Actually, this is a valid point. It took me over an hour to make FP+ reservations with all the darn errors. I can only imagine how that will brighten my day while on vacation.
I also think, that the chances of getting up and your family making a decision too late, and no fast passes left at all is pretty darn good once every one as access to the system. Unless they hold back some, the 'Math' counts. Only so many people can get the so many fp+ that are even available.
From our experience the first week of Dec, with what I would say were moderate crowds. Yes, some days seemed so crowded, but only on our Epcot and DHS days were they crowded. At 9:15 the wait for TSM was 90 minutes, and fp- was already at 7:35 pm. Yet TOT was less than 15 minutes. So, technically if FP+ were to work as I understand, after fp+ gets rolled out, the standby lines will even out and be less of a wait. Ok, how is that possible when TSM and the other two headliners are worlds apart. For grownups (or anyone over 48 in who likes roller coasters) this is a great idea. For families visiting DHS, not so good. As the one attraction geared towards families with no height restriction (headliner anyway) is TSM. Fastpass isn't the fix for that, definitely need another attraction to even things out a bit. In Epcot, TT and Soarin' are the 2 that will be interesting to see what happens. Again, the double dipping people speak about etc, doesn't really matter because every single day there is a maximum number of people getting access to fp due to ride capacity for the day. These two rides are on the same tier. That means very few people will have a fp for both rides, and will have to standby the one they don't get. The only saving grace is single rider lines. Honestly, if you want to ride rides there is a good chance you will be using that line a great deal.
The crowd calendars had that week a 4. Probably look back and see it was closer to a 5/6 week. That isn't bad really. What happens on the 10 days? IMHO, a person on their first vacation, staying offsite over 4th of July or Christmas may never get to ride TSM unless they are willing to stand in standby.
Honestly, when it is just my dh and I visiting WDW, this fp+ is just a blip on our radar. We don't often ride 'rides' We are happy with only the Safari in AK or TSM in DHS or TT in Epcot. But when we went with my dd and her family with smaller children, we had different wants and needs to figure out. And we did, with glitches throughout, manage to have a great time and still ride most things we wanted to. It just wasn't a vacation. We felt like we ran around, checking out phones to see if we could change our next day's park. Day of changes? Good luck. Well, changes to what we were hoping for anyway.
I did not read or contribute to any of the fp+ threads before our trip, simply because I wanted to go in without any preconceived notions. Really give fp+ a shot. My dh hated the concept. I am on the fence. It has value, I think it could work in certain parks. But I really can't figure out how this improves the guest experience in Epcot or DHS. Or at least our experience. And the crowds were not 10's either.
So, honestly, the real test will come for me over the actual Christmas holidays. Though this test at AK also has piqued my interest. And lets face it the TSM situation won't improve. At this time, the situation seems worse. How many people really know that you can get in usually 15 min before park opening? On our DHS day, open was 9am...and at 9:15 am you were staying all day or coming back to ride TSM (most onsite guests have this option) or standing in standby (offsite guests or tiered fp+ guests). I can't imagine staying offsite and ever paying for park hoppers again, knowing going in my chances of getting a TSM fp the day of is likely to be very late in the day. But, maybe I am over estimating how many people actually use ph to begin with. Then again, I can't imagine having to stay at DHS more than about 7 hours on any given day either as its not a park that holds our attention for long.
Personally, the final product will be interesting. I would love to see the ability to have a fp in MK and then the ability to reserve one later in the day at AK. Not 3 in one park. I would like a bit more flexibility and a lot less glitches in
MDE. The current product, though not the final one, just doesn't seem to work for me personally.
Kelly