you can check all this information out at disneyland.com and my personal opinion is not to pay for the seating because you are seeing the same thing as everyone else. Also, during fantasmic and believe those are really good times to go on the rides like: Splash, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder (I went on it 5 times in the whole show with only waiting 5 minutes) Materhorn much of the rides have shorter wait times during shows if you do a show one night then the next you could do the rides. Also if you ride Splash you can see the fireworks (really pretty) same with most of the other outside rides.