WDW Summary of NEW DAS changes and Disney Genie - Post ONE is an updated summary

[lanejudy]

Are you allowed to use the day-of DAS on the same attraction you requested ahead of time?

Yes. In the park DAS can be used for any attraction with a posted standby wait, which includes any of the Advanced Selection options. DAS can be used multiple times as well (Genie+ is limited to once per attraction).

 

[Bobb_o]

I'm trying to decide if it's worth the hassle to try to get my mother pre-registered, are any of the Epcot guest services open before park open?

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

Any locals who have used the DAS advanced selection options with their AP? Just curious if it's an option or not.

 

[jlundeen]

I'm not a local, but I do have an AP and I was able to book advanced selections for my upcoming trip.... does that help?

 

[SueM in MN]

Any locals who have used the DAS advanced selection options with their AP? Just curious if it's an option or not.

The DAS Advanced Selections are an option for guests who are doing the video DAS registration.
You need to have a park reservation and a valid ticket, so as long as your AP is linked to your My Disney Experience and you have a park reservation, you should be good to go.

 

[DisMommyTX]

We are here now, so chiming in with current observations. We did not book any advance times because we have lots of last minute schedule changes. However, the onsite DAS system is the best we have experienced in a long time. The app has been great for us. Occasionally DH or I have issues trying to book a new return time (once each in 4 days), but it is still working fine for the other one and resolves quickly with a phone reboot. The wait times are long, as expected for Thanksgiving week, but LL queues move quickly after returning. There are lots of blue guest services umbrellas around if you need assistance in the parks as well. The only real downside we have seen is that attractions are not available for selection once their wait time extends to park closing.

If you have a current DAS within the 60 day window, it will still be usable. As soon as your party scans in to the park, you can make a DAS selection on the app. It is so frustrating that they cannot renew these a couple days early; ours will expire on Friday, so we will have to wait in line again then to get it renewed.

 

[Matt'sMom]

The only real downside we have seen is that attractions are not available for selection once their wait time extends to park closing.

In our experience, as locals who are in the parks frequently & use DAS...

If the stand-by wait time would place your DAS return time *after park closing*, you cannot schedule a return time using the MDE app automated system. However, you can go on the attraction using DAS, by going directly to the CM at that attraction's LL/DAS entrance. The CM will typically send you directly onto the attraction via the LL entrance after verifying that you have the DAS. While DAS is not intended to provide access to attractions without waiting, this is an exception which we've experienced on numerous occasions.

 

[rebelbuddhist]

I'm trying to decide if it's worth the hassle to try to get my mother pre-registered, are any of the Epcot guest services open before park open?

I am confused about DAS and booking Individual Lightening Lane. I spent from 10:55 am until 9:50 pm registering and choosing Genie+ times a few days ago. It was annoying but really ok. Open other windows and did other work just checking my DAS registering window every 15 minutes or so during the first 3 hours of waiting. After that I split the screen working in one window and watching for DAS in the other. When I finally got connected, the CM gave me the understaffed and new software stories and we had trouble opening a video chat but the CM finally after three calls got her software working., I booked 2 Magic+ reservations for each of my 10 day trip. What I can not understand is how I will make Individual Lightening Lane advanced reservations for M&M Railroad; RoR, FoP..... Do I use DAS to book these? Or do I just get on line at 7:00 am and hope to get a reservation? When I select the DAS option in Genie Magic + will ILL options appear for me to purchase? or do I just use Genie+ with no DAS interaction to purchase? Thanks in advance for any answers.

 

[SueM in MN]

I am confused about DAS and booking Individual Lightening Lane. I spent from 10:55 am until 9:50 pm registering and choosing Genie+ times a few days ago. It was annoying but really ok. Open other windows and did other work just checking my DAS registering window every 15 minutes or so during the first 3 hours of waiting. After that I split the screen working in one window and watching for DAS in the other. When I finally got connected, the CM gave me the understaffed and new software stories and we had trouble opening a video chat but the CM finally after three calls got her software working., I booked 2 Magic+ reservations for each of my 10 day trip. What I can not understand is how I will make Individual Lightening Lane advanced reservations for M&M Railroad; RoR, FoP..... Do I use DAS to book these? Or do I just get on line at 7:00 am and hope to get a reservation? When I select the DAS option in Genie Magic + will ILL options appear for me to purchase? or do I just use Genie+ with no DAS interaction to purchase? Thanks in advance for any answers.

Just to clarify, so everyone is clear what is being talked about..

When you do the video chat for DAS registration, you are able to make DAS Advance Selections, not Genie+ or Magic+ selections. The DAS Advance Selections have a beginning time and a 1 hour window to use. If not used in that 1 hour time period, they expire.
DAS Advance Selections are NOT the same thing as Genie+ (People get confused because the list of attractions you can chose DAS Advance Selections from includes attractions from the Genie+ List).
Genie+ is a service guests can pay for to access attractions with shorter waits.
Individual Lightning Lane access is another service guests are able to pay for that allows access to attractions with a shorter wait.
This link from the WDW website talks about purchasing Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane
This is a link to the WDW website that talks more about Genie

Guests who are registered for DAS can make DAS Return Times, one at a time for any attraction that has a Standby Wait line. The guest registered for DAS needs to have entered the park before the first DAS Return Time can be scheduled. That can be done at the attraction, at blue Guest Experience umbrellas or using The My Disney Experience app. The first post in this thread has more information about DAS.

