DAS differences at WDW vs. DLR?

[Jperiod]

We've been using the DAS at DLR but are going to WDW this fall. I read the FAQs, but just want to clarify so I plan our parks and FP+ as well as I can...

Edited because I found the WDW digital thread:

Return times are given at the front of rides at WDW. Are there kiosks as well where we can get a time for any ride in the park (like DLR)? Or can we get a return time for a DIFFERENT ride at the entrance of any ride?

10 minutes are subtracted from the time for travel. How are rides with 10-15 minute waits handled? Since DLR uses only kiosks, we always got a return time because we didn't know what the wait would be by time we got over there. If there was a 15 minute wait, the CMs would still only subtract the allotted 10 minute travel time (which was fine, just need to know so we can prep DS).

 

[SueM in MN]

We've been using the DAS at DLR but are going to WDW this fall. I read the FAQs, but just want to clarify so I plan our parks and FP+ as well as I can...

Edited because I found the WDW digital thread:

Return times are given at the front of rides at WDW.

Yes. In general, you will be approaching the CM at the Standby entrance to get a Return Time. At some attractions, it will be at the Fastpass entrance. Look for a CM holding a thick iPhone like device or an iPad.

You can get a DAS Return Time at any attraction which offers Fastpass. The main things DAS does not apply to is character meet and greets that are outside because they don't have Fastpass.
There were times in our visit when the scanners find not work. They were pretty well organized for that and just gave us a paper Fastpass when that happened.

Are there kiosks as well where we can get a time for any ride in the park (like DLR)? Or can we get a return time for a DIFFERENT ride at the entrance of any ride?

No, to both questions.

You may see or hear about kiosks at WDW, but they are for Fastpass Plus, not for DAS.
You WILL be able to make 3 Fastpass Plus times in advance. This is in addition to DAS, and DAS works best used with your Fastpases.
After you have used all 3 of the pre-scheduled Fastpasses, you can use the kiosks to make more Fastpass arrangements, one at a time.

10 minutes are subtracted from the time for travel. How are rides with 10-15 minute waits handled? Since DLR uses only kiosks, we always got a return time because we didn't know what the wait would be by time we got over there. If there was a 15 minute wait, the CMs would still only subtract the allotted 10 minute travel time (which was fine, just need to know so we can prep DS).

In general, for rides with 10-15 minute waits, you will be just entering the attraction. Depending on the attraction, you may enter the Fastpass line or be sent to the regular Standby line. One difference at WDW compared to Disneyland is that almost every WDW attraction has Fastpass available. Usually, you will go into the Fastpass line, but there may occasionally be situations where Fastpass is not available and you are sent into the regular line.

We just got back from WDW and using the electronic DAS 17 days ago. In the past, when DAS times were hand written, the CM could write a time valid for 'now' if the wait was 20 minutes or less.
We just entered the Standby line for attractions with short waits, so I am not sure how that would work with the electronic DAS.
WDW has an electronic app called My Disney Experience that is available for Apple (iOS) and Android devices. You can use the app to view current Standby wait times, your Fastpasses and your DAS Return Times. Since electronic DAS had just started, we were told our daughter's DAS times should show in the app, but might not always. We had no trouble personally, but some other people did.

Two other things to be aware of:
- DAS Return times for attractions have a beginning time that you must return after. You can return any time after that on that day. The DAS Return Time will expire at midnight (or when the park closes for the day).

- DAS Return Times for shows are for a specific show time, so they do have a beginning and an end time window.

 

[Jperiod]

LOL, just when your kid gets used to one system... Of course WDW's system has to be different than DLR's! Oh well, good chance to practice "changes in routine." Hopefully DH will be flexible as well!

 

[SueM in MN]

There are good reasons for the differences (which I know probably won't make a difference to your child, but at least you will know why it's not the same).

WDW has Fastpass at most attractions, which means they have staff stationed there to handle both Standby and Fastpass lines. Most attractions are also handicapped accessible through both the Fastpass and Standby entrances.
WDW is also much less compact than Disneyland.
All of those things made it more logical to give out the DAS Return Times at attractions.

