New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[TrainsOfDisney]

Pretty pitiful if grownups start yelling at and berating Cast Members though especially if children are nearby.

Even more pitiful that a billion dollar company causes that to take place.

 

[Vacationeer]

Getting loud and giving the CM a hard time should never be condoned. What does that accomplish better than giving constructive feedback in a respectful manner and escalating when there’s good reason?

 

[Angel Ariel]

right but guests who have spent crazy money and are trying to make it the best experience for their disabled family member are bound to be frustrated by this system - sometimes frustrated people raise their voice - it’s pretty understandable.

No - wholeheartedly disagree here. Yelling at cast members is not OK, regardless of frustration level. The hell we've experienced with medical insurance is on a whole other level, and I still don't yell at the entry level people that man the dept to lodge the complaint. Cry? maybe, as frustration needs to go somewhere sometimes. But yelling isn't OK.

 

[pigglewiggle]

Exactly… they could care less about the people that need it. As long as the standby line moves 5 minutes faster they are happy!

You also seem to be rather comfortable making sweeping generalizations.

I'm sure there are quite a number of people here who have obstacles in life that we just don't speak about who also believe there's no excuse to raise your voice to an innocent employee.

 

[seabreezept813]

Ya that

I imagine the others don’t have those problems because most disabled people don’t go there. Disney has a disproportionately high number of disabled guests because people knew they’ve made accommodations that made it possible for disabled people to enjoy the parks. Disney will now join the growing list of places many people can no longer go, you may be ok with that but many others aren’t.

People think others are overreacting because they abused the system and they’ll now have to stand in long lines but the reality is they’re worried because they’re about to lose one of the only theme parks they could still go to. They aren’t worried about standing in line, they’re worried about not having any theme/amusement parks to go to anymore.

Yup this should be obvious. Disney is a park all ages and abilities can enjoy. Can’t say that for like any other amusement park.

 

[seabreezept813]

This is where the discussion goes awry because, unlike the discussion of DAS where @lentesta has provided specific data to show DAS use, we on this thread don't have such information for the other parks. I'm sure there are people on social media who use DAS at Disney and then don't elsewhere - not debating that exists. But a significant percentage of DAS users doing that? There's no data to make that claim.

Anecdotally -we've gone to other theme parks, and yep we use their disability services while there. One of them I would argue has a much more generous program than DAS - you get to enter at the exit, and you can stay on the ride for 2 consecutive rides without getting off if you so choose. It's a theme park designed for kids - mostly younger kids - but even during the summer, it's clearly not abused (and also no documentation required there).

A six flags, though, and universal Hollywood - we definitely won't return to the latter for some time, and aren't likely to seek out the former. In both instances because the rides aren't super accessible. We go to Disney because the rides - even many of the thrill rides - are so much more accessible. I would posit that the accessibility of the rides (or lack thereof) at places like 6 flags drives down the numbers of those with disabilities going more so than their documentation program. Having just done universal's documentstion process, to be very frank, it feels like theatre.

Exactly, like why apply for a pass at a Six flags if the rides aren’t generally accessible. I know our Six Flags 85% of the rides are extremely thrilling, which can be both dangerous and generally not easy to use for people with disabilities. Disney has about 2 rides that are at that thrill level across the whole property.

 

[phillip9698]

Not true, my girlfriend’s heart condition will no longer qualify for DAS and she can’t go on probably 70% of the rides at Magic Mountain.

You seem to be ok with collateral damage as long as the cheaters can’t abuse the system anymore, those of us who are the collateral damage think it sucks though.

We’re older so we can use cruises to get our fix but it really sucks for the collateral damage people with kids.

Documentation would be the easy solution but our poorly written laws prevent that.

Six Flags requires documentation. So the laws do not prevent it.

This situation isn’t anything new. When GAC was going away we were flooded with reports from people who swore their family needed an unlimited fast pass due to various reasons and anyone who supported changes to reduce the cheaters were being heartless to those who needed the service. There were the same comments about people passing out, throwing up, being a danger to others, etc…due to losing GAC. I haven’t seen that come to fruition, so when the same comments are kicked around now, I have to give them the side eye.

