"The FastPass Question"

[marni1971]

Waits will still become excessive as attendance returns. The capacity just isn’t there to provide a desirable guest experience.

There would still be the same amount of people waiting to ride. They’d just be in one queue not two. And as we know operationally, standby only reduces wait times.

More so if you are limited to one or two rides of any single given headliner per day. Standby Pass could cater for this. For example.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I never said the system was perfect LOL. I understand that I abuse the system and don't exactly use it as its intended. But even when I was first learning it and just learned to outright hack it, I still saw its value. Think about what it does for the average person who doesn't know the crazy loopholes:

• You'll still be able to get something even if you don't know how to Flight of Passage, Mickey & Minnie, 7DMT, etc. At Magic Kingdom you can always get something other than 7DMT at the 30 day mark and its a big park.
• It does a good job of alerting you to expected crowd levels. If the FP+ are picked clean, its maybe not the best day to go.
• Piggybacking on that, if you know its going to be an awful day, you know what to expect. Don't expect big time production.
• You know when to show up. You show up when your FP+'s start.

Either way, you need some system in place even if its not FP+. I know everyone on here thinks that the inevitable future if a paid system, but they'll need something even for the people who don't buy that. They legally have to give you a DAS pass if you ask for it anyway (since they can't check doctor's notes). So as the lines build up, and nothing free is offered, more and more people will just use that. Eventually they'll need a streamlines, available for all system using technology.

Don't buy this fantasy that stand-by lines for all will ever be permanent.

Fantasy? How do you think the place functioned for the first 20+ years. I'm living proof that it worked just fine. People just have to pack their Type A personalities in their luggage and leave it there. Then all of a sudden it is a level playing field. That leads to everyone having fun.

I know that as of late it is hard to think about the possibility that some people are still honest. If a person is low enough to take a DAS when they don't need it, then everything I have been thinking about humanity lately is true.

 

[rreading]

Another thought:

What if FastPass (specifically FP+) were only for Disney resort guests?

This would reduce the number of people in the FP queue (especially if FPs were capped at 3 per day), thus preventing many of the problems in the OP.

And it wouldn't be negatively viewed as a pay-to-play situation the way a MaxPass-only type scenario would be, since it's not "people paying to cut the line" per se, but rather "people staying at Disney resorts."

Plus, this would create a huge incentive to stay on property, which would benefit Disney immensely in that regard. They couldn't have "gotten away with" removing the option of FP for non-Disney-resort guests before COVID, but the current unavailability of any FastPass system and the more general "reshuffling of everything" could give them a golden opportunity.

Just a thought...

This makes sense to me -unless they are replacing it with something else. The folks on the tours and the Club 33 folks would still have their expedited entry and there would be (much) more of an incentive to staying on property. Clearly it's done at Universal to a larger extent (though iirc they also have super-fastpass available to purchase as well).

I'm sure that the bean-counters have thought of this and their take is that they intend to be egalitarian and offer FP to everyone. But were the FP lines shorter, they could more the traditional lines faster as well.

Passholders who don't stay in the hotels would probably pitch a fit

 

[marni1971]

This makes sense to me -unless they are replacing it with something else. The folks on the tours and the Club 33 folks would still have their expedited entry and there would be (much) more of an incentive to staying on property. Clearly it's done at Universal to a larger extent (though iirc they also have super-fastpass available to purchase as well).

I'm sure that the bean-counters have thought of this and their take is that they intend to be egalitarian and offer FP to everyone. But were the FP lines shorter, they could more the traditional lines faster as well.

Passholders who don't stay in the hotels would probably pitch a fit

From what I know wholesale moving of FP to resort only was discounted.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

if I was trying to make FP+ more practical and fair) but even without pound the app, you could still pretty much get whatever you want other than the top ride 30 days out, and if you couldn't, you would know that's an awful day to go, and to avoid that day.

Its a good way of letting people know what their minimum production level will be, and there's no surprises. These are your three rides and they'll be walk-ons. Everything is a bonus on top of that. I think that beats rolling the dice and maybe having a decent day or maybe being in stuck in 2-3 hour lines for everything all day.

