Thumbs up for DAS

[Sabor]

Just returned yesterday.

DVC member who has been traveling to WDW with my 36 year old brother who has CP (along with several other ailments) for the last 15 years.

Needless to say we were concerned hearing about all the changes to the GAC, but now that we are back we think the changes are for the better.

We were able to get in everything we wanted to see and do at every park each visit. In a 7 day trip (5 park days) we did every attraction at MK, every attraction at HS (except ToT), every attraction at AK and in Epcot we did TT, Soarin, and MS along with a lot of time in innoventions. We did not do any evening shows but did see the daytime parades in AK and MK.
Combining a good touring plan (arrive at opening) with FP+ and strategic use of the DAS made for very minimal down time. For example have a FP for Big Thunder, get a time for Splash - ride BTMR and return for Splash (Same for Buzz and Space M).
It took a little more work to plan but the effort was well worth the smooth result. Only on a few occasions did we even feel like someone in our party of 6 had to "run ahead" to get the time. We left each park between 4 and 6 each day. We probably only needed 2 to 4 "return" times each day on the DAS.

We noticed much shorter lines of guests utilizing "handicapped" entrances throughout. If the motivation was to cut down on people abusing the old system, we feel like it definitely helped. It didn't feel like there were less wheelchairs and scooters in the park, they were just utilizing the standard lines with everyone else. We did see 2 scooter parties turned away at BTMR wheelchair entrance who were told they needed to get a return time. Once we had a FP and the CM wrote a slip to hand the CM at the gate, the other time we had used the DAS. It did seem that many CM's were surprised when we arrived at certain attractions and told them we had FPs when they were looking for the DAS.

Once again - Thumbs up Disney for continuing to improve the guest experience.

 

[Aladora]

Great report, thanks for posting it!

 

[wdwgoofydaddy]

Thanks for the post. We have had similar experience during our past trips. We really try to combine with the FP+ and DAS. It did take a few trips to figure things out when Disney made the change to the DAS. Everything is good now and we are looking forward to our upcoming August trip.

 

[2tinkerbell]

Thanks for posting your positive experience with the DAS.

 

[SueM in MN]

We are here now and are having the same type of experience.
Even with attraction which have wheelchair specific entrances or boarding areas, like Small World, Jungle Cruise, the Safari and Toy Story Mania, we have found much smaller lines waiting there than in the past and have seldom waited more than a few minutes.
As the OP mentioned, we are not seeing any less wheelchairs and ECVs. They are just being handled more efficiently.

 

[HopperFan]

Just left from our second trip with DAS. First trip was just DS and myself. No one to go ahead for us but we still had a good trip and felt the DAS worked well combined with FP+ and good planning. I saw it as a huge improvement over the GAC particularly on the length of the FP lines. This past week I had my other two kids with me, allowing someone to go ahead allowing DS some added rest time, more crowded and hot than our usual visits. We used DAS 15 times in 6 days. Often by time we arrived to attraction it wasn't even necessary. I asked my other kids (both young adults) what they thought of it and both thought it was more efficient, more fair to all, kept FP lines shorter than they were used to and they enjoyed the wait time in shops they rarely see, snacks we usually don't do, quiet visiting time. They both agreed spreading out the time allowed DS more time to rest and therefore he lasted longer. We are very happy with new system!

 

[happinessisdisney]

We also had a very postive experience using the new DAS. Was a very fair and easy process. Had no problems at all.

 

[joanchris]

Thanks for the positive, helpful, reviews. We are beginning planning a trip for Oct/Nov and I've been worried about the changes.