DAS changes coming WDW May 20/ DL June 18, 2024

[DisneylandFreak2013]

I was among the ones suggested by CMs to apply for DAS. It enabled me to enjoy the parks reasonably and with dignity. I've endured recent comments that there are accommodations being provided but I ''don't like them''. I can't express how humiliating and hurtful these are. I hesitated to come back to this board but I've never been a coward. Maybe trying to work through it...cathartic? I honestly don't know how I can reasonably make it work.

We are blessed and were frequent travelers. I ran the numbers for Disney vs Atlantis. Our older Grands prefer the later. Disney is DOUBLE the cost. Granted it's a much harder decision for the younger group. We've discussed dumping the Disney channels to lessen the disappointment. Mine expires in November and won't be renewed.

I know it's crazy but Disney has been a part of our lives for many years. I lived for Sunday evenings with Disney as a child. It was a dream come true to be able to visit the parks. Absolutely magical. Many eventually became weary of the Mouse but not mu family. We'd enter the parks and our steps were brisker and hearts lighter...no burnout. So yeah I'm taking this hard. My kiddos were raised on Disney and many happy moments were experienced in the parks way before we could afford to go. We lived in Orlando and would take our kids to what is now Disney Springs. It's all we could afford...the free experience. It was fun why it lasted.

I'm sorry that this happened to you. My mom was also directed to apply for the DAS about 6 years or so ago because she had a major panic attack in line when the ride line stopped moving for about 15 minutes (I think the ride shut down? I can't remember). We couldn't get out quickly because of how the line + stairs + people were situated in the switchbacks. It was loud because the queue music was still going, it was dark, people couldn't hear and weren't moving out of the way to get out, so it was a nightmare.

It was awful for her, us, and others when she was panicking trying to get out of line. She was denied this go around and told DAS is only for people with Autism (though it is not, because my sister's son was also denied for their family's trip). There are other issues that make it difficult for her to wait by herself outside of line (it's typically me and her), she needs someone to be with her to help her monitor it. She also doesn't have a cell phone so the logistics of getting her to where I am in line is not going to be smooth. We are going to be doing this trip to try it out and see if we can enjoy the parks without rides or just some of the smaller rides with small wait times but are feeling not great about it. I would cancel, but don't really want to have to get $1950 in airfare as a credit on United. We'll just hang out at the Grand Californian if things get bad since we booked a Club Level suite.

I feel for you, and have read some snarky comments so get where you're coming from. There are some people who just need to feel they are right and you are wrong, when maybe you're just trying to commiserate and adjust to the changes by typing it out. Those comments are not helpful.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Just returned home. We did have DAS but only used once our Epcot first day to convert virtual queue to DAS. I wanted to see if I could wait in line and did it a couple of times which was a bad choice. Second day was Halloween party and all lines were short. They definitely were wanting us to fill in all available space and younger people pushed their way pretty far up past people and made it very difficult for me but it was after the merge so DAS wouldn’t have helped. Line was still short. We only waited in very short ones. Tiana - we decided to check it out and was very short line. We walked right up the stairs and into the halls that lead to the ride. 10 minutes total. Still kind of claustrophobic but short period of time so it was ok. Watched parade with no one behind us in frontier town (2nd one). Fireworks were good. I was in a pretty uncrowded area fairly close. Of course after it was over it was really bad. Sanderson show we stood back and was not crowded. Overall I thought the Halloween party was very crowded. We didn’t do much trick or treat as those lines were long. Walkways were contested. We didn’t buy any merch the whole trip and didn’t buy any food at the party. Other days we had lightning lane single and multi pass. It worked great. We were able to move our times around quite a bit. I never needed to move earlier. Just later. Some rides I decided I couldn’t handle so at the first tap point there was always a person who could cancel mine so we could book together another ride. I did notice most of the time we could book a new ride after the first tap point when we tried. We got pretty much everything done at animal kingdom with it including shows because I don’t like waiting in crowd to enter and for Nemo we have a place we sit away from everyone else. It is a short bench in the upper section against the wall. I love sitting there. We never meet characters so didn’t do that. Booked a couple of DAS rides here and there for after I needed a break. We never did anything else when waiting for a das ride. I went back to hotel many days to rest while the others stayed out in the parks. That was very helpful. I thought lightning lanes were very short this trip. Might be a slower period or maybe less das but they were never bad. We have waited in very long ones in the past.

