New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[TrojanUSC]

I’m seeing a lot of posts on other things of how bad people are being treated when they do the video chat. Some people are being called liars, being laughed at, being told oh well, maybe don’t go. That in itself to me is a huge problem. No need to be mean and snarky. If people don’t qualify, they should be nicely told. theres probably still people trying to lie but no need to be a jerk about it. And I’m sure there’s people being nasty when applying too. But the castmember and health people should be professional.

I just can't imagine any world where Disney cast members are laughing at people or calling them liars. These calls are absolutely being monitored and reviewed by leaders, so it feels like the reality is people are being told no in a pretty firm way, with some clear guidelines that can perhaps come off as condescending when you've convinced yourself that skipping queues is the only viable option for you, then decide to embellish around it.

 

[Disstevefan1]

60 minutes is very low for one of the most popular rides in the park.
Does no one remember the days of the 80s/early 90s and waiting for 2 hours for every coaster in their local theme park?
I do. If we got on 4 rides for the whole day, we called it a success.

We can agree to disagree on the use of the words "very low". I will admit for an attraction I have never experienced before I would wait an hour and a half.

We were there when Potter opened on day 2 and waited 4 hours to get into the land.

I would never call a 60 minute wait a "very low" wait.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

No, no, no, this has nothing to do with capability, its calling these "very low" wait times.
I am able bodied. A "very low" wait time for for the Mine train is 20 min. At 35 maybe 40 mins I will jump in line.
At 65 at best I am "on the fence" and longer than 65 I am walking by.

Oh I agree they’re not very low, but yeah Disney has conditioned us that these are Disney low, and better than what they can be. That’s what I meant.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

What is totally awful is that we are calling these wait times "very low" WOW!!!!!
Disney has really conditioned folks to accept this???

As @ToTBellHop posted several pages ago, welcome to the party! DAS has been artificially shielding a lot of people from the reality of a Disney trip for a long time.

 

[KrzyKtty]

Has any clarification come from their alternative solution regarding leaving the line?And coming back?

How would this work if you were alone?

Are they going to have more cast members throughout the line, or are you supposed to just get out of the line and talk to someone on your way out? Lord knows you can go through almost the entire line before you see another cast member in it. What if it is someone with POTs or Chrons that has an episode And needs to get out of the lion quickly? Do they have to wait until they get to a point in a line where there is a cast member? That could be over thirty minutes sometimes?

This does not directly affect me or my family, but I am mostly curious.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

We can agree to disagree on the use of the words "very low". I will admit for an attraction I have never experienced before I would wait an hour and a half.

We were there when Potter opened on day 2 and waited 4 hours to get into the land.

I would never call a 60 minute wait a "very low" wait.

Those wait times are not "very low." However, those wait times being the only ones across 4 parks at greater than an hour at 12:30 pm indicate a "very low" wait time environment. There's a lot of headliners that weren't on that list, with wait times lower than 1 hour. Right now, at 3:00 PM (which should be peak time), looking at the app, I see the following:

Animal Kingdom:
1. Kilimanjaro Safaris, 10 minutes;
2. Expedition Everest, 25 minutes;
3. Dinosaur, 10 minutes;

Magic Kingdom:
1. Jungle Cruise, 35 minutes;
2. Pirates, 30 minutes;
3. BTMRR: 20 minutes;
4. Haunted Mansion: 15 minutes;
5. 7DMT: 50 minutes;
6. Meet Mickey: 15 Minutes;

DHS:
1. ROTR: 50 minutes;
2. TOT: 30 minutes;
3. RNRC: 15 minutes;

So yeah, these wait times seem pretty low to me, relative to Disney normal, but even in an absolute sense.

It is probably still way too soon to see any real DAS impact though and this is just seasonal impacts, but hopefully we are starting to see something.

 

[Jrb1979]

60 minutes is very low for one of the most popular rides in the park.
Does no one remember the days of the 80s/early 90s and waiting for 2 hours for every coaster in their local theme park?
I do. If we got on 4 rides for the whole day, we called it a success.

Many parks are still like that now. I really think people don't visit other parks much and see what average times are like at most parks now.

At Cedar Point this past weekend all the big coasters were 60 to 90 minutes all day.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I agree with this but am not sure if DAS shielded us from those changes or it’s just an additional loss to disabled guests that other guests haven’t had to factor into their “is it still worth it” calculation yet.

We’ve debated the value of the parks so many times over the last 4 years it’s become laughable, reservations, loss of magical express, loss of FP, increasing prices, more blackout days on our AP, now the loss of DAS, with every change it becomes harder and harder to justify the cost and the roadblocks but we still love Disney so we try.

This feels like a grieving period, many know it’s not worth it anymore, they’re just going through the emotions of accepting it.

