You should definitely familiarize yourself with the
DAS qualifications. DAS is now offered for developmental disabilities only and they are very strict about it. I say this as someone who qualified for DAS for 15 years (due to multiple physical disabilities and anxiety) who no longer qualifies, and who now has to use location return times and plan my day very carefully to not end up exhausted. With a party of 5, you might have it suggested that you use location return times where offered, and then for the rest of the attractions use the option for the disabled person to wait outside of the queue, to use the return to line option if someone needs to leave the line partway through the wait, or to use rider switch. Basically, if you want DAS because you are traveling with your parents and there are mobility or stamina issues, understand that they aren’t going to issue DAS — they are going to point you to other options. If you need to for a developmental disability or want to try anyway, definitely use the online option for Accessibility Services at least 2 days prior, as you can’t ask for DAS inside the parks anymore and instead have to wait in line at Accessibility Services in the Esplanade. It can easily take over an hour of your time, and possibly even more for the busy dates you are going, so save your precious parks time by using the online option, regardless of what type of disability you are seeking services for.
I would do Disneyland for 2 days and DCA for 1 day, but don’t you already have your tickets and reservations? As for park hoppers, you’re right that it might be hard for your parents to go back and forth if there are mobility or stamina issues. DL and DCA are incredibly close to each other, but even if this is the first trip in 13 years you probably won’t need more than a full day in DCA. In truth, if you have 3 consecutive days, you don’t really need to pay extra for park hoppers.
For your dates, you can expect more people to be using
Lightning Lane Multipass, which means both those lines and the standby lines may be longer than you would expect for crowd levels. You might want to read
https://www.micechat.com/404788-dis...mbugs-haunted-happenings-the-pricing-paradox/ where this is written about.
If rides are a priority, plan to rope drop and knock out as many rides as you can before the parks get too busy. Some people head to Tomorrowland and Space Mountain, some to Fantasyland and either Peter Pan or Matterhorn, some to NOS for HM and Pirates, some to GE for RotR, and some to Adventureland for Indy. With Tiana still on VQ I don’t think there’s a stampede to get to it. However, a lot of times Indy and RotR aren’t operating at park open. In DCA people rope drop and head mostly to RSR (if it’s open), Web Slingers, and GotG, and sometimes TSMM or Soarin’.
I don’t know if Tiana is out first thing in the morning in NOS (by her restaurant) or Bayou Country or not, but she isn’t likely to be in Adventureland to the best of my knowledge. I did spot her on the Mark Twain on the 11/18 as I was eating lunch at Cafe Orleans, and I spotted her walking around NOS in her newer outfit on 11/23.
Yes, quite a bit of Fantasyland is still closed for fireworks. However, if you are night owls, you can try hitting Fantasyland around 11PM, when the lines are usually quite short.
