Any Tips for Disability Access Video Chat

[mickey0624]

We're heading down to WDW in 2 weeks and I need to set up DAS for my son. We've done this many times in the past. I know there is a new process and need to have a video chat ahead of time with him, to get this set up. I've been trying for the last week and a half and I either wait two hours and get kicked off in the queue or it just states that they aren't accepting any more due to wait times. Does anyone have any tips how I can do this? Any secret to getting through?

 

[glocon]

Idk as fortunately have never had to use DAS, but maybe the Disability Forum would have better tips. Good luck!

 

[nekonekoneko]

The best secret to getting through is to try early in the morning. This does mean making sure your son is awake at 7:00 am.

The first part is texting with the CM about the issues. Then they'll initiate the video call. It's so that they can take a picture of the person who needs the pass. They may ask him a couple of questions, too, but it's not too bad.

After the picture, then he can go back to bed, and you can finish getting the pre-booked passes (up to 2), and that will be via chat. You can pick two rides that are on the Genie+ list, but the rides on the ILL list are ineligible. The ILL rides can be picked up on the day of, though.

 

[lanejudy]

Reports from others suggest trying right at 7am. There's a lot of chatter about this on the disABILITIES Forum.

 

[lpereira]

Even at 7 am it's hit or miss. More people are calling than they have staff. Some people get done by 730/800 and some people are waiting for 3 or 4 hours..

 

[bambialways4ever]

I did it yesterday, here's my c&p:
Hi all! I started reading this thread a few weeks ago in prep for our day and it came today! Here is our experience below

*all times are in EST, but we are on the West Coast*

Initially I thought there was no way in heck I'd get up at 4 am for this, but reading your reports made me nervous, and since our day fell on a Saturday we decided to tough it out.

The day before I set all of my security settings on Chrome to basically none, and disabled my adblocker and popup blockers. We got up at 6:45 am and I turned off our VPN, accepted the T&Cs at 6:59, and hit "request video chat" right at 7.

At 7:01, the chat changed and we were connected to a CM. We gave them the info they requested, then the video chat started. All the CM said was "Good Morning" and then dove right into asking why we needed DAS (I'm paraphrasing there). We explained, they said ok lets get it set up. Took a photo, explained some more info about the DAS, then ended the call and transferred us to preselect our attractions. Video chat was done by 7:06 am.

When the call ended, we noticed a big red message had popped up on the page that read something like "We are experiencing extremely high waits/calls and recommend trying back later".

At 7:10, we were connected to the preselection booking CM, who explained some more stuff and then asked me to list all of our days. Date, which park, day of the week, etc. With each park we were to list our top 3 attractions and preferred times.

During this time I asked if the new additions to Genie+ were available and were told they are not for preselections (no big deal for us, just thought I'd ask for you guys lol!)

It took a bit to list all that out, and then the CM said because I was logged in they auto-populated my times in my MDE and to please go check. I did, and we got all of our "top 2" choices at each park, including Slinky Dog Dash and Peter Pan. All my times are before 2 except Peter Pan, but that's fine because we will be leaving and coming back in the evening that day anyways.

When all was said and done it was about 7:40. I thanked the CM and said our goodbyes.

The video chat CM was (in my opinion) a bit curt and to the point, but otherwise I would describe our experience as great overall. 40 minutes start to finish.


also, today was 30 days from my first park day, I'm staying onsite, and I was able to book all days at once.

I so appreciate everyone's experience sharing to help us prepare! We have done this at Disneyland a bunch, but not with the new system and never for WDW. Feeling excited this last piece of the puzzle is "done"!

 

[gap2368]

you do not need to do the video chat you can still go to GR at the park and get it done there

 

[ruthies12]

My dh tried yesterday at 5:40 pm and did not get through before it cut off at 10:00 pm. Tried again this morning right at 7:00, got the same chat message and sat there til about 7:45 am when they suddenly got on the text chat making sure he was still there and then started the video chat right after. The video chat then took about 5 min total then it went back to text chat with a cm helping set up the 2 a day passes. Our trip is in 12 days. Some of the prebooked passes weren't first choices at this point and some aren't at great times. He was completely done with the set up at about 8:20 am.

 

[eticketplease]

During this time I asked if the new additions to Genie+ were available and were told they are not for preselections (no big deal for us, just thought I'd ask for you guys lol!)

Thanks for asking as I assume you were referring to Frozen, Space Mountain, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

We have used DAS for quite a while but they state they remove the records after 60 days but if they don't actually do so that may have factored into our registration time.

We were done in about 15-20 minutes total time including attraction selection. I don't know how we were so lucky. We signed on in the afternoon after picking up the little one from school so it was about 2:30 PM EST. Not sure if they just were not busy or what. It may have helped that MDE was open on the phone so that I could see what park reservation was made for each day and not to schedule anything when we had dining reservations.

 

[bambialways4ever]

Thanks for asking as I assume you were referring to Frozen, Space Mountain, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

We have used DAS for quite a while but they state they remove the records after 60 days but if they don't actually do so that may have factored into our registration time.

We were done in about 15-20 minutes total time including attraction selection. I don't know how we were so lucky. We signed on in the afternoon after picking up the little one from school so it was about 2:30 PM EST. Not sure if they just were not busy or what. It may have helped that MDE was open on the phone so that I could see what park reservation was made for each day and not to schedule anything when we had dining reservations.

Yes, those are the attractions I meant! But I'm glad you guys were successful! Ours only took 40 minutes, but our agent making reservations had to take a 10 minute break (not sure why, didn't say) so actual input time was really only a half hour. We were also signed in to MDE which both agents said made it easier, but like I said this is our first WDW DAS, but not first for Disneyland.

 

[eticketplease]

Yes, those are the attractions I meant! But I'm glad you guys were successful! Ours only took 40 minutes, but our agent making reservations had to take a 10 minute break (not sure why, didn't say) so actual input time was really only a half hour. We were also signed in to MDE which both agents said made it easier, but like I said this is our first WDW DAS, but not first for Disneyland.

We have done both but when at land we never saw it in maxpass and always had to go to a blue umbrella to get another time. This will be the first time for us using it at WDW with the ability to use the MDE app which sounds more convenient, until MDE crashes that is!!

Good luck!!

 

[Lee Matthews]

When making the attraction selections do you have to give a time? Or do they just give you what they want or as they not time sensitive?

 

[eticketplease]

When making the attraction selections do you have to give a time? Or do they just give you what they want or as they not time sensitive?

They will ask you what you want and come back with a few times. You can ask to see if there are any different times but you can't be exact like Small World at 1 PM and Haunted Mansion at 2 PM.

 

[bambialways4ever]

They will ask you what you want and come back with a few times. You can ask to see if there are any different times but you can't be exact like Small World at 1 PM and Haunted Mansion at 2 PM.

When we did it on Saturday, we didn't get a choice of times.

They just gave us the earliest times available for our first choices (which we didn't ask them for). For Peter Pan the earliest was 5 PM, for example.