Disney already argued that attraction access (as a capacity) is not unlimited in the GAC lawsuit. Attraction access is a finite resource, just like parking, seating, etc. Disney argued that treating it as unlimited would negatively impair their services. They have already established in at least one court it's a finite resource they were right to limit or throttle access to.
This discussion now is simply a question of concurrency...
Disney could address it a different way too. Imagine if instead of # of DAS passes per park, they could do something like 'There are 200 DAS passes available for this attraction an hour' and it's based on the attraction's capacity.
This would have a different impact in that guests wouldn't know if they would get access... potentially many times a day.. which is not very nice. But maybe they do if they come back during another hour... etc.
It's a different formula, but the premise/challenge of 'you can't limit usage' is fundamentally the same.. and the reasoning for why it would likely be allowed would be the same. Disney has a finite capacity, they aren't obligated to let accommodations usage destroy normal usage of that capacity for all customers.
I am behind on this thread, but as the discussion is getting into areas where I think this is all heading, and we're heading to the MK soon for D23 Tiana event...
This is getting at the crux of the issue, IMO. How much of an attraction's capacity should be allocated to DAS guests before it's no longer an accommodation but superior access? I think we'd agree if, say Peter Pan or another lower capacity attraction was renovated into the most magical experience ever, and the number of DAS guests wishing to ride during the peak hours of 11-3 outnumbered the attraction capacity in that period and no able-bodied guests could ride, that would cross into superior access. Working backwards from the upper boundary, how many able-bodied guests would need to be served? 1 party per hour? 25%, 50%?
It's not a question theme parks want to answer. So what they do is put limits on everyone. Things like controlling access into a land like Super Nintendo World at Universal Hollywood, or Fantasy Springs in TDS. In the International parks Disney has already implemented Standby Pass for some rides. The first thing these things do is eliminate re-rides for anyone, but it still won't be enough. The problem, I see, in bringing Standby Pass to the US Parks is that they have allowed the ratio of "guests entering the park" to exceed the number of "guests who could actually ride most of the E-tickets on their visit." Watch that Defunctland video, and how many things they had to add to the Fastpass system to generate enough slots to hand out... So then they are looking at having to limit guests to only a couple E-ticket rides per day, which gets into with the prices Disney is charging, who is going to pay $175 to only be able to ride a couple E-tickets per day. Which leads to an effective attendance cap lower than what Disney or the Street needs Disney to operate at.
I think where we're going to end up with, down the road, not imminently, is something like where we started... a virtual Ticket book system. Each person, allocated a specific number of attractions from each tier, and if you want more of a top tier, you may be able to purchase it, depending on remaining capacity available. And I suspect Disney is waiting to see whatever Universal pulls out of its hat when Epic opens (I suspect the portals, aren't going to be open for everyone, all the time, and lands will "reach capacity.") and how guests respond.