 

[VroomVroomLightning]

I guess its not necessary to call anymore right at 30 days since there's no pre-selections? Are wait times a lot worse on the weekends compared to weekdays?

 

[nalababybear]

I'm sorry that this happened to you. My mom was also directed to apply for the DAS about 6 years or so ago because she had a major panic attack in line when the ride line stopped moving for about 15 minutes (I think the ride shut down? I can't remember). We couldn't get out quickly because of how the line + stairs + people were situated in the switchbacks. It was loud because the queue music was still going, it was dark, people couldn't hear and weren't moving out of the way to get out, so it was a nightmare.

It was awful for her, us, and others when she was panicking trying to get out of line. She was denied this go around and told DAS is only for people with Autism (though it is not, because my sister's son was also denied for their family's trip). There are other issues that make it difficult for her to wait by herself outside of line (it's typically me and her), she needs someone to be with her to help her monitor it. She also doesn't have a cell phone so the logistics of getting her to where I am in line is not going to be smooth. We are going to be doing this trip to try it out and see if we can enjoy the parks without rides or just some of the smaller rides with small wait times but are feeling not great about it. I would cancel, but don't really want to have to get $1950 in airfare as a credit on United. We'll just hang out at the Grand Californian if things get bad since we booked a Club Level suite.

I feel for you, and have read some snarky comments so get where you're coming from. There are some people who just need to feel they are right and you are wrong, when maybe you're just trying to commiserate and adjust to the changes by typing it out. Those comments are not helpful.

Engage the CM at the ride entrance and if she and attendant options that specific ride is. Most often. AQR will be offered probably but you never know, so inquire on it.

An option is old style short range walkie talkies to communicate

 

[DiznyDiva]

It sounds like you were in line next to those people for a while, how long was the line? I wonder how they knew for sure you had DAS or that your daughter was autistic and others in the same line did not. Sounds like a strange situation!

We were actually trying tog et around them to scan. When we went to scan after another CM cam over to assist the back up that was happening, it blinked blue for a minute until she cleared it and then it went green. I guess the say that? Also the CM asked who was the primary which I replied my daughter.

It was strange nd something e have actually never encountered before. Idiots who are rude sure.. but outright hostility was something new.

Didn't let it ruin the vacation though...

 

[DawnM]

After all the discussion of denial, our son was approved for DAS this time around. I was very surprised. I don't know that he will qualify forever, but for now, we are thankful.
We are here at Disney now and we are using DAS for about half the rides. The wait times are not too bad this trip even for those without a DAS pass. Crowd levels are down. Maybe because many are already back in school? Or maybe it is because everyone got their post-Covid big trip out of the way, who knows.

 

[nalababybear]

We were actually trying tog et around them to scan. When we went to scan after another CM cam over to assist the back up that was happening, it blinked blue for a minute until she cleared it and then it went green. I guess the say that? Also the CM asked who was the primary which I replied my daughter.

It was strange nd something e have actually never encountered before. Idiots who are rude sure.. but outright hostility was something new.

Didn't let it ruin the vacation though...

So sorry that happened after a great D23 weekend.

Stupid human tricks. Just move past them and carry on.

Glad her just let it roll off her like water on a duck.

Really glad CM did get you for after action report. That's nice to see, they are tracking these things.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I meant to post this the other day and I'm sure people who use them already have a good place they are getting them, using them for a different reason than me, but just thought I'd share what I use. I bought these at Cabelas or Bass Pro I can't remember. They were in the area where firearms, hunting and the like are at. It's also where I bought my slimmer noise reduction headphones.

For rides now that have short bursts of loud noises on our last trip in 2022 I incorporated these foam ear plugs. While not a perfect fit it worked better than my prior tactic and allows me to enjoy the rides more. I used it on our Silver Dollar City trip several months after the Disney/Universal 2022 trip, most especially when we did the train attraction which has gun shots briefly.

These are considered "women" sized (and yes pink was the only option..) but kids could likely use them. They are meant for smaller ear canals which I have and is likely the main reason noises hurt as smaller ear canals cause the sound to be amplified.

