I too am a planner and like to have a good idea of where I will be on a given day. I have had reasonable success with BoatyBall in the past. On three separate trips, I had 2-3 stops where I wanted to arrive in the afternoon and be sure to have a ball (Cooper included). I don't mind getting up early to get those reservations, and I had about a 75% success rate of getting those reservations at 7 AM on the dot. HOWEVER, my trips were not during high season, and I have now noticed how many more balls have gone from FCFS to BoatyBall.

As I am heading down in a week and half, I have been monitoring the availability on BoatyBall in the morning (at 7 AM). I may have misread (and BoatyBall can correct me), but it appears that there are a majority of balls pre-reserved a day ahead. I thought there were supposed to only a limited number. Either way, they are all gone (at places you need them) at 7 AM. I don't mind paying the extra $5-10 per day, but the Tax on the "pre-reserved" balls is too steep, IMO.

I understand all of the arguments made here that the traditional FCFS system is better. But even if this is a tool that someone wants to use, then has little chance of succeeding (i.e. actually successfully reserving a ball at 7 AM), unless you purchase the "pre-reserved" pass, then I don't see it working at all for many people. I will report back my experience after my trip.