husband at the entrance to Carsland. We rode Mater's with less than a 10 minute wait--then did Ariel's, followed by Goofy's Sky School and the Golden Zephyr. We then went to use our Soarin' FP and then headed for Hollywood. We rode Monsters, watched Muppets, walked through Sorcerers in the Animation Building and watched Turtle Talk. By this point it was about 11:20-- we were amazed at how much we were able to get done in such a short amount of time! Note for Pink Floyd, I would suggest that for your party that wants to ride Tower of Terror--you could go grab a FP for it after riding Soarin'.
I love the Dill Pickle popcorn at the Pop Cone in Carsland, so we decided to head over there for a snack (fingers crossed they'd have it). We jumped on the Red Trolley outside the Animation Building and rode it to the Hollywood Hotel-- walking through Bugs Land to get to Carsland. Lucky me--they had dill pickle popcorn, we got a scoop of that and headed for the Wharf to grab a couple of beers to enjoy with our popcorn. Racers was not running at this time-- we were basically done in the Park, and just waiting on our FP at this point, so I was worried we may not get on. We grabbed a couple brews at the Beer Truck and snagged a table in the shade on the deck by Cocina Cocamonga. Around noon, we walked back towards Racers and fortunately it was up and running!! I assume they must have been a bit backlogged due to the stoppage, so the FP line took about 15 minutes, but I wasn't complaining! Curiously, the standby was posted at 120 minutes and they were holding guests "up top" and not moving them into the main queue. Perhaps to deter more people from getting in line while they worked through the FP backup??
As for your question about WOC FP, there is no advantage to getting a FP earlier or later and I recall last summer that they were available until mid afternoon most days, though to be safe, candles' suggestion of grabbing one before noon is a good one.
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