New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[jaklgreen]

That’s true, but Disney can’t award DAS to everyone based on one person’s needs. That’s why providing accommodations based on the circumstances of each attraction, individual need, party size, length of line, etc. is intended to work better than the one-size-fits-all DAS. The issue is whether it will work for the person needing accommodation at that particular ride and time.

I agree, but what they are offering now is not going to work for many. If they make the queues easier to get in and out of, without a person having to back track through it, then find a cast member, explain that you had to leave, have them give you the accommodation, all while you are having your medical emergency I might add. Then things would be a lot smoother and people wouldn't be as concerned with what they are offering.
I have had to leave the line a few times over the years. The last time as I was trying to make my way out, there was a huge dude standing in the middle, taking up all of the space. He was looking down on his phone and refused to acknowledge me or move as I kept saying excuse me. He didn't want to move for some reason. After my 4th excuse me, his wife finally rolled her eyes and pulled him over a few inches so that I could pass. I don't want to go through situations like that.

So if they had some safer and more effective way to leave the line, I would be all for it.

 

[jaklgreen]

I'm not assuming - It's pointing out the expectation of what a typical baseline includes.

Your response leads exactly to what I suspected... what you are describing is how people MODIFY their own behavior -- instead of rely only on accommodations. You and others have straight up said... 'we won't do that' (parapharasing) because of your disability.

When people don't include those modifications in the discussion... that's what creates the inconsistency in the story when someone tries to digest how you can't deal with 30mins of no-freedom in Disney... but can somehow elsewhere that we all experience as typical adults. The modifications are what people are doing to cope... instead of having direct accommodations from someone else.

The point being made is to show that the expectations of queuing at Disney aren't unique. What was unique, was how far Disney went to embrace and support people who had limitations.

So as you say... people saw Disney as a place they could do more than they could elsewhere. So in the context of today... that leads the question.. Is Disney really OBLIGATED to maintain that? What if Disney were more like everywhere else, and people had to modify their behavior or opt-out of participation. That's a negative in terms of losing customers and customers unhappy... but is that really the true norm? Was Disney a standout... and maybe choses to no longer be?

They are not obligated to keep DAS. But they sure as hell made a boat load of money off of people with disabilities over the years when they needed it. And to now say "screw off," leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

They are not obligated to keep DAS. But they sure as hell made a boat load of money off of people with disabilities over the years when they needed it. And to now say "screw off," leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Well not to everyone.

 

[networkpro]

They are not obligated to keep DAS. But they sure as hell made a boat load of money off of people with disabilities over the years when they needed it. And to now say "screw off," leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Please don't take this as a personal affront, but Disney has been making a boatload off of most everyone when they needed it the most, it's not just one demographic.

 

[jaklgreen]

Please don't take this as a personal affront, but Disney has been making a boatload off of most everyone when they needed it the most, it's not just one demographic.

And a big part of their popularity and reputation is because they were so inclusive. I have said it before, many people can only do the Disney parks because of the accommodations they offer. There had to have been a better way.

 

[seabreezept813]

Glad to hear it, thanks! I will need to organize my thoughts ahead of time - so much that happens is just not stuff I think about anymore because it's daily reality, so I forget about it when it matters (even in doctor's appts at times).

Like you, by the time we get to the point of having the interview we'll be locked in to going as we would have been planning for long enough we won't cancel at that point, so we will make the best of whatever happens.

Appreciate the reassurance!

The CM we got focused on questions about lines in the park. Didn’t bring up the grocery store thing or anything. They wouldn’t approve our immediate family together because we’re 5. But I wonder if CMs in the park might be more flexible. My kiddo can’t ride anything with a higher than 38inch requirement so we won’t be using it for the heavy hitters anyway. Like it’d be nice if they let the little one ride Pooh with parents and both siblings.

 

[networkpro]

And a big part of their popularity and reputation is because they were so inclusive. I have said it before, many people can only do the Disney parks because of the accommodations they offer. There had to have been a better way.

Not without fundamentally changing the parks. DAS created a tipping point where unplanned hourly capacity was allocated to the detriment of patrons paying the same admission. The exception became the norm.

 

[jennab55]

The CM we got focused on questions about lines in the park. Didn’t bring up the grocery store thing or anything. They wouldn’t approve our immediate family together because we’re 5. But I wonder if CMs in the park might be more flexible. My kiddo can’t ride anything with a higher than 38inch requirement so we won’t be using it for the heavy hitters anyway. Like it’d be nice if they let the little one ride Pooh with parents and both siblings.

This is odd. They wouldn’t approve 2 parents and 3 minor children on the DAS? I have seen reports of exceptions when it is immediate family with all minor children. I’ve seen them not approve grandparents or cousins, aunts, etc. for over the 4 people limit.

 

[Splash4eva]

This is odd. They wouldn’t approve 2 parents and 3 minor children on the DAS? I have seen reports of exceptions when it is immediate family with all minor children. I’ve seen them not approve grandparents or cousins, aunts, etc. for over the 4 people limit.

