News New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[tonythetigerasn]

This conversation is starting to feel less about ensuring accommodations for those who need them and more about ensuring DAS for people who've gotten used to it.

Touring the parks with your only options being G+ and regular standby is pretty unappealing for all guests, especially those with disabilities. For many, this has been our only option for several years.

 

[KrzyKtty]

What is this based on?

Please provide a case in state or federal court where any company was required to provide unlimited access to an unlimited number of people.

As one example, please explain how Disney is violating any law by not having an unlimited amount of accessible seating during every performance of the American Adventure in EPCOT.

Please explain how Disney would be prohibited by improving the guest experience for everyone by limiting the amount of people who could use DAS on a given day. Please provide a court case, not just your opinion. I certainly respect your opinion, but random opinions are not law.

I know I am coming into this discussion late because I was sleeping when most of this was going on. But it seems a bit like you came on this purposefully trying to stir up trouble. Every Rebuttal post is slightly antagonistic with an air of Requiring overwhelming proof without providing any in return.

I'm not entirely sure what the point of the original post was. Disney didn't ask for your opinion or my opinion. These hypothetical maybe's aren't exactly hopeful to people trying to figure out the current system. What is the point in posting a system that doesn't exist and then argue with people that don't agree if it would work or not?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I'm not entirely sure what the point of the original post was. Disney didn't ask for your opinion or my opinion. These hypothetical maybe's aren't exactly hopeful to people trying to figure out the current system.

he’s discussing other possibilities for the DAS system - certainly on topic. I had thought about some of the same ideas but the problem is it just gets more confusing for guests.

 

[Vacationeer]

I thought their park policy was that children had to be 14 to be unattended in parks.

Kids under 7 must be accompanied by someone at least 14 years old to ride an attraction.

7 year olds and up may ride or attend an attraction alone. (That’s the minimum, not suggestion)

To enter the parks is different. All kids under 14 must be accompanied by someone at least 14yo.

As for the bad PR, how do these new changes compare with the changes in 2013? The difference then was the removal of front-of-the-line access. The changes now involve complete removal of access to the DAS system.

This decade of DAS use already had large populations of people with disabilities/challenges removed because alternate accommodations were created for those needs. This latest change is no different than that expansion. Not getting DAS is not the same as not getting accommodation(s). It’s not removal of accommodations, it’s switching to more accommodations outside DAS.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Kids under 7 must be accompanied by someone at least 14 years old to ride an attraction.

7 year olds and up may ride or attend an attraction alone. (That’s the minimum, not suggestion)

To enter the parks is different. All kids under 14 must be accompanied by someone at least 14yo.

Thanks… asked the original question because I would be very upset if Disney was asking 11-year-olds to stand alone in lines to accommodate a disabled family member. But I wasn’t sure if the poster was spitballing an example for the point of saying the inconsistency is frustrating, or if this is happening.

 

[KrzyKtty]

he’s discussing other possibilities for the DAS system - certainly on topic. I had thought about some of the same ideas but the problem is it just gets more confusing for guests.

Might be on topic, but not helpful, and he was very combative about it.

 

[John park hopper]

Does anyone know what disabilities they are allowing I've read autism

Other than that Disney has been silent, you have to make a reservation and 30 days out plead your case or check with a CM on the day you arrive.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I would be very upset if Disney was asking 11-year-olds to stand alone in lines to accommodate a disabled family member.

What’s the age limit then? If it’s ok that a family be asked to split up - when is ok or not ok? 15? 18? Or are we going by how old they look? Height?

 

[jennab55]

What’s the age limit then? If it’s ok that a family be asked to split up - when is ok or not ok? 15? 18? Or are we going by how old they look? Height?

I personally think 7 is quite young to stand in line alone, but I’m sure other parents think it’s fine. It’s ok for Disney to put an age out there, but they shouldn’t make the decision for a parent. Some 12yr olds may be fine waiting in an hour line alone whereas others would not be. OR some parents may not be ok with their 12yr old waiting alone for an hour with a bunch of strangers at a theme park. I wouldn’t be.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

It’s ok for Disney to put an age out there, but they shouldn’t make the decision for a parent.

Agreed. My question was based on the idea that Disney wants families to split up when using the RTQ option. So where is the age limit where it is appropriate or not?

Or do we just leave that up to the college intern to decide cause that’s a good idea.

 

[Angel Ariel]

What’s the age limit then? If it’s ok that a family be asked to split up - when is ok or not ok? 15? 18? Or are we going by how old they look? Height?

It shouldn't be based on age, but on need - as it should be for all disability accommodations. Those with developmental disabilities could be 20 years old and not be able to be in line alone .

 

[jennab55]

Agreed. My question was based on the idea that Disney wants families to split up when using the RTQ option. So where is the age limit where it is appropriate or not?

Or do we just leave that up to the college intern to decide cause that’s a good idea.

Personally I don’t think they should force it on any minor children (so under 18). I’m assuming the person waiting in line is not disabled. Of course a parent could decide that a 15yr old would be perfectly fine and let them, but if a parent stated this will not work for them because their child would not be comfortable waiting in a line alone with strangers, that should be taken into consideration. Not all kids are the same.