I think the catch there is that people like (need?) to be able to change their plans: delayed flights, bus doesn't show, meal takes too long, ticket won't scan, etc.
One of WDW's long standing problems is that WDW isn't always reliable/consistent where timing is concerned. Posted attraction wait times are often unreliable. WDW transportation is too often unreliable/inconsistent. Monorails break down, the bus gets full (so people have to wait for the next one). Table service meals waits were also often all over the place. Many times I have waited well after my ADR time, despite showing up on time. Customers are supposed to suck it up, even though it it isn't our mistake. The value of our time is relative to the type of losses we have to sustain.

Oh, have you ever experienced a ticket malfunction at park opening? That an be a big time suck.

And then there's Rise of the Resistance.

The second challenge is that WDW vacation packages come due 45days before arrival, and WDW penalizes late changes. Even if they didn't, changing vacation dates isn't often easy: school, work leave, WDW's many hard ticket parties and festivals.

I assume that time period helps WDW set staffing schedules and supply orders.

 

[tpoly88]

You'll have to explain that a little clearer. You are saying that it doesn't equal because it is actually overall longer then without FP. Or did I read you incorrectly?

i think they were trying to get the point across that in a standby line when FP is active the standby line is actually going backward at a lot of points as the FP step in front of you. the last 3 times ive been there Nov-jan ive noticed the standby lines much shorter than usual (should be with 35-40% capacity) but the standy by lines were moving the whole time. Toy Story was 20min, Slinky Dog was 40 min and Smugglers run 25min. never saw that before. Also because they are not funneling you to certain rides SSE was 0 min again, the Land was 5 min and Soarin 20 minutes. Look i like FP for some of its benifits but as a AP who lives nearby i cannot make FP over 30 days out and that means certain rides youre not getting. i thought the last couple times there it was like the old days in the off-season and I could be more spontaneous with my day.

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

What if the current situation was the golden opportunity to remove FP as we knew it to the already conditioned guest?

Right, that's what I mean (if I understand you correctly).

 

[rreading]

There would still be the same amount of people waiting to ride. They’d just be in one queue not two. And as we know operationally, standby only reduces wait times.

You and @MisterPenguin have been on opposite sides of this debate. For a ride running at full capacity (all vehicles running and fully-staffed) there would still be 1500 riders per hour whether they were funneling through FP or standby. But if there are twice as many people trying to ride (those with FP and those with standby) then the wait times will be absurd.

If everyone were able to skip one line and wait twice as long in another equally long line, it should even out. 2h in one line and 0 in the other vs one and one. But I would choose to do the FP line and skip the 2h line; if I have only 3FP instead of adding more and more, then I'm riding fewer rides but not waiting as long either. Without FP I don't have that choice.

Does that make sense?

 

[MisterPenguin]

You and @MisterPenguin have been on opposite sides of this debate.

Hey, why am I being dragged into this?

Martin and I agree that FP+ was the wrong 'fix' for MK being over its capacity.

I emphasize that once you hit the tipping point (more riders than a ride can throughput) then you will have a back-up in the queue. And for every hour you have more people getting in line than the ride can handle, the queue will continue to grow. I emphasize that FP+ didn't create that tipping point problem. The problem is MK's success in attracting more and more people such that the whole park is almost constantly pass its tipping point.

Martin attacks FP+ for delaying a more permanent fix to the tipping point problem. Dis execs thought that they could just move people around enough, pushing them to less popular rides, and then they can avoid the tipping point problem (which first manifests on the more popular rides) -- which didn't work out that way if the whole park is past its tipping point.

FP+ failed to fix the problem. We both agree on that. Though, sometimes, it can sound like the attack on FP+ is making FP+ the cause of the problem and not a failed fix to the problem.

Other FP-like schemes could be used to help redistribute the over-capacity crowd, but, you're just trading off who gets to jump ahead of others: those with 60 day FP v. those who rope-drop v. those who run from ride to ride for a paper ticket v. those who pay for a FP v. those staying at a Disney resort v. etc... And, in the end, you're not addressing the park being over its capacity.

Since I'm a tech savvy planner who stays at a Disney resort planned months in advance... FP+ has been kind to me. Especially knowing the tricks of system, like immediately moving your next FPs to an earlier time every time you tap into a ride's queue and then grabbing a new FP+.

