Snapper Bean said:
1. Nobody seems offended by Extra Magic Hours, a theme park benefit, which is a distinction made between staying on site and off site.
I understand the point you are trying to demonstrate, but it's not as simple as you make it out to be. You miss the distinction between EMH, a limited, scheduled resort benefit, and extra FP, a system which has been implemented and is widely touted (from signage and resort commercials down to each and every one of the tens of thousands of park maps distributed every day) as available to everyone and would affect the entire day at the parks for all guests across the board.
The point is, during normal, published park hours virtually all guests are treated equally as far as attraction attendance. The exceptions are rare enough that they don't impact the general population of park guests who are largely unaware of them.
Yes, EMH are another distinction. With morning EMH I don't think it was as much of an issue, but with the new evening EMH yes, they have created more of a distance between non-resort and resort guests that doesn't make me exactly comfortable. I choose to stay on-site for many reasons (mostly to be close to my resort for breaks) and EMH wouldn't change that either way - in fact, I never made morning EMH's so until evening EMH's appeared I never even used the feature. Since the advent of evening EMH I have wondered about this additional class distinction myself.
We can argue off site/on site all day, but when it comes down to it financially value resorts and the savings on transportation and discounts available it's really not a heck of a lot different than staying off-site these days. It's more of a preference - do you want more freedom to explore other attractions, or to stay at Disney exclusively. It's certainly a heck of a lot different than the difference between a value resort and a deluxe.
It's wholly different to reward people for spending their entire vacation on Disney property with a few extra hours in the parks versus the tiered quid pro quo that would happen based on how many dollars you have to spend, making Disney into a place where once you arrive your fun in parks is dictated directly by your bank account - the more you spend the more attractions you get to see
each day during your
entire stay in
every park. Unlike EMH's, which as we all know artifically inflate park attendance anyway and most off-site guests know to schedule around (and even many
onsite guests as well) - since there are always three other parks available on those days where people can ride equally. In essence,
you can negate the effect (and even reap the benfefit of) EMH's by avoiding them, but you can't avoid a tiered fast-pass system restricting everyone in all parks all the time based on how much you have to spend on your lodging dollar.
I realize you (and others) are trying to label people hypocrites with agendas, but everyone if of course going to bring their personal baggage to discussing this issue. Just look at this thread - you have people who believe that during normal park hours people should be treated equally, you have locals who already don't like that resort guests get extra benefits so they are happy for others to be excluded as well, you have people posting about economic principles and arguing semantics.
Can you imagine the uncomfortable uproar this would cause among people? Not only do resort guests get extra park hours, now they get even more bang during regular park hours. So, the situation for Joe-Local and Jane-Off-Site gets even worse - not only do they not get those "extra" hours, now what they can do in the time they do get as part of their regular paid admission is going to be much less!
Instead of paying for hotel amenities, any such system as in that patent document asks people to pay for park benefits. Many of us just feel that the choice to stay on or off property is much different than the choice to stay in an All-Star or the Grand Floridian. No one is arguing the rights Disney has or has not to do this - but the climate it would create and the good will lost over such a blatant class system would be striking. No matter how discrete the method, the system would still be offical and known and contribute to a caste system in what are supposed to be the most magical places on earth.
There are tons of distinctions and as many different points of view on this topic as there are people who go to WDW. As it stands now, one choice with benefits (transportation, EMH) and consequences (harder to get to other non-Disney attractions, slightly more cost - though with transportation savings it comes out rather equally for many) would become a system that makes people pay for the quality of time they spend in the parks. If you can afford the Grand Floridian you can ride more rides and have a better quality of time, and if you are at a value resort you are SOL.
I know that Disney has the right to do something like this, and I also know that statistics can be manipulated to say anything. The reason I oppose it is because many of us here loose sight of what draws people to Disney - it's the magic, the way that while inside of the parks it doesn't matter if you are a family who saved for five years to stay off-site or a millionaire spending a two weeks in a suite at the Boardwalk - Mickey still wants to meet you, and you are a VIP guest. Yes, reality may hit home when some head for their tent and others to their suite, but in the park it just should be different. I guess this is one of those things you either get, or you don't.
All that said, I don't think it will be happening anytime soon. I have a hard time believing that Disney wants to become Universal. As much as I enjoy their attractions, the new principles at Universal following the "express pass for sale" era have disgusted me. It was one thing when they just had the hotel guests (there numbers weren't great enough to make a big difference since there are so few rooms) but when they started selling those booklets...man, it just didn't seem right. Even for Universal. To imagine Disney going to such a class based system really makes me ill.
I'd also be just as happy if they'd eliminate EMH totally and just keep the parks open later for everyone - with FP and a good touring plan it shouldn't matter since so many more people are staying on-site now anyway. I've never been snobby about sharing that benefit - I just take advantage of it because I feel the park hours are too short most of the year in the first place. From my experience with the evening EMH's, although it is nice to be in the park late the crowds have been rather large meaning they are often more trouble than they are worth when it comes to quanity of attractions.
This is a very complex issue, and one that hopefully Disney will look long and hard at the ramifications of before considering if and when it will be implemented. Good will, atmosphere, and - most importantly - magic, can't be studied and have statistical success rates. Creating a tiered class system when it comes to experiencing attractions would have severe consequences to the experience of other guests and should be done with extreme caution, if at all.
AEfx
