Lugan
Double double coaster
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2018
- Messages
- 50
My family returned to Disneyland last week for the first time in over 8 years. We've been to WDW many times since that 2013 trip to DL. That July, 2013 trip was my first experience utilizing DAS, and it was the only time I experienced the old paper-card system.
Anyway, I was a bit concerned about how it would work in DL, with no magic band or Fastpass+ back-end propping up DAS. Now, this write-up will probably go out of date soon enough, with Genie+ rolling out to the west coast soon enough. But in the interim, this might help any of you DASney veterans of WDW heading out to DL.
Getting the DAS was a bit less convenient at DL than at WDW. In times past, I could go the evening before to the guest relations outside of the park at WDW, and get it activated. But, at DL, there were no such opportunities, so I had to wait until our first morning in the park. There was a long line at the front of main street in DL, but the CM helping triage people informed me that I could go to any of their guest relations kiosks throughout the park. So, off to tomorrowland, as we wanted to hit up that area first. Unfortunately, the kiosk there was still about a 30 minute wait. Thankfully, a pair of CMs were strolling around the park and noticed that this kiosk was severely backed up, so started to help churn through the queue. It's frustrating to be waiting there watching somebody struggling to get their mobile food order entered, with a CM's help, taking time to decide what they want to order, etc. Another in my long list of complaints about the mobile food order system taking over.
Explaining my situation was easy enough, and the CM was able to add it to my 4-day park hopper ticket. He had a bit of an issue getting the device to work properly giving me my first DAS time of the day, and it ended up bumping out by ~ 10 minutes by the time we were done. Really, this is a poor experience, and I am looking forward to the promise of getting this added ahead of time via video chat. The whole concept of making one stand in a line for 30-40 minutes to get a pass because they are incapable of standing in line for extended periods of time epitomizes some of the poor quality control that is apparent here. I told my wife, Disney Parks is large enough that they should have somebody who's job it is to do sanity checks on these decisions and flag them for change when they are as hypocritical as this.
The rest of day #1 at DL was fairly uneventful. I learned that in Disneyland, you can get your DAS time from the queue of the ride as well as the 4 guest relations kiosks, which is helpful if you're heading across the park, for instance, or if there's a long line at the guest relations kiosk.
We spent the afternoon in DCA, and here's where it gets interesting. DCA doesn't provide return times at the ride queues. You can only get them at their 4 kiosks. This is a big failure on Disney's part. This meant that if I was back in Radiator Springs, eating at Flo's, or riding Luigi's, I'd have to go to the entrance of the area to request a time to Radiator Springs Racers, then backtrack to the backside of the area to the ride. There are other attractions that are nowhere near one of the designated kiosks, which can be just as annoying. All in all, it certainly added up to a lot of extra walking, and frustration. You'd expect that these two parks, right across from each other would be consistent with each other. But they weren't.
Finally, I was quite annoyed with the announcement, while we were waiting to ride the Pixar Pal-Around (the big ferris wheel), telling everybody to finish their drinks and food, and to not bring it on the ride with them. This was to keep the cars clean. However, our experience last time visiting, we got stuck near the top for quite a while. Being a T1D, I was pretty adamant that I was not going to go onto this ride with the potential to get stuck up top with no sugar source so that somebody's job was a little easier. Again, I looked to my wife, saying that Disney really should have somebody that monitors announcements like this. Luckily, nothing was said about the bottle of sprite I held in my hands as we boarded our car.
Nothing else notable until our last day. At DCA in the morning, we obtained a web-slinger boarding group. But, the line for the groups being called was wrapped around the building. I checked with a CM at guest relations, and they told me when my BG was called to just flag down a CM at the attraction and speak with them about my accomodations. When time came, the CM, Rachel, pointed out that the line had died down substantially, and it should only be a few minutes to get me through it. I accepted this answer, and we went to wait in queue. About 5 minutes later, we still hadn't moved, standing in no shade on the warmest day of our trip, and I was getting a bit frustrated about Rachel's advice. However, not a minute or two later, she came down the line, found us standing there, and after waiting with us another minute or two, apologizing for the hold-up in processing the line, she went ahead and took us out of line and brought us in to the alternate entrance area and checked us in. I was thoroughly impressed by the extra care she showed to come and find me us and take care of us, especially as I fall in that category of not carrying an "obvious" visible disability, so I always am self-concious about the perception other's may have with me receiving the accomodation.
I made sure to mention her, by name, in my survey results, hopefully that gets back to her supervisors and she gets some praise for it. Overall, I think my experience with the DAS / DCA could have been better. I think the fact that the last time there, it was my first experience with a DAS makes me remember it as being much better / easier than it actually was, so this time was a little bit of a let down until that last day. I think that most of my complaints with the process there will be addressed by the unifcation with WDW and the Genie app method of managing DAS.
