Aladora
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2011
- Messages
- 5,333
We just checked out of AKL this morning and I wanted to give a quick run down on how it went for us using the DAS at WDW this week. All of this was just our experience, as always YMMV so don't take this as how it will be for others.
We are not new to using the DAS but this was our first WDW trip, all our other trips have been at DL.
I pre-booked our FP+ options months ago, picking the 3 must-do attractions For each day.
We got the DAS for our son at HS first thing on our first day. There was absolutely no line at the GS inside the park and the cm who helped us was really nice and friendly. I let her know that we had used the DAS at DL and all she asked was about what help our son needed, basically why did we need the ability to wait outside the regula line. We were in and out in less than 5 minutes.
Since I had pre booked the FP options, we really did not need to use the DAS all that often especially since we make DS wait in any line that was 20 mins or less.
The scanners were a bit twitchy every now and then but most of the time all the cm had to do was reboot the scanner and it worked. The only park that this was different was MK. The scanners there were either not working or the cms there did not use them at all and instead gave out handwritten return times. It would have been very easy to double dip and collect more than one DAS return time card but since we had our FP times, this was not needed for us.
We did have one issue in MK where we got stuck on the Peoplemover for over 15 minutes! The CMs ended us walking us off ther ride and giving everyone an anytime FP which was good for almost everything except 7DMT.
As we were waiting for the bus leaving MK, the family ahead of us overheard us talking about how we were heading to Epcot the next day and they gave us 3 of the anytime FP for Epcot that someone gave them and they were not going to use! A lovely bit of pixie dust!
All in all the trip was a wonderful success! We found the DAS was helpful but that by pre-booking out FP, we did not need it as much as we did at DL.
We were originally going to spend one day at MK and Epcot and two at HS and AK but after our first HS day, we all agreed that we didn't need a second day there and after we did Epcot, we knew we needed more time there. So, I switched our last two days and I was able to get decent FP times at both AK and Epcot only a couple of days in advance.
Hope that helps others who are concerned about using the DAS, please feel free to ask any questions and I will try and answer!
We are not new to using the DAS but this was our first WDW trip, all our other trips have been at DL.
I pre-booked our FP+ options months ago, picking the 3 must-do attractions For each day.
We got the DAS for our son at HS first thing on our first day. There was absolutely no line at the GS inside the park and the cm who helped us was really nice and friendly. I let her know that we had used the DAS at DL and all she asked was about what help our son needed, basically why did we need the ability to wait outside the regula line. We were in and out in less than 5 minutes.
Since I had pre booked the FP options, we really did not need to use the DAS all that often especially since we make DS wait in any line that was 20 mins or less.
The scanners were a bit twitchy every now and then but most of the time all the cm had to do was reboot the scanner and it worked. The only park that this was different was MK. The scanners there were either not working or the cms there did not use them at all and instead gave out handwritten return times. It would have been very easy to double dip and collect more than one DAS return time card but since we had our FP times, this was not needed for us.
We did have one issue in MK where we got stuck on the Peoplemover for over 15 minutes! The CMs ended us walking us off ther ride and giving everyone an anytime FP which was good for almost everything except 7DMT.
As we were waiting for the bus leaving MK, the family ahead of us overheard us talking about how we were heading to Epcot the next day and they gave us 3 of the anytime FP for Epcot that someone gave them and they were not going to use! A lovely bit of pixie dust!
All in all the trip was a wonderful success! We found the DAS was helpful but that by pre-booking out FP, we did not need it as much as we did at DL.
We were originally going to spend one day at MK and Epcot and two at HS and AK but after our first HS day, we all agreed that we didn't need a second day there and after we did Epcot, we knew we needed more time there. So, I switched our last two days and I was able to get decent FP times at both AK and Epcot only a couple of days in advance.
Hope that helps others who are concerned about using the DAS, please feel free to ask any questions and I will try and answer!