I'm not against replacing FP+ with some other system. But, any FP-like system is giving people a chance to "cut the line." So, how do you equitably distribute that privilege? And, again, it doesn't fix the park's tipping point problem.

WDW needs to double and triple down on making DAK and EPCOT more attractive and stop upgrading MK with E-Ticket rides, which only attracts even more people to it. Develop the underused parks to relieve pressure on MK. More carrots and sticks, or, permanent reservation system with a reasonable cap on the parks.

 

[marni1971]

If everyone were able to skip one line and wait twice as long in another equally long line, it should even out. 2h in one line and 0 in the other vs one and one. But I would choose to do the FP line and skip the 2h line; if I have only 3FP instead of adding more and more, then I'm riding fewer rides but not waiting as long either. Without FP I don't have that choice.

Or if everyone can only ride BTM once a day and all queue in the same line (for example) that would also help. Apparently. Park operations themselves admit Fastpass slows down access to rides prior to the merge point. A single line along with a good team of cast from greeter to grouper to load to unload can push a ride capacity close to its theoretical maximum. They can keep dispatching to the minimum dwell time (within design limits) so long as guests keep turning up. Often a good team is proud of this fact.

@MisterPenguin makes a huge point - the parks simply need more attraction capacity and more weenies in the none MK parks. I think it’s best demonstrated in Anaheim. Disneyland has an abundance of attractive attractions. Next door not so much. Disneyland manages to balance reasonable wait times for the majority of its headliners, DCA usually has insane conditions for RSR and not much else.

 

[rreading]

Especially knowing the tricks of system, like immediately moving your next FPs to an earlier time every time you tap into a ride's queue and then grabbing a new FP+.

I would agree that when someone if agile/smart enough to keep rolling FP throughout the day (which is what the system is set up to do), then it does create a situation in which others who do not do so will be left waiting in longer lines.

If they come up with a new system, that's going to be fine with me. I hope that it allows some benefits to planning more than just having to rope-drop and hope for the best.

Definitely, adding capacity or decreasing demand at MK would help the park's system. Raising prices didn't work so adding more interest (and more capacity) at the other parks is critical. Tron was the worst idea. The Main Street Theater would have been perfect. But what do we know (and why don't they realize it?)

At least tea cups rarely has a line. And there's usually Tom Sawyer's Island

 

[rreading]

Park operations themselves admit Fastpass slows down access to rides prior to the merge point. A single line along with a good team of cast from greeter to grouper to load to unload can push a ride capacity close to its theoretical maximum.

I understand that once you get to the bottom of the BTM ramp that load/unload efficiency is essential for throughput (on Winnie-the-pooh, it's probably easier). But if there's a steady feed of folks filling the ramp down to the load area, I don't understand why capacity would be affected whether they were fed from the FP or standby line.

 

[Goofyernmost]

You and @MisterPenguin have been on opposite sides of this debate. For a ride running at full capacity (all vehicles running and fully-staffed) there would still be 1500 riders per hour whether they were funneling through FP or standby. But if there are twice as many people trying to ride (those with FP and those with standby) then the wait times will be absurd.

If everyone were able to skip one line and wait twice as long in another equally long line, it should even out. 2h in one line and 0 in the other vs one and one. But I would choose to do the FP line and skip the 2h line; if I have only 3FP instead of adding more and more, then I'm riding fewer rides but not waiting as long either. Without FP I don't have that choice.

Does that make sense?

