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

[OurBigTrip]

As I have stated repeatedly, the issue isn’t with reducing the number of people in the LLs, the issue is how they went about doing it.

And has also been stated repeatedly, addressing overuse and abuse of the DAS was the best way to go about doing it.

 

[CalSea12]

Just to clarify... WDW will not suggest purchasing LLMP/LLSP as an accommodation. The accommodation offered is likely to be Attraction Queue Re-entry. They do have procedures at each attraction to handle solo visitors or single adults with a young child(ren). Asking before entering the queue is not required but may help you to understand the procedure at that attraction before you are in an urgent situation. Re-entry is almost always via the LL, though how that is handled may differ from one attraction to another. Considering this has been commonly in place for at least the past 4 months at WDW, there are so very few reports of difficulties exiting a queue. If there is a specific queue that concerns you, raise the concern when asking the CM at the entrance about AQR.

Many guests do find that purchasing LLMP/LLSP is helpful, with or without DAS. If short queues are the goal, that is an option available for anyone to purchase.

Do I have to sign up for the AQR or is that something anyone can do, I just walk up and tell them what I need? Should I still go through the DAS process?

 

[lanejudy]

Do I have to sign up for the AQR or is that something anyone can do, I just walk up and tell them what I need? Should I still go through the DAS process?

No sign up for AQR. It’s is available to any guest. As PPs suggest, something as simple as “I may need to leave the queue with my child, what do we need to do to return?”

There is no harm in trying to request DAS.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

We just did ours for the second time since the changes for little dude. It took about 15 minutes to get on the video chat and approximately 30 seconds for her to ask to take his picture. I mean you can look at little dude and see yeah this dude in a line is not a good idea. Little Dude is fond of eloping once he gets excited. She asked if there had been any changes since the last time. I said no and the call was done. Now AP holders are getting 270 days as of last Tuesday.

 

[keishashadow]

Just to clarify... WDW will not suggest purchasing LLMP/LLSP as an accommodation.

And if the applicant mentions it, they have been quick to clarify that it may be helpful but, is specifically not a DAS accommodation

Assume practice of originally suggesting it to many who were denied was tweaked after receiving pushback/legal review.

 

[lanejudy]

Assume practice of originally suggesting it to many who were denied was tweaked after receiving pushback/legal review.

With all due respect, we don’t know there has been any change. Those early reports of DAS denial were very negative. I honestly don’t believe anyone was told G+ had to be purchased as accommodation, only that it as an option. It has been listed as an optional service on the DAS website since the change (and wording still hasn’t updated to LLMP/SP).

 

[PrincessV]

About the topic of the new DAS “secret menu” (my words, not Disney’s) providing DAS approval for 240 (270? I’ve seen both reported just to add to the confusion) days instead of 120…

As of today, the website still references “120 days or length of ticket, whichever is shorter.” Reports in the other thread say that CMs have been telling people it’s been changed to 240 (270 sometimes) days for APs and DVC members.

No argument from me: needing APs to reapply every 60 days never made sense to me. I did think 120 was pretty arbitrary, and 240/270 feels equally so. Why not just make the DAS expiration coincide with your AP expiration?? Under the new rules governing DAS approval the types of needs getting approval aren’t the kinds of things magically going away or changing every 60, 120, or 240/270 days - it would be easier for everyone involved to combine expiration dates, I think.

But Disney rarely does things like this without a reason, right? It makes me wonder. Disney never ceases to surprise me after all these years, and every time they do something that seems really weird in the moment, there comes a future “Oooooh, I get it now” something-or-other down the road making it all make sense.

Anyway, no - I haven’t entered a new chat to ask if my DAS that was approved just before this change can be adjusted to 240 (270?!) days. I’d like to see the website updated first to have something to point to other than “Some DISers have said…” That and I kinda had my fill with my own bizarre-o interview x2 experience and need some time to recover lol!

 

[jennab]

About the topic of the new DAS “secret menu” (my words, not Disney’s) providing DAS approval for 240 (270? I’ve seen both reported just to add to the confusion) days instead of 120…

As of today, the website still references “120 days or length of ticket, whichever is shorter.” Reports in the other thread say that CMs have been telling people it’s been changed to 240 (270 sometimes) days for APs and DVC members.

No argument from me: needing APs to reapply every 6 days never made sense to me. I did think 120 was pretty arbitrary, and 240/270 feels equally so. Why not just make the DAS expiration coincide with your AP expiration?? Under the new rules governing DAS approval the types of needs getting approval aren’t the kinds of things magically going away or changing every 60, 120, or 240/270 days - it would be easier for everyone involved to combine expiration dates, I think.

But Disney rarely does things like this without a reason, right? It makes me wonder. Disney never ceases to surprise me after all these years, and every time they do something that seems really weird in the moment, there comes a future “Oooooh, I get it now” something-or-other down the road making it all make sense.

