As my 90 day window opens today, I will say I'm struggling a lot with this decision. I'm a huge believer in paying for convenience while on vacation and have always been happy with decisions to do so, but I'm struggling with understanding if there is value in this $600 (family of four). I can say for sure, if I knew they would open up a 7:00 AM EMM at Toy Story on June 24, or any after hours I would go that route and forego.
We've been fortunate enough to do all the rides in the past (except FOP), so outside of dictating times at SDD and FOP, I'm not sure it will alter a lot. While we've typically been RD people, the PITA of that experience combined with staying in parks later as kids age does provide some value in this. I definitely do want to experience SDD.
I'm not a big "game the system" guy, but I'm half tempted to do it, make sure my normal FP's are at the two headliners I care about, and cancel the CLFP *if* Toy Story EMM becomes available.
I agree with your thought process. We are also big believers in paying for convenience. Honestly, I don't think the value for us this trip coming up in June is as big as it could be, but as of now I have decided it's enough to spend the $800 and do it. We did it last June, and I feel losing the nighttime viewing areas was a big loss. However, we don't want to do rope drop and don't want to wait in lines, and don't want to stay at the parks all day. So I'm going to book the 6 FPs with time blocked out for a meal at each park, and we will arrive just before the first FP and leave after we finish the last one. That gives us some time at the resort and lounge both before and after each park day.
I know people complain about them being an hour apart and not being able to move the CL ones up. However, in our experience, we usually need most of that hour for each ride. I guess we're just slow, plus we have to do RS for some of them. If we do RS, except for a few super fast rides with no preshow and a short ride (think barnstormer), it takes F O R E V E R. Think Splash, Space, Soarin', TOT, TT, FOP. Some of those rides take every bit of an hour just to have 2 groups ride back to back. So that aspect doesn't bother us.
FWIW, we are doing the CLFPS for each park and have MK EMM and DHS EMM booked in June. We have ridden all of the rides in the past also, and haven't had a problem getting 60 day FPS.
Our situation is slightly different this trip, since we have twins who are 2. Once they turn 3 we won't be able to stay in a regular CL room any more and will be limited to the deluxe rooms at the BWI and WL if we want CL, and we will have to start paying for 6 instead of 4. So that factored into what we decided to pay for this trip. It's kind of a big blowout one. But that's also what we said about last June's trip, so we'll see... There always seems to be a way and reason.
We also have a 3 way split stay, and with the changes to split stays that just happened this is a way to ensure that won't be a problem with the harder to get FPs. I really don't think we'd have a big problem, particularly since we're doing the EMMs, but it just makes it easier. I also can't discount my inability to pass on something special that's offered to us, even if we have to pay for it. Stupid, I know, but it's there.