They did? I don’t recall that at all. I mean, the time they were available was a little longer, sure, but It was still a cut-throat free for all at 7AM. The only difference was the screams of defeat(and subsequent arguing/blaming of each other in the party for not being fast enough) were heard in the hotel rooms, not the park grounds.
it was the 100% interruption of activity in the park at 10AM for me. Wild to witness.
And I don’t see why it wouldn’t go back to this (but probably go back to the 7AM lottery). Though I would prefer if you had to be in the park for it (cause of the aforementioned crowd energy) It sucks from an experience perspective, having part of your day reduced to a lottery, but it worked well enough. Better than standing in a line for 7 hours with the hope the ride doesn’t go down, anyway.