Tell me about the DAS card

[tinkerszs]

This will be my first trip to Disneyland with my children. 5 years ago we went to Disney World and had a fabulous time. We used the GAC when necessary to help my son with lines and crowds. Since the card has been changed and I know Disneyland can be a little more crowded, what tips or tricks can you give me? He is autistic but as he matures he handles things a little bit better than he did 5 years ago. However, knowing my son and his anxiety with crowds and meltdowns I want to have the card to use as needed.

 

[amazonfamily]

The disABILITIES board is full of info about DAS at Disneyland. I assumed the board only covered Florida but nope it's for us left coast visitors too!

 

[smartlabelprint]

Oh I should go to that site too. Thanks for sharing.

Get the card & do your thing. It's really easy to use.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Straight from the Mouse's mouth: https://wdpromedia.disney.go.com/me.../dlr-disability-access-service_2014-12-09.pdf

It will be different than 5 years ago. I was scared of the new system but people here & on DISabilities helped me with lots of info. Guest Services will walk you through the entire process before getting you your first wait time. There are 2 tips I can provide: 1) have something (a paper clip, coin purse, etc.) to hold the tickets for easy access. You will pull them out to get a time & to use a time. [Take a photo of each ticket so if you drop any tickets guest services can replace them.] 2) don't trek the whole family to the guest service stations each time you want a return time, send 1 person with all the tickets. We were surprised how much more walking we were doing with the guest service stations added to the mix.

We found the DAS provided us with the best trip we've had in the last 5 years. We didn't do as much as we did under the GAC, but we enjoyed what we did more. We didn't have long lines once we got to the rides for our family member to cope with and for us to worry about him in. Being able to wait wherever we wanted out in the open brought us all a peace of mind that we never had going to DL before. I hope it does the same for your family!

 

[Aladora]

This will be my first trip to Disneyland with my children. 5 years ago we went to Disney World and had a fabulous time. We used the GAC when necessary to help my son with lines and crowds. Since the card has been changed and I know Disneyland can be a little more crowded, what tips or tricks can you give me? He is autistic but as he matures he handles things a little bit better than he did 5 years ago. However, knowing my son and his anxiety with crowds and meltdowns I want to have the card to use as needed.

We found the DAS provided us with the best trip we've had in the last 5 years. We didn't do as much as we did under the GAC, but we enjoyed what we did more. We didn't have long lines once we got to the rides for our family member to cope with and for us to worry about him in. Being able to wait wherever we wanted out in the open brought us all a peace of mind that we never had going to DL before. I hope it does the same for your family!

ITA with gottalovepluto, we have used the DAS now with our son 4 times and we used the old GAC another 4 times and I actually prefer the DAS. Our first trip with him was when he was just 6 and had been dx as autistic just 3 months earlier. He is now almost 10 and while he still benefits from using the DAS, it has become less needed as the years go by.

The disAbilities board here is really useful but if you have DL DAS specific questions, please feel free to send me a pm and I will answer as best I can!

 

[mad hatter fan]

Hmmm... We may need to look into this for my DD this trip. She has been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety. It has been worse lately and I really want her to enjoy her trip. Being so close to lots of strangers, stuck in line with them, could be a trigger for a panic attack. Do you need to get one for each day or do you get approved for your whole trip? We have a 5 day hopper but will be spreading them over 9 days.

 

[DLgal]

Hmmm... We may need to look into this for my DD this trip. She has been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety. It has been worse lately and I really want her to enjoy her trip. Being so close to lots of strangers, stuck in line with them, could be a trigger for a panic attack. Do you need to get one for each day or do you get approved for your whole trip? We have a 5 day hopper but will be spreading them over 9 days.

The DAS is issued once and is good until you leave.

 

[Kindermouse]

I have used both the old GAC and the new DAS and they are definitely different ways to do the park.

You need to explain what it hard for your child and what you think would be a good for mitigating this disability related hardship so that your child can have equal access. You can't just say this is my child's diagnosis can I get accomidations. How old is your child, and does your child know and feel bad hearing you talking about their difficulties? Does it make your child very anxious/self conscious hearing you discribe how thier disability effects them? If so (mine gets very anxious hearing people talk about how he is "different" and it sets him off big time) think about bringing a distraction into guest services since its a whole conversation and not just walking in and making request.

You will enjoy DAS more if you have a "fastpass runner" type of person with you. I am always a single adult with kids so I found that we were, as a group, marching back and forth between kiosks and rides all day which meant it was a lot more walking. I mean A LOT. There was also a line at the kiosk so we were waiting about 5-10 to get our return times quite a bit but it's harder waiting than a regular line (or it was for us) since you are lined up waiting in a spot that doesn't have room for a line and, particularly in tommorow land, it's crowded and people are pushing into you while you are waiting to get your return time because they don't realize you are waiting in line. Also, if you can take time before hand and memorize the kiosk locations it will certainly be a big help. I think I did a lot of extra walking because I was not alway walking to the kiosk that was closest since I kept forgetting where they were I found myself defaulting to either the one in tommorowland or the one by the haunted mansion.

Also really think about how you can most convieiently keep your tickets and not loose them since you will be taking them out and putting them away for every time you get a return time at a kiosk and then again to present them at the ride to verify that it is your time to go on the ride.

However the bestest thing is that you can get a return time for CA rides when you are still in Disneyland and vice Versa. So if you are about to park hop you can go to the nearest kiosk to where you are and get a RSR or TSMM or Soaring return time and but the time you walk over to it you have hardly any wait time.

 

[Nevada Jen]

Definately, 100%, take a photo of your tickets with the number clearly showing. You do have to constantly take them in and out. I found the best thing was to put to tickets in a clear lanyard, front to front so the bar codes were facing out. For us, that meant the adults had the tickets for our whole family. About half the time, I didn't even have to take them out of the lanyard that way. But because it was being handled so much, the plastic pouch did fall off the lanyard. Ear plugs and dark sunglasses help with the crowd anxiety a bit.