Here are the main arguments people are making against people who are expressing trepidation or unhappiness with the changes Disney is implementing:
1. Everyone should get the same number of FPs. This is a fair system; stop acting so entitled!
This is the basis of Marxist theory. I am a bleeding heart liberal through and through, but I completely disagree with employing this method for anything in human life - politics, economics, social issues or business.
The legacy FP system was as "fair" as fair comes, because everyone had equal OPPORTUNITY to utilize it. My family's use of 6 to 8 FPs per day was not given to us, but required us to expend effort in order to obtain that - by doing more research, waking up earlier, walking faster, etc. I refuse to believe that people who expend less effort than people who expend more should be ENTITLED - to use your term in its appropriate definition, contrary to what you have done - to the same reward. "Entitled" means one feels they should get something for nothing, or at least that the item received should be disproportionate with the amount of work expended. I don't feel that way at all - I welcome the opportunity to work as hard as I can to obtain the maximum reward, and wish that opportunity to be available to all people.
Is Disney truly conducting an economic experiment in Marxism? I don't know. Given the lesson to be learned from history, I would hope not. But I would not be that surprised. I am, however, surprised to see so many people on this board supporting this type of argument, as I have to wonder if they would feel the same way about other aspects of their lives - if your professor decided to average all test scores and assign everyone the same grade, or your employer decided to use your entire department's performance when determining your raise, rather than your own individual effort, would this be acceptable to you?
2. This system is great for me, therefore it should be good enough for you.
There's little counterargument for this one; one may as well bash one's head repeatedly into a wall. Nothing is universally useful to everyone. That is a basic truth that should be apparent to anyone. It's one thing to not share the opinion of another, but to be unable to comprehend the possibility that other opinions exist is a problem that runs deeper than any argument can address.
3. There are worse things. First world problems, etc.
Ah, the comparative virtue fallacy. Indeed, there are worse things. And there always will be, unless all of humanity can agree on THE worst thing by which all other things must be judged. Seeing as that's pretty much not going to happen - ever - we instead need to agree that it's all relative and each experience must be judged independent of others, on its own merit. I could tell the person who has a high-strung toddler, "Get over it, it could be worse - you could have a child with Down syndrome like I do" and then my friend could tell me, "No, you get over it, you could have a child with CP in a nearly vegetative state like I do." This is not a rational argument. This is the desperate act of someone incapable of engaging in rational argument. Human experience is not measured on some universal hierarchy; each of our experiences - and the thoughts, emotions and goals that result from those - is unique to us and equally worthy of respect.
4. You're in Disney. It's a vacation. Just enjoy it!
This is a similar argument to #3, but it also adds an element of naivete by assuming that one cannot possibly have complaints about an experience while also enjoying themselves. As I stated before, this is perfectly normal psychological functioning to be able to experience conflicting emotions at once. Enjoying an experience does not exempt you from disappointment, nor does it remove your right to complain. If you were eating at a favorite restaurant and your steak was seriously underdone, that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy the restaurant or the fabulous dessert that follows, nor does it mean you should refrain from sending the steak back and voicing your opinion to the chef. This common oversimplification of human motivation being employed on this forum is concerning.
5. Reserve judgment until after your trip - you can't possibly complain before that point!
There are two problems with this argument; the first being that it again shows a lack of understanding of human motivation, and in so doing also shows a lack of self-awareness on the part of the person making the argument. All humans engage in pre-assessment of a situation; it's actually a wonderful part of our ability to adapt to our environment and survive. If we did not attempt to assess and form some rudimentary opinions on future events, we'd be floundering around waiting for the future to become the present. I am able to decide to allot 12 hours for my final paper in my class because I am able to make an estimation of the amount of work that will be required in order for me to obtain my desired grade. I suppose some might approach life with an attitude of, "I don't know how long it'll take me, I guess I'll see when I get started" which is all fine unless you don't allow enough of a potential time cushion and later find you needed more time than you had. The key is to remain mentally flexible and able to adapt to new information that might alter your pre-assessment. This means I'm capable of feeling trepidation and dislike for the new system I'll be using, while still recognizing that I may be surprised and alter my opinion after our trip. The fact that we may change our opinions with new information does not mean that we should - nor that we are even mentally capable of! - withhold all initial judgments based on the information we have in the present time.
I respect that others think this system is a positive change - and I have no desire to change that opinion, as I don't see how changing the opinion of others provides any benefit for me. Disney has invested a lot of money into this enterprise, they have a final vision in mind already, and even if I managed to convince the pre-RD crowd at HS to join me in a mass peaceful protest, Disney would not veer from this course.
I do not, however, appreciate the level of animosity that is consistently being expressed against people like myself who are expressing concern, worry, stress, anger, or any other negative emotion over the changes taking place. Does my negative opinion somehow take away from the value of your positive one? Some people here apparently think it does, and I'm not quite sure why.
This is absolutely true. The point is that a big appeal for WDW is to be able to plan during the day to avoid the long lines. Other than characters, we rarely stand in line for anything for more than 20 minutes at WDW. We don't get up horribly early (usually arrive 15 or 20 minutes after rope drop), we aren't FP superusers, and we don't plan every minute of our day in advance. We avoid the lines while in park by pulling FPs for rides that have lines too long when we first get to that area of the park. We then go do everything else in the area and come back to the ride when our FP time hits. I know at some point we will be in a long line for a character, but we can manage our days by avoiding most of the long ride lines, and as a result we can fit a lot more into a day. It isn't even that much leg work. I know that I need to book it to Soarin or TSM when we arrive in the morning to get FPs (the one nice thing that the 1 FP+ helps out on) and that at AK I need to head to Safari, and MK PP first. Other than that- my leg work consists of walking to an area of the park with my family, seeing whether a line for a FP attraction is more than 20 minutes. If it is not, we get in line then. If it is, we pull a FP and do everything else in that area of the park until the FP kicks in. If the line is short enough that we get in it, we might still pull a FP for later if it is a favorite, but more often than not- if the line is that short, we just ride it twice in a row without FP and move on to something else. The only exception is that Splash, if DD wants to ride it, usually involves pulling a FP that kicks in much later, so we do usually have to cross the park back to that area.
- PP and Small World were what she wanted at that age- she was always asking to go back to one of those)
I have to agree w you, that most ppl are in general, going to want to FP Soarin and Test Track. I think they should settle on a system where T1 includes Soarin, TT, and MS (and Maelstrom and the Mexico ride so the kid-familes have options too). And you get to pick 2 from T1.
