Here are some more thoughts on this. There needs to be a way to prevent AP holders or people staying offsite from booking xPasses that they won't use. The most obvious deterrants are charging for it, or making it so that you can only "schedule" your fastpasses same day.
But see, this is my concern for locals (like me) who have no need to stay at a hotel to visit the parks. So, if we decide to go to the parks on the weekend, what difference is that compared to someone from out of town who also plans to go on Saturday but they're staying at a hotel on site? I don't see how people who don't stay on site would book xpasses "they won't use" and people who do stay on site would not.
Universal gets away for including their Express Pass with a hotel stay because they only have 3 hotels and less attendance numbers. Typically, at non-peak times, you can ride most rides at the Universal parks in less than 30 minutes or take advantage of single-rider lines--which most of the big attractions have. Personally, I think Disney needs to expand the number of rides that offer a single-rider option. Usually, unless I have time for a fast pass, I almost exclusively ride Test Track as a single-rider. I would think this would help with guest satisfaction, especially with the return time enforcement. Otherwise, if Disney decides to charge for xpass, it should be applied to
everyone ... raise hotel rates or offer it as an add-on. Because WDW caters more to tourists than locals, if we're excluded from perks that could potentially increase our utilization of the parks (and our satisfaction, resulting in pass renewals and food/beverage/gift purchases), then WDW loses out on a market they've only just recently been trying to reach out to (us locals). APs are crazy expensive enough as it is--it would make sense to include xpass in the cost.
Thing is, I think WDW is suffering from growing pains. It has far too many hotels, which encourages the stifling crowds. I think everyone can agree that rather than invest millions in a system that has the potential to go
very badly, the money would be better spent into expanding the parks and adding attractions that are better capable of handling a large amount of people. It just bodes very badly for me when you start putting a time stamp on every aspect of your visit just to save yourself the effort in finding a good viewing spot for parades/shows/fireworks or evaluating whether or not the return window for a fast pass is something you foresee being able to meet.
If they can get the Mobile Magic app to work more efficiently and expand the service, and perhaps add more signs around the parks that give you wait times and FP returns, they'd save themselves a whole wad of cash from nixing xpass.