Next to them are the ear plugs my husband uses (for sleep only when needed) and those are just standard adult sized.

 

[DiznyDiva]

Glad her just let it roll off her like water on a duck.

Really glad CM did get you for after action report. That's nice to see, they are tracking these things.

Kiddo is really empathetic and actually seemed more worried about them! LOl.

The CM's have all been really great this trip. Even the ones in Fantasy Land which sometimes tend to be crankier ones. I did notice a lot of suits and leads at rides watching things. It also seems they were using the buddy systems with CM's, not really having any of ride ones by themselves. Smart.

 

[Evita_W]

I think we'll be seeing more scooters. If less people get approved for DAS, there are going to be more people needing/wanting to use a scooter as a self accommodation. Situational awareness can definitely go both ways, I've seen people jump right in front of scooters going slow and they generally don't stop quick even when going slow. Also have seen a scooter run someone's foot over while trying to navigate crowds.

It sounds like you were in line next to those people for a while, how long was the line? I wonder how they knew for sure you had DAS or that your daughter was autistic and others in the same line did not. Sounds like a strange situation!

Yes, we will be seeing a lot more scooters and I suspect larger ones, up to the maximum allowed sizes. Why? Because they provide additional space and help provide space for those with crowd issues. It doesn’t help all, but it will help some.

 

[Evita_W]

Just returned home. We did have DAS but only used once our Epcot first day to convert virtual queue to DAS. I wanted to see if I could wait in line and did it a couple of times which was a bad choice. Second day was Halloween party and all lines were short. They definitely were wanting us to fill in all available space and younger people pushed their way pretty far up past people and made it very difficult for me but it was after the merge so DAS wouldn’t have helped. Line was still short. We only waited in very short ones. Tiana - we decided to check it out and was very short line. We walked right up the stairs and into the halls that lead to the ride. 10 minutes total. Still kind of claustrophobic but short period of time so it was ok. Watched parade with no one behind us in frontier town (2nd one). Fireworks were good. I was in a pretty uncrowded area fairly close. Of course after it was over it was really bad. Sanderson show we stood back and was not crowded. Overall I thought the Halloween party was very crowded. We didn’t do much trick or treat as those lines were long. Walkways were contested. We didn’t buy any merch the whole trip and didn’t buy any food at the party. Other days we had lightning lane single and multi pass. It worked great. We were able to move our times around quite a bit. I never needed to move earlier. Just later. Some rides I decided I couldn’t handle so at the first tap point there was always a person who could cancel mine so we could book together another ride. I did notice most of the time we could book a new ride after the first tap point when we tried. We got pretty much everything done at animal kingdom with it including shows because I don’t like waiting in crowd to enter and for Nemo we have a place we sit away from everyone else. It is a short bench in the upper section against the wall. I love sitting there. We never meet characters so didn’t do that. Booked a couple of DAS rides here and there for after I needed a break. We never did anything else when waiting for a das ride. I went back to hotel many days to rest while the others stayed out in the parks. That was very helpful. I thought lightning lanes were very short this trip. Might be a slower period or maybe less das but they were never bad. We have waited in very long ones in the past.

Speaking of parties, I would love to see it where there are more after hours parties with limited attendance, which then limits queue length. We would then likely buy little to no daytime admission and do the after hour parties, which would avoid this mess and priced properly would likely be similar to buying admission.

 

[Evita_W]

Engage the CM at the ride entrance and if she and attendant options that specific ride is. Most often. AQR will be offered probably but you never know, so inquire on it.

An option is old style short range walkie talkies to communicate

Just a heads up, old style short range walkie talkies are increasingly becoming unable to work due to interference from everything around them and they are already banned on many cruise ships because they also interfere with operations of other devices, I see that happening at theme parks too. Just mentioning it so you have a contingency plan in case they won’t work.

 

[Evita_W]

We were actually trying tog et around them to scan. When we went to scan after another CM cam over to assist the back up that was happening, it blinked blue for a minute until she cleared it and then it went green. I guess the say that? Also the CM asked who was the primary which I replied my daughter.

It was strange nd something e have actually never encountered before. Idiots who are rude sure.. but outright hostility was something new.

Didn't let it ruin the vacation though...

