Thoughts on the changes WDW/DL are making to the DAS pass?

[cabanafrau]

Yes and probably yes.

The high mix of DAS seems to be changing the park experience for others. Which is fine to some extent, but where is the line for when the average visitor is impacted too much? The public does not have the data Disney does to make this judgement. I don’t think they’d move forward with trying to more precisely tailor access without good reason. From the announcements the plan looks to be offering alternative assistance where possible, instead of the current single solution for non-mobility issues. That along with the number of non-disable guests attached to services. A two pronged approach to reducing the impacts.

Greed plays it part too. It’s a for profit business. They do not want to lose G+ sales or lose guests to overwhelming standby lines. Where I think WDW goes too far is intentionally adjusting park operations to keep up the appearance of crazy high demand in order to push upgrade spending. They could release some of the pressure in the parks.

I’m not sure I agree with current petitions. It’s premature to make any case right now. Many of these bloggers have no clue how exactly they will be impacted yet they’re running with it. More clicks, more views, more money.

I’ve heard this & they claim it’s impacting genie plus lines. First of all, fast pass lines have been long during busy times long before the current DAS system was in place. And ppl are naive if they think Disney isn’t just going to sell more genie plus so those lines will remain long.

IMO it's partially been driven by corporate greed, partially by what I consider questionable decisions to prop up other divisions by using the parks (largely WDW) as the funding mechanism. Businesses need to make a profit to stay alive. Businesses grow and remain profitable by moving $$ amongst different pots to help fledgling projects get their footing. Walt did the same with Disney back in the day by using movie and TV $$ to fund DLR in the first place.

For me it gets interesting when a company begins to tighten up what they give to a customer in exchange for their patronage and begin to a certain extent shortchanging what the customer has traditionally expected in exchange for their purchase. In Disney's case it goes a bit deeper in my mind when you factor in the traditional stance that park visitors are guests, not customers. Gets to be a tough sale for me when I'm expected to accept that patronizing the domestic Disney parks today involves paying a premium for a Disney level experience and service as I did until ten years ago, only to be expected to now accept that the parks haven't anywhere near kept up with the demand and pricing increases of the past ten+ years because the company is focusing dollars at other arms of the company at the expense of the very "guests" who are filling the coffers.

Interestingly they focus a larger proportion of this donor status to WDW versus DLR because they know the pitchforks and torches come much more readily when they mess with the DLR folk. IMO they began to somewhat coast in regards to adding capacity to WDW because crowds kept increasing anyway, with the idea they would get to addressing it as soon as they accomplished X, or got through the murky timeframe of Y. They kicked the can just a bit too far down the road and addressing it in any way that's meaningful now requires serious $$, leaving nothing much left to satisfy other needy divisions. Unfortunately the capacity issues are now swamping the boat and storming the gates and they're now in the nearly impossible spot of course correcting and hoping they can convince the faithful visitors and new visitors to continue to come and spend while they desperately attempt to clean up the mess created when people got fed up with the lack of capacity and decided to help themselves to the kind of special services Disney used to be able to freely and proudly offer to GUESTS who actually needed it. All whilst keeping plenty of true believers on the hook for paying the cost to legitimately get past lack of capacity issues by ponying up more $$, even if it takes artificially manipulating capacity to help encourage those purchases.

I no longer believe in how Disney has chosen to operate WDW in particular and have no desire to return under current conditions. We were dissatisfied with our 2013 visit and decided no more until we learned of changes to enable a touring style we enjoy -- and that includes me not having a foggy idea when disabled guests were getting advantages to enable them to tour and enjoy the parks freely in ways that met their needs. I didn't know because I was fortunate never to need any type of assistance when visiting and I had no reason to care how other guests benefits impacted my experience because there was adequate capacity to handle all guests -- something that should be a baseline expectation when a company asks for your patronage. Sure, sometimes a spike in demand happens and things can get wonky, or something completely goes offline and problems happen. That's forgivable. But to sit back and operate year after year without returning some balance to the formula where the customer receives a proximal return on their payment and expectations and hope they simply keep opening their wallets? Nope.

 

[Genie+]

IMO it's partially been driven by corporate greed, partially by what I consider questionable decisions to prop up other divisions by using the parks (largely WDW) as the funding mechanism. Businesses need to make a profit to stay alive. Businesses grow and remain profitable by moving $$ amongst different pots to help fledgling projects get their footing. Walt did the same with Disney back in the day by using movie and TV $$ to fund DLR in the first place.

