As I waited in line for seven hours yesterday, I had the opportunity to chat with many other MK holders. Granted, these are people who took off of work, and pulled their kids out of school, on a Wednesday to go in person. They were mostly locals.
While it isn't like the good old days when you could spontaneously visit the parks, the general consensus was that people had learned how to use the reservation system. They had their cadence of when they visited. Making reservations was annoying but wasn't much of a hinderance.
Most MK holders spoke about making 4-6 reservations weeks in advance, and then canceling as the dates got closer and other things came up. One local person with an Imagine Key said that they reserve M-Th every week (as allowed) and then cancelled for the days that they weren't going to go. Most of the Imagine and Enchant people were going for a few hours after school/work and leaving before fireworks. They are people whose kids have soccer on weekends. They are college students, they work during the day, their kids have homework, etc. They use the park differently than tourists do. They aren't the big bad MK holders that take up precious space in rope dropper's lines. Many older adults spoke about not going on rides at all. Everyone said that if the line for a ride is too long, they skip it and do something else.
Surprisingly, only one person in the 30+ people that I spoke to had ever purchased Genie +. Everyone gathered around as they shared their experience and opinion of whether or not it was worth the extra cost.
