WDW -Disability Access Service (DAS) - ARCHIVED THREAD; no longer vslid

[jenniy122]

I'm considering a solo trip sometime in 2014. Will they even issue a DAS to a party of one? Seeing some of what's been posted makes me think that they'd think if I could travel alone I should be able to stand in line for however long.

 

[babyberger]

I'm considering a solo trip sometime in 2014. Will they even issue a DAS to a party of one? Seeing some of what's been posted makes me think that they'd think if I could travel alone I should be able to stand in line for however long.

I would not think party size has anything to do with being able to get a DAS. If you are the person who needs accommodations then you should be able to receive one.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[goofy47]

We just returned from Disney.. We had to get the new Disability Photo ID card.. Let me break the rules down as they stand now. They are constantly changing.

1. You go to guest services and get a photo ID
2. Once you arrive at your ride, you present the card to the cast member. At this point he checks the Standby Time and deducts 10 minutes from it, and writes that on your card,. This is your Fastpass return time.
3. Once you have your Fastpass return time written on your card, your not allowed to get a another Fastpass. One ride at a time only.
4. Once you return to the Fastpass line, you present your card to the cast member manning the Fastpass line. He then crosses it off and you enter.

 

[seidelhd]

I cancelled our Spring Break trip last week. Too much inconsistency and uncertainty. My wife did not like having to beg for accommodations in October for our severely disabled DD12 that were happily granted a couple months prior (and for the 5 years before that). It just left us feeling sad.

We have non-expiring tickets with 5-7 days left on them, so we'll be back to WDW at some point, but likely not in 2014.

 

[mrsksomeday]

I cancelled our Spring Break trip last week. Too much inconsistency and uncertainty. My wife did not like having to beg for accommodations in October for our severely disabled DD12 that were happily granted a couple months prior (and for the 5 years before that). It just left us feeling sad.

We have non-expiring tickets with 5-7 days left on them, so we'll be back to WDW at some point, but likely not in 2014.

I hope you write to guest relations and tell them why you can cancelled your trip.

 

[Disneychick75]

I cancelled our Spring Break trip last week. Too much inconsistency and uncertainty. My wife did not like having to beg for accommodations in October for our severely disabled DD12 that were happily granted a couple months prior (and for the 5 years before that). It just left us feeling sad.

We have non-expiring tickets with 5-7 days left on them, so we'll be back to WDW at some point, but likely not in 2014.

Sorry that you feel you had to cancel your trip. We also considered cancelling. The only reason we haven't is because our nephew who is autistic is looking forward to it. We have another trip scheduled for April. If we encounter hassles getting the DAS, we will cancel our October trip.
I agree with mrsksomeday that you should send guest relations an email telling them why you cancelled. If they see that people are not going to Disney World, they might make changes to their policies.

 

[Disneylvr]

I cancelled our Spring Break trip last week. Too much inconsistency and uncertainty. My wife did not like having to beg for accommodations in October for our severely disabled DD12 that were happily granted a couple months prior (and for the 5 years before that). It just left us feeling sad. We have non-expiring tickets with 5-7 days left on them, so we'll be back to WDW at some point, but likely not in 2014.

We have a trip booked for May and are thinking about canceling as well. I agree, there is still way too much inconsistency and uncertainty and I am not at all encouraged by the recent reports I am reading that things are going to improve any time soon.

 

[Gracie09]

We just returned from Disney.. We had to get the new Disability Photo ID card.. Let me break the rules down as they stand now. They are constantly changing.

1. You go to guest services and get a photo ID
2. Once you arrive at your ride, you present the card to the cast member. At this point he checks the Standby Time and deducts 10 minutes from it, and writes that on your card,. This is your Fastpass return time.
3. Once you have your Fastpass return time written on your card, your not allowed to get a another Fastpass. One ride at a time only.
4. Once you return to the Fastpass line, you present your card to the cast member manning the Fastpass line. He then crosses it off and you enter.

I think you are confusing FP with DAS. What you describe has been the DAS procedures since it was rolled out in October. There may have been some tweeking but not major changes.
FP+ is when you can reserve three rides a day before you arrive at the park (assuming you are staying on site). These are in addition to any use of DAS.