For me it gets interesting when a company begins to tighten up what they give to a customer in exchange for their patronage and begin to a certain extent shortchanging what the customer has traditionally expected in exchange for their purchase. In Disney's case it goes a bit deeper in my mind when you factor in the traditional stance that park visitors are guests, not customers. Gets to be a tough sale for me when I'm expected to accept that patronizing the domestic Disney parks today involves paying a premium for a Disney level experience and service as I did until ten years ago, only to be expected to now accept that the parks haven't anywhere near kept up with the demand and pricing increases of the past ten+ years because the company is focusing dollars at other arms of the company at the expense of the very "guests" who are filling the coffers.

Interestingly they focus a larger proportion of this donor status to WDW versus DLR because they know the pitchforks and torches come much more readily when they mess with the DLR folk. IMO they began to somewhat coast in regards to adding capacity to WDW because crowds kept increasing anyway, with the idea they would get to addressing it as soon as they accomplished X, or got through the murky timeframe of Y. They kicked the can just a bit too far down the road and addressing it in any way that's meaningful now requires serious $$, leaving nothing much left to satisfy other needy divisions. Unfortunately the capacity issues are now swamping the boat and storming the gates and they're now in the nearly impossible spot of course correcting and hoping they can convince the faithful visitors and new visitors to continue to come and spend while they desperately attempt to clean up the mess created when people got fed up with the lack of capacity and decided to help themselves to the kind of special services Disney used to be able to freely and proudly offer to GUESTS who actually needed it. All whilst keeping plenty of true believers on the hook for paying the cost to legitimately get past lack of capacity issues by ponying up more $$, even if it takes artificially manipulating capacity to help encourage those purchases.

I no longer believe in how Disney has chosen to operate WDW in particular and have no desire to return under current conditions. We were dissatisfied with our 2013 visit and decided no more until we learned of changes to enable a touring style we enjoy -- and that includes me not having a foggy idea when disabled guests were getting advantages to enable them to tour and enjoy the parks freely in ways that met their needs. I didn't know because I was fortunate never to need any type of assistance when visiting and I had no reason to care how other guests benefits impacted my experience because there was adequate capacity to handle all guests -- something that should be a baseline expectation when a company asks for your patronage. Sure, sometimes a spike in demand happens and things can get wonky, or something completely goes offline and problems happen. That's forgivable. But to sit back and operate year after year without returning some balance to the formula where the customer receives a proximal return on their payment and expectations and hope they simply keep opening their wallets? Nope.

I agree with alot of what you’ve said here. I’d even go a step further in paragraph 3 where they’ve run with guests willing to spend more the worse park operations get. Those profits have served as an incentive for WDW to keep things harder and more competitive among guests. They can’t with one hand let things get crazy by not increasing park hours and not running more things that help distribute guests, and with the hand other blame guests for not wanting to spend 8+ hours/day on lines during vacation and the fact Genie+ does not satisfy enough guests because DAS use. You can’t have both.

If they are serious about improving ALL guests’ experience, they have their part to play as well.

My family continues to visit for now. I’m willing to give them a shot at improvements. So far we are able to squeeze the value return but it gets smaller each trip. I think we’re pretty average in repeat visitor group and not the only one saddened by the thought of it no longer being worth it if it continues this direction. The last thing I want to do on vacation is wonder is this really worth it each and every time spend money.

 

[HopperFan]

I’ve heard this & they claim it’s impacting genie plus lines. First of all, fast pass lines have been long during busy times long before the current DAS system was in place. And ppl are naive if they think Disney isn’t just going to sell more genie plus so those lines will remain long.

We've been going before DAS, before FP then FP+ and I do believe that the lines are longer now. It used to be I'd judge whether we could make it through the SB line, now I have to judge if we can make it through the LL line. Even with a DAS we sometimes wait until later to get in line when I can see how long it will be.

Will Disney sell more G+ ~ of course they will, that lane is primarily for paid Lightning Lane usage. Those are cash generating lines now. It isn't meant to be full of unpaid passes. I know folks already waited outside the lines, but the problem is that Disney has determined that the high usage (due to them handing them out without much parameter) has clogged the lines. Paying G+ holders are not happy, and honestly one reason it is hard to get return times is the data is determining there are too many people in the lines to hand out any more G+ times. And honestly I don't think they'll have as many buyers for G+ as the number of DAS slots they don't give out now. Most folks have already decided if they want to buy G+ or not. I think the number added will be minimal but those who do buy it will see a bigger value to it, especially if they can get more rides in. My question is IF they allow you to prebuy and prebook times ... what will the new price be? I see it jumping up. OR will there be a two tier, $$$ if you buy in advance and prebook times and $$ if you buy day of with no prebook???

I saw this article yesterday. Wouldn't this woman have been told to use a mobility device rather than getting to use DAS even before the coming changes?

https://www.businessinsider.com/dis...-park-disability-policy-discriminatory-2024-4

YES.

Another perfect example of why Disney is changing the program.