I've been rethinking how to turn the tables, as it were, to make MDE, MM+, and FP+ to my advantage. While we love all the Insiders here, and those that hate DVC, I'm up in my DVC Timeshare Tower anyway. And only because as a regular WDW fan, I am also a DVC member.
I've stated before that we are not rope drop kind of guys. We sleep in because we are on vacation, and probably had a few too many Mai Tai's the night before. To the horror of soccer moms on vacation, I do laundry at WDW, and cook 80% of our meals at our DVC. We were Premier passholders but let that go. The reason? There is nothing to do at WDW except stay at the whatever new DVC everyone about. That has been our MO up until 3 years ago when we stopped going to FLA altogether. It will be another 2 years until we go back, that's a 5 year span of not going to WDW, and spending our DVC points, and money in California, at DLR, and the California cruises on the DLC instead. DLC cruises from CA mean I don't pay airfare, and park my pickup truck for $15.00 a day at the terminal in San Pedro.
Btw, we paid way under a hundred bucks per point for our direct buy from Disney at VWL so we are way past our break even point, and loving the leftover DVC gravy, paying a lot less in maintenance fees than we would pay at a similar resort at rack rate...but I digress.
As we hit the parks after lunch, and sometimes way after lunch, the commandos have gone home. That doesn't mean we can get FP, or standby so easily. But still we hardly ever use FP. The after hours thing we love, but if it is going away... Did I mention that I found a Tumblr site that has lot's of old Disneyland Ads from the 1960's touting that Disneyland stays open till Midnight?
We will game the system by getting FP for the evenings at 60 days out. I am sure we will get exactly what we want. Who else wants a FP at any given attraction just before closing? Everyone wants mornings, and afternoons. It will be fun to see if guests avoid FP during the hottest parts of the day during Summer because they can book FP for cooler mornings, and evenings. The parks might become ghost towns mid day!
The flight etc costs me much more but at least when I'm there, I don't have to run and think what I have reserved when and where.
