New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[natatomic]

I wonder if you’re thinking about the transition period between GAC and DAS where I believe they did give some of the squeakiest wheels ride entry passes for that purpose. Or maybe it was just one of the demands of the lawsuit and I’m making this even more confusing lol.

Probably, yes. I had just left attractions when the switch happened, so I heard about it, but how it’s has evolved/changed since isn’t something I’m intimately familiar with. Good to know I’m not crazy though, because I could have sworn it was a thing, at least at first!

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

My point is this tho. How clueless could they have been to not realize this was hurting the system and why did they not get rid of them asap… its like they intentionally did this to implode the system

I don’t think the prebooks were as big an impact as you do. Yes, they added stress to the system, but they are not the reason alone that the system failed. Or, to put it another way, eliminating prebooks alone wouldn’t solve the poweruse issue, and the overuse issue.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I do have confusion as to why folks with legitimate limitations that previously qualified for DAS now do not.

Because those folks can be acccommodated with other reasonable accommodations for their limitations that do not so badly interfere with park operations.

 

[Splash4eva]

Because a lot of people booking day of at Guest Services messes with park ops. They wanted to incentivize people to book in advance.

Again. Policies change alll the times. We are seeing it now. Why didnt they do this sooner with the pre books?

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

The stories of non DAS users re riding things multiple times almost always include the use of LL (or FP, which allowed for immediate looping in some cases), strategic touring (like rope drop looping), or special events. It’s rarely people just re-entering the standby over and over during the heaviest parts of the day.

I don’t think Disney should be limiting it at all when it comes to rerides (and I imagine if it was posing a major problem they would have already done something about it) but it’s just not comparable scenarios.

I agree, except that I think DAS users understand basic park touring strategy at least as well as everyone else.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

But at what point do you realize this is again crippling the system and simply say like they did now… all DAS must be pre booked with NO incentive. Policies change alllll the time. This was one that needed to change as well.

I would bet their analytics showed that this wasn’t what was crippling the system. They could control how many prebooks were given out. It was a known. It certainly had an impact on a limited resource, yes, but not as big an impact as the overall DAS overuse.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Because those folks can be acccommodated with other reasonable accommodations for their limitations that do not so badly interfere with park operations.

Tell that to them.

 

[Dranth]

No one is arguing that DAS was handed out like candy. My issue with many of the posts is the lumping in of everyone, as if everyone was lying to get it. Yes, the fakers had a huge advantage. But I don't agree that those with legitimate medical conditions had any advantage since most still ended up doing less than the average park quest.

It's not just the fakers though. There are plenty of people with disabilities that didn't need that level of accommodation, hence the overuse component of the problem.

Unfortunately, unless Disney is allowed to require proof of disability and then tie an accommodation directly to that persons specific needs then the system will be flawed. The best they can do is make it less attractive to abusers and eliminate overuse through offering other accommodations.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Again. Policies change alll the times. We are seeing it now. Why didnt they do this sooner with the pre books?

Maybe because eliminating prebooks would have been shuffling deck chairs on the titanic and they realized it? Easier to do a wholesale overhaul once they recognized the system was irredeemably broken.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I have a simple question for Disney now again i wasnt complaining but why did they give away 2 free pre books?!? Absolutely NO need on an already strained system and why didnt they remove them when this was clearly noticeable. We are gonna compare DAS (old version) to DAS new version which is literally completely different animals. No more pre books. Party size has been reduced. You can no longer book another ride immediately. Am i missing anything else? ALL of these even if they gave away the same amount of DAS access would have helped things out. So imo any result we see would not be a direct comparison to the old system

I wonder about those as well. If DAS was already over-used, then why make the problem worse?

 

[jaklgreen]

It's not just the fakers though. There are plenty of people with disabilities that didn't need that level of accommodation, hence the overuse component of the problem.