Anyway, no - I haven’t entered a new chat to ask if my DAS that was approved just before this change can be adjusted to 240 (270?!) days. I’d like to see the website updated first to have something to point to other than “Some DISers have said…” That and I kinda had my fill with my own bizarre-o interview x2 experience and need some time to recover lol!

I mean some peoples situations could change, particularly children as some may learn coping mechanisms and no longer require DAS at some point. I’m sure there are others out there too where situations could improve/change with therapy and additional supports.

I initially thought they were scrutinizing APs more, but now I’ve been hearing about a lot more approvals. Either because most of the APs jumped on board and applied right away and were denied or people are already starting to catch on to what needs to be said (hopefully not, but I’m starting to think so).

 

[PrincessV]

I mean some peoples situations could change, particularly children as some may learn coping mechanisms and no longer require DAS at some point. I’m sure there are others out there too where situations could improve/change with therapy and additional supports.

Fair - but then why change it from 120 days to 240 in the first place? What data indicates that disabilities are likely to change significantly enough to change DAS status in 240 days, but not 120?

That’s not a real question, BTW, and totally not directed at you, personally! I have absolutely nothing to base it on other than watching how big corporations do business, but I don’t think the change in length of approval has anything to do how frequently they expect people’s disabilities to change, and has everything to do with not wanting to pay salaries to keep interviewing a whole group of people over and over. 60, 120, 240ish days - all seem pretty arbitrary to me, other than maybe setting internal benchmarks at which to measure call volume vs. scheduling.

I initially thought they were scrutinizing APs more, but now I’ve been hearing about a lot more approvals. Either because most of the APs jumped on board and applied right away and were denied or people are already starting to catch on to what needs to be said (hopefully not, but I’m starting to think so).

I suspect they were maybe tough on APs to start in an attempt to weed out the abusers and have now found that those APs applying/reapplying are mostly folks who will legitimately need DAS for the length of their APs. I didn’t call in the early weeks of the new program, so I didn’t have any experience with how interviews were going then. I can say that the two I had recently asked no questions of me… but I offered a whole lot of detail from the start and they let me roll with it. In-person in the before times, I’d generally be cut off (nicely!) long before I got into that much detail. I think it’s probably less about abusers learning the lingo and more about experienced APs realizing they need to provide a lot more info than CMs wanted in the past.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Fair - but then why change it from 120 days to 240 in the first place? What data indicates that disabilities are likely to change significantly enough to change DAS status in 240 days, but not 120?

That’s not a real question, BTW, and totally not directed at you, personally! I have absolutely nothing to base it on other than watching how big corporations do business, but I don’t think the change in length of approval has anything to do how frequently they expect people’s disabilities to change, and has everything to do with not wanting to pay salaries to keep interviewing a whole group of people over and over. 60, 120, 240ish days - all seem pretty arbitrary to me, other than maybe setting internal benchmarks at which to measure call volume vs. scheduling.

Really any date is arbitrary even ones made for cancelation or refund or changes, etc but I do get the questioning why and I couldn't tell you about APs. But DVC 240 days would be over 7 months which might help cover the 7 month rule though it won't cover the 11 month rule for home resorts but that's something I wondered about by lumping DVC in. Random thoughts here on that connection.

I think it was to be expected to be wide application in the beginning only to be able to fine tune it later on, I mean they need experience to know patterns. Sure they needed to hire people to take the initial increase in phone calls but to decide to increase approval period doubling it (I'm not sure if the 270 days mentioned on the other thread was a typo or not) just to save on salaries...eh...I wouldn't speculate it was them trying to reduce how many people they pay, people have to be on call during the hours the line is open regardless.

Having worked in a call center at least the one I did estimated phone call volume a year in advance which helped them on staffing levels based on 15 min increments and interacted with PTO bids done in October and November of the year prior with an anticipated phone time of 8 mins or less (meaning they wanted you done with the phone call in 8 mins or less). That's just me using an example that staffing levels are something that take much more into account than salaries (you'd see them lay off people only to hire new ones at a cheaper rate if they were looking to save a buck and only that and companies do do that; not to be construed as that's what Disney does).

 

[jennab]

Fair - but then why change it from 120 days to 240 in the first place? What data indicates that disabilities are likely to change significantly enough to change DAS status in 240 days, but not 120?

That’s not a real question, BTW, and totally not directed at you, personally! I have absolutely nothing to base it on other than watching how big corporations do business, but I don’t think the change in length of approval has anything to do how frequently they expect people’s disabilities to change, and has everything to do with not wanting to pay salaries to keep interviewing a whole group of people over and over. 60, 120, 240ish days - all seem pretty arbitrary to me, other than maybe setting internal benchmarks at which to measure call volume vs. scheduling.

