Anybody NOT calling ahead for DAS

[idohair2]

I spent all day watching the chat like a hawk. Somehow I would become disconnected without knowing. So twice I saw the warning that I was disconnected and logged back in and saw messages that they thought I wasn’t there so they left the call. UGH!
Raise your hand if you refuse to play this game and are waiting until you get there?

 

[DisneyOma]

My hand is raised - I'm waiting until I feel/if I need the DAS for our next trip. Maybe I won't need it, and there's no way I'm waiting hours to get through. That would be enough to trigger my anxiety and probably my PFD. Hopefully the system gets streamlined soon, and those that really benefit from setting it up online through video chat get some relief.

 

[HopperFan]

I spent all day watching the chat like a hawk. Somehow I would become disconnected without knowing. So twice I saw the warning that I was disconnected and logged back in and saw messages that they thought I wasn’t there so they left the call. UGH!
Raise your hand if you refuse to play this game and are waiting until you get there?

I did not.

I have a Pixie Pass which only allows me to book 3 days in advance. Spending hours on hours at a time when my DS can be near (after 3 pm or weekends) was not happening for 6 advance times.

We walked up, we waited a couple minutes and got our DAS, CM booked our first and it was a breeze to roll. Since there were only two of us I bought Genie+ for 4 out of 5 days, bought 1 ILL and even spending that, still wouldn't have been worth waiting hours for advance.

 

[livbeatles]

I think we'll very likely wait until we're at WDW and go to guest relations the night before our first park day, as we've done for the last several years. While the chat option is enticing, I just do not want to stress about the connection/wait and coordinating with my dad.

 

[goofy friend]

I am waiting, on two occasions I held over two hours and I consider that ridiculous. I will just wait until I get there.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

I am waiting. I don't have a park day scheduled until August so I'll keep an ear to the ground until then to see if things change but I'm not wasting hours of my time online when I can accomplish the same thing in person at the parks in 15 minutes.

 

[TioAdis78]

We are still a year out, but I kept thinking I was crazy for even considering the option of how we do it every year for our trip, a process which we've become masters at! Not to mention we have to go to Guest Services anyway to ask for the stroller as a wheelchair tag, so I have no problem with waiting to do it in person if the process hasn't been improved by then!

 

[idohair2]

I think we'll very likely wait until we're at WDW and go to guest relations the night before our first park day, as we've done for the last several years. While the chat option is enticing, I just do not want to stress about the connection/wait and coordinating with my dad.

So you will just go to one of the parks to do this the night before?

 

[summerlyangel]

I'm probably waiting. I just don't have the time to sit by the computer for hours and will only have a few days off of work to do so before our trip in Dec. We've never had an issue just walking in and getting one, though this last trip we did have to wait about 30 mins in line. If I get word that things are improving in the next 2 weeks, I might give it a try. As it stands, nope, not worth it.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Nope. I don't have the patience to wait 2 hours on the phone, even on speaker phone. I just cannot do that.

 

[notatallmagic]

After my experience today (long story), for our February trip, we may just get the DAS in person for that trip. It was a nightmare.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

I spent all day watching the chat like a hawk. Somehow I would become disconnected without knowing. So twice I saw the warning that I was disconnected and logged back in and saw messages that they thought I wasn’t there so they left the call. UGH!
Raise your hand if you refuse to play this game and are waiting until you get there?

We waited until we got here. We live on the West Coast, and there's no way I could start the chat at 4 am and wait all day. Logging on that early is one thing when it's dining reservations and I can go back to sleep after, but this mess... Anyway. We waited until we got here, getting the DAS took under 3 minutes, and it's been perfectly fine. Given that the pre-scheduled return times are limited to an hour, which we wouldn't have made most days this trip anyway, it's really not been a problem for us at all.

 

[livbeatles]

So you will just go to one of the parks to do this the night before?

Yup! We have a dinner reservation at Cape May Cafe the night before our first park day, so we'll just pop over to the international gate at Epcot and go the Guest Services there. We've been successful on all of our trips going to a guest services outside the parks prior to our park days, but I do know others have reported that there have been times outside-park GS haven't been able to help them due to capacity/not having the right ipads/etc.

 

[mamamia2005]

I am in the UK and have read on a UK based fb group of someone that was told UK guests are not able to use the video chat. However on arrival at the first park, the guests can go to guest services and "book" their DAS selections as if they had done the video call.
I emailed guest communications to confirm if this is the case, and nearly 3 weeks later have still not had a reply. Very frustrating!

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

I had no interest in the average 10 hour wait time for our early November trip so I just reactivated the DAS at the international gateway when we got there. Super easy-done in 5 minutes.

“Losing” the pre selections wasn’t a huge deal for us because we don’t like having a bunch of reservations/times to work around. We only plan 1 ADR max per trip for the same reason.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

We chose not to call ahead. From what I understand, they're severely understaffed and it's just not worth the wait. We'll try for in the first day of our vacation and go from there. It's nice to get the pre-selections, but we only have 2 ADRs for our whole trip, so we're not too picky on times for most things.

 

[podgirl]

I wonder if they have more staff now, because I got through fairly quickly this morning (Saturday). About one hour for the text chat to appear then almost another hour for the video chat with an immediate transfer to the booking rides part.

 

[ppony]

I spent all day watching the chat like a hawk. Somehow I would become disconnected without knowing. So twice I saw the warning that I was disconnected and logged back in and saw messages that they thought I wasn’t there so they left the call. UGH!
Raise your hand if you refuse to play this game and are waiting until you get there?

I'm seriously considering it. Calls sound like a nightmare. I'm not fond of committing to a time to be at a particular ride in advance these days, so the pre-selection may not be something I care much about. It'd be nice to not have to stop into GS first thing, but it's what we've always done. Now I'll be asking for one as well as the one we always get for my son, so we'll see.

 

[orum]

I helped someone through this recently. If you have a timer, set it for 30 minutes and start it from when you first log into the web site. When the timer goes off, refresh the page, log in again, rejoin the chat, and start another 30 minute timer. The login times out after being logged in for 30 minutes. I think they got in within 1.5-2 hours.

 

[SueM in MN]

I helped someone through this recently. If you have a timer, set it for 30 minutes and start it from when you first log into the web site. When the timer goes off, refresh the page, log in again, rejoin the chat, and start another 30 minute timer. The login times out after being logged in for 30 minutes. I think they got in within 1.5-2 hours.

It is reportedly much faster than in the beginning.
Most of the recent reports I’ve seen have been 1.5 to 2 hours, with some faster.