its been rumored for some time that WDW will add a paid FP option.
According to Martin at WDWmagic later this year this will go into place.
You will get 1-2 “free” FPs and anything more will be paid add ons. There will be different levels of additional FPs but you can’t get an unlimited FP.
I like it. Not at first, I didn't want to lose my 3 free fastpasses! But when I think about it more, it's actually a better system for everyone. I miss the old ticket fastpass system where you get one at a time once you get to the park. Things were awesome back then; you don't have to plan a zillion days ahead and when the day comes, there is no fastpass left for when you want to change your mind.
As long as everybody gets just one or 2 fastpass (and I assume that after it's used, you get another one and then another one, etc, subject to availablility), you get a lot more fastpasses available and all the fastpasses isn't taken just to be wasted.
For me, for example, I have a lot of what I call "junk fastpasses." I have them assigned for rides that I have no intention of going at the time just to get rid of them. Because currently you can only assign one fastpass per hour at the most, and all 3 fastpasses must be used up before you can use a new one dynamically at a different park, and I often don't do stuff that require fastpasses, and I do park hop a lot. I would say that about 40 percent of my preordered fastpasses are purposefully wasted. Generally, I use about 80 percent of my magic kingdom preordered fastpasses, 30% of my Epcot preordered fastpasses, and 30% of my Animal Kingdom preordered fastpasses. (I don't go to DHS in the morning.) The rest of the time, I go on rides that require little or no fastpass depending on my location in the park at the time. For example, if I happen to walk by the Figment ride and the line is short, I go on it rather than waiting for a fastpass to kick in at some future point and then walk all the way back from some other corner in Epcot.
I know that my junk fastpasses are clogging up the system, but there's nothing I can do about it because I have to get rid of them. Otherwise I hop to a new park and can't get fastpasses! Mostly I get junk fastpasses with rides that I know will need no fastpass at the time, but I don't know that for sure and at times, I've seen long lines of rides that I have junk fastpast to. If Disney allows only one fastpass each, that will get rid of such fastpass waste. And if everybody is on the same playing field, then there will be a lot more fastpass slots open.
And if everybody can get only one fastpass, you can get a lot more fastpasses per hour than the limit now of one per hour for the first 3 fastpasses.
Like last September, I was at MK, when Splash Mountain had a 20 minute wait. In the old days, if that were true, you would be able to get a paper fastpass in about 40 minutes. That day, no fastpass was available all day.
Also, in the old days, I would go to the Buzz Lightyear ride at dinner time, look at the wait time (say 20 minutes), get our paper fastpasses for 40 minutes later, and sit down and eat hot dogs at the lunching pad. when we are done (it takes that long to wait in line for the food and then eat it), the fastpass is ready, and we go on it! That's no longer an option nowadays. (And the hotdogs are no longer worth eating, so it works out.)
What about the paid option? I think most people are not going to pay for it. I'm going to avoid paying, for sure, because I can make it work even for SWGE rides. If just a few people pay for extra fastpasses, that's no different from a slight increase in attendance. It does help, however, if I have a specific, one time need of a paid fastpass due to circumstances, now I can get it whereas in the past, it's not possible. Also, if a person needs a night fastpass (like for the fireworks), he doesn't have to go without dynamic fastpass all day to get it. He has the option of buying one only for the day that he needs it.
So while going down from 3 to 1 fastpass doesn't sound good to me at first, I believe it will lighten the system for everybody and make things better all around.
I am going in September and I hope the new system will kick in by then!