I understand that the very nature of this topic will draw posters who feel they require the current service. And some may feel attacked or offended that their potential loss of the service is being hand waved away by others.

But personal feelings aside, something just has to change. You can’t have 60% of an attractions capacity taken up by 8% of guests. It’s just not fair to that 92% of paying customers who seem to be getting completely ignored because they don’t use the keywords to slide into that 8%. And make no mistake about it, the bulk of the people in that 8% don’t NEED the current service. Will some people who rightfully need the previous accommodations get shafted, yes, but that’s the nature of any rule change you implement anywhere. It’s unavoidable.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Six Flags requires documentation. So the laws do not prevent it.

6 Flags requires that some documentation go through a third party, not that's given to themselves. Their system is also currently the subject of a lawsuit.

The third party is also basically a marketing organization, not a medical one, and there's no transparency on their site indicating that anyone with a medical background is reviewing the applications that they receive.

Hence why I referred to IBCCES as theatre earlier in this conversation. Anyone thinking this is any kind of strong "medical review" to qualify for IBCCES is not fully understanding it. IMO, given we have no data on any of this, it's far more likely that lower numbers of people with disabilities going to 6 flags has much more to do with the lack of accessibility of 6 flags parks in general than due to IBCCES.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Six Flags requires documentation. So the laws do not prevent it.

This is currently being challenged in court. The law very much does state that providing proof is to minimized and limited. There are a lot of violations out there and their continued existence is not evidence of compliance.

There were the same comments about people passing out, throwing up, being a danger to others, etc…due to losing GAC. I haven’t seen that come to fruition, so when the same comments are kicked around now, I have to give them the side eye.

There was a period where people with legitimate needs were being denied accommodation because Disney put so much emphasis on autism that DAS was taken to be an accommodation for autism with everything else accommodated by the design of queues. That mistake very much seems to be in play again.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Six Flags requires documentation. So the laws do not prevent it.

But Disneys avoiding this scenario because the laws aren’t clear cut which leads to a lot of interpretation and lawsuits, for people like my girlfriend who can provide decades of medical paperwork it‘s frustrating because it would be an easy solution that would weed out the vast majority of abuse while also showing proof of need, unfortunately Disney has chosen not to ask for paperwork and instead is simply eliminating the option for all but a small list of developmental disabilities, that leaves a lot of people who genuinely need DAS without it.

As I mentioned in my first post DL Paris has required paperwork every time we’ve gone, it’s a much better system, if our laws weren’t so poorly written and confusing it would solve most of the problems.

 

[Happyday]

6 Flags requires that some documentation go through a third party, not that's given to themselves. Their system is also currently the subject of a lawsuit.

The third party is also basically a marketing organization, not a medical one, and there's no transparency on their site indicating that anyone with a medical background is reviewing the applications that they receive.

Hence why I referred to IBCCES as theatre earlier in this conversation. Anyone thinking this is any kind of strong "medical review" to qualify for IBCCES is not fully understanding it. IMO, given we have no data on any of this, it's far more likely that lower numbers of people with disabilities going to 6 flags has much more to do with the lack of accessibility of 6 flags parks in general than due to IBCCES.

After reading all the posts about IBCCES I am getting a bit concerned. This is a company that has no privacy agreement like a Medical company would? Correct?
Even though Disney says they don't require documentation at least when you are discussing medical information they will be trained by a medical group and if escalation is necessary it will be with that medical group that is familiar with privacy guidelines.

 

[Angel Ariel]

After reading all the posts about IBCCES I am getting a bit concerned. This is a company that has no privacy agreement like a Medical company would? Correct?
Even though Disney says they don't require documentation at least when you are discussing medical information they will be trained by a medical group and if escalation is necessary it will be with that medical group that is familiar with privacy guidelines.

