It still comes down to two issues IMO. First, no matter how many glowing articles are written to convince people that Disney did this to "reduce friction" and for "guest enhancement", I wont believe them. NGE is nothing more than an extremely calculated move to do one thing and one thing only; get people to spend more money. Nothing wrong with making a buck, but hear me out.
Every single feature of NGE that is touted as some innovative way to help the guest is merely a secondary feature of the system, but Disney is smart enough to highlight them as 'the only reason' NGE was created. Tracking data for wait times, locations, food consumed, beverages consumed, where to put a churo cart, buss times, improve staffing, etc, etc, are ALL features that PRIMARILY help Disney save time and money. And thats NOT a bad thing. Just dont advertise it to me as some miraculous enhancement because it allows me to go online and make a reservation guaranteeing I can ride my favorite attractions. And thats where the proof is. Every article praising this system and Disney themselves, focus on that that feature. They rely on the average person simply not understanding that the mathematics of the situation DO NOT LIE no matter how you look at it. They have the same number of attractions as prior to FP+, but they have more guests visiting. Thats all. You cant expedite one wait time without extending another. Its an illusion. Sure, you can sleep in and not have to be at rope drop. Thats great, but you wouldnt even have to worry about that if the company had decided to actually address the attraction capacity issue rather than play musical chairs with guests schedules, which brings me to my second point.
Im sure Disney was aware of the attraction capacity issue and they had two paths they could take.
One, build more attractions to truly disperse crowds which would actually enhance guest experience, reduce wait times, eliminate need to be at rope drop and make visitors want to return but the profits would roll in slower over time.
Two, create a system that allows them to cut back on costs, saving time and money by tracking data and shuffling guests to where its most convenient for park operation.
Both ideas are actually GREAT for the company. Heres where the difference lies in how the company was once operated versus how they currently are operated. The Disney of decades past would have employed an idea like MM+ but they would have done it organically without all the hype. Spending money on attractions was never an issue, they built entire parks back then in less time than it takes to build a D-ticket nowadays. The parks were ran by people that understood theme parks and the accountants played their part to keep things in check.. Fast forward to today and its the opposite. The 'accountants' are in charge, yet the truly creative people that actually had power have been forced out or silenced. Its unbalanced and it shows. We end up with products like NGE. A necessary one, but the current administration is so hung up on numbers that they honestly look at it as if it were as good as building 3 new E ticket attractions in each park and they advertise it as so. I dont even think that quality multi-layered theming is a concept they can even grasp. Building pretty stuff with a theme, ya, they can do that. But layering that theme into a multi-dimensional experience does not compute because they dont see the dollar signs in it. The more they push NGE as a guest enhancement, the more it proves my point. Ive adapted and accepted MM+ and still have a great time at WDW. It is useful, but Ill never buy the point that it was created for me and not them no matter how shiny the box it comes in is, or how many articles are written to convince me of it.
