DAS wait times now that Genie is live

[CeCe0906]

Took my granddaughter to WDW for her first trip last August. She had a DAS due to some sensory and anxiety issues. This was my first experience at a park using the DAS system; at the time we went FP was not in use at all, so the FP line was mostly tours, DAS, and recovery passes. We never waited more than 20 minutes, once we returned to the ride at the appointed return time. It worked well for us, we used the wait time for return to eat, bathroom, find a quiet spot, or do a photo, shop, occassionaly do a short wait time ride nearby.. She had no meltdowns, and was able to handle the close queue lines for that amount of time. We did a VIP tour on our last day, which went super smoothly, had a great guide, who my granddaughter just loved and talked her ear off all day.

There might be a Disneyland trip in our future next summer. But I have seen some reports that with Genie or ILL purchases, those waits are still over 30 minutes; which granted are better than hour long or more standyby....but I don't think she could handle the loud close quarters, especially the indoor queue for that long. Are the VIP tours, waiting that long also? At 500 or more per hour that's an expensive ILL!
What have been your experiences with DAS and wait times? I know Christmas is busy, but July when we might go probably is too, and if covid is better by then, then who knows how busy.

 

[DisSurfer878]

If you come over to the Disneyland Board, you'll see a report from last week that VIP tours are now using the Lightning Lane lines and waiting just as long as through getting genie+/lightning lane. No more "backdoor" entrances.

Also the report said $700 an hour, but not sure if thats the standard price or just that day

 

[DisneyOma]

Are there some things your granddaughter likes to do that could help her in the queue? Has she tried noise cancelling headphones, earbuds while she plays on a phone, etc? Those things might help her last a few more minutes in a queue if it's a longer one. The good thing about DAS is that the return time doesn't have an endpoint except for the end of the day. Watch how many other guests are entering the LL queue and perhaps wait until there is a bit of a lull?

 

[CeCe0906]

Are there some things your granddaughter likes to do that could help her in the queue? Has she tried noise cancelling headphones, earbuds while she plays on a phone, etc? Those things might help her last a few more minutes in a queue if it's a longer one. The good thing about DAS is that the return time doesn't have an endpoint except for the end of the day. Watch how many other guests are entering the LL queue and perhaps wait until there is a bit of a lull?

When we used it previously, you couldn't get a return time for anything else until you used the one you had already set up. But maybe if I combine it with genie + or an ILL, we could do something like that.
I'm getting older, so criss crossing all over really doesn't appeal; haven't been to DL since I was a child, did WDW with all my kids, ( and honeymoon 38 years ago). I'll have to check out the DL boards if things get serious.

 

[lanejudy]

Are you considering DisneyLand next summer or back to WDW? The CA parks are different -- one aspect is that they aren't nearly as spread out as in FL withattractions much closer together. While DAS is basically the same on both coasts it may function a little different.

 

[DLgal]

So, we are Disneyland passholders with an active DAS and we visit very frequently (weekly).

VIP tours are absolutely using the LL. We had a VIP tour in front of us at the Radiator Springs Racers LL on Tuesday, and they were NOT happy about the 30 minute wait, but they did it because their kids really wanted to.

The Genie has caused the LL to have much longer waits than usual. This is particularly an issue on the following rides:

Radiator Springs Racers
Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout
Indiana Jones
Space Mountain
Haunted Mansion
Rise of the Resistance (esp if the ride goes down)

What we have found is that the other issue is because standby waits have also ballooned, DAS is far less efficient than it used to be. With waits in excess of 75 minutes much of the time on the popular rides, you get a return time and then have a much longer wait than before and in the meantime it's hard to find low wait attractions to do. At DCA last Tues, we only got 3 return times because the standby lines were 100 min, 200 min, and 90 minutes, so we had a lot of sitting around/eating breaks because everything else has waits at least 45 minutes and there are only so many of those lines my son can handle in a day.

Some people are arguing that it's just because of the "busy holiday season" but I am not sure how accurate that is because it doesn't seem like there are that many more actual people in the parks, yet the wait times have increased dramatically since Genie+ was introduced.

