MommaBerd
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2011
- Messages
- 3,217
That's a very interesting thought. That could very well be. I have been wondering why they didn't slam the 74 day glitch shut as soon as they realized it was happening. It seems like that would be a very easy update (even with required regression testing) and it's been open for over a week. I have thought in the past (for example SDFP) that Disney lets strategists do what they do because they use them to collect data on how people use the system and look for future holes with how they expect to change the system (I don't think Disney IT is as completely and totally incompetent as they seem sometimes). This would definitely fit that model. And possibly explain some of the glitchiness to the glitch.
The sad thing is that no one really *wants* to make their FPs 90 days out. Scheduling FPs is just what people have done in order to gain an advantage. As much as I hate to say it, I think WDW should go with something similar to the Shanghai Premier Access. It is an FP package for all the most popular rides, with no assigned return times. You cannot purchase it until you are in the park. However, they also have demand based pricing, so you definitely pay a hefty premium on peak days. Unfortunately, I know this first hand. But as painful to the wallet buying the PA was, the rest of the day was so relaxing and freeing knowing we could do the attractions we wanted to do when we wanted to do them.
In park, day-of FPs are still available, similar to the old paper FP. I don’t necessarily love that aspect, but certainly this could be tweaked such that maybe you could make 3 FPs on MDE once you are in the park.
It isn’t perfect. There would need to be some tweaks because there are people who don’t rope drop or people who do park hop. However, planning 90 days out instead of 60 days out is just planning insanity. I get to pay for the privilege to plan even further out? This, to me, would potentially be a better way for Disney to level the playing field and still get their $$.
All that being said, there’s no way they would go in this direction because of the $$ required to program these kinds of changes.