As a
Disneyland vet, I can assure you that this change is a good thing. We’re used to this setup and it works for us. I see two drawbacks to WDW vets:
1)The welcome show has changed. It is different. If this affects you, then this would be a downer.
2)If you have a PPO, there will be more people walking main street with you until you get to the hub and castle. Again, if this was your thing, then this will also be a downer. My guess, however, is that they still won’t allow all guests in an hour before park opening. It will probably be more like a half hour like Disneyland. In this case, if you have an
8am PPO and walk in
at 8am, you still will get your “alone time” on Main Street with only the other PPO guests. In Disneyland, normal guests don’t start entering
until 8:30am or so.
But I cannot think of any other negatives.
Below are some of the positives I see as a Disneyland vet:
1)The holding area between the tapstiles and the archways is limited and fills quickly. If you don’t make it there for the opening show, you have to wait until the end of the show for it to clear to get in. At this point, you may get behind a slow group having problems with their bands/tickets. This will hold up your entry and quite possibly add a considerable amount of stress to your opening experience. It’s so much fun strolling up Main Street knowing you still have an extra half hour without having to run off to the lands. And if booking it to 7DMT is still your thing, you can still run to the front of the rope, just in a different spot. Plus the hub holds so much more people and is less congested.
2)At Disneyland, non-EMH guests aren’t usually let in until a half hour after the park opens to EMH guests. Therefore it is not as congested in the hub the first half hour. At about a half hour before park opening, non-EMH guests are let in but they are held at ropes in the hub. If you have an EMH ticket or room key, you will be let in off to the side when you show your ticket or room key. I suspect that a tapstile will be placed near the entrances to Tomorrowland and/or Fantasyland for EMH guests and a cast member with a clipboard with PPO reservations letting people through. This is not as big of a deal as people on the boards think. Yes there will be non-resort guests waiting in the hub. Yes there will be people who are let in to one of the two lands early. It works and it is not a big deal.
3)I don’t see any problems with the BOG PPOs. The biggest difference will literally be a difference of the time it takes from walking to the train station to the hub. Whereas with a BOG PPO, you had the time it took for guests to run from the train station to 7DMT. Now you have the time it takes to run from the hub. This is about 2-3 minutes. That is it. As said previously, you are not paying for this, so it cannot be expected.
As someone who has two BOG PPOs next month, I am not in the least bit worried.
The Trolley Show?? 
...and as others have said, now I have to take the 'long way' to Fantasyland. 
ENOUGH!