 

[Kingoglow]

he’s discussing other possibilities for the DAS system - certainly on topic. I had thought about some of the same ideas but the problem is it just gets more confusing for guests.

No, that poster was simply suggesting to keep DAS as in in full but add a hoop for users to jump through via the third-party service. There was no other possibility suggested. Just keep it as is.

 

[Figgy1]

This conversation is starting to feel less about ensuring accommodations for those who need them and more about ensuring DAS for people who've gotten used to it.

Touring the parks with your only options being G+ and regular standby is pretty unappealing for all guests, especially those with disabilities. For many, this has been our only option for several years.

Without providing a roadmap to cheating at least 2 of us have family members with severe disabilities which should qualify under the new rules but are worried about not qualifying due to some of the reports coming from those denied and at least 2 have tried the new accommodations and found they didn't work for various reasons and will be going elsewhere

 

[Figgy1]

Not

Not true my Granddaughter suffers from epliepsy
She's on four different medications and still has them
There are not ride induced
We are hoping we could her to a park in a wheelchair but she has expressed to us she would be embarrased if she had one she calls them glitches
So we thought if we could get her in and out as fast as possible

All anybody can tell you is you won't know until you call

 

[KrzyKtty]

Not

Not true my Granddaughter suffers from epliepsy
She's on four different medications and still has them
There are not ride induced
We are hoping we could her to a park in a wheelchair but she has expressed to us she would be embarrased if she had one she calls them glitches
So we thought if we could get her in and out as fast as possible

I believe the important part would be to identify the needs that would prevent her from being able to wait in a traditional line. The calls can be stressful so many people have recommended writing down those needs. It might also be helpful to write down any stories of what has happened when she was waiting in long lines.

I would not concentrate on the embarrassment aspect, though because that would probably not be a consideration for them.

 

[lentesta]

imho maybe we should ask @lentesta about those numbers

Using MK[1] headliner[2] posted wait times[3] between 11 am and 3 pm[4] in June as a proxy for 'busy', for 2016 to present, excluding 2021:

1. Thursday (highest waits)
2. Monday & Tuesday
3. Wednesday & Friday
4. Saturday
5. Sunday (lowest waits)

There are other ways to measure this, of course. And there's not a lot of data from 'June' - each weekday gets only 4 or 5 samples per year. Expanding to June and July might help.

These data fit into the hypothesis that weekends are more likely to be "travel days". And there's some external evidence for this: the National Household Travel Survey tracks how often non-work driving happens by day of the week:

So more non-work travel happens on weekends versus weekdays. That's not super surprising, of course. But it fits the data above.

I have decent relationships with some folks at ORNL and can follow-up if there are specific questions on this.

[1] MK has the most attractions, so is less susceptible to wait-time swings when a couple of rides go down
[2] Attractions like the Peoplemover are not great measures of crowd levels
[3] Posted wait times are inaccurate. But they're objective and transparent
[4] 0-minute wait times at park open don't really tell us much

 

[Vacationeer]

You're right. I forgot about the people listed who are not doctors. The point is that IBBCES still requires third party verification of some sort. It's better than someone going to Disney and requesting DAS with no proof at all. It would eliminate some abuse. No, it would not eliminate all abuse, but it would eliminate some.

The most direct reason:

It’s not so much that a disability is verifiable but how that disability affects you in the queue.

That was and remains the case with DAS. Even verification of autism is not automatically DAS granted under the new structure, rather the severity where the queue is concerned. Some cases of autism are being declined and given recommendations of alternate accommodations, while a few rare exceptions outside developmental disabilities are still being granted DAS. Verification is little help where precision comes in.

These decisions are multifaceted with many factors being weighed. I think some options don’t do enough in balance with negative impacts, so they look to other avenues that cover those aspects. Like with potentially removing the ability for DAS to repeat rides so headliners capacity is more evenly distributed among different guest groups, why open that can of worms if other changes already lessen the impact to an acceptable degree.

 

[Chi84]

I personally think 7 is quite young to stand in line alone, but I’m sure other parents think it’s fine. It’s ok for Disney to put an age out there, but they shouldn’t make the decision for a parent. Some 12yr olds may be fine waiting in an hour line alone whereas others would not be. OR some parents may not be ok with their 12yr old waiting alone for an hour with a bunch of strangers at a theme park. I wouldn’t be.

They’re not forcing anyone to stand in line alone. They’re offering a disability accommodation that needs to be objectively reasonable. I don’t know if we have any first-hand reports regarding specific ages so it’s probably best not to put out hypotheticals and argue about them.

 

[jennab55]

They’re not forcing anyone to stand in line alone. They’re offering a disability accommodation that needs to be objectively reasonable. I don’t know if we have any first-hand reports regarding specific ages so it’s probably best not to put out hypotheticals and argue about them.

I’ve seen reports of people being told their accommodation is having their 11yr old (or other aged) child wait in a standby queue alone and then the adult can meet them at the merge point. So the accommodation is the minor child waiting in line alone in this example. I think it is ok to offer that as an option, but it may not work for all families and I think people should be able to state that their minor child (or the parent) is uncomfortable with that. I don’t think that is unreasonable.