Another reason I don’t like the idea of FPs benefiting on-site guests the way that it does is the ultimate unfairness of it. Partly what I mentioned before, but also for other reasons.
While an on-site guest might get first-dibs on FPs, which could be seen as a reason to stay on-site, it also locks them in to their days and trip more. Disney uses it as a way to keep people from changing their plans. Because after that 60 day mark, if you alter your plans, you lose the FPs you have and are left getting scraps…even though the price for your hotel stay never changed. Suddenly the value-add of those FPs for an on-site stay dropped significantly.
And furthermore, if you decide to alter your park plans less than 30 days out, the advantage of the FP is effectively lost, since now offsite guests have gotten the scraps from the on-site guests as well, leaving those on-site guests who wish to alter their plans even MORE loss of value.
Regardless of any of it, the truth is, every person who is coming into the parks (APs aside) are effectively paying the same amount. Sure, some people find tickets at a slight discount…but generally speaking, everyone is paying a large sum of money to be inside the parks. This means that everyone who is paying the same amount should have equal opportunity. Guests shouldn’t effectively be penalized because some guests choose to stay onsite. The price people are paying is the same in terms of park access. The benefits to staying onsite should be benefits that don’t impede on others.
So, related to that, on-site guest benefits should be things like, say, free parking, or easy access to on-site transportation, or “being in the bubble”, or any other slew of benefits Disney could come up with which do NOT impede on other guests time in the park. Yet, the reason Disney has historically given FPs at the 60+ days for on-site guests is NOT to benefit the on-site guests, but to get people to pay more to stay on site. But it is at the expense of others.
This is why I also don’t like the Express Pass system at Universal. I think the Express Pass system, if it was purely pay-to-play (at a high premium) would be okay as long as it is severely limited. But the reason they “give it away” to hotel guests is purely to get MORE guests to pay for their more expensive hotels. Those same guests are unlikely to buy Express Pass otherwise…and if the hotel didn’t offer the Express Pass, those guests would be more inclined to say off site or at a cheaper on-site hotel.
Ultimately, who do these systems benefit? As a whole…the parks, pure and simple. And the benefits that it affords certain guests is on the backs of all the other guests who are also paying high ticket prices to get in.