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

[rosieposie3]

can you modify the pre-selected ride times once you're inside the park on the day?

 

[lanejudy]

can you modify the pre-selected ride times once you're inside the park on the day?

No. But there is no "penalty" for letting them expire unused.

 

[rosieposie3]

No. But there is no "penalty" for letting them expire unused.

Thank you. Good to know. I've recently been diagnosed with Crohn's disease and I'm looking into DAS. Our first ever trip to WDW is next month and I'm hoping I won't be too sick to enjoy it.

 

[CJK]

Hi everyone! Am I correct in thinking that the rides that were once ILL$, but have moved into G+LL (i.e. Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway), are NOT eligible to book in advanced bookings with DAS? Thanks so much!

 

[lanejudy]

Hi everyone! Am I correct in thinking that the rides that were once ILL$, but have moved into G+LL (i.e. Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway), are NOT eligible to book in advanced bookings with DAS? Thanks so much!

That's correct -- presumably because that is noted as a "temporary" change.

 

[Kerr84]

I'm not sure if this has been asked yet, but I didn't see it. So, apologies if I missed it...

I'm planning to request DAS for my 4 year old. He's 4, and obviously height restricted on a handful of rides. I assume that when booking our advance selections or when requesting a DAS return time, we are limited to rides my 4 year old can actually ride, correct? I mean, this makes sense. The DAS is for him. So getting a return time for Space Mountain for all 5 of us (he's the littlest), shouldn't be possible, or at least, wouldn't be a good faith use of his DAS.

Second question, and this is just more because I'm trying to wrap my head around it....we're hoping to make our advance selections at the time we get our little guy qualified for DAS. I keep seeing posts saying that you should give 2 selections and an alternate in case one isn't available. Why would something not be available at all for an entire day? There's not FastPass advance selections anymore. Anyone doing Genie+ or ILL can't book until the day of. Do they reserve X number of DAS times for each ride per day and once they're gone, they're gone? If so, how do they determine that number? I would assume if that's the case though, registering for DAS and booking the advance selections as close as possible to the beginning of that 30 day window would be our best bet.

Sorry, so many questions. This is the first time we're trying to utilize DAS. We've never needed something like this until our little guy came along. We're just trying to get him the best experience possible.

I know others already answered you, but yes, you will have to pick rides that the 4 year old can ride. I just got a DAS for my 2 1/2 year old and the woman that approved us for the DAS made sure to tell me that. I already knew that and had a list of rides my toddler would like. When I tried to get rides, the only things that weren’t available for me were Jungle Cruise and oddly enough, Figment. We didn’t try for too many headliners like Space or Splash and I think those are the ones that sell out.

 

[AmyMac1109]

I know others already answered you, but yes, you will have to pick rides that the 4 year old can ride. I just got a DAS for my 2 1/2 year old and the woman that approved us for the DAS made sure to tell me that. I already knew that and had a list of rides my toddler would like.

Thanks for confirming! I suspected that would be the case, and really, it makes sense. Much to the disappointment of my teenagers who were hoping to use their little brother's DAS to get on some big rides. I told them they have legs and are free to wait in any standby line they want!

When I tried to get rides, the only things that weren’t available for me were Jungle Cruise and oddly enough, Figment. We didn’t try for too many headliners like Space or Splash and I think those are the ones that sell out.

Interesting! Jungle Cruise was one of the ones we were hoping to make an advance selection. Figment was probably another. My little guy can't do Space Mountain and has no interest in Splash Mountain, so we won't even try for those. I guess we'll see when we are able to register what we can get. We have another 5 days to go.

 

[Kerr84]

Thanks for confirming! I suspected that would be the case, and really, it makes sense. Much to the disappointment of my teenagers who were hoping to use their little brother's DAS to get on some big rides. I told them they have legs and are free to wait in any standby line they want!


Interesting! Jungle Cruise was one of the ones we were hoping to make an advance selection. Figment was probably another. My little guy can't do Space Mountain and has no interest in Splash Mountain, so we won't even try for those. I guess we'll see when we are able to register what we can get. We have another 5 days to go.

I was trying to get Jungle Cruise for the first day of our trip and probably would have gotten it if it was later in our trip. For Figment, I bet the person helping me didn’t look too hard or got confused and looked at my 2 and 3. I have a hard time believing that Figment was actually not available.

 

[SueM in MN]

I know others already answered you, but yes, you will have to pick rides that the 4 year old can ride. I just got a DAS for my 2 1/2 year old and the woman that approved us for the DAS made sure to tell me that. I already knew that and had a list of rides my toddler would like. When I tried to get rides, the only things that weren’t available for me were Jungle Cruise and oddly enough, Figment. We didn’t try for too many headliners like Space or Splash and I think those are the ones that sell out.

Thanks for confirming! I suspected that would be the case, and really, it makes sense. Much to the disappointment of my teenagers who were hoping to use their little brother's DAS to get on some big rides. I told them they have legs and are free to wait in any standby line they want!

Interesting! Jungle Cruise was one of the ones we were hoping to make an advance selection. Figment was probably another. My little guy can't do Space Mountain and has no interest in Splash Mountain, so we won't even try for those. I guess we'll see when we are able to register what we can get. We have another 5 days to go.

My understanding is that a certain number of ‘slots’ are set aside for DAS Advance Selections for each day. Once the slots for a specific attraction are filled for that day, it‘s no longer available for DAS Advance Selection. It will still be available for DAS Return Times on the day of park visit since that’s based on current Standby wait time.

It may seem like the headliner attractions with the longest wait times would have their slots filled first, but many people registered for DAS may not be able to ride those. So, the more ‘tame’ attractions like Figment may actually fill up faster (especially some of the more iconic ones like Jungle Cruise).