 

[goofy47]

I think you are confusing FP with DAS. What you describe has been the DAS procedures since it was rolled out in October. There may have been some tweeking but not major changes.
FP+ is when you can reserve three rides a day before you arrive at the park (assuming you are staying on site). These are in addition to any use of DAS.

We just returned a week ago. They (Disney) consider the the Disability Card return time a Fastpass return as you go thru the Fastpass line... and your not allowed to get another Fastpass to another ride until you have used the outstanding one first. You do not get three as the normal guests do. This information was verified more then once at Guest Services. I am not confused at all, my wife is disabled and we had to deal with it all three days we were there. She understood that.. Our concerns are that many children who are severly disabled my not understand that they may have to wait a hour now and not be able to enjoy any other rides while waiting for their return time... Ther are many many people who are disheartened by this change in procedure by Disney... Hopefully they find a solution to this mess....

 

[Gracie09]

We just returned a week ago. They (Disney) consider the the Disability Card return time a Fastpass return as you go thru the Fastpass line... and your not allowed to get another Fastpass to another ride until you have used the outstanding one first. You do not get three as the normal guests do. This information was verified more then once at Guest Services. I am not confused at all, my wife is disabled and we had to deal with it all three days we were there. She understood that.. Our concerns are that many children who are severly disabled my not understand that they may have to wait a hour now and not be able to enjoy any other rides while waiting for their return time... Ther are many many people who are disheartened by this change in procedure by Disney... Hopefully they find a solution to this mess....

Fp and das are two different programs. You can get a das time for say buzz light year and then use one of the three prescheduled fp+ times for say space mountain while you are waiting. Then when you das time is up ride buzz, get another das time and while waiting use another prescheduled fp+ time. Rinse and repeat. Fp+ is connected to your magic band and das is connected to your paper card. There is nothing preventing you from using both systems simultaneously.
What you can't do is hold multiple das return times. But you can ride standby on any ride while holding a das. So if there is a ten minute line for something else, you can use standby. Or if a show or starting you can enter using standby.

 

[goofy47]

Fp and das are two different programs. You can get a das time for say buzz light year and then use one of the three prescheduled fp+ times for say space mountain while you are waiting. Then when you das time is up ride buzz, get another das time and while waiting use another prescheduled fp+ time. Rinse and repeat. Fp+ is connected to your magic band and das is connected to your paper card. There is nothing preventing you from using both systems simultaneously.
What you can't do is hold multiple das return times. But you can ride standby on any ride while holding a das. So if there is a ten minute line for something else, you can use standby. Or if a show or starting you can enter using standby.

I understand how the Fastpass system works... I was discussing the Disability Card limitations only. Yes, I understand that you can go get a FP if you want one... But, with the DC, it does not matter if there are no longer FP's available. You can still ride.. So, if you go to a FP station, and their and there are no longer any available, then what. You should have the same rights as the regualer riders. THREE PER PERSON. with your DC not one. I know the system I'm there once a week... Thanks for your help...

 

[Gracie09]

I understand how the Fastpass system works... I was discussing the Disability Card limitations only. Yes, I understand that you can go get a FP if you want one... But, with the DC, it does not matter if there are no longer FP's available. You can still ride.. So, if you go to a FP station, and their and there are no longer any available, then what. You should have the same rights as the regualer riders. THREE PER PERSON. with your DC not one. I know the system I'm there once a week... Thanks for your help...

You do have the same rights. The right to schedule your fp+. If a regular person (to use your term) were to come up behind you to get a fp at a fp machine and they were out for the day, they would also walk away without one. Their option would be to stand on the stand by line or not ride. Your option would be to use your das as long as you aren't already waiting for another return time, and then go do something else until it's your time to ride or not ride. You can have as many das return times as you can fit in, just not more than one at a time and three fp+ times. A "regular person" has three fp+ times.

 

[delmar411]

I understand how the Fastpass system works... I was discussing the Disability Card limitations only. Yes, I understand that you can go get a FP if you want one... But, with the DC, it does not matter if there are no longer FP's available. You can still ride.. So, if you go to a FP station, and their and there are no longer any available, then what. You should have the same rights as the regualer riders. THREE PER PERSON. with your DC not one. I know the system I'm there once a week... Thanks for your help...

