We had dinner with four other families last night (here for a family wedding) and compared notes on our experiences this past week.
1. PP is entirely correct, the churros are better and easier to find at DL. I suspect DW knows that their churros are inferior, and that is why they hide them so well. Another family reported that they received free popcorn at EPCOT one afternoon, in the same way (answer a trivia question correctly, get free item). Maybe it's a new thing?
2. I'm comfortable with asking the CM to explain the TSMM mess to my kids. I'm the bad guy with them all the time, but this one wasn't on me. I spent a TON of time, like an embarrassing amount of time, planning this vacation. I read Mesaboy's threads from beginning to end. I stalked cancellation threads here. I read blog post after blog post. I'm NOT going to take the fall with my kids for something DISNEY messed up. If a CM can apologize to me for the inconvenience, he can for darn sure apologize and explain things to my kids. They are his customers as well. And they aren't preschoolers. Mine are 6, 8, and 9 (now 10, birthday girl!). They are more than capable of hearing his explanation and accepting his apology (or refusing to accept it) without throwing a tantrum at him. Being SAD about something is not the same as screaming and behaving badly. These kids are one of Disney's target markets. My kids saved their very stingy allowance for more than two months to have extra Mickey Money for this trip. If they are going to pull this crap, they should be prepared to explain themselves to many different demographic groups, not just put up a sign and shrug their shoulders while yelling at people to move along.
3. I didn't expect to ride TSMM 3 times SB. I expected to ride it ONCE SB, maybe twice if we got lucky. Then to use a FP later that day. I think that's a reasonable expectation. I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise. If the ride breaks down, that's a different thing. This was a planned outage by Disney. They probably knew about it for weeks ahead of time. If they had announced it, I would have changed my touring plans. It comes down to them treating ME like I'm lucky to be there and should take whatever they give me. Like I should thank them for taking my money. Not like a customer that THEY are lucky to have. It's customer service turned on it's head, it's arrogant. And absolutely not fair.
4. My children will be attending Cal like their Mama, or perhaps talking their grandfather into paying for Notre Dame, so your hypothetical Princeton admissions officer is safe from my wrath. But it wouldn't surprise me if one of them wanted to go to UCLA, for easy access to those wonderful, warm churros in DL. I will of course disown them if they choose Stanford or USC.
5. FP+ worked pretty well in MK for everyone in our large group. We had all done our homework, and stayed onsite, though. There are enough FP attractions to spread out the demand. I am cautiously optimistic that once they allow you to book additional FP from your phone, and perhaps more than one at a time, it will work. The kiosks are so clunky, I just don't believe they intend to keep them there for long. It has to be temporary. That's why they aren't on the map. (think positively, dreams do come true)
In addition to the Rider Switch passes we were given, a few of our families saw CMs at SDMT writing out paper tickets for people. We think they were for other rides, not SDMT? Some kind of ride ticket? It happened often enough that several different groups saw it. Not sure what that was about, replacing a FP, maybe?
6. FP for the parade was a bit odd for me. We used a FP for MSEP on Saturday, Oct 4. CROWDED day, which I expected. There was a ton of open space around us in the FP area. It was less than 30% full. I felt weird sitting there and watching this press of people up against the ropes. I also felt it put the CMs in a bad position to constantly 'bounce' people who came under the ropes. It was a great place to view the parade, though.
7. FP+ does not work well in any other park. Legacy FP was much much much better at EPCOT. I think it's a wash (stupid TSMM test aside) at DHS. The rush at rope drop can be avoided now, if you book FP later in the day, so that's a positive. But the line for Star Tours was longer than I've seen it (this was on the test day). It definitely pushed the crowd over there. Now, it was never longer than a 15-20 minute line, but for a ride that's normally under 10, it was noticeable. They need a few more attractions to make it work better.
8. LOTs of training everywhere. We encountered a trainee group on the tea cups one morning (which resulted in a lot of empty cups each go-round). Part of our family also stayed at FW and there were trainee bus drivers. One of them blew through an intersection, had to throw the bus in reverse and back up down the road to make his left turn. There were trainees in almost every restaurant we went into in MK.
9. Much more crowded than we expected. I knew Saturday the 4th would be packed, but we were caught off guard by how crowded MK was on the 5th. I expected it to be a down day because of the party. I'm glad Disney extended hours in the MK for the week, it was crazy packed. I don't think I've ever seen it like that, even in the summer. It was difficult getting around with the kids. October is definitely not a slow month anymore. If it ever was.
10. Liked the Magic Bands. Easier than the cards, IMO. They do make it frighteningly easy to spend money, which I think is the point. The younger kids did not like them, though. Too sweaty.
11. Food and Wine really IS that crowded on weekend nights. Holy cow. But Starship was worth it.
Sorry for the novel. Just wanting to share our experience because you all helped me SO MUCH with this trip. Off to watch a wedding for a few days.
That piggy is so cute. 