 

[AmyMac1109]

I was trying to get Jungle Cruise for the first day of our trip and probably would have gotten it if it was later in our trip. For Figment, I bet the person helping me didn’t look too hard or got confused and looked at my 2 and 3. I have a hard time believing that Figment was actually not available.

MK will actually be day 4 for us, so we might be able to get Jungle Cruise. Fingers crossed!

It may seem like the headliner attractions with the longest wait times would have their slots filled first, but many people registered for DAS may not be able to ride those. So, the more ‘tame’ attractions like Figment may actually fill up faster (especially some of the more iconic ones like Jungle Cruise).

That actually makes sense. I wasn't thinking about that. And I mean, it's true for us. We won't be going for the big name rides by virtue of the fact that we can't meet the height requirement anyway.

 

[Kerr84]

My understanding is that a certain number of ‘slots’ are set aside for DAS Advance Selections for each day. Once the slots for a specific attraction are filled for that day, it‘s no longer available for DAS Advance Selection. It will still be available for DAS Return Times on the day of park visit since that’s based on current Standby wait time.

It may seem like the headliner attractions with the longest wait times would have their slots filled first, but many people registered for DAS may not be able to ride those. So, the more ‘tame’ attractions like Figment may actually fill up faster (especially some of the more iconic ones like Jungle Cruise).

That makes sense. I was 34 days out though and I got SE for 10am and LwtL for 11am so I really do think they just grabbed the first available times of the 3 I wrote down. (this was when Epcot was still scheduled to open at 10) I knew we could get a DAS day of and that we would get everything done we wanted to do so I just took first thing of everything they offered and didn’t ask her to check further. A few weeks later, I added an Animal Kingdom day and got Safari and Na’vi for the exact times I wanted, but I definitely went into that thinking they would both be out and they weren’t.

 

[10CJ]

Also, the website says in order to make DAS Advance Selections, ALL park day must be between 30 and 2 days from the chat. Some people have reported getting selections for all their park days, even ones farther than 30 days away. Others have been told they need to connect into chat again to schedule the ones that are more than 30 days out

Do you or anyone else know how long it takes if you need to chat again? Is that a shorter process than the potential initial process? Do most people wait until their entire trip is within 30 days? Or are they trying 30 days out from the first day and hoping for the best. Just curious what the best strategy is here.

 

[jlundeen]

I thought I remembered that it was 30 from arrival, not from last day of trip as was originally reported when this first started last fall. (I even have it written in my notes).

I've done it twice now since the original release, and am pretty sure it was 30 from FIRST arrival... but, then, I could be misremembering.

EDITED: I scrolled WAY back to find my first successful attempt, after many excruciating attemps way back then, and had included this note in my post here after that call:

"Onsite guests will now be able to initiate the video chat at 30 days from FIRST park. Just like ADRs, you can book for your whole stay, rather than waiting until 30 days prior to LAST day. "

 

[10CJ]

I thought I remembered that it was 30 from arrival, not from last day of trip as was originally reported when this first started last fall. (I even have it written in my notes).

I've done it twice now since the original release, and am pretty sure it was 30 from FIRST arrival... but, then, I could be misremembering.

EDITED: I scrolled WAY back to find my first successful attempt, after many excruciating attemps way back then, and had included this note in my post here after that call:

"Onsite guests will now be able to initiate the video chat at 30 days from FIRST park. Just like ADRs, you can book for your whole stay, rather than waiting until 30 days prior to LAST day. "

That is good to know, thanks!

 

[PatMcDuck]

I apologize for sounding stupid but I still don't understand the pre registration process. I go to the page and I click it and a tiny window pops up. How would I keep this open all day? How does it become a video chat, it looks like just a typing works chat? I am feeling my age, and this is confusing. I will probably try Friday because my son is off from his adult program that day.

 

[SueM in MN]

I apologize for sounding stupid but I still don't understand the pre registration process. I go to the page and I click it and a tiny window pops up. How would I keep this open all day? How does it become a video chat, it looks like just a typing works chat? I am feeling my age, and this is confusing. I will probably try Friday because my son is off from his adult program that day.

The little window that pops up is a text chat window and it is the correct place to start.
You will get an automated message telling you that you are in the DAS chat and asking for you to type in more i for action - things like date of first park visit, name of the person applying for DAS, names of the other people in your group.

Even if nothing is being typed in, there text chat will not be erased. You can keep it open by just texting something every 25-30 minutes (like -I’m still here, etc).

When a CM is ready to chat, you will get a message beginning the chat. The CM may ask you to repeat some of the information you already typed in. The CM will ask whether the person you are requesting DAS for us present and whether you have access to video and sound for the video chat.
Then the CM will send another message asking for permission to begin the video chat.
If DAS is approved, after completing the video chat, the DAS CM will send a message On the same text chat to let the DAS Advance Selection CM know you are ready to make selections. That portion of the chat will take place in the same chat winDow, but with a different CM

 

[nikkid1]

So is it abnormal to sit with the open chat window for 9+ hours w/o ever being answered. I am 3.5 hours in today and no action either.

 

[Kerr84]

So is it abnormal to sit with the open chat window for 9+ hours w/o ever being answered. I am 3.5 hours in today and no action either.

Did you type something into the chat? You have to type something and then it replies with a generic message and then you are in the queue. I waited like 6 hours one afternoon/night before it kicked me out. Then the next morning, it took about 5-6 hours.

 

[nikkid1]

Did you type something into the chat? You have to type something and then it replies with a generic message and then you are in the queue. I waited like 6 hours one afternoon/night before it kicked me out. Then the next morning, it took about 5-6 hours.

I did; yesterday a few times and finally we had to stop since we were hosting a party. same today...

 

[jlundeen]

Hope you have better luck this time. Wonder if it's due to the big crowds due for Easter and Spring Break...?