You do get 3 FP+ per person. If you are not scheduling them when you arrive then that is your choice. I'm assuming you do not have a magic band yet but are a pass holder. We are pass holders with magic bands. And we go at least once a week. You unfortunately don't know the system if this is your complaint.

We preschedule our 3 FP+ times before going to the park but only schedule day of so we are pulling from the same pool that day guests are. Then when we get to the park we take the card over to a ride and get a return time. Then we use the FP+ to ride. I aim to arrive at the park at the end of our first window so we can do FP+ 1 & 2 back to back. Hopefully by then the first DAS return time has come. Then we ride the DAS ride, then get a new time for something else while waiting for FP+ 3 to come due. I really try to get DAS times for attractions that are 20mims or less do help keep YDD occupied and put of trouble.

We only stay at the parks for a few hours. And I feel like she gets to do plenty of attractions.

 

[goofy47]

You do get 3 FP+ per person. If you are not scheduling them when you arrive then that is your choice. I'm assuming you do not have a magic band yet but are a pass holder. We are pass holders with magic bands. And we go at least once a week. You unfortunately don't know the system if this is your complaint.

We preschedule our 3 FP+ times before going to the park but only schedule day of so we are pulling from the same pool that day guests are. Then when we get to the park we take the card over to a ride and get a return time. Then we use the FP+ to ride. I aim to arrive at the park at the end of our first window so we can do FP+ 1 & 2 back to back. Hopefully by then the first DAS return time has come. Then we ride the DAS ride, then get a new time for something else while waiting for FP+ 3 to come due. I really try to get DAS times for attractions that are 20mims or less do help keep YDD occupied and put of trouble.

We only stay at the parks for a few hours. And I feel like she gets to do plenty of attractions.

Guests with a disability card cannot schedule more then one ride in advance. Once you have your card filled out by a cast member for a particular ride, you cannot go and have it filled out for another ride. Yes, of course you can go and get a regular FP ticket if they are available to you. but it depends when you enter the park. Say for instance, Toy Story has none available so, we could not get one.. I'm not arguing the point here... I just lived thru it last week... I know the system and have used the old system for 10 years and now dealing with the new setup. All I'm saying is, you should be able to get your card signed three times, just like you are able to get three FP for any regular guest. Having someone with a disability and trying to deal with all this is a difficult task. Unfortunately a few bad seeds ruined for the majority.

 

[seidelhd]

Guests with a disability card cannot schedule more then one ride in advance. Once you have your card filled out by a cast member for a particular ride, you cannot go and have it filled out for another ride. Yes, of course you can go and get a regular FP ticket if they are available to you. but it depends when you enter the park. Say for instance, Toy Story has none available so, we could not get one.. I'm not arguing the point here... I just lived thru it last week... I know the system and have used the old system for 10 years and now dealing with the new setup. All I'm saying is, you should be able to get your card signed three times, just like you are able to get three FP for any regular guest. Having someone with a disability and trying to deal with all this is a difficult task. Unfortunately a few bad seeds ruined for the majority.

From what I can tell, you are referring to Legacy FP and the other posters are referring to FP+. As of last week, legacy FP (the older, paper tickets you got outside certain rides) has been removed from all parks. Therefore, everyone is limited to 3 FP+ choices that they can choose as soon as they enter the park or beforehand via MyDisneyExperience app if they are staying onsite and/or have MagicBands linked to their tickets. This is different from and does not affect your ability to use the DAS card in any way.

 

[delmar411]

Guests with a disability card cannot schedule more then one ride in advance. Once you have your card filled out by a cast member for a particular ride, you cannot go and have it filled out for another ride. Yes, of course you can go and get a regular FP ticket if they are available to you. but it depends when you enter the park. Say for instance, Toy Story has none available so, we could not get one.. I'm not arguing the point here... I just lived thru it last week... I know the system and have used the old system for 10 years and now dealing with the new setup. All I'm saying is, you should be able to get your card signed three times, just like you are able to get three FP for any regular guest. Having someone with a disability and trying to deal with all this is a difficult task. Unfortunately a few bad seeds ruined for the majority.

So you feel someone with a DAS should be able to hold 6 times at once?