I posted something prior to this but i know a few people who had similar disabilities thes ones who had a child over 14 and more than 1 parent were denied. The single Mom with her minor daughter was approved… i know its an extremely small sample size but something worth noting

 

[DoubleSwitchback]

This is odd. They wouldn’t approve 2 parents and 3 minor children on the DAS? I have seen reports of exceptions when it is immediate family with all minor children. I’ve seen them not approve grandparents or cousins, aunts, etc. for over the 4 people limit.

Might they be adult siblings? That's another group that doesn't seem eligible for the exception anymore (mostly).

 

[jennab55]

I posted something prior to this but i know a few people who had similar disabilities thes ones who had a child over 14 and more than 1 parent were denied. The single Mom with her minor daughter was approved… i know its an extremely small sample size but something worth noting

Yes I’ve seen those reports too, but sounds like this person was approved DAS but they aren’t letting them add the 5 immediate family members, which they have made an exception before. Another person noted maybe the immediate siblings are adults though, so maybe adult children and siblings are handled differently than minors for the over 4 exception.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

This is odd. They wouldn’t approve 2 parents and 3 minor children on the DAS? I have seen reports of exceptions when it is immediate family with all minor children. I’ve seen them not approve grandparents or cousins, aunts, etc. for over the 4 people limit.

I don't see how this could be looked at as odd.

WDW decided to change the standard for DAS. It was NOT because DAS was being underutilized or wasted. Either because of fraud, abuse, or just overtaxing of the system, it was felt that the impact of people using DAS and LL was too high and changes needed to be made.

So in a situation like this where you have 5 people, only 1 of which requires an accommodation, I would think it should be expected that the new program is going to limit the use of DAS for people who don't need it. Here to the child who needs it, and one custodial parent. The other parent is more than capable of monitoring/handling the 2 other minor children who do not need the DAS accommodation.

Would it be nice to keep everyone together, sure. But the DAS isn't about being nice, or making accommodations for people who don't need them. For the system to really work well, it should provide an accommodation to those who need it, while having minimal impact on operations. Adding more and more people to the system who do not really need the accommodation is what caused the breakdown that they are trying now to remedy.

 

[Splash4eva]

Yes I’ve seen those reports too, but sounds like this person was approved DAS but they aren’t letting them add the 5 immediate family members, which they have made an exception before. Another person noted maybe the immediate siblings are adults though, so maybe adult children and siblings are handled differently than minors for the over 4 exception.

It does seem like they are treating minors vs adults differently.

 

[seabreezept813]

This is odd. They wouldn’t approve 2 parents and 3 minor children on the DAS? I have seen reports of exceptions when it is immediate family with all minor children. I’ve seen them not approve grandparents or cousins, aunts, etc. for over the 4 people limit.

So one of our kids is not a minor. My SD is a in early college. But lives with us full time, is in our room on vaca, etc. So no extended family. It still felt weird to us because it’s our immediate family.

 

[DoubleSwitchback]

So one of our kids is not a minor. My SD is a in early college. But lives with us full time, is in our room on vaca, etc. So no extended family. It still felt weird to us because it’s our immediate family.

Well it might be cold comfort, but not approving adults for the party size exceptions is pretty common it seems, so at least you weren't victim of random CM inconsistency...

 

[DoubleSwitchback]

You don't think that by lowering the group number and actively weeding out the liars that that would have made a difference? What they did was just lazy.

What % of former DAS users do you believe were liars? Ballpark.

 

[seabreezept813]

So one of our kids is not a minor. My SD is a in early college. But lives with us full time, is in our room on vaca, etc. So no extended family. It still felt weird to us because it’s our immediate family.

It would make more sense to me if the DAS user could go on big rides, but they can only do minor stuff. So that’s why we’re hoping they might let us ride together. They put all of our names on the account too so it didn’t make tons of sense to me.
What I appreciated with the process this time is they did give us a lot of resources to help with breaks, etc.

 

[jaklgreen]

What % of former DAS users do you believe were liars? Ballpark.

I have no clue, none of us do. But according to some, they clearly think that almost everyone is lying. People keep losing sight of the fact that we are talking about people with disabilities, not just random guests.

 

[DoubleSwitchback]

I have no clue, none of us do. But according to some, they clearly think that almost everyone is lying. People keep losing sight of the fact that we are talking about people with disabilities, not just random guests.

These two things can't be simultaneously true:

"Cutting out liars would have fixed a lot the problems with DAS overwhelming LL"

and

"It's so insensitive to suggest that there were many liars"

There were either a lot, or there wasn't.

(I personally don't think that there were many liars at all; just overuse and CMs who got too generous with the granting wand.)

 

[Splash4eva]

What % of former DAS users do you believe were liars? Ballpark.

I think the party size limits would have had a bigger impact than the outright scammers….