Dear Mark,
Thank you so much for stopping by to visit us here at the Disney Parks Moms Panel with your great planning question for your upcoming Walt Disney World Resort vacation!
This is a frequently asked question, and I am definitely just giving you my own opinion. Some folks might feel differently. For my family, we find that having a
FastPass+ selection "tied up" by an evening activity isn't the best use of our third FastPass+ selection. With the way that FastPasses work, you can pre-select three each per day, and then when you have used those up, you can then select additional FastPasses one at a time for the rest of the day until they run out. Therefore, if you have one selected for late in the evening, you would only be able to utilize those first three and would likely not be able to use the additional ones. Does that make sense?
My advice would be to arrive about a half an hour early to each of the shows and you will be able to find a good spot typically with no problem.
Hope that helps with your magical planning!
- Jan K.