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

[Disturbia]

So if you’re not a passholder then DAS is only good through the last day of your ticket?

The party setup for DAS (we gone needs tickets) cannot be modified once set.

So what if we decide to add tickets to our package while we are there (will probably have 5-6 day park hopper tickets on a 10 night WDW resort package).

 

[Disneychick75]

So if you’re not a passholder then DAS is only good through the last day of your ticket?

The party setup for DAS (we gone needs tickets) cannot be modified once set.

So what if we decide to add tickets to our package while we are there (will probably have 5-6 day park hopper tickets on a 10 night WDW resort package).

I'd call and check about adding the extra days or you could email them: disability.services@disneyparks.com.
I found this on a google search:
"As of May 20, 2024, DAS is valid for the length of your ticket or 120 days, whichever is shorter."

 

[mickeyluv'r]

You seem to be taking my comment out of the context of what I replied to..

What I said is that WDW has slow periods. I wasn't commenting on 95% of your post, just that WDW has slow time periods.

nothing about people being stupid
nothing about replacing DAS in less than 3 days
or... nothing about the rest of what you wrote after that.


Except I did say big part Disney changing DAS now is because they felt they had to curb DAS abuse before Tiana's opens. That's what I have heard from Disney folks I trust.

 

[lanejudy]

So if you’re not a passholder then DAS is only good through the last day of your ticket?

The party setup for DAS (we gone needs tickets) cannot be modified once set.

So what if we decide to add tickets to our package while we are there (will probably have 5-6 day park hopper tickets on a 10 night WDW resort package).

I have no doubt they'll have a way to extend the DAS if you add days while there. We just haven't heard reports of that yet.

I did read 1 report that someone was able to add (or maybe change?) party members at a blue umbrella. I don't know if that was a unique situation, maybe approved under old rules, because someone else was told they would need to reconnect to the video chat. Hopefully more clarity on this comes out soon.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I have no doubt they'll have a way to extend the DAS if you add days while there. We just haven't heard reports of that yet.

I did read 1 report that someone was able to add (or maybe change?) party members at a blue umbrella. I don't know if that was a unique situation, maybe approved under old rules, because someone else was told they would need to reconnect to the video chat. Hopefully more clarity on this comes out soon.

We are still partially under the “old rules” so I would definitely not rely on being able to add people at the guest relations lines based on what Disney has shared— we are already seeing people discuss how they plan to leave off members of their traveling party before their next trip in hopes they can get DAS by pretending to be a smaller group instead of being told they can use AQR with the able bodied adults waiting until the merge point… I think there are a variety of reasons Disney wants to make it harder to modify parties and also remove control/abuse from front line CMs…. and while that seems inconsistent with the possible existence of RTQ, at least RTQ is for one return (and probably no more than DASholder and caregiver/minors).

 

[VroomVroomLightning]

I don't know if someone is allowed to answer this or not. Both of our boys have Autism and from my everyday living with these boys I know they qualify and they have an Autism diagnosis. Has anyone with children with Autism been denied since the new "rules" were released?

 

[Disturbia]

I don't know if someone is allowed to answer this or not. Both of our boys have Autism and from my everyday living with these boys I know they qualify and they have an Autism diagnosis. Has anyone with children with Autism been denied since the new "rules" were released?

I’ve read of reports of people being denied despite diagnosis AND having been approved prior (the other actual experiences thread). It depends on how it impacts their ability to stand in line.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-20-wdw-6-18-dl.3946534/page-11#post-65529778

 

[dreamer17555]

I don't know if someone is allowed to answer this or not. Both of our boys have Autism and from my everyday living with these boys I know they qualify and they have an Autism diagnosis. Has anyone with children with Autism been denied since the new "rules" were released?

Sadly yes I have heard of those with Austim being denied. Be prepared to explain in detail what their needs are and what happens in long lines and why they need DAS.

 

[only hope]

I don't know if someone is allowed to answer this or not. Both of our boys have Autism and from my everyday living with these boys I know they qualify and they have an Autism diagnosis. Has anyone with children with Autism been denied since the new "rules" were released?

Yes, because it is not a diagnosis that qualifies anyone, but the need. Some people with autism are able to queue. That being said, it does seem they are denying people who should be approved. They won’t want to hear the diagnosis for your children. Just the reasons they can’t queue, and probably in more detail than in the past if this isn’t your first time applying.

 

[nalababybear]

Adults with ASD who are relatively independent are the ones that seem to be more selective than the younger ones.

 

[pmcpmc]

I don't know if someone is allowed to answer this or not. Both of our boys have Autism and from my everyday living with these boys I know they qualify and they have an Autism diagnosis. Has anyone with children with Autism been denied since the new "rules" were released?

 

[TwoHeartsBeat]

How difficult was it when people had to travel from ride to ride to request a time for each ride? I suspect the ease of just tapping on phone played a big part in the number of fake DAS.

The only thing difficult about it was walking across the park, but anyone in the party could walk to the ride to request the time once the person was approved for the DAS pass. I do wonder if it would be more difficult for us now, since I was the one that would walk across the park, because my legs were better, but now I get bad heat rash from over exertion, so have to stay at a slower pace to avoid it.

This new system seems like it might be a mess if the person that needs a return time has to go to each ride to explain why they need it.

 

[jo-jo]

The only thing difficult about it was walking across the park, but anyone in the party could walk to the ride to request the time once the person was approved for the DAS pass. I do wonder if it would be more difficult for us now, since I was the one that would walk across the park, because my legs were better, but now I get bad heat rash from over exertion, so have to stay at a slower pace to avoid it.

This new system seems like it might be a mess if the person that needs a return time has to go to each ride to explain why they need it.