It does make sense but for you only. There are literally thousands of people that visit the parks daily. Thousands that don't know the tricks, those that might have gotten a few FP's to things that never needed Fastpasses ever. I'm sure that no FP would put you on the same level as everyone else, but in my mind that is how it always should have been. Having spent many years touring the place with no FP at all, no level of fun was lost and the magic was far more powerful when you didn't have to watch people skip in front of you when you are hot, tired and hungry. It is harder to plan around times when you don't know what is there to plan around. If you came to a line that could be more correctly predicted as to the length of wait, made it easier for everyone to get the most out of the trip. Running up through a FP line quickly passing by some very detailed and interesting queue's is not getting the full experience. So, I guess it is in many ways the fact that people with the least amount of patience are missing out on some of the best things that for me, made the experience so much different that any other theme park anywhere. Before if we thought the line was to long we passed by and went later. Now you feel that if you don't get in that 90 minute standby line you will miss something that you really wanted to see. So you sit (stand) and get more frustrated by the minute until you finally get to see it and in the meantime you have probably missed out on any number of attractions due to time limitation. There were no time limitations before. You didn't have to get to yet another FP line that interfered with your food consumption or a parade or a show. I will repeat FASTPASS in every incarnation is the worst thing that they ever came up with. It is rumored that Disney did it because they thought that retail sales would skyrocket with all that saved time, but that didn't work out either. People like me that stay offsite do our shopping on the way out so as not to carry the stuff around all day. I know they will hold it for you, or at least they used too, but I am not in favor of buying something, paying for it and then leaving it behind. Just one of my idiosyncrasy's.

 

[rreading]

It does make sense but for you only. There are literally thousands of people that visit the parks daily. Thousands that don't know the tricks, those that might have gotten a few FP's to things that never needed Fastpasses ever. I'm sure that no FP would put you on the same level as everyone else, but in my mind that is how it always should have been. Having spent many years touring the place with no FP at all, no level of fun was lost and the magic was far more powerful when you didn't have to watch people skip in front of you when you are hot, tired and hungry. It is harder to plan around times when you don't know what is there to plan around. If you came to a line that could be more correctly predicted as to the length of wait, made it easier for everyone to get the most out of the trip. Running up through a FP line quickly passing by some very detailed and interesting queue's is not getting the full experience. So, I guess it is in many ways the fact that people with the least amount of patience are missing out on some of the best things that for me, made the experience so much different that any other theme park anywhere. Before if we thought the line was to long we passed by and went later. Now you feel that if you don't get in that 90 minute standby line you will miss something that you really wanted to see. So you sit (stand) and get more frustrated by the minute until you finally get to see it and in the meantime you have probably missed out on any number of attractions due to time limitation. There were no time limitations before. You didn't have to get to yet another FP line that interfered with your food consumption or a parade or a show. I will repeat FASTPASS in every incarnation is the worst thing that they ever came up with. It is rumored that Disney did it because they thought that retail sales would skyrocket with all that saved time, but that didn't work out either. People like me that stay offsite do our shopping on the way out so as not to carry the stuff around all day. I know they will hold it for you, or at least they used too, but I am not in favor of buying something, paying for it and then leaving it behind. Just one of my idiosyncrasy's.

I do like the queues. It was nice to see the full FOP experience rather than bypassing it in the FP line during corona.

We only get/use 3FP per day. That’s because we want to his Splash Mountain after lunch. Lunch reservation is 1pm and Splash is reserved for 2pm so there’s no stress nor rushing. And usually we reserve Space for the evening.

I wouldn’t prefer it gone. I do wonder how many per person per day are used. Disney knows

 

[NelleBelle]

I guess I don't understand the visitor who doesn't do at least a little planning. It's a vacation--and let's all admit, for a lot a people, an expensive vacation. Why would you spend all that money and not do a little reading on what to expect with FP+. There really is no excuse this day and age when you have groups ad nauseam on FB, blogs, groups like this, etc. Heck, even the ol' paperback on WDW generally gets updated every year. If you were going to Europe, one would likely spend some time researching. Or going to a national park?? I really don't feel all that sorry for those who can't figure out how to work FP+. Our family figured it out real quick and made it work to our benefit, especially when we would park hop. We were able to find FP+ availability for FoP fairly soon after it opened for a group of 5 the day of, just by checking back frequently and hopping to the park when we did find availability as it was something we really wanted to do. My issue is generally the planning of your day months in advance when we are liking to be more spontaneous the older we and our kids get.