Unfortunately, unless Disney is allowed to require proof of disability and then tie an accommodation directly to that persons specific needs then the system will be flawed. The best they can do is make it less attractive to abusers and eliminate overuse through offering other accommodations.

That may be true, but I don't think that separating people from their families is the way to go either. For example with my issues, I would have to leave the average line at least twice. So using the returning to the queue feature, I would be separated from my family in every line. Just think about that if it were you and your family. Do you actually think that is reasonable, for a family to go on a vacation and be separated from each other a good chunk of time? Putting the stress on the healthy adult to have to spend that time in line with the kids themselves. And the guilt of the disabled adult because they are the ones "doing" this to their family.
Find a way to not separate families and I would be all for it.

 

[Chi84]

If this person posted experience after experience of that nature, I might question it. For a one-off? CMs have bad days too. My thought is if I wasn't there I have no idea.

You’re making an assumption. In any event, we all decide for ourselves.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

It is not an advantage when everyone is free to re-ride whatever they want. DAS holders don't get on rides faster than anyone else, they still wait the posted standby wait time for that ride. Is there still a confusion about that?

The advantage comes from Disney allowing DAS users to ride something else while waiting. That effectively makes DAS an unlimited G+ with better return times for those who choose to ride something else while waiting for their return time. It is also what makes it ripe for abuse by skidmarks with no sense of right and wrong who are happy to lie about a false issue in order to get DAS. It increases Standby times at the other (typically non-geadliner) attractions since there are then groups of people in line for the 2nd ride who otherwise wouldn't be. I understand why Disney hasn't chosen to address that issue (yet) - enforcing it would require additional expenses for both tapstiles in the Standby entrance and additional staff to monitor those tapstiles. I'm sure they're hoping that these other changes will be enough to fix the issue. However, just because it isn't being addressed now doesn't mean it doesn't happen and doesn't cause problems. And pointing it out doesn't mean that anyone thinks every single DAS user does it (or even can do it, logistically).

 

[Dranth]

That may be true, but I don't think that separating people from their families is the way to go either. For example with my issues, I would have to leave the average line at least twice. So using the returning to the queue feature, I would be separated from my family in every line. Just think about that if it were you and your family. Do you actually think that is reasonable, for a family to go on a vacation and be separated from each other a good chunk of time? Putting the stress on the healthy adult to have to spend that time in line with the kids themselves. And the guilt of the disabled adult because they are the ones "doing" this to their family.
Find a way to not separate families and I would be all for it.

I get it is a personal thing but we separate all the time for various reasons in the park so yes, I do think it is reasonable. Did it when we went to DL when I was a child and we do it now as adults. It isn't a huge deal, and I am frankly puzzled by the people who think it is. In fact, I would say it was the common way to handle things for most of the park’s history.

Anyone who is disabled to the point that they require the full family available to them at all times to functionally be able to visit the parks should already be on DAS. Beyond that we are talking about personal preferences, not needs, so Disney has no need or requirement to accommodate people in that way.

 

[Chi84]

It doesn’t help to talk or think in absolutes - no one, everyone, every time, never, etc.

It’s hard not to. I’m guilty of it too but it’s not helpful.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

That may be true, but I don't think that separating people from their families is the way to go either. For example with my issues, I would have to leave the average line at least twice. So using the returning to the queue feature, I would be separated from my family in every line. Just think about that if it were you and your family. Do you actually think that is reasonable, for a family to go on a vacation and be separated from each other a good chunk of time? Putting the stress on the healthy adult to have to spend that time in line with the kids themselves. And the guilt of the disabled adult because they are the ones "doing" this to their family.
Find a way to not separate families and I would be all for it.

The ADA only entitles you to the same access to Disney’s services as everyone else. It does not require that this access is given in a way that allows your family to skip a line with you if they are otherwise able to wait in that line. If you want to avoid that, then you are looking for a luxury upcharge like genie+, which you can purchase just like everyone else.

Families using rider switch because someone is too short for a ride are separated all the time at Disney.

