I was kind of hoping they'd keep the machines...
Me, too. Although I like the idea of not needing a "Fastpass runner" or worrying about FPs for an attraction running out, the machines do allow greater on-the-go flexibility than any pre-selection system could. I'll be a bigger fan of Fastpass+ if they end up allowing you to select your FPs in more than one park if you have parkhopper tickets, or to select the same attraction more than once. It's not going to do us a lot of good if the kids want to do Big Thunder Mtn. three times in the same day, or if a headliner we picked months ahead of time is abruptly down for refurbishment. Also, it was nice to be able to spread a little "magic" by giving out extra Fastpasses to others when we found ourselves with them. I imagine that once the bracelets/FP+ become standard, even trying to share FPs within the family (for example, DH and DD don't do Splash Mountain, but they'd give my son and me their FPs for it so we could go twice) is going to be a virtual game of "memory," unless each bracelet is giving me a readout of what FPs it has recorded for that particular user and when... you know, like a little slip of paper with your return window... why hasn't somebody thought of that? Oh, wait...
We won't be making it back until May 2014, so my hope is that by then, the new system will be fully set up, with the kinks worked out, and lots of tips on this forum that I can use to re-educate myself and make the necessary alternations to our touring strategy. Heck, if it ends up being that we're stuck with one park per day in terms of FPs, we'd most likely save some money by foregoing parkhopper tickets and limiting ourselves to one park per day. (I'm an impatient person and when we're paying a fortune for our vacation, time is especially precious: I see no value whatsoever in visiting a park, if I'm going to be forced to stand in a 30 minute-or-longer line for
anything. Thanks to careful "strategery," efficient use of Fastpasses and a bit of luck, I've almost never had to, even on whirlwind Easter vacation trips, and I'm not about to start now. Walk into any park knowing there's no option but the standby line? Madness! [Exuent soapbox rant - that got a little more peppery-sounding than I intended! It just seems that if the rumors are all true, then going from a Fastpass every couple of hours to the headliner of your choice, to 3 FPs in one park for an entire day with no "repeats," is a pretty crappy deal.])
Anyway, see there? Saving money by foregoing Parkhoppers! A silver lining!