They have privacy terms on their main site as everyone does, but not on the accessibility card site: https://accessibilitycard.org/

It's not a medical company. HIPAA doesn't apply. Inspire Health Alliance may be better, it may not. Won't know for a while

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I’ve never heard the expression “ride pounder” let alone seen many such posts.

…that means something totally different on the College Program…

 

[wdisney9000]

Again everyone keeps saying lets wait and see how this goes. Maybe its me but i cant see how this can possibly go well at all if there truly are needs where multiple people need to leave these lines which honestly is going to be the case.

That's what I've wondered. If the return to line concept becomes a heavily used option, you will have lots of guests in line wondering why they continue to see people leaving or returning to the line and skipping ahead of them.

It would only make guests frustrated and/or become aware of the return to line policy and perhaps begin to use it as well.

Then we'll get a post from Len about the % of people using the return to line policy and the problems its causing.

 

[Trauma]

Ya that

Yup this should be obvious. Disney is a park all ages and abilities can enjoy. Can’t say that for like any other amusement park.

Your going to have to put this statement in the past tense very soon.

 

[lazyboy97o]

No - wholeheartedly disagree here. Yelling at cast members is not OK, regardless of frustration level. The hell we've experienced with medical insurance is on a whole other level, and I still don't yell at the entry level people that man the dept to lodge the complaint. Cry? maybe, as frustration needs to go somewhere sometimes. But yelling isn't OK.

Are yelling and raising one’s voice really one and the same? Something like a surprised “What?!” would be said in a raised voice but not yelling, much less the verbal abuse that people are now claiming. Even crying is sometimes at a higher volume than one’s typical speaking voice.

 

[phillip9698]

6 Flags requires that some documentation go through a third party, not that's given to themselves. Their system is also currently the subject of a lawsuit.

The third party is also basically a marketing organization, not a medical one, and there's no transparency on their site indicating that anyone with a medical background is reviewing the applications that they receive.

Hence why I referred to IBCCES as theatre earlier in this conversation. Anyone thinking this is any kind of strong "medical review" to qualify for IBCCES is not fully understanding it. IMO, given we have no data on any of this, it's far more likely that lower numbers of people with disabilities going to 6 flags has much more to do with the lack of accessibility of 6 flags parks in general than due to IBCCES.

It doesnt need to be a strong medical review. The fact that an otherwise healthy person, in many cases a high schooler, is less likely to make a doctors appointment, fake a disability, receive a signed doctors note, and file it with said company before the trip makes it enough of a deterrent to be effective. Right now all they do is go to a booth and spout off key words they learned on Tik Tok.

 

[Splash4eva]

That's what I've wondered. If the return to line concept becomes a heavily used option, you will have lots of guests in line wondering why they continue to see people leaving or returning to the line and skipping ahead of them.

It would only make guests frustrated and/or become aware of the return to line policy and perhaps begin to use it as well.

Then we'll get a post from Len about the % of people using the return to line policy and the problems its causing.

Not only that but how are some people gonna be able to get out of a queue depending on the ride. I truly feel Disney is just hoping people deal with it and never ask to leave a line for whatever reason and praying for the best…

 

[Angel Ariel]

Are yelling and raising one’s voice really one and the same? Something like a surprised “What?!” would be said in a raised voice but not yelling, much less the verbal abuse that people are now claiming. Even crying is sometimes at a higher volume than one’s typical speaking voice.

I hear what you're saying (and FTR my crying is quiet lol ), but yes they can be. Are they always? No one can speak for every human on the planet Are front line cast members always going to be in a place to differentiate? Likely, no.

 

[Angel Ariel]

It doesnt need to be a strong medical review. The fact that an otherwise healthy person, in many cases a high schooler, is less likely to make a doctors appointment, fake a disability, receive a signed doctors note, and file it with said company before the trip makes it enough of a deterrent to be effective. Right now all they do is go to a booth and spout off key words they learned on Tik Tok.

Do you really not think doctors notes can be faked, especially in this day and age? Especially given that IBCCES' site gives you a link to a database of doctors to search through.