Disneyland having more separate handicapped entrances and being much tighter on space made it important to try to keep people away from attractions to avoid getting too much congestion and crowds at the attractions. So, it was more logical to have centralized kiosks there.

 

[Jperiod]

In my ideal disney experience (Disney, are you listening? ), there'd be the ability to get return times at both rides and kiosks (or at least, a time for ANY ride at ride entrances). Though DLR is compact, it's still a lot of walking, and it's nice to get a time for the next area you're heading to and mosey your way over. And the kiosks are kiosks -- no faking out DS, thinking he's gonna ride something, but just kidding, we're just getting a return time (or hiding and having to run over to a ride entrance when DS doesn't see me!). With the large size of WDW, I'm suprised they make you walk to each ride for the time, potentially traveling to/from each ride twice for one unfortunate member of the family! It's gonna help me justify all the pretzels I'm gonna eat!

 

[doitall]

We live in Orlando and are AP holders here with my HF ASD son. We just returned from a 4 day visit at DLR (amazing 60th Anniversary stuff BTW). Their DAS system worked so well for us. They used centralized kiosks to get return times with saved a lot of walking and crowds at the entrance. We talked with some CM about our WiFi issues in AK (for example) and they said that their remote devices they use to scan the passes are now on a cellular network instead of WiFi. Since that conversion, they said that their connectivity issues (which are our only issues at WDW) are solved. We had an AMAZING experience at DLR and wish that WDW would adopt some of their DAS practices. It is a work in progress but I think DLR is doing it right. (BTW, we were there two years ago and never even used the DAS because the lines would be longer. those issues seem to be largely resolved now)

 

[PatMcDuck]

"WDW is also much less compact than Disneyland.....those things made it more logical to give out the DAS Return Times at attractions."

I feel that because WDW IS so spread out, that the kiosks would be a fantastic help. Walking all the way up to an attraction, getting a return time, then leaving the area to rest or do something else, is harder at WDW, not easier. I love the DL kiosks, where you can get a DAS for any ride, at either park.

That said, with FP+, and 3 things booked in advance, we do not use the DAS as much at WDW (except at MK).

 

[SueM in MN]

"WDW is also much less compact than Disneyland.....those things made it more logical to give out the DAS Return Times at attractions."

I feel that because WDW IS so spread out, that the kiosks would be a fantastic help. Walking all the way up to an attraction, getting a return time, then leaving the area to rest or do something else, is harder at WDW, not easier. I love the DL kiosks, where you can get a DAS for any ride, at either park.

That said, with FP+, and 3 things booked in advance, we do not use the DAS as much at WDW (except at MK).

I didn't mean it in any way except that the small size of DL means there is little space for having people come up to attractions.
It's already tight and adding in people needing to come to the individual attractions would make more congestion.

Many people are reporting the same experience with being able to use Fastpass Plus at WDW decreasing their need to use DAS. We could seldom get Fastpasses the old way at WDW, where you went up to the attraction and got Fastpasses. The ones for popular ones were almost always gone or even if you got there fairly early, were often so far out that we were quite sure we would no longer be in the park. Being able to preschedule Fastpasses was a game changer.

 

[cmwade77]

I didn't mean it in any way except that the small size of DL means there is little space for having people come up to attractions.
It's already tight and adding in people needing to come to the individual attractions would make more congestion.

Many people are reporting the same experience with being able to use Fastpass Plus at WDW decreasing their need to use DAS. We could seldom get Fastpasses the old way at WDW, where you went up to the attraction and got Fastpasses. The ones for popular ones were almost always gone or even if you got there fairly early, were often so far out that we were quite sure we would no longer be in the park. Being able to preschedule Fastpasses was a game changer.

