Discouraged With the DAS video chat process

[Disney#1Stop]

Our family plans annual vacations to Disney in November and it was exciting to hear about the pre-registration through video chat. Unfortunately I have been waiting since 3:50pm. I may have to try tomorrow, and get back into the queue. This process has been discouraging. Has anyone been connected with a Cast Member and if so, how long should I expect the wait to be?
-A proactive mom of 3.

 

[gaylat]

Hmmm. I haven't seen that. Are you trying to log into a different browser when you get the first error message?

I have tried it on two different browsers on my computer and two on my iPhone, and I still get the same message.

 

[Prince-1]

Because with a short trip I don't want to use any precious vacation time to do this. I also work from home and leaving a window open is easy. There is a bonus to scheduling in advance too with the 2 pre-scheduled slots.

10 min vs 5 hours. Sure.

 

[correcaminos]

I have tried it on two different browsers on my computer and two on my iPhone, and I still get the same message.

I am of little help then. I swapped between 2 browsers without issue. What a pain. Maybe clear cache next time it happens?

10 min vs 5 hours. Sure.

I didn't spend 5 hours. Just because you won't do something doesn't mean it isn't good for another.

 

[gaylat]

I am of little help then. I swapped between 2 browsers without issue. What a pain. Maybe clear cache next time it happens?


I didn't spend 5 hours. Just because you won't do something doesn't mean it isn't good for another.

I have already cleared the cache on everything and still get the same thing.

 

[TikibirdLand]

You shouldn't have to wait -- and fail -- for 5 hours to engage assistive services. I'd contact the main number and ask for supervisors until you get someone that can help. Yeah, I'd go full Karen/Daren/Yazuu on them!

 

[correcaminos]

I have already cleared the cache on everything and still get the same thing.

Well bummer. Definitely try first thing if you can try right at 7am

You shouldn't have to wait -- and fail -- for 5 hours to engage assistive services. I'd contact the main number and ask for supervisors until you get someone that can help. Yeah, I'd go full Karen/Daren/Yazuu on them!

There is that, but not sure they really are able to help. I wrote in after my first attempt and a horrific CM experience. Though reality is going full Karen almost never helps.

(407) 560-2547 or email (takes a few days to respond though) disability.services@disneyparks.com.

 

[Goofy's Girlfriend]

I waited 8 hours two days ago and did not get a response. Yesterday, I only had to wait about 4.5 hours. The problem is that if you turn your head to do something else you may miss the message that a real human is available. Fortunately, I was looking when the human came into the chat. Unfortunately, several attempts to get the video chat working failed, and they have a ten minute window to solve technical problems. I did everything the person suggested and still could not get the video chat to like my computer. Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams all work well, so I have no idea what went wrong. After ten minutes, the person said goodbye. I need a break and will try again tomorrow.

 

[NelleBelle]

I waited 8 hours two days ago and did not get a response. Yesterday, I only had to wait about 4.5 hours. The problem is that if you turn your head to do something else you may miss the message that a real human is available. Fortunately, I was looking when the human came into the chat. Unfortunately, several attempts to get the video chat working failed, and they have a ten minute window to solve technical problems. I did everything the person suggested and still could not get the video chat to like my computer. Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams all work well, so I have no idea what went wrong. After ten minutes, the person said goodbye. I need a break and will try again tomorrow.

As my software engineer DH loves to ask me when I'm having issues with my computer, did you try a different web browser? I know that if I'm using Safari, I tend to get horrible problems with sites that are finicky vs something like Chrome or Edge.

 

[Hcalvert]

I went through it for my December trip. I was connected after about an hour and then my audio wouldn't work. Thankfully, the CM was understanding and let me type my responses. After getting the okay for a DAS (I had one in the past for the same ailment), I then had to be connected with a different staff member to schedule them. That took a long time for a week-long trip. I have to do it again in May for my June trip, which is 15 days. I am not looking forward to it.

 

[Xion5460]

That is the screen I get when it logs me out and I have to log back in, but the screen I have included is the screen I get every day when I log back on to try again. The only way to get this to go away is to type something and then I get that "please wait" message.

I've had this the last few days trying to pre-register my wife. I actually simply typed "Start" and it gave me the same prompts that it did the first time I tried. This has been an utter failure this weekend though. Sunday sat on from 1pm - 10pm, no response. Today I was on at 8am, CM came back at 11 while I was away from the computer and gone after 10min. Restarted at 2pm. They answered back at 9:42. Unfortunately, I think they shut down the queue early and it wouldn't let us start a video call and they shut down my chat right at 10pm telling me to try again tomorrow. 19hr on hold the last 2 days with nothing to show for it. The other major issue is that you can see all the chats on the MDE app (which is fantastic), but the app does NOT show visual or audible notification. You either keep your app open all day watching it, or you'd never know they responded.

 

[Mamas4]

Just did online reservation for March 2023. The most useful part was to talk to someone and ask a few questions I hadn't figured out yet by reading on-line.
First if you need a disability tag for a stroller etc. you have to go to the service desk anyway in the parks - they can't mail you anything.
Second, I had a plan for Epcot morning in my mind and didn't realize not all rides are available for pre-registration DAS even if they are DAS available after park opens. I thought it was just the top lightning lane/virtual queue rides at each park that weren't available for DAS pre-registration but I was wrong. The two rides I wanted to book in pre-registration (Frozen and Remy) are only offered to DAS on day of booking. The nice thing I learned was that the pre-registration DAS reservations are bonus in the sense that they do not interfere with you booking other DAS rides at the time your pre-registration DAS rides are booked. Whereas the regular DAS, you have to scan in before you can book the next one, these pre-registration ones are bonus and not counted in that rule. This might work even better in Magic Kingdom where there are a lot of rides, especially in Fantasyland where they can be booked close together because the rides are quick and physically located in close proximity.

Another thing to note, once I realized the rides I wanted to pre-book weren't included in pre-registration, I asked if one can change parks. DAS registration cannot change your park reservation for the day on the pre-registration live chat and can't speak to you unless you already have a park reservation. The chat box has a good checklist when you first log on to make sure you've done everything required to preregister so you don't wait hours and then learn you missed out on something you need to do before you can preregister.

As far as the experience of pre-registration, it could've been worse and could've been better. I logged on 8:45am Florida time, heard from the cast member at 11:08am then spent about an hour of her leaving me to help other guests two different times for around 20+ minutes each time while I figured out how to disable my pop-up blocker and switched from one laptop to another to try to get my video camera to work and connect. I feel like I was done about 12:45pm. The cast member was very helpful walking me through the app and how to book DAS reservations on app in preparation for day at park.

Other than myself not being tremendously tech savvy and having a laptop that's always given me trouble with video and having to switch to another laptop, there was something about the wait that stressed me out. My cast member did tell me Disney experience will time out after 30 minutes but you won't lose your place in line. So every so often, my chat box would show an error message to re log-in (which I couldn't do because when I went to the top right left drop down box, it showed I was logged in to my disney experience) or go to the previous page. I would have to click back page to try to get back where I could see my chat box live with text and not showing an error. Sometimes it worked ok then I would back space frantically a few times with nothing changing so I would search DAS in the top right search box, and scroll through the DAS pages until I came to the register now for DAS page I clicked to start the process originally and I would lose the error message. I think the cast member told me they have to close out your chat box - that would make since as I clicked the exit X button on the chat box, had numerous error messages, switched to another laptop and then back to the first one and I never lost my place. Though stressful, the chat box would repopulate (eventually) no matter how I was messing things up.