Anyway, I was a bit concerned about how it would work in DL, with no magic band or Fastpass+ back-end propping up DAS. Now, this write-up will probably go out of date soon enough, with Genie+ rolling out to the west coast soon enough. But in the interim, this might help any of you DASney veterans of WDW heading out to DL.
Getting the DAS was a bit less convenient at DL than at WDW. In times past, I could go the evening before to the guest relations outside of the park at WDW, and get it activated. But, at DL, there were no such opportunities, so I had to wait until our first morning in the park. There was a long line at the front of main street in DL, but the CM helping triage people informed me that I could go to any of their guest relations kiosks throughout the park. So, off to tomorrowland, as we wanted to hit up that area first. Unfortunately, the kiosk there was still about a 30 minute wait. Thankfully, a pair of CMs were strolling around the park and noticed that this kiosk was severely backed up, so started to help churn through the queue. It's frustrating to be waiting there watching somebody struggling to get their mobile food order entered, with a CM's help, taking time to decide what they want to order, etc. Another in my long list of complaints about the mobile food order system taking over.
Explaining my situation was easy enough, and the CM was able to add it to my 4-day park hopper ticket. He had a bit of an issue getting the device to work properly giving me my first DAS time of the day, and it ended up bumping out by ~ 10 minutes by the time we were done. Really, this is a poor experience, and I am looking forward to the promise of getting this added ahead of time via video chat. The whole concept of making one stand in a line for 30-40 minutes to get a pass because they are incapable of standing in line for extended periods of time epitomizes some of the poor quality control that is apparent here. I told my wife, Disney Parks is large enough that they should have somebody who's job it is to do sanity checks on these decisions and flag them for change when they are as hypocritical as this.
The rest of day #1 at DL was fairly uneventful. I learned that in Disneyland, you can get your DAS time from the queue of the ride as well as the 4 guest relations kiosks, which is helpful if you're heading across the park, for instance, or if there's a long line at the guest relations kiosk.
We spent the afternoon in DCA, and here's where it gets interesting. DCA doesn't provide return times at the ride queues. You can only get them at their 4 kiosks. This is a big failure on Disney's part. This meant that if I was back in Radiator Springs, eating at Flo's, or riding Luigi's, I'd have to go to the entrance of the area to request a time to Radiator Springs Racers, then backtrack to the backside of the area to the ride. There are other attractions that are nowhere near one of the designated kiosks, which can be just as annoying. All in all, it certainly added up to a lot of extra walking, and frustration. You'd expect that these two parks, right across from each other would be consistent with each other. But they weren't.
Finally, I was quite annoyed with the announcement, while we were waiting to ride the Pixar Pal-Around (the big ferris wheel), telling everybody to finish their drinks and food, and to not bring it on the ride with them. This was to keep the cars clean. However, our experience last time visiting, we got stuck near the top for quite a while. Being a T1D, I was pretty adamant that I was not going to go onto this ride with the potential to get stuck up top with no sugar source so that somebody's job was a little easier. Again, I looked to my wife, saying that Disney really should have somebody that monitors announcements like this. Luckily, nothing was said about the bottle of sprite I held in my hands as we boarded our car.
Nothing else notable until our last day. At DCA in the morning, we obtained a web-slinger boarding group. But, the line for the groups being called was wrapped around the building. I checked with a CM at guest relations, and they told me when my BG was called to just flag down a CM at the attraction and speak with them about my accomodations. When time came, the CM, Rachel, pointed out that the line had died down substantially, and it should only be a few minutes to get me through it. I accepted this answer, and we went to wait in queue. About 5 minutes later, we still hadn't moved, standing in no shade on the warmest day of our trip, and I was getting a bit frustrated about Rachel's advice. However, not a minute or two later, she came down the line, found us standing there, and after waiting with us another minute or two, apologizing for the hold-up in processing the line, she went ahead and took us out of line and brought us in to the alternate entrance area and checked us in. I was thoroughly impressed by the extra care she showed to come and find me us and take care of us, especially as I fall in that category of not carrying an "obvious" visible disability, so I always am self-concious about the perception other's may have with me receiving the accomodation.
I made sure to mention her, by name, in my survey results, hopefully that gets back to her supervisors and she gets some praise for it. Overall, I think my experience with the DAS / DCA could have been better. I think the fact that the last time there, it was my first experience with a DAS makes me remember it as being much better / easier than it actually was, so this time was a little bit of a let down until that last day. I think that most of my complaints with the process there will be addressed by the unifcation with WDW and the Genie app method of managing DAS.
