I don't know the intricacy of the system but it would be great if, lets say 2 days before, they would open availability from the pool of resort guest and day guest tickets and add them to AP. Looking at the calendar AP is definitely the one that has the least amount of tickets, confirming what I've been saying for years that Disney really wants to get rid of it's AP's here in WDW. We are definitely bottom of the barrel or else we would have similar availability as a regular park ticket not staying onsite.
Anyways I'm hoping for them to do that
I can't believe I'm gonna miss the one year anniversary for SWGE
Not for argument purposes, but instead more for analysis, could it be that the AP pool and day tickets are the same (perhaps even same as resort guests - 3-way split), but the demand is just substantially higher from Passholders? Right now, and potentially for the near future, I think demand would be much higher from Passholders/locals. Inside this bubble of Disney fans, demand is high, but outside of it, I think it's going to be extremely low for a while, both because of concern over travel and the accompanying uncertainty as a result of the virus as well as because of the economic factors and uncertainty therewith. Now, the demand part of this is obviously just my opinion, but I think to some degree there can't be any doubt about this, but the extent that this is the case is unknown. I mean, right now you have nearly 35 million people who are essentially not allowed to travel to FL due quarantine mandates.
I agree with both of you that they should shift availability closer to the actual days to allow APs to fill in the rest. However, I think financially, Disney has to make sure to have enough spots open for resort guests and cash ticket guests. There's certainly a balance to strike because the Passholders are the ones who keep coming back and spend money in the parks. In the short term, I'd bet that Passholders would be the ones to spend more in the parks immediately upon reopening, but long term, if there's the appearance, at least, that only resort guests and passholders are going to get into the parks, it could cause more long term damage. If and when things ever get back to normal and full capacity at the parks, Disney cannot fill the parks with passholders and on-site guests, so they have to strike a balance as to not impact that subset too negatively (at least the perception thereof) in the long term.
As to resort guests, I think Disney really
must try to ensure that those spending the heavily inflated costs of staying on property have at least
some benefit and have a good chance to get into at least one park during their stays. Again, they could shift this availability later, but (and I really don't know the answer or the behavior patterns on this) - will local passholders adjust their plans and come to the park on last minute notice if there's availability?
