Short Story : On August 29, Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Rollercoaster will be added to Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog Dash and Alien Swirling Saucers as Tier 1 Fastpass+ selections. Star Tours stays a Tier 2. Smuggler's Run still set to open as a non-FP ride. I am unaware of any other changes to the tiers.



Source : I'm staying club level for SWGE's opening, and I decided to do the paid FP selections. When you do that, you actually get to make 6 FP selections 90 days from your departure date, so I was able to do that on Saturday. You pick 3 to be the "paid" FP, which you cannot modify or cancel without calling/emailing Disney Signature Services; and you get to make 3 "regular" FP, which you can modify/cancel just like any other FP selection. When I checked my app, I noticed that my selections did not quite match what I had asked for. When I emailed with my question, I was told that on August 29, the MGM tiers were changing, and that the new Tier 1 will be TSM, SDD, A.S.S., ToT, and RnR.



I am not an insider, I am just relaying information I was told in an effort to help folks out who are starting to look at FP planning for late August. Assuming this is accurate, I would think it would be announced in the next couple of weeks, because people will be able to start making 60+14 selections for August 29 around June 16.



Thoughts : As a person who prefers rides to shows, I think it is absurd, and it makes the EPCOT tiers look almost reasonable. There will be 7 rides at MGM starting 8.29: 5 will be Tier 1, 1 will be Tier 2, and 1 will have no FP.



The best reason I can come up with is that this is their effort to control crowds. I am guessing that most ride-riders try to get SDD, ToT and RnR. With SDD being one of the most difficult FP to secure, and assuming people will still try to get that first, the new tiers will force more folks to go standby for ToT and RnR, which will increase those wait times, which will keep more people occupied in those longer lines. A "positive" could be that it becomes easier to get SDD FP, as some folks will prefer ToT or RnR.



At the end of the day, while you may think the paid FP are ridiculous, extravagant and/or bougie (and I won't argue any of those descriptions), for me, for this trip, it was absolutely the right decision.