Currently, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is the only attraction on the list of Individual Lightning Lane attractions that is different; all guests who want to ride Remy need to first get a Virtual queue spot. Guests can register for that at 7am outside the park or at 1pm after entering the park. After your Virtual queue Boarding Group has been called, let the CM at the entrance know you are using DAS and you enter the attraction with a short wait.

 

[mamaofsix]

Has anyone had experience registering and using the video chat for multiple people in your party at once? I have 3 adopted children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and would like to do the chat with all of them at the same time.

 

[CBMom01]

Has anyone had experience registering and using the video chat for multiple people in your party at once? I have 3 adopted children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and would like to do the chat with all of them at the same time.

We have multiple special needs in our family. Based on advice I got here, we only registered one person so as not to confuse the system. So one person is registered with DAS and the rest of us are just part of that persons party.

 

[mamaofsix]

We have multiple special needs in our family. Based on advice I got here, we only registered one person so as not to confuse the system. So one person is registered with DAS and the rest of us are just part of that persons party.

Thank you. However, we are a large family (more than the +5) so need to register all of them in order for everyone on our party to be able to experience the attraction together.

 

[CBMom01]

Thank you. However, we are a large family (more than the +5) so need to register all of them in order for everyone on our party to be able to experience the attraction together.

Ahhh. That makes sense. Good luck!

 

[mamaofsix]

Ahhh. That makes sense. Good luck!

Thanks. Hopefully there's someone on here who has done the video chat for more than 1 person at once, so that I know it's do-able...

 

[CarlyMur09]

Can anyone remind me how long DAS is good for? We have a quick trip in Feb (2 park days), and just completed our trip from 11/26-12-3 last week. Just trying to figure out if I'm going to have to go through all of this again or if I can just get the days we need without a hassle. I don't need to do it until Jan, but would like to prepare.

 

[jlundeen]

60 days from first use - I'm in the same boat - our trip was 11/27 - 12/4 and our next trip will be starting Feb 5 - so, I'll need to go through it again also. I have heard though that they are more together now, and if you can get in right away at 7 AM you can get through the process much quicker than when they first started. Hopefully, they now have more CMs trained.

 

[CarlyMur09]

60 days from first use - I'm in the same boat - our trip was 11/27 - 12/4 and our next trip will be starting Feb 5 - so, I'll need to go through it again also. I have heard though that they are more together now, and if you can get in right away at 7 AM you can get through the process much quicker than when they first started. Hopefully, they now have more CMs trained.

Thanks for the update. I couldn't remember if it was 60 or 90 days. Will be planning on doing that probably within the 30 days, whichever the Friday or Saturday is, since DB gets on the van for work before 7 AM, and works M-Th.

 

[lanejudy]

60 days from first use

I think a couple people have mentioned discovering that it is 60 days from date of issue. If you obtain DAS in the park, that is likely the same day as first use; but if you do the online video chat before arrival, date of issue can be much earlier than first use.

 

[jlundeen]

I believe that it has been shown that it is not from the date of issue of video chat, but date of first use. There were a lot of rumors early on that it was 60 days from when you first were issued it, but that has been found to be untrue... sorry, don't have any documentation.... other than what I have been told by CMs.

EDITED: Perhaps someone calling in soon can clarify with the chat CMs for us to verify

 

[ZellyB]

Well, I attempted to do pre-registration for DAS yesterday but was a big failure. I tried to follow some of the tips here like disabling the VPN and using Chrome.

I haven't used DAS previously as my issues were only mobility. Unfortunately my treatments are causing me issues that I believe would now qualify for DAS, so I'm going to speak to a CM to see if that ends up being true.

I wasn't able to log on until a little before 8:00 central time, so that already probably set me up for failure. LOL. The chat window kept shutting down on me while I was waiting and told me to go back a page which I would do and then be prompted to log back into MDE account. After I would do that, I could request the chat again and the window would reopen to my same chat so I was hopeful that meant I was still in line. This all seemed familiar to me from things I've read here, so I just kept waiting. At a little over 6 hours a first CM chatted me asking me if the person with the request was present and I said yes. He reviewed my MDE account and said I was qualified for the next step. Then I got a message saying my chat had been transferred to a video chat queue. Great, I thought, progress! Sadly, another almost 6 hours went by with me having to log back in periodically. Finally I sent a hello in the chat window and was met with an immediate, "we are not taking any more chat requests today". So, 12 hours in and nada. Sigh. Maybe I should have been occasionally sending a hello or something to keep it active but that seemed to make no difference when I had tried that earlier. Is that helpful from others who have tried or no? Whatever the case, fail. LOL

Maybe the Amazon thing with the internet impacted this, or I was just unlucky. I know I've read of others having similar experiences so I was prepared but just upsetting to spend that time and get no answers or approval. Not sure if I'll try again or just wait until we get to the parks.