 

[Shouldigo12]

I guess I don't understand the visitor who doesn't do at least a little planning. It's a vacation--and let's all admit, for a lot a people, an expensive vacation. Why would you spend all that money and not do a little reading on what to expect with FP+. There really is no excuse this day and age when you have groups ad nauseam on FB, blogs, groups like this, etc. Heck, even the ol' paperback on WDW generally gets updated every year. If you were going to Europe, one would likely spend some time researching. Or going to a national park?? I really don't feel all that sorry for those who can't figure out how to work FP+. Our family figured it out real quick and made it work to our benefit, especially when we would park hop. We were able to find FP+ availability for FoP fairly soon after it opened for a group of 5 the day of, just by checking back frequently and hopping to the park when we did find availability as it was something we really wanted to do. My issue is generally the planning of your day months in advance when we are liking to be more spontaneous the older we and our kids get.

Yeah, I can understand why some people don't like the planning. And of course it's your choice if you don't want to research things before you vacation. But if that lack of research leads to you having a worse time, that's on you.

Especially because FP+ isn't really that complicated of a system. You book a FP for a ride in advance of your trip. You can do it 60 days out if you stay at a Disney hotel, 30 days out if you're staying somewhere else. You can book 3 and then more after those three are used up. It can be hard getting it to work with your other plans, but the system itself is simple in my opinion.

 

[havoc315]

Hey, why am I being dragged into this?

Martin and I agree that FP+ was the wrong 'fix' for MK being over its capacity.

I emphasize that once you hit the tipping point (more riders than a ride can throughput) then you will have a back-up in the queue. And for every hour you have more people getting in line than the ride can handle, the queue will continue to grow. I emphasize that FP+ didn't create that tipping point problem. The problem is MK's success in attracting more and more people such that the whole park is almost constantly pass its tipping point.

Martin attacks FP+ for delaying a more permanent fix to the tipping point problem. Dis execs thought that they could just move people around enough, pushing them to less popular rides, and then they can avoid the tipping point problem (which first manifests on the more popular rides) -- which didn't work out that way if the whole park is past its tipping point.

FP+ failed to fix the problem. We both agree on that. Though, sometimes, it can sound like the attack on FP+ is making FP+ the cause of the problem and not a failed fix to the problem.

Other FP-like schemes could be used to help redistribute the over-capacity crowd, but, you're just trading off who gets to jump ahead of others: those with 60 day FP v. those who rope-drop v. those who run from ride to ride for a paper ticket v. those who pay for a FP v. those staying at a Disney resort v. etc... And, in the end, you're not addressing the park being over its capacity.

Since I'm a tech savvy planner who stays at a Disney resort planned months in advance... FP+ has been kind to me. Especially knowing the tricks of system, like immediately moving your next FPs to an earlier time every time you tap into a ride's queue and then grabbing a new FP+.

I'm not against replacing FP+ with some other system. But, any FP-like system is giving people a chance to "cut the line." So, how do you equitably distribute that privilege? And, again, it doesn't fix the park's tipping point problem.

WDW needs to double and triple down on making DAK and EPCOT more attractive and stop upgrading MK with E-Ticket rides, which only attracts even more people to it. Develop the underused parks to relieve pressure on MK. More carrots and sticks, or, permanent reservation system with a reasonable cap on the parks.

Agree with 99% of this post — except to stop adding E-ticket to Magic Kingdom. MK will always have the highest attendance just on reputation alone. Percentage-wise, a new attraction at MK probably causes less of an increase than an attraction in another park.
And it’s not like the other parks don’t have tipping point issues.

More e-ticket attractions is actually part of the solution. More places to put the crowd. Rather have 10,000 people on line for 4 rides than 9,000 for 3 rides.

Of course, not every attraction could/should be e-ticket. Also need attractive options that just eat up huge crowds. Shows are good for this. Character meets are ok.

This is, even these people eating attractions need to be good enough that guests don’t feel they are a waste of time. If the auditoriums for Hall of Presidents, Laugh Floor, and Carousel of Progress were filling up, that would relieve other lines.
Big part of the current extreme tipping point problem at DHS, is that these people eating attractions (Indy, Beauty and the Beast) are closed for Covid restrictions.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Agree with 99% of this post — except to stop adding E-ticket to Magic Kingdom. MK will always have the highest attendance just on reputation alone. Percentage-wise, a new attraction at MK probably causes less of an increase than an attraction in another park.
And it’s not like the other parks don’t have tipping point issues.

More e-ticket attractions is actually part of the solution. More places to put the crowd. Rather have 10,000 people on line for 4 rides than 9,000 for 3 rides.

