What about not prebooking a FP+ and just watching from where 99% of the other guests will be watching? I've never staked out a spot for Wishes more than 20 minutes in advance, and I've never had a bad watching experience. I've never staked out a spot for MSEP more than 30 minutes in advance and never had a bad spot, either. Fantasmic always has the dining package available, which offers better seating than FP+ anyway. And there are plenty of spots around the WS to watch Illuminations. Honestly, I'm not really sure why anyone books FP+ for any of the nighttime entertainment because for me, they hold very little value, but clearly many people feel differently. I just don't understand why you'd blow a FP+ opportunity for seeing something like Wishes that can be experienced from practically anywhere inside the park, and even can be viewed rather pleasantly from outside the park as well.
I wasn't saying there was no other option for viewing, there's always a "standby" option (in this case non-reserved viewing spots). I was saying there is no other option for the *time* it happens.
Whether or not FP+ is offered is Disney's discretion. They've chosen to make it available for these nighttime events. However, unlike all of the other attractions they offer FP+ for, there is only *one* time that a guest could use a FP+ for the nighttime entertainment because that is the only time Disney offers to view it.
A guest who wants to ride Buzz could, at 60 days out, choose a FP+ time for most likely anytime between opening and closing. That could be 12 hrs worth of windows that a guest can choose from. If they choose to pick Buzz for 8pm (when there were all other windows throughout the day open), and that's their latest FP+ for the day and they can't get a 4th FP+ until after that 8pm Buzz FP+ is used, then that was a *choice* that guest made.
For example purposes, let's say Wishes is at 10pm. A guest who wants to choose Wishes as a prebooked FP+ cannot choose to experience Wishes at 12pm. They have to wait until 10pm, as Disney does not offer the show until then. If that is their 3rd FP+ for the day, the way this is being described right now, that guest wouldn't be able to get a 4th until after Wishes.
What I have been saying in this thread, is that I can *see* Disney treating the 4th FP+ differently (in terms of when you can get it) if you have a nighttime event like Wishes/Illuminations booked because I can understand Disney not wanting to "punish" (to use another PP's words) the guest for choosing a FP+ for an event that is only possible to experience at that late hour. Disney does this at DCA with World of Color. Guests who get WOC FPs in the morning do not have to wait to get their next FP (and that's with the legacy system).
I do *not* believe, though, that Disney will treat attractions that are open all day long the same way, because of the inherent choice in prebooking attractions that are open all day. (That's not to say they may not find some other way of addressing it, but I don't believe they will end up treating it the same as they treat the nighttime shows).
Disney needs people to choose the "crowd eaters" like the parades and nighttime shows for FP+ - especially in the tiered parks where they don't have the capacity to give everyone a prebooked spot for the headliner attractions. You and I may think it's silly to get a FP+ for the nighttime shows (and, like you, I doubt we'd get them), but that doesn't change Disney's need for those spots to be taken.
If there is no change made to the rotating 4th FP+ (something that would allow someone with a prebooked Wishes to book their 4th FP+ after using their other 2 FP+s earlier in the day), then Disney risks the parades/nighttime shows not being popular choices for those FP+ prebookings. They need people to choose those options, which makes me pretty confident that they will somehow address it (likely by having the nighttime shows "disconnected" similarly to the way that WOC is in DCA).
