Early-mid November crowds, and autism services

[dadbread]

Hello all. Just found your board and I fully anticipate reading every bit of it. The wife and I have found ourselves Disney obsessed since our relatively spur of the moment wdw visit in Feb of 2018. I NEVER would have thought I would like Disney World. Being on the autism spectrum, being around crowds and being in lines really takes its toll on me. I always figured wdw would be a kind of hellscape and refused to vist for years, but we found ourselves in Central Florida during my wife's birthday. I was dreading it to be honest. Apparently we lucked out as that time of year is fairly slow, and I was able to navigate the fast pass system well enough ahead of time so we both had really enjoyable time. I friggin' loved it. We want to go back, especially considering our daughter at the time was only 3 and doesn't remember much. Her birthday is in November and we are thinking of making the trip a birthday tradition for each person in our family. But if the crowd levels are extremely different, we may nix that idea.

Comparatively, how bad will early-mid November 2021 compared to the typical early February? Thus far I've read about the Wine and Dine half Marathon, New Jersey week, and Veterans day affecting the crowds. Park days would be 8-12th. The average 1-day ticket is $139 in November, but $115 in February 2021. Is that as bad as that looks? Considering folks who have canceled their trips may be putting them off into 2022, could February 2022 be busier than in years past?


On to the spectrum questions...
If we choose to go in November, and it is drastically busier, and I'm not handling it well... will services definitely be offered? I'm really scared of ruining my family's trip. I'm fairly high functioning, but I know I can't handle multiple 45 minute lines every day on top of the general crowdedness of a busy theme park. It is a lot of money to spend to be a despondant mess, whoohoo. Can anyone explain the process to me? I've read about needing to go to guest services while in the park, and not prearranging it before the trip.. but is this something that could be done upon checking in to the resort? Do you have to go to guest services every day of your trip? Will I need to awkwardly explain myself? Can my wife take care of it? I know that probably sounds terrible, but she knew who she married and loves me despite it. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I planned our '18 trip inside of two weeks, were able to dine at Be Our Guest because of my dogged neurosis. Are they accommodating to adults on the spectrum, or just kids? What is the process of entering the queue? Please feel free to shoot me any information you have.

Edit: Just realized there is a disAbilities subforum so will eventually venture these latter questions over there. Any information is a big help.


Thank you.

 

[lanejudy]

I welcome you to join us on the disABILITIES Forum. The first post of this thread explains Disability Access Service (DAS) at WDW. You can ignore the rest of the thread which was discussion when the program was new.

 

[monkeydawn]

I think so much of this depends on the vaccine, how quickly it can be rolled out, how many will actually get it, how quickly we can return to normal ish that it is difficult to say. If you enjoy planning trips, then maybe start researching and planning as if you are going in November but know that it could be delayed to Feb. If you dont enjoy planning then Id suggest a wait and see approach. I'd hope by March we will have a good idea if the vaccine will be a quicker or longer solution.

 

[fancymouse]

I think you need to maybe separate pre-Covid Disney from post-Covid Disney. To begin with there is reduced capacity right now and no one knows when this will end. I’d expect it to continue into at least part of 2021. So being a lower capacity is a plus right now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it feels empty. When the parks reach their reduced capacity I’d venture it feels like a regular non-peak crowds day.

Also most events have been cancelled (including marathons) so there’s no need to consider those right now. I’ve been in Veteran’s day before and did not notice a boost in attendance from other visits. Most schools don’t get it off, so I don’t think many people use it to vacation. We’ve also been over Jersey week and didn’t even notice. In the end it’s only one state and with Covid restrictions right now, I think that state is required to quarantine when they come back, so the restrictions will probably deter at least some people.

Lastly and maybe most importantly for you, there are no FPs right now. The disability pass (DAS) is working like normal and it certainly sounds like you would qualify. You would visit guest services on your first day in the park and they’ll ask you some questions in order tp figure out the right accommodation. You don’t have to tell them your medical diagnosis, as much as being able to explain why waiting in the standby line would be difficult. Your wife can be with you and help, but I’m pretty sure you need to be present as well. Adults qualify the same as kids, so no worries there.

Once they set you up with your pass the way it works is you talk to a CM at the front of a like and they’ll give you a return time equal to the standby time of the ride. So if the wait is 60 minutes you can return in 60 minutes and use the FP lane (which is only being used for things like this and not actual FPs). You can only have one of these return times at one time, so you’ll need to use it before you can get another, but you could go wait in a standby line while you wait. Also this pass includes up to 6 or 8 people ( I can’t remember exactly) with you, so you can ride together, but it only works if you are riding. Your party can’t get a pass if you aren’t riding.

So basically, until they bring back FPs your only option for a shorter line is a DAS pass. That being said, we went in early November and the standby lines feel very different. Without tons of FPs going through, the lines actually move. So unlike before where you’d be standing in the same sections for minutes at a time, now you are basically constantly moving, so it feels so much better. Some lines were still like 30-40 minutes, but it was mostly just slowly walking to the front as opposed to standing around.

Regardless, you should probably factor in the Covid experience into your decision and decide if you’d rather wait until things like FPs come back, but the tradeoff if that capacity may be higher by then and crowds higher. Good luck!!

Hello all. Just found your board and I fully anticipate reading every bit of it. The wife and I have found ourselves Disney obsessed since our relatively spur of the moment wdw visit in Feb of 2018. I NEVER would have thought I would like Disney World. Being on the autism spectrum, being around crowds and being in lines really takes its toll on me. I always figured wdw would be a kind of hellscape and refused to vist for years, but we found ourselves in Central Florida during my wife's birthday. I was dreading it to be honest. Apparently we lucked out as that time of year is fairly slow, and I was able to navigate the fast pass system well enough ahead of time so we both had really enjoyable time. I friggin' loved it. We want to go back, especially considering our daughter at the time was only 3 and doesn't remember much. Her birthday is in November and we are thinking of making the trip a birthday tradition for each person in our family. But if the crowd levels are extremely different, we may nix that idea.

Comparatively, how bad will early-mid November 2021 compared to the typical early February? Thus far I've read about the Wine and Dine half Marathon, New Jersey week, and Veterans day affecting the crowds. Park days would be 8-12th. The average 1-day ticket is $139 in November, but $115 in February 2021. Is that as bad as that looks? Considering folks who have canceled their trips may be putting them off into 2022, could February 2022 be busier than in years past?


On to the spectrum questions...
If we choose to go in November, and it is drastically busier, and I'm not handling it well... will services definitely be offered? I'm really scared of ruining my family's trip. I'm fairly high functioning, but I know I can't handle multiple 45 minute lines every day on top of the general crowdedness of a busy theme park. It is a lot of money to spend to be a despondant mess, whoohoo. Can anyone explain the process to me? I've read about needing to go to guest services while in the park, and not prearranging it before the trip.. but is this something that could be done upon checking in to the resort? Do you have to go to guest services every day of your trip? Will I need to awkwardly explain myself? Can my wife take care of it? I know that probably sounds terrible, but she knew who she married and loves me despite it. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I planned our '18 trip inside of two weeks, were able to dine at Be Our Guest because of my dogged neurosis. Are they accommodating to adults on the spectrum, or just kids? What is the process of entering the queue? Please feel free to shoot me any information you have.

Edit: Just realized there is a disAbilities subforum so will eventually venture these latter questions over there. Any information is a big help.


Thank you.