But at DLR, FPs are available for most attractions until almost park closing, but I do like the idea of not having to go all the way to the attraction to get a FP, but really FP+ would never work at DLR due to demographics, at least not the prescheduling. They could do something like get your first three when you arrive in the morning, but given the number of passholders who go at the drop of a hat, almost all would end up prebooking just in case they were going to go and then not show up. It would be a logistics nightmare.

I also wish WDW would abandon doing prebooked FPs, they cause a lot of headache, of course I also think that dining reservations should be no more than 60 days in advance with a certain percentage of tables reserved for walkups or same day reservations, like at Disneyland.

But, yes by strategically combining FPs & DAS return times, you can minimize (not eliminate) backtracking. There are better ways that Disney could handle the DAS, that would still be fair to all and yet eliminate the backtracking and make waittimes virtually equal (instead of about 10-15 minutes longer than everyone else as it stands now, especially at Disneyland), but that's another story all together.

 

[clanmcculloch]

At WDW we're among those who hardly needed our DAS thanks to FP+. For our upcoming DL trip we'll need to use the DAS more than at WDW. We have limited park time per day so FPs that have return times in the afternoon are useless to us. We have to stay behind the RD crowd so by the ti.e we get to headliners the FPs are farther out in the day that we'll be in the parks. At WDW I just booked FP+ for them and we casually stolled in. It was great. At DL we'll have to use the DAS for those rides even with a really good touring plan. I do like the kiosk idea at DL. Looking forward to it.

 

[SueM in MN]

At WDW we're among those who hardly needed our DAS thanks to FP+. For our upcoming DL trip we'll need to use the DAS more than at WDW. We have limited park time per day so FPs that have return times in the afternoon are useless to us. We have to stay behind the RD crowd so by the ti.e we get to headliners the FPs are farther out in the day that we'll be in the parks. At WDW I just booked FP+ for them and we casually stolled in. It was great. At DL we'll have to use the DAS for those rides even with a really good touring plan. I do like the kiosk idea at DL. Looking forward to it.

we had the same experience at WDW and have made 5 trips using Fastpasses Plus.
They hold a certain number of Fastpass slots available for day of visit, so we have been able quite a few times to get or change times of Fastpasses for high demand attractions.

We also found that having the ability to pre-arrange Fastpass Plus at WDW really decreased our need to use DAS.
Many people on this board, other forums and Facebook pages for people with disabilities have posted the same experience. In fact, quite a few who expected to use DAS a lot actually didn't use it at all or hardly used it.
So, for most guests, Fastpass Plus has worked out very well.

We tried to use the old 'come up to the attraction and see if you can get a Fastpass' as much as possible, but it often didn't work - either there were no more Fastpasses left or the ones that were available were for way longer than we would be in the park. The old Fastpasses for high demand attractions were often either all gone or for far into the evening by soon after rope drop.

 

[Baklava]

But at DLR, FPs are available for most attractions until almost park closing, but I do like the idea of not having to go all the way to the attraction to get a FP, but really FP+ would never work at DLR due to demographics, at least not the prescheduling. They could do something like get your first three when you arrive in the morning, but given the number of passholders who go at the drop of a hat, almost all would end up prebooking just in case they were going to go and then not show up. It would be a logistics nightmare.

There seem to be a lot more attractions at WDW that have fast pass. We're long time DLers and a lot of the stuff that is at both WDW and DL is FP+ eligible at WDW but not at DL. Dumbo, Small World, Tea cups... none of those are FastPass rides in California. It's really a totally different system, isn't it?

 

[SueM in MN]

There seem to be a lot more attractions at WDW that have fast pass. We're long time DLers and a lot of the stuff that is at both WDW and DL is FP+ eligible at WDW but not at DL. Dumbo, Small World, Tea cups... none of those are FastPass rides in California. It's really a totally different system, isn't it?

WDW had more things to start with that had Fastpass.
As they transitioned from the regular Fastpass program to Fastpass Plus, they made more and more attractions Fastpass Plus, even if they did not originally have Fastpass. Now most everything is Fastpass Plus, so WDW is a lot different than DL