I greatly appreciate all the great FP discussion. It is obvious that this topic is somewhat polarizing based on your park touring style.
I’m sure you could add more, but I’m going to classify WDW guests into these groups:
1. Uber planners - people who have ADRs booked at 180-days, have FP booked at 60-days, have at least a general plan for their park day, are able to get multiple FPs after their 3 are used.
2. Moderate Planners - people who booked their ADRs and FP in advance, but don’t necessarily like to be refreshing
MDE in their phones all day trying to get more FP. Although they do it at least somewhat.
3. Anti-planners - even though these people have ADRs and FP, they like ultimate flexibility with their schedules and do not like having to plan things so far ahead (even though many of them do because they feel forced to). These people wish you could just change your mind and do whatever you feel like throughout the day and hate that Disney forces them to be more structured than they would like.
4. Newbies and the Uniformed - these are the poor inglorious souls who show up at MK and think they can just walk into Cinderella’s Royal Table fir dinner without a reservation and / or who ask the CM at the entrance at 7DMT how they can get a FP when they see the standby line is 150 minutes and people with FP are scanning their magic bands and walking past the standby queue.
Like i said, you could create more categories but I will go with this list for now. The current state of FP (or lack there of) is a blessing for Group 4 (Newbies & Uninformed). It puts them the closest to an even playing field they will ever get without having to do their homework. They probably will have no idea this is helping them, but perhaps most of them have a better overall park experience.
It sounds like we have some Group 3s in this thread and I understand their point of view. However, I would argue that while these folks might like park touring better without FP, they weren’t harmed as much compared to Group 4 back when FP was active. I would even argue this group was able to get the best of both worlds…they enjoyed FP when they had it but they could also opt to be spontaneous and not feel obliged to over engineer a plan. Of course, I understand if this group felt compelled to get the most out of FP so they could avoid long waits and that maximizing the FP system wasn’t their idea of a vacation.
But for those that fall into Group 1 (and admittedly that’s me), the lack of FP makes going to the park borderline unbearable. I will see how my family does this upcoming trip (Mid-August), but we are scared to death. We are usually the type that are in the parks from open to close each day. We do a ton of table service dining and shopping around our fast passes. We do not do a standby wait if it’s more than 25 minutes - ever. So we either have a FP or are spending money elsewhere. We do dessert parties, fireworks cruises, add-ons galore. We are prepping ourselves to only ride 3 - 4 rides per day because we will not wait in those lines. We will end up back at the pool most days and may go offsite for dinner.
I would guess that a lot of people on these boards fall into Group 1. This group is the most negatively impacted by the lack of FP. It has completely upended the way this group tours. And even amongst this group their is a divide. I would be happy to pay for FP right now because I’m so terrified of going to the park without it. My wife on the other hand, wants to sell our DVC if Disney rolls out a paid only FP system for WDW.
So it’s clear that the lack of FP is helping some but really destroyed WDW for others. I hope the powers that can be can find a balance with the new FP system that gives the planners the ability to plan somewhat but gives the non-planners more opportunity to be spontaneous. But whatever it is - please, please bring back some form of FP back as soon as possible!!!!!