For us, two old slow moving people, the return time would work for us. We don't go on that many rides, so if we went to Buzz and it was come back in 60 mins, we'd stay in the area with snack, potty, people mover. Haunted mountain, snack , potty, hall of presidents. Jungle cruise, dole whip, potty. dole whip. We would pass time on our phones, reading or playing a game or people watching. Like that baby is going to lose a shoe soon or I hope that kid's parent has lots of baby wipes with that ice cream cone, or remember when our kids screamed like that.

But I would hope it's noted in account. To tell every CM I need this because this might happen can be embarrassing.

 

[Evita_W]

We are still partially under the “old rules” so I would definitely not rely on being able to add people at the guest relations lines based on what Disney has shared— we are already seeing people discuss how they plan to leave off members of their traveling party before their next trip in hopes they can get DAS by pretending to be a smaller group instead of being told they can use AQR with the able bodied adults waiting until the merge point… I think there are a variety of reasons Disney wants to make it harder to modify parties and also remove control/abuse from front line CMs…. and while that seems inconsistent with the possible existence of RTQ, at least RTQ is for one return (and probably no more than DASholder and caregiver/minors).

I like the concept of being able to add all of your friends and family to your DAS that are linked in as friends and family, but only 4 can use a return time at any given time. I mean, even if you have a party of 7 or 8, how often does everyone ride a particular ride together? Many times there will be some in that group who either won’t want to or can’t ride a particular attraction, but will ride others that some others in the group won’t. Then filling in with RTQ, ILL, Genie+ and/or Rider Swap as applicable for those few attractions where everyone will want to ride makes sense. And fro WDW, the reports I have been seeing are this is how they are setting this up, I don’t know how that will play out at DLR since they don’t have the same friends and family system setup like WDW does.

 

[diablodancer]

Whilst I’m unfortunately still seeing a number of people saying they’ve had trouble locating cast members to get out of line, saw this positive report about how it’s working for larger groups of adults that I thought this thread would find useful:

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I mean, even if you have a party of 7 or 8, how often does everyone ride a particular ride together? Many times there will be some in that group who either won’t want to or can’t ride a particular attraction, but will ride others that some others in the group won’t.

Isn't this the exact situation that AQR is designed for? Parties of 7-8 where most can wait in a line? If some members of the group aren't going on a particular ride, the person who can't handle the line can hang out with them until the others who ARE going to ride to get to the "meetup" point of the queue.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Whilst I’m unfortunately still seeing a number of people saying they’ve had trouble locating cast members to get out of line, saw this positive report about how it’s working for larger groups of adults that I thought this thread would find useful:
View attachment 865493

I would think this was also a good circumstance for AQR for 2 people, not DAS for 4 people. It seems so inconsistent.

 

[StarCruzer]

Whilst I’m unfortunately still seeing a number of people saying they’ve had trouble locating cast members to get out of line, saw this positive report about how it’s working for larger groups of adults that I thought this thread would find useful:
View attachment 865493

This isn't a terrible idea. But you're still going to run into the problem that Disney is hoping to avoid...which is essentially paying a "tour guide" to stand in line for your group.

I'm probably alone in this opinion, but I think it would help to simply limit the number of times you can use the DAS per day. Without going into my medical reasons (as advised by folks here) the issue that necessitates the DAS for me also prevents me from being in the park for more than maybe 5 hours max. This of course could be an incorrect assumption, but someone who struggles in a line that's longer than 30 minutes would likely also struggle to stay in the park for a full day.

This would of course be a much more reasonable solution if Disney hadn't cut so many of the streetmosphere/roaming entertainment options in WDW (Great Moments in History, Citizens of Hollywood, parade reductions, wandering robots/characters).

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's a true solution that would both prevent abuse (for being too generous) or open Disney up to an expensive lawsuit (implying that guests need to prove a disability through medical documentation).

 

[PrincessV]

Maybe it’s just that I wasn’t paying close attention for a couple days and catching up makes it feel like more, but I swear there’s been a big uptick in people reporting they’d been denied DAS and told to use RTQ. And they’ve been very clear that it was RTQ, not AQR, the DAS CMs are telling them to use. Equally clear, though, is that attractions CMs aren't obligated to actually give anyone RTQ, and there have also been a fair number of reports from people asking in the parks and being denied, with some variation of AQR being offered instead. I still haven’t seen anyone actually provided with RTQ.

The impression I get as an overarching theme is that if you don’t meet whatever criteria is needed for DAS, but you’ll possibly or even probably not be able to stay in some SB lines, AND you’ll be visiting with people* who can wait in lines, AQR is your “accommodation” - which may be all of you waiting in line until you need to leave, and meeting back up after the rest of your group finishes waiting and you rejoin them to ride; or you skipping the line entirely while your group waits in line and meeting up with them to ride when it’s time.

To add to the general weirdness, I’ve now seen a couple reports of the DAS CMs giving out what I guess are basically the equivalent of FP/G+/FP+ freebies to people who are denied DAS - like a couple free LL entries per day.

*Circling back to the theory of if you’ll be with other people who can do the waiting in line, you don’t need DAS… I’ll admit that I’m tempted to dump my friends off my F&F list. Because they aren’t members of my “traveling party”: I’m an AP local and so are they - we’re F&F mostly because sometimes a couple of us manage to be in the same park at the same time and it’s nice to have one person get us into a VQ if the others are busy. But if a DAS CM is going to look at my F&F list and assume those people will always be with me and use that to deny DAS, it’s not worth keeping them there since I’m solo most of the time.

 

[nalababybear]

Whilst I’m unfortunately still seeing a number of people saying they’ve had trouble locating cast members to get out of line, saw this positive report about how it’s working for larger groups of adults that I thought this thread would find useful:
View attachment 865493

Essentially AQR. 2.0