 

[hopemax]

The wildcard in LLs has always been the DAS...Disney could (and did) cap the number of Genie+ and ILLs being sold so that the line kept moving, but with DAS being handed out like candy, often for more than the 6 that Disney said they would limit it to, there was really no way to effectively manage LL capacity.

I'm probably in the minority, but I don't see this as a money grab by Disney, and I don't think they're looking to sell more Genie+ - I think they finally recognized that a) people who buy Genie+ are unhappy about the long LLs, b) DAS became ineffective for many who needed it because of the long LLs, and c) standby guests were increasingly upset about the LLs were making the standby lines unbearable.

I'm sort of in your minority... still a money grab, but for different reasons than what normally gets pushed here. I think the uncertainty of the true time spent in a queue, especially standby, is translating into lost vacation bookings. They aren't trying to sell more $30 Genie+, so much as they are trying to avoid losing out on $5K bookings.

Like someone else said, we don't even try to ride most attractions with ILLs and several Genie+ attractions like Frozen, Ratatouille, Slinky Dog, because the standby lines are too painful. It's not even the posted wait, it's the posted wait plus the uncertainty. I've mentioned before getting in lines that were posted as 70 minutes that in actuality were 150 minutes. Lines that we waited 45 minutes in and the ride went down, queue cleared. Get up to rope drop DHS and RoTR, SD, MRRR AND ToT were all down at park opening. For us, we didn't pay to get in the park, so we roll our eyes a lot, and it makes the day disappointing, but we aren't out money like the people around us are. How many times do you have a day like that, avoiding headliners, getting stuck in lines longer than posted, before you say, "Why even come to Disney?"

I think the shell game finally caught up with Disney. They had significantly more people entering the gate, than could theoretically ride all the E-ticket rides they wanted. In ye olden days of the Magic Kingdom, when there were 9 E-tickets, if you missed one or 2, you could still have a successful day. But the way Disney operates and advertises parks now, if you miss the Pandora attractions, or RoTR and Slinky Dog, how would you rate your day at AK or DHS? Actually, that could be another thing... there has always been an imbalance between MK attendance and elsewhere, maybe it's gotten worse. "Go to MK, you'll at least get to ride something without an upcharge." So they need to stabilize the standby experience to get people to distribute themselves somewhere other than the MK.

Because also unlike what other people think, I don't think this change is going to result in significantly shorter standby lines, but the posted wait might get back to the +/- 10 minutes, and not "it might be half of this number, or it might be double, depending on LL usage."

 

[Chip Chipperson]

I think his point is that there is an advantage over everyone else in the sense that a non-DAS person has to actually wait in the lets say 50min line for the ride, go on the ride, then go back into the 50min line to wait in order to ride again. Thats 1hour and 40min of waiting in line, to go on the ride twice. If you are a DAS holder, you get your return time, and then for the first 50 min, you can go grab something to eat, you can go shopping, you could go ride a ride that has no wait time, and then report back for your first ride. Then you can make the decision to re-ride the ride, and for the next 50 minutes find another ride with no wait time, go grab a spring roll, or go grab some pins. For the person without DAS to ride a ride twice your taking that 1hour and 40 minutes out of your day and dedicating it to that re-ride. Whereas for the DAS holder, you can do the same double ride, while still having the ability to do a lot of other things in the park.

Also, you can literally start the 2nd virtual waiting period while still in line for the first ride since you can book as soon as you tap in. If that's 10 minutes in the LL queue and then they have effectively reduced their wait for the re-ride - and still have the ability to ride something else in the interim.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Anyone who is disabled to the point that they require the full family available to them at all times to functionally be able to visit the parks should already be on DAS. Beyond that we are talking about personal preferences, not needs, so Disney has no need or requirement to accommodate people in that way.

Yup, that’s the key.

 

[Splash4eva]

I wonder about those as well. If DAS was already over-used, then why make the problem worse?

Exactly my point