VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE:
For those who haven’t followed along, they opened BGs ~30 min AFTER they opened tapstiles today, meaning there was little to no benefit to arriving super early. Everyone in the park by 7am had equal opportunity to snag a BG. Presumably there were some people who arrived early who still weren’t through tapstiles at 7:00am when MDE started issuing BGs, so you can’t arrive too late (maybe 6:30am). Initial BGs were gone by 7:35, Backup BGs were gone by 9:00am.
However they may have just been trying this out. They may have gotten negative feedback. They may not do this again. Or maybe they’ll just plow through with this new approach regardless.
My advice for tomorrow: Hedge your bets a little. Don’t arrive before 5am - it has never been necessary to do so. Don’t arrive after 6:30am - it’s still prudent to be early. If you want to be safe, arrive before 5:30am. If you are ok pressing your luck, arrive at the late end of the 6:30am window.
TIP: Disconnect from WiFi if you have a US data plan. Log into your MDE on two phones using the same master credentials. Alternate refreshing MDE every minute or so until BGs open up. Don’t trust what Disney says!!! Take their assurances with a huge spoonful of salt.
I’ll keep reporting here to see if a pattern develops with this new procedure.