When a new E-Ticket opens, it gets lines... long lines. Which means it's past its tipping point.

So if a new E-Tick opens and has a throughput of, say, 1,500 people per hour, and the park is open for 10 hours, then the ride handles 15,000 people per day.

But, as we've seen, when a new E-Ticket comes online and has a huge line... the other attractions in the park also remain busy with their own lines. When FoP opened, the Safari and Everest didn't become walk-ons. When RotR opened, Slinky and Mania didn't become walk-ons. The big E-Tickets attract more people than they can handle and make the rest of the park busier.

Attractions... *attract*. They attract more people into the park. When 15,000 people show up for the new E-Ticket, there's only about 500 people in the queue and on the ride at any one time. Let's say it's a super-queue that can hold a thousand people... where are the other 14,000 people going to go for the rest of the day? On the other rides and make them even more overcrowded.

Give or take a ride (and not counting other types of attractions), the MK as 27 rides. The other three parks each have 9 rides. There's why the MK is more crowded. For a long time, people complained that DHS and DAK were "half-day parks." And that was because of their dearth of rides. How can MK *not* be so popular when two of the three other options are just "half-day parks"?

MK does need more capacity, but with more C-Ticket rides... which will get the scorn of the forums for not being E-Tickets, even though everyone says WDW needs more C-Ticket rides. A C-Ticket ride will sop up the people in the park without generating significantly more people choosing that park over the others.

The other parks need more rides such that they're not just barely more than a half-day park.

 

[Trackmaster]

I think the catch there is that people like (need?) to be able to change their plans: delayed flights, bus doesn't show, meal takes too long, ticket won't scan, etc.
One of WDW's long standing problems is that WDW isn't always reliable/consistent where timing is concerned. Posted attraction wait times are often unreliable. WDW transportation is too often unreliable/inconsistent. Monorails break down, the bus gets full (so people have to wait for the next one). Table service meals waits were also often all over the place. Many times I have waited well after my ADR time, despite showing up on time. Customers are supposed to suck it up, even though it it isn't our mistake. The value of our time is relative to the type of losses we have to sustain.

Oh, have you ever experienced a ticket malfunction at park opening? That an be a big time suck.

And then there's Rise of the Resistance.

The second challenge is that WDW vacation packages come due 45days before arrival, and WDW penalizes late changes. Even if they didn't, changing vacation dates isn't often easy: school, work leave, WDW's many hard ticket parties and festivals.

I assume that time period helps WDW set staffing schedules and supply orders.

Yeah, I can understand why some people don't like the planning. And of course it's your choice if you don't want to research things before you vacation. But if that lack of research leads to you having a worse time, that's on you.

Especially because FP+ isn't really that complicated of a system. You book a FP for a ride in advance of your trip. You can do it 60 days out if you stay at a Disney hotel, 30 days out if you're staying somewhere else. You can book 3 and then more after those three are used up. It can be hard getting it to work with your other plans, but the system itself is simple in my opinion.

I think that the irony is that FP+ does work best if you're spontaneous, and does NOT work very well if you're a planner. I'm sure there are some people here that are really good with FP+ too, but I make it not secret that I know all the ins and outs of it, and I can totally abuse it. My advice is to not even start booking until after the official rope drop for the park that day -- its a different story if you have the 60+ day window and you book early enough where the popular ones are still available. But if you're like you're like most people, you want to be refreshing when people are likely to be discarding FP+'s and nobody does that 30 days out. People are likely to be discarding when they're at the park, and Disney's known to throw some more in themselves throughout the day too. Pounding might be tedious, but 10 minutes of pounding beats 2 hour in line (and you can pound in line for another ride or at home or something).

So if you're using FP+ appropriately, there's no need to have FP+'s that you're locked into weeks ahead of time.

 

[havoc315]

When a new E-Ticket opens, it gets lines... long lines. Which means it's past its tipping point.

So if a new E-Tick opens and has a throughput of, say, 1,500 people per hour, and the park is open for 10 hours, then the ride handles 15,000 people per day.