I would disagree with the PP that the DAS shielded us from the increasing parks costs and all that. I tend to agree more with the bolded. We still have to buy tickets, get hotel rooms, eat food in the park, buy merchandise. It's beyond clear how much less the parks offer now than when DH and I started coming together 20 years ago. It sucks, TBH. Additionally we have disability related costs for DD each trip.

But.

It's always been one of the few places we could go where DD was fully accommodated and able to access everything. So on the cost benefit analysis we didn't care that we were getting less for more money. The memories we were making together without stressing about accommodations were worth it.

Now, if (on what I continue to hope is the off chance) she doesn't qualify for DAS, the only accommodation options would now separate us for a good portion of the day. So...big hit to the making memories together piece. Not to mention other disability related challenges we would face that we don't when together. Genie+ is a challenge for us for specific reasons I won't go into here (not monetary). That changes the analysis.

IME, it's hard for people who don't experience what we do every day to understand what exactly it means to not have to stress about accommodations. Dd has a field trip soon. All other families just have to sign the field trip Permission slip and go. For us it took that, plus 2 weeks of emails (that were sporadically responded to), a 30-40 min on site visit when the request to schedule over email was ignored, then another 30 min meeting with school to share photos and discuss the accommodations. Then chaperoning myself to ensure they happen.

To just be able to show up at Disney and know she would be accommodated and it wouldn't be stressful for us to prep or think about has basically been like an oxygen mask providing relief.

 

[Disstevefan1]

As @ToTBellHop posted several pages ago, welcome to the party! DAS has been artificially shielding a lot of people from the reality of a Disney trip for a long time.

All I am saying is if we are now conditioned to think a 60 minute wait time is a very low wait time then the system is broken and Disney has won since park guests don't even realize it.

 

[TheLaw101]

I‘m not understanding how it is discriminatory for WDW to have different accommodations for different needs, and not just give every issue the same remedy. What purpose was DAS supposed to serve. Maybe we’re not all on the same page as to that answer.

Hope this helps put into context:

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 § 302 “For purposes of subsection (a), discrimination includes--
(i) the imposition or application of eligibility criteria that screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability or any class of individuals with disabilities from fully and equally enjoying any goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations, unless such criteria can be shown to be necessary for the provision of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations being offered” 42 U.S.C.A. § 12182(b)(2)(i)


"DAS is intended to accommodate a small percentage of Guests who, due to a developmental disability like autism or similar, are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended period or time."

So what I did was bold the keywords from an applicable ADA section and also bolded main keywords in the new DAS change. So reading these bolded keywords above you should get a pretty clear understanding how Disney is discriminating developmental vs non-developmental disabilities by screening out those non-developmental disabilities. Specifically, Disney offers developmental disabilities the DAS privilege, advantage, or accommodation by screening out those non-developmental disabilities. Clearly, Disney has a program and policy to screen out developmental vs non-developmental disabilities who access and have DAS accommodation, thus the moving party's initial burden is easily met.

The burden would then shift to Disney to show that it is necesary that "[D]AS is intended to accommodate a small percentage of Guests who, due to a developmental disability like autism or similar, are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended period or time." It will be extremely difficult for Disney to meet that burden. The people abusing DAS argument will not be enough to meet this "necessary" showing.

 

[Matthew]

My advice is to explain WHY she can’t wait in line vs her diagnosis or what she does or doesn’t have. They don’t need to know the diagnosis, just why she can’t wait in line or what you do in your every day lives (not going to concerts or areas where you have to wait around crowds)

If we don’t cancel that is what we will do, life is tough enough at times though without this added stress… holidays are supposed to be an escape for us.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

All I am saying is if we are now conditioned to think a 60 minute wait time is a very low wait time then the system is broken and Disney has won since park guests don't even realize it.

I often wonder how different my fandom may have gone if my first Disney park experiences weren‘t on manageable days, my very first Disneyland visit was a slow rainy Wednesday and I ran around like a kid hopped up on sugar from ride to ride, I don’t think I waited longer than 30 minutes for anything, then my first experience at MK was a Christmas party (after flying during the day), once again I ran around from ride to ride having a blast and don’t think I ever waited over 30 minutes for anything.

I’ve had brutally busy days since then, where I’ll only get on 2 or 3 rides the whole day, but since I‘ve been so many times and done it all dozens of times I’m now ok with that.

My older (middle) brother has been to DL exactly once in his life and had such a miserable experience he won’t return even if we offer to buy his ticket, he said all he did was wait in hour long lines all day and get bumped into by people all day, he ranks it as one of the least fun days of his life.

 

[Matthew]

Sure but it’s an expense that everyone else has to pay too. The majority of park goers are purchasing Genie+. It’s baked into the cost of a trip at this point.

DAS has let its users get away with enjoying the parks at a price artificially lower than most are paying to have an enjoyable experience. I certainly understand that it’s upsetting that you can no longer get that experience at that price point but it is what it is.

