1st time w/new DAS. Is it worth getting along with using fp+?

[kimba]

I have a teen son with ASD. We always needed and used the old GAC with him over the years. We don't have any idea how this new fp+ system works but plan to schedule fpasses ahead of time. We are going 2/3-6 with park hoppers. He can wait in most lines but if we are going back and forth in the park with fp+ returns and and not able to make a coherent park flow he might start to break down. Concerned about hopping and only being able to schedule in one park. Will it still be useful for him to get DAS to help with our planning?

 

[wilkeliza]

DAS may still be helpful but only if he has issue waiting in a queue. All the DAS does is allow you to wait your stand by time outside of the queue.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

The DAS works great with our family. We have a 9yr old with ASD/ADHD and he could probably stand to wait in 1 line but that would be it for him. He would breakdown and we would probably not be able to get him back from it. We use the DAS in conjunction with the FP and when we were there last year he got to do a lot of the bigger rides multiple times. It was really worth it for us.

 

[gap2368]

I have a teen son with ASD. We always needed and used the old GAC with him over the years. We don't have any idea how this new fp+ system works but plan to schedule fpasses ahead of time. We are going 2/3-6 with park hoppers. He can wait in most lines but if we are going back and forth in the park with fp+ returns and and not able to make a coherent park flow he might start to break down. Concerned about hopping and only being able to schedule in one park. Will it still be useful for him to get DAS to help with our planning?

you can schedule the FP so that you do not have to go back and forth maybe do one for midmorning one for after lunch and once for afternoon so you have FP ever 3 to 4 hours and then if your son need a DAS you can get a return time for a ride this way, as fair as park hopping after you used your 3 FP you can go to another park and get one more but the headliner are normally gone this is where the DAS comes in very handy for going on things you other wise would not. you are going at a quieter time so the lines should not be that bad.

 

[kimba]

you can schedule the FP so that you do not have to go back and forth maybe do one for midmorning one for after lunch and once for afternoon so you have FP ever 3 to 4 hours and then if your son need a DAS you can get a return time for a ride this way, as fair as park hopping after you used your 3 FP you can go to another park and get one more but the headliner are normally gone this is where the DAS comes in very handy for going on things you other wise would not. you are going at a quieter time so the lines should not be that bad.

We are thankful to go at a quieter time and hope this helps. To clarify, if we hop and can't get a headliner, with DAS they will still give him a return time to be able to ride? That is how he used GAC and was extremely helpful.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

We are thankful to go at a quieter time and hope this helps. To clarify, if we hop and can't get a headliner, with DAS they will still give him a return time to be able to ride? That is how he used GAC and was extremely helpful.

so if your at Magic Kingdom and then hop to Epcot to ride Test Track, if the line is too long ask for a return time for your DAS. It will be the stand by time minus 10 minutes. So while your waiting you can get something to eat or walk around and look in gift shops or stroll over to WS. You can only have 1 return time on your DAS at once though

 

[gap2368]

yes if your start your morning at the MK and have your 3 FP there and then go to Hollywood and he want to ride TSMM and there are not FP for this ride you will go up to TSMM and ask for a DAS return time

they will give you a return time which is wait time -10 minutes and then anytime after that time you can go on the ride entering the FP line and you can do anything you like during the time you are waiting beside get another DAS return time.

the das work with ever thing that has a stand by line and FP line so it dose not work for parades or fireworks

it will work for meet a greet that have both standby FP and it it also works for astro orbiter even thought there is no FP for this ride although it is hard to get the CM attichion to get a return time.

 

[Sunnywho]

I avoided scheduling back-to-back FP+ times such as 9 am, 10 am, 11 am but would schedule the first one for the area I thought we'd start at and the next one for the area where we had lunch plans. That helped with reducing the back-and-forth. My 3rd fastpass usually got rescheduled based on where we were near. Is it specifically headliners that would be needed after hopping? Some of the headliners have single rider lines that shorten the wait without needing to get a DAS.

 

[CaraMiaBelle]

I would say it depends on the crowds when you are going. When I took my ASD son for his first (so far) only DW trip, he was 7 and we ended up NOT getting DAS. This was when it was first switched from GAC to DAS. However, we had VERY low crowds and we were able to make FP+ work for us by carefully planning our rides so we would not be zigzagging. And he has 2 younger siblings as well. I'd say this worked best in MK, but then I am most familiar with MK too.
We are planning his second trip this November and I am looking into the possibility again. Trying to figure out DAS may or may not do help him. Will likely play it by ear and see how crowds are and how he does once we get there.

 

[TxWriterMama]

We always use a combination of DAS and FP+ with kiddo. We managed to have zero meltdowns during our October trip by doing some serious pre-planning and making sure she had a map of her own. We also made sure to talk about being patient, calm and having "nice" hands while waiting for our turns and preparing her for waits ahead of each park arrival by showing her the wait times on the Easywdw app.

I could explain that we didn't have a FP+ (we call it her mousketool lol) for a certain ride but that we had a special key that would let us come back in xyz time. Then I would let her choose a nearby ride that had a short line (so, like, heading to IASW while we waited for a Peter Pan DAS or riding Figment and Nemo while waiting for a Soarin' or Test Track DAS.) It worked beautifully.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

We always use a combination of DAS and FP+ with kiddo. We managed to have zero meltdowns during our October trip by doing some serious pre-planning and making sure she had a map of her own. We also made sure to talk about being patient, calm and having "nice" hands while waiting for our turns and preparing her for waits ahead of each park arrival by showing her the wait times on the Easywdw app.

I could explain that we didn't have a FP+ (we call it her mousketool lol) for a certain ride but that we had a special key that would let us come back in xyz time. Then I would let her choose a nearby ride that had a short line (so, like, heading to IASW while we waited for a Peter Pan DAS or riding Figment and Nemo while waiting for a Soarin' or Test Track DAS.) It worked beautifully.

Thats what we do with my son too...He's older now (he's 9) so he understands about getting a return time and coming back later and doing some other stuff, he would rather do that then have to stand still and wait in a line anyways. We hardly had any meltdowns last year (he was 8 then). We had 1 issue with 1 ride on our last day. It was the tomorrowland speedway and we weren't even going to do that ride bc he said he didn't want to, lol. Anyways it was our last day and we had a FP for Space Mountain and my kid decides he did want to go on tomorrowland speedway so I was like umm ok, so we got a return time for that and then went to Space Mountain. After Space Mountain he was like I want to go on again! So I was like ok but what about the Speedway and he was all like I will do it after the speedway so in my mind we still had time to do that. We went over to the Speedway and he went on it and he came off all excited and want to do that ride again! We didn't have time for both Space Mountain and the Speedway and I thought he was going to have a meltdown right then and there! He actually almost did have a meltdown but the guy working the speedway sprinkled us with some extra pixie dust and gave him a special pass to ride again without the DAS so he was able to do both the speedway and space mountain. But like I said that was really our only meltdown but it really was no fault of Disney is was a mere time is running out and we don't have all the time in the world to ride everything over again, lol