I suspect they were maybe tough on APs to start in an attempt to weed out the abusers and have now found that those APs applying/reapplying are mostly folks who will legitimately need DAS for the length of their APs. I didn’t call in the early weeks of the new program, so I didn’t have any experience with how interviews were going then. I can say that the two I had recently asked no questions of me… but I offered a whole lot of detail from the start and they let me roll with it. In-person in the before times, I’d generally be cut off (nicely!) long before I got into that much detail. I think it’s probably less about abusers learning the lingo and more about experienced APs realizing they need to provide a lot more info than CMs wanted in the past.

Good points. I would have assumed they would just go with 6mo, so 180 days

 

[PrincessV]

Good points. I would have assumed they would just go with 6mo, so 180 days

I had the same thought initially - I also thought why not 90 instead of 120? Then it would be a quarterly thing! For some reason, every 4 months feels so awkward to me lol! Just for some extra fun, my 120-day expiration date? Lands on the last park day of a planned trip. So any way I slice it, I’ll need to contact them about extending or reapplying or whatever they want me to do before my current approval period ends. I knew that date seemed familiar when the CM told me, but didn’t connect the why until I went to put it on a calendar.

 

[disney2025]

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[keishashadow]

With all due respect, we don’t know there has been any change.

Not first hand. Just going by multiple anecdotal accounts elsewhere Of those who insisted that genie+ was suggested upon denial.

Our party's experience of not much more than a week ago was very different.

We brought up genie+ and were quickly told that is not part of DAS nor were they suggesting to purchase it if denied. However, it's an option

Could've originally been a matter of semantics, with people interpreting their interviews out of context or not

All I'm saying is DAS was very clear when I brought it up...a good thing

 

[HavendishSquare]

I have a birthday trip planned next month and my DAS expires at the end of this month. I called to renew this morning and was denied. I’m autistic and was approved under the new changes in May. I explained the same issues I had in the last call. This time they asked several more questions after I explained, unlike before.

I’m pretty disappointed, but honestly I’m more concerned about the fact that I somehow missed my AP has blockout dates during my trip, so now we need to figure that out…

Edit:
I also want to add that this CM was very kind and professional when letting me know I had not been approved. I was denied once under the old DAS when I did not provide enough information and it felt like the CM was being very condescending. Hopefully this means they have better training or are hiring people more appropriate for this position. Or she simply could have just been good at softening the blow haha.

 

[jennab]

I have a birthday trip planned next month and my DAS expires at the end of this month. I called to renew this morning and was denied. I’m autistic and was approved under the new changes in May. I explained the same issues I had in the last call. This time they asked several more questions after I explained, unlike before.

I’m pretty disappointed, but honestly I’m more concerned about the fact that I somehow missed my AP has blockout dates during my trip, so now we need to figure that out…

Edit:
I also want to add that this CM was very kind and professional when letting me know I had not been approved. I was denied once under the old DAS when I did not provide enough information and it felt like the CM was being very condescending. Hopefully this means they have better training or are hiring people more appropriate for this position. Or she simply could have just been good at softening the blow haha.

Interesting. So maybe the first CM didn’t ask as many detailed questions. Did you apply right after the changes? Maybe they now realize they need to ask more detailed questions.

 

[HavendishSquare]

Interesting. So maybe the first CM didn’t ask as many detailed questions. Did you apply right after the changes? Maybe they now realize they need to ask more detailed questions.

I applied about a week or two after the changes went into effect.

I get thrown off guard when asked questions I’m not expecting and I feel like I didn’t explain myself well enough this time. Part of me wants to try calling back again, but I also don’t want to keep pestering them.

 

[jennab]

I applied about a week or two after the changes went into effect.

I get thrown off guard when asked questions I’m not expecting and I feel like I didn’t explain myself well enough this time. Part of me wants to try calling back again, but I also don’t want to keep pestering them.

So the first time they didn’t ask you in depth questions, such as how you handle situations or what happens in line? Did you just give a diagnosis the first time and that was it? Just seems odd as I had heard they were asking a lot more questions after the switch.

 

[HavendishSquare]

So the first time they didn’t ask you in depth questions, such as how you handle situations or what happens in line? Did you just give a diagnosis the first time and that was it? Just seems odd as I had heard they were asking a lot more questions after the switch.

First time I explained my issues (my explanation covered what happens in lines) and then they asked me what coping strategies do I have in place to wait in lines. This time they also asked about how I handle waiting in lines outside the park and what (if any) accommodations I receive elsewhere.

 

[jennab]

First time I explained my issues (my explanation covered what happens in lines) and then they asked me what coping strategies do I have in place to wait in lines. This time they also asked about how I handle waiting in lines outside the park and what (if any) accommodations I receive elsewhere.

Interesting. I had heard they were asking those extra questions during first calls, but sounds like somehow they missed asking you those.