I agree it’s an expense but I’d hazard a guess that people who visit and don’t have any health issues don’t buy genie on everyday of their trip.

We’d need it everyday we visited the parks and we’d need all the individual lightning lanes as well.

 

[ditzee]

I often wonder how different my fandom may have gone if my first Disney park experiences weren‘t on manageable days, my very first Disneyland visit was a slow rainy Wednesday and I ran around like a kid hopped up on sugar from ride to ride, I don’t think I waited longer than 30 minutes for anything, then my first experience at MK was a Christmas party (after flying during the day), once again I ran around from ride to ride having a blast and don’t think I ever waited over 30 minutes for anything.

I’ve had brutally busy days since then, where I’ll only get on 2 or 3 rides the whole day, but since I‘ve been so many times and done it all dozens of times I’m now ok with that.

My older (middle) brother has been to DL exactly once in his life and had such a miserable experience he won’t return even if we offer to buy his ticket, he said all he did was wait in hour long lines all day and get bumped into by people all day, he ranks it as one of the least fun days of his life.

Your brother sounds like my Dad. He went once and swore he'd never go back and he hasn't.

 

[Jrb1979]

I often wonder how different my fandom may have gone if my first Disney park experiences weren‘t on manageable days, my very first Disneyland visit was a slow rainy Wednesday and I ran around like a kid hopped up on sugar from ride to ride, I don’t think I waited longer than 30 minutes for anything, then my first experience at MK was a Christmas party (after flying during the day), once again I ran around from ride to ride having a blast and don’t think I ever waited over 30 minutes for anything.

I’ve had brutally busy days since then, where I’ll only get on 2 or 3 rides the whole day, but since I‘ve been so many times and done it all dozens of times I’m now ok with that.

My older (middle) brother has been to DL exactly once in his life and had such a miserable experience he won’t return even if we offer to buy his ticket, he said all he did was wait in hour long lines all day and get bumped into by people all day, he ranks it as one of the least fun days of his life.

Then there is family like mine who visit multiple different parks a year and find Disney wait times average. Most parks we visit we tend to see 60-90 minute waits for top rides.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I often wonder how different my fandom may have gone if my first Disney park experiences weren‘t on manageable days, my very first Disneyland visit was a slow rainy Wednesday and I ran around like a kid hopped up on sugar from ride to ride, I don’t think I waited longer than 30 minutes for anything, then my first experience at MK was a Christmas party (after flying during the day), once again I ran around from ride to ride having a blast and don’t think I ever waited over 30 minutes for anything.

I’ve had brutally busy days since then, where I’ll only get on 2 or 3 rides the whole day, but since I‘ve been so many times and done it all dozens of times I’m now ok with that.

My older (middle) brother has been to DL exactly once in his life and had such a miserable experience he won’t return even if we offer to buy his ticket, he said all he did was wait in hour long lines all day and get bumped into by people all day, he ranks it as one of the least fun days of his life.

I have to admit, my personal "very low" gauge was set when the parks systems were not broken and wait times were reasonable over 30 years ago.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I agree it’s an expense but I’d hazard a guess that people who visit and don’t have any health issues don’t buy genie on everyday of their trip.

We’d need it everyday we visited the parks and we’d need all the individual lightning lanes as well.

As for DAS users and your comment at the bottom… I’d happily never have DAS again for my wife to not have any of her conditions and to be able to live a normal life and also if you read any of my previous posts you would see I repeatedly said Disney is within their rights and it is what it is.

I’m curious to see if Genie becomes a viable option now that DAS has been eliminated for most, we tried it once at DL and once at HS and it didn’t work for us either time, we never paid for it again after those 2 tries. At DL I think we got 5 rides with it but we were still waiting in 20-30+ minute LLs lines and I was less than thrilled I paid extra to still wait in lines, at HS we shower up around noon (post RunDisney race) and only managed to get 2 rides, everything else was sold out for the day.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Then there is family like mine who visit multiple different parks a year and find Disney wait times average. Most parks we visit we tend to see 60-90 minute waits for top rides.

Then there's families like mine that cant really visit thrill ride centered parks in the first place as they don't have enough that is safe and accessible for DD to do to make it worth the cost of admission.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Then there is family like mine who visit multiple different parks a year and find Disney wait times average. Most parks we visit we tend to see 60-90 minute waits for top rides.

We are probably spoiled because we lived in Utah for our teeange years and Lagoon, the local amusement park, is amazing. Pretty vast selection of rides and usually very low waits, 15-30 minutes for most. It’s a hidden gem in the amusement park world.

 

[Jrb1979]

Then there's families like mine that cant really visit thrill ride centered parks in the first place as they don't have enough that is safe and accessible for DD to do to make it worth the cost of admission.

I wasn't even talking about that. My point was in response to the PP talking about how we've come to accept 60 minute waits as the norm.
All I said was that visiting multiple parks that 60 minutes is low on average.