That said, July is always a great time to go and not nearly as busy as you'd think. Hope by then they will have tweaked the Genie+ system a bit to alleviate some of the long LL lines, because I can tell you people paying for it (especially the ILL) are NOT happy right now.

 

[DisneyOma]

So, we are Disneyland passholders with an active DAS and we visit very frequently (weekly).

VIP tours are absolutely using the LL. We had a VIP tour in front of us at the Radiator Springs Racers LL on Tuesday, and they were NOT happy about the 30 minute wait, but they did it because their kids really wanted to.

The Genie has caused the LL to have much longer waits than usual. This is particularly an issue on the following rides:

Radiator Springs Racers
Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout
Indiana Jones
Space Mountain
Haunted Mansion
Rise of the Resistance (esp if the ride goes down)

What we have found is that the other issue is because standby waits have also ballooned, DAS is far less efficient than it used to be. With waits in excess of 75 minutes much of the time on the popular rides, you get a return time and then have a much longer wait than before and in the meantime it's hard to find low wait attractions to do. At DCA last Tues, we only got 3 return times because the standby lines were 100 min, 200 min, and 90 minutes, so we had a lot of sitting around/eating breaks because everything else has waits at least 45 minutes and there are only so many of those lines my son can handle in a day.

Some people are arguing that it's just because of the "busy holiday season" but I am not sure how accurate that is because it doesn't seem like there are that many more actual people in the parks, yet the wait times have increased dramatically since Genie+ was introduced.

That said, July is always a great time to go and not nearly as busy as you'd think. Hope by then they will have tweaked the Genie+ system a bit to alleviate some of the long LL lines, because I can tell you people paying for it (especially the ILL) are NOT happy right now.

That perk of being able to go on other attractions while waiting for the DAS return time wasn't designed to make anything efficient, though. I think that's something a lot of DAS users forget. I felt like I was given a great gift when I was able to access another attraction while waiting for my DAS return time. I didn't do it too often, as any queueing adds to my issues, but the 1-2 times a day I did it, it was always for an attraction with an almost walk-on return time (15 minutes at the most). We were at WDW though. Not sure if DL has attractions that are usually walk on, like Figment, Living with the Land, etc.

 

[DLgal]

That perk of being able to go on other attractions while waiting for the DAS return time wasn't designed to make anything efficient, though. I think that's something a lot of DAS users forget. I felt like I was given a great gift when I was able to access another attraction while waiting for my DAS return time. I didn't do it too often, as any queueing adds to my issues, but the 1-2 times a day I did it, it was always for an attraction with an almost walk-on return time (15 minutes at the most). We were at WDW though. Not sure if DL has attractions that are usually walk on, like Figment, Living with the Land, etc.

Our issue is longevity in the parks is difficult because of all the overstimulation, so we used to always use DAS in conjunction with Maxpass/Fastpass in order to maximize efficiency, and Disney also gives this advice in their DAS marketing materials. There was a time when we could do 3-4 hours in the parks at a time, maximum. Over time, my son has been able to tolerate longer visits.

Disneyland doesn't have a lot of "always a walk on/short wait" type attractions. Fur us, that's stuff like Teacups, Circus Train, Pooh...can't think of many others. In DCA, often Silly Swings, Little Mermaid, and Mater's. That's about it. We typically only use DAS for the rides that also offer LL at this point, and sometimes for Pirates and Peter Pan. We've never used it for anything that tends to have wait times under 30 minutes.

However, when we were at DCA last week, EVERYTHING had at least a 45 minute wait. Seriously. Even Little Mermaid and the Swings. So, when waiting the 2.5 hours for our RSR return time, we had to time it so it coincided with lunch or else I honestly don't know what we would have done to kill the time because literally everything had long waits.

 

[CeCe0906]

Are you considering DisneyLand next summer or back to WDW? The CA parks are different -- one aspect is that they aren't nearly as spread out as in FL with attractions much closer together. While DAS is basically the same on both coasts it may function a little different.

Disneyland. My daughter/son in law are considering a CA vacation they they canceled in 2020, and I may fly in for a few days and take my granddaughter to DL/ CA, while her parents do a wine country trip.