Maybe we have different definitions of inexpensive! 
We literally made flat sandwiches, and baggies of chips and such. We would buy exactly one snack each day and that’s it. All we could afford!
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They were not fully staffed in June yet, CP was just getting momentum going at that point. So from an operations side, that has an effect.
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I have two kids that are now 15 and 20 years old. I am pretty sure the kids meals were about $5 each (CS or TS) when they were under 9yo …so yeah, inexpensive. Back in 2011 just before dd turned 9yo and ds was 4yo, the kids were only $11.99/day for the plan. That was well worth a snack, hot counter service meal, and a character meal for each day of our trip!
I worked hard to max out our dining plan. TS was always dinner and generally a character meal. This allowed for the pickiest of eaters and we didn’t have to wait on long lines during the day to meet the characters we loved. So yes, looking at the big picture it was inexpensive. Was it pricier than packing PB&J, of course, but not enough to miss the hot meals and the character interactions. In the end, well worth it!
Once they turned 9yo though…the dining plan wasn’t financially smart. We switched over to paying out of pocket and carefully planned our meals to stay within our budgets …and had far fewer character meals!
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Like I said… different definitions. We had four kids at the time, and $5 per person? More like $5 for the entire meal for everyone. 
All our money went into tickets, lodging, and gas. But we did try to budget for one snack (about $3 a person back in the day).
Of course, my finances are significantly better now!
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Not definition, just scale. 
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I know, I’m trying to stay positive and ignore the nagging doubt.
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I will be there same weekend for Destination d.
Not sure how it will play out for us because I will be at the convention most of the day…which will make the GP+ & LL really worth it for the evenings or a complete waste…
Especially the LL- will I be able to roughly pick my ride time or paying for just a random boarding group.
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The G+ will probably really be worth it since you will probably be able to make several ride reservations during the day for the evening. Starting with the most popular since their times will reach the evening first.
They say the IA$$$ lets you pick the time.
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Thanks-
Too many changes at once lol
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Super late to this thread, but I will offer my purely anecdotal experience at DLP that the vast majority of the wait times were UNDERSTATED all day long. We got in the Autopia line and it was posted 15 minutes and we waited over an hour and it was still posted at 15 minutes. I 100% would have paid for Premier Access if it was posted at 60.
I saw very few people paying for Premier Access even though I felt like we waited in a lot of long lines.
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Lightning on the rapids sounds dangerous.
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Heard recently from a reliable source that launch will be first week of October. Going to be a lot of confused 50th guests.
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Hopefully Monday the 4th or after, and not the 1st. It would be extreme chaos, instead of regular chaos! 
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Well crap.
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We’re there from Sept 30 to Oct 7 - So hoping for the Genie+ actually. The good news is the 1st itself in MK - rides aren’t the goal anyways. And honestly, that is the prevailing opinion of everyone else I’ve talked to who will be there on the 1st, so who the heck knows what the lines will be like. We’ll all be heading to Jungle Cruise and Philomagic to see the new stuff and maybe some other nostalgia rides.
But if they offer Genie+ for the 2nd half of our trip, I’ll get it. We’re hitting all four parks from the 4th to the 7th.
Mostly cause I’m willing to be a guinea pig and compare it to my Touring Plan, but also because I do think it will get me on Tower of Terror a bunch
The Paid Lightning lane passes I’m not as likely to use - other than for Remie - if we miss the virtual queue, I’ll go ahead and pay for it. But we’ve ridden RotR 3 times, so don’t feel the need to pay for it. - And I do get that if you’re on your once in a lifetime trip with a Star Wars fan you’d pay for RotR - or for any of them really. It’s your one chance to ride it, and that’s some of the worst sad stories I’ve read is just people who could not get into the virtual queue and weren’t going to be able to come back to WDW. I tend to think (other than yes, making more money) that’s who the paid LL+s are for.
Also, (light sarcasm here) we used to pay to ride EVERY ride folks 
everyone is so quick to complain about losing something free and how they want to go back to the ‘good old days’ - well, they did! 
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Dd20 and I will be there 9/30-10/5 and I really would rather not deal w/ the headache of a new system. It will be a cluster, we know that, …and our goal is to eat and ride/enjoy as many attractions as possible (we will be at AK on 10/1 and MK on 10/2). Our trip happens to coincide w/ the anniversary and is not because of it.
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I arrive 10/4 and I’m not sure how I feel about this … Genie+ will be $75/day for my family, which is small potatoes compared to the cost of our trip, but it adds up over multiple days. I may only get it for certain days. Maybe I will do the LL+ if I don’t get a BG for Remy or RotR.
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@ryan1 Just want to say that this is really excellent well-thought-out analysis, even if some of it is conjecture.
I also think you’ve made a number of excellent salient points in many of your follow-up comments that perhaps should be edited & incorporated into your original post (with an “EDIT:” notation perhaps for clarity). I think your best point was the “if I paid $20 for a 20% discount, and if I used it, everyone else would have to pay more - time is money” analogy you made. It brings it home in an understandable way for everyone.
FPP & TP allowed me to game the system nicely, and never wait more than 10-15 minutes for anything ever, so I liked it a lot, though I understand your reasons for not liking it, i.e. added to the standby lines.