Definitely always report that to security, I really wish they would use the same color as everyone else for DAS return times on the scanners, then no one would know one way or the other aside from the CMs.

 

[SueM in MN]

Definitely always report that to security, I really wish they would use the same color as everyone else for DAS return times on the scanners, then no one would know one way or the other aside from the CMs.

The scanner uses blue as an alert color to indicate the CM needs to look at the screen, view the alert and resolve it.
People often assume blue = DA, but that's not true.
Blue is not specific to DAS; its used for anything the CM needs to look at. That includes things like people early or late for a LL time or entering an attraction they don't have a LL for.
If it didn't glow a different color, CMs wouldn't have an alert

 

[nalababybear]

Yeah people assume DAS. No so. More often than not it's a time issue.

A key indicator thats DAS...can you do stairs.....

 

[voxparse]

Just a heads up, old style short range walkie talkies are increasingly becoming unable to work due to interference from everything around them and they are already banned on many cruise ships because they also interfere with operations of other devices, I see that happening at theme parks too. Just mentioning it so you have a contingency plan in case they won’t work.

Interesting aside that electronic signal crowding is a real problem. I wear a CGM that connects via Bluetooth to my phone and insulin pump and it loses connection constantly in the parks because of the signal crowding. BT is different from the frequency for a walkie but the same concept applies.

 

[DisneylandFreak2013]

Just a heads up, old style short range walkie talkies are increasingly becoming unable to work due to interference from everything around them and they are already banned on many cruise ships because they also interfere with operations of other devices, I see that happening at theme parks too. Just mentioning it so you have a contingency plan in case they won’t work.

Yeah, we tried taking those one time for precisely that reason but they were denied by security. I'm not sure why, they do the same thing as a cell phone basically but they were a no-go for us.

 

[DisneylandFreak2013]

Interesting aside that electronic signal crowding is a real problem. I wear a CGM that connects via Bluetooth to my phone and insulin pump and it loses connection constantly in the parks because of the signal crowding. BT is different from the frequency for a walkie but the same concept applies.

Thanks for mentioning this. My mom has one which we haven't tried in a large group yet. We will need to make sure she packs her regular glucose monitor in case of an emergency where she can't get a reading.

 

[StarGirl11]

As for me, even though I have Autism, I believe I may be better off taking my motorhome and camping out at Great Smoky Mountain National Park and going to Dollywood instead. Even DAS guests still are required to wait the entire standby time so DAS does not get them on the ride any faster. However, nobody needs to be dishonest and abuse the system, but unfortunately, it is impossible to have a foolproof system to prevent abuse. All this does it makes it a lot more difficult for those who truly need it.

I’ve been to Dollywood. Unless you’re buying their FP equivalent. Your still going to have to wait the standard queue time.

Waiting the standard queue time is not unique to Disney. This is a universal thing across almost all theme parks. Take it from someone who has used disability services in some form for close to a decade at everything from Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens, and Cedar Fair parks.

I’m not trying to be harsh but expecting to go to another park and thinking that they will not make you wait the standard standby. Is just not a realistic experience.

Dumb question: is the current iteration of DAS a “use it or lose it” product? What I mean is, if approved for DAS to start the first day of your next visit +120 as an AP but you end up not visiting a park that day, does it drop off and you need to call again ahead of your next visit? I guess the same situation could be someone with a multi-day trip planned, but ends up not visiting a park the first day of the trip.

It’s still active. I was supposed to visit in June and then cancelled the trip because of a change of plans. I was approved for DAS. If I go into the WDW app right now I can see that my ability to use DAS is in the app technically. And it should drop off in October when I would hit the 120 day mark. Though I am reapplying in September because of a new trip. So I probably won’t see it drop off. I just remember them giving me a date of 10/19 for elapsing if I remember right.

 

[PrincessV]

It’s still active. I was supposed to visit in June and then cancelled the trip because of a change of plans. I was approved for DAS. If I go into the WDW app right now I can see that my ability to use DAS is in the app technically. And it should drop off in October when I would hit the 120 day mark. Though I am reapplying in September because of a new trip. So I probably won’t see it drop off. I just remember them giving me a date of 10/19 for elapsing if I remember right.

Thanks so much! That’s what I figured, but wanted to check.