But, as we've seen, when a new E-Ticket comes online and has a huge line... the other attractions in the park also remain busy with their own lines. When FoP opened, the Safari and Everest didn't become walk-ons. When RotR opened, Slinky and Mania didn't become walk-ons. The big E-Tickets attract more people than they can handle and make the rest of the park busier.

Attractions... *attract*. They attract more people into the park. When 15,000 people show up for the new E-Ticket, there's only about 500 people in the queue and on the ride at any one time. Let's say it's a super-queue that can hold a thousand people... where are the other 14,000 people going to go for the rest of the day? On the other rides and make them even more overcrowded.

Give or take a ride (and not counting other types of attractions), the MK as 27 rides. The other three parks each have 9 rides. There's why the MK is more crowded. For a long time, people complained that DHS and DAK were "half-day parks." And that was because of their dearth of rides. How can MK *not* be so popular when two of the three other options are just "half-day parks"?

MK does need more capacity, but with more C-Ticket rides... which will get the scorn of the forums for not being E-Tickets, even though everyone says WDW needs more C-Ticket rides. A C-Ticket ride will sop up the people in the park without generating significantly more people choosing that park over the others.

The other parks need more rides such that they're not just barely more than a half-day park.

I agree with you that C-ticket attractions are the greater priority for the tipping point problem. Disney has been exacerbating the issue with cuts meant to save money in the short run -- reducing parades, reducing entertainment. Reducing hours (spreading guests over more hours helps to reduce lines).

So my disagreement with you in minor -- A new e-ticket to MK may bring a few more guests, but it doesn't bring 15,000 new guests per day. What was the last new popular attraction at MK? Maybe the Mine Coaster... 2014... If you look at annual attendance at Magic Kingdom from 2010 to 2019, you see an upward trend every year, but no sudden spike connected to the Mine Coaster.

MK attendance by year:
2012: 17,536,000
2013: 18,588,000 (6% increase)
2014 -- Mine Coaster opens in May -- 19,332,000 (4% increase)
2015--20,492,000 -- (6% increase)
Then notably, attendance at MK was basically flat from 2015-2017 -- While you can argue the Fantasy Land expansion (starting in 2012) might have brought more guests, the most popular attraction, the Mine Coaster, just continued the trend. Then you had increased MK attendance in 2018-2019, despite really no new attractions of note.

Now, MK operates differently than the other parks, because of the number of attractions as you cited. In terms of number of "great" attractions... e-tickets, whatever you want to call them, the difference is even more stark.
Nothing noteworthy has been added since 2016, with Frozen Ever After. With Soarin and Test Track, you really only have 3 attractions that people feel they must-do. Leads to people spending limited time at Epcot, or even passing on Epcot entirely because "there is so little to do." (if you are going primarily for E-ticket type attractions).
Open Cosmic Rewind -- Yes, lots of guests will show up just for that. And where will those guests come from? AP holders for the newest attraction.. and some guests may convert a MK/DHS/AK day into an Epcot day. Because that's a big addition relative to the entire park. (But I don't think it creates a massive boost to out-of-town visitors.... rarely do people plan a trip because of 1 tide).

Next example -- Star Wars Land and ROTR -- And same can be said for Toy Story -- I said it's rare that people will plan a trip because of just 1 ride. But Star Wars has a huge base of hard core fanatics, and Toy Story is probably the most popular Pixar property over generations.

Now, compare it to a Tron Coaster -- I dare say most people under 45 don't really have much of a memory of Tron. The more recent remake wasn't a huge hit. People aren't going to rush out of their homes for Tron branding. In a park that already has 3-4 coasters (depending what you define as a coaster), it adds another. People that love coasters will want to try it... they will add it to their itinerary along with BTM, SM, etc.. AP holders may stop by for an extra day to try it. But I don't think you'll have lots of people saying, "oh.. I was planning on skipping Magic Kingdom.. but now that they have the Tron Coaster, I'll go."

One of the big mistakes of FP+ was to promise every guest 3 FPs, but then not have enough attractions to really warrant a FP. (less a problem at MK, more a problem at the other parks).

Basically... long way of saying, anything that increases capacity is a good thing. I agree the need for C-ticket items, parades, shows, etc... is greatest. But adding e-ticket is not a *bad* thing either.