You can't get regular tickets anymore. So no one can go get regular tickets. Everyone uses FP+. So any guest entering after an attraction is 'sold out' for the day is out of luck. I would count yourself lucky that you can get attractions such as TSM even when sold out for the day. You could easily schedule 3 other attractions using FP+ then immediately get a TSM DAS time when you enter the park and then do the other attractions while waiting for your TSM time.

I'm really not seeing your issue TBH. If pre booking is that important then at any time in the last 7months you could have booked a single night on site and gotten bands for everyone and had the ability to prebook FP+. It was that important to us so that's what we did. At this point there really isn't much benefit to do that for you since AP MBs/advance booking will be rolling out soon.

We've had the new DAS since it rolled out and this has always been the way it was setup from day 1. It actually works extremely well and me saying this is pretty big since I was completely freaked about how YDD would deal without instant access and the ability to loop rides.

 

[Vidia2]

Guests with a disability card cannot schedule more then one ride in advance. Once you have your card filled out by a cast member for a particular ride, you cannot go and have it filled out for another ride. Yes, of course you can go and get a regular FP ticket if they are available to you. but it depends when you enter the park. Say for instance, Toy Story has none available so, we could not get one.. I'm not arguing the point here... I just lived thru it last week... I know the system and have used the old system for 10 years and now dealing with the new setup. All I'm saying is, you should be able to get your card signed three times, just like you are able to get three FP for any regular guest. Having someone with a disability and trying to deal with all this is a difficult task. Unfortunately a few bad seeds ruined for the majority.

It sounds like you want an adapted version of FP+. That would involve taking away FP+ if an adapted version is given. That would be illegal. The reasons for the GAC change probably have more to do with FP+ than anything else anyway. They want everyone to use FP+ for reasons that benefit them. I understand your reasoning though. Many people in the disabled community will need to utilize both systems as well as mobility access (in some cases) to have equal access. Subtracting an option would be a big problem even if it were legal.

I don't think Disney is factoring into the equation whether or not the FP+ system isn't usable at all for certain individuals. If we can use it for even one attraction during a visit then they can try to spin that into something that benefits us. Some people will have less access and some people will have more. The new system will be and is being abused. I doubt that the changes ever had much to do with abuse or overuse.

Maybe you should contact Disney directly about your family's needs.

 

[seidelhd]

It sounds like you want an adapted version of FP+. That would involve taking away FP+ if an adapted version is given. That would be illegal. The reasons for the GAC change probably have more to do with FP+ than anything else anyway. They want everyone to use FP+ for reasons that benefit them. I understand your reasoning though. Many people in the disabled community will need to utilize both systems as well as mobility access (in some cases) to have equal access. Subtracting an option would be a big problem even if it were legal.

I don't think Disney is factoring into the equation whether or not the FP+ system isn't usable at all for certain individuals. If we can use it for even one attraction during a visit then they can try to spin that into something that benefits us. Some people will have less access and some people will have more. The new system will be and is being abused. I doubt that the changes ever had much to do with abuse or overuse.

Maybe you should contact Disney directly about your family's needs.

THAT is the million dollar question for which we will never get an answer. There was an article posted a few days before the DAS roll-out that stated it was planned long before the reports of abuse. Disney was going to change it to bring it more in-line with their NextGen technology (i.e. FP+) at WDW. This just gave them a convenient reason to publicize. I imagine the truth lies somewhere between.

 

[Disneychick75]

THAT is the million dollar question for which we will never get an answer. There was an article posted a few days before the DAS roll-out that stated it was planned long before the reports of abuse. Disney was going to change it to bring it more in-line with their NextGen technology (i.e. FP+) at WDW. This just gave them a convenient reason to publicize. I imagine the truth lies somewhere between.

I read that too. Conspiracy theorists might say, "Hmmmm, how convenient that articles and a Today Show interview about GAC abuse come about right before Disney decides to stop the GAC." Takes the resonsilbilty off Disney and puts it on those naughty GAC abusers.

 

[Vidia2]

THAT is the million dollar question for which we will never get an answer. There was an article posted a few days before the DAS roll-out that stated it was planned long before the reports of abuse. Disney was going to change it to bring it more in-line with their NextGen technology (i.e. FP+) at WDW. This just gave them a convenient reason to publicize. I imagine the truth lies somewhere between.

The PR/propaganda machine has been working overtime on this one. It's worked to a large degree except for the few resistors. LOL

Sorry, so off topic.