Purduevian
Well-Known Member
Honestly I do not know where the line is of what advantages a DAS user should receive. Len previously showed a lawsuit where Disney said 3% of guests were taking 30% of a popular rides capacity (under GAC). That to me (and apparently Disney) seems unreasonable.I hear what you are saying but also, is it so bad that someone with a disability gets to experience more attractions during their trip? My son's brain tumor and treatment will affect the rest of his life. I know you are primarily concerned about abusers of the system, but it's very upsetting to me to hear someone complaining about his advantages at a theme park.
Legitimate DAS guests already have many disadvantages in life (and in experiencing a park day) and I'm not going to pretend to know all of them or quantify them. However, in my opinion there does need to be a limit to advantages given to DAS users in a park that disadvantage non-DAS guests.
Personally, yes in general I feel like getting in a queue for an attraction that has a line, while waiting in the standby/DAS return line is simply too much of an advantage. I have no problem with a DAS guest watching a parade, eating a snack/meal, seeing a show, riding the "transportation" rides, shopping, people watching, walk through attraction, relaxing, ect while waiting for their return time. Again personally to me, this feels like an appropriate accommodation/advantage for legitimate DAS guests.
I wish it could be taken on a case by case basis, but logistics wise there has to be at most 3 levels of accommodations at a place like Disney World.
I mean, Disney said in court - and was unchallenged in saying it - that GAC (the pre-DAS program) guests comprised 3% of park guest and accounted for 30% of ride capacity on popular attractions. Nobody has to believe anything I say.
I could be wrong, so check my math here:
So using 2012 Toy Story Mania as an example, every GAC guest accounted for 4.86 rides on Toy Story Mania.
- DHS averaged around 27,120 guests per day in 2012 [cite]
- 3% of 27,170 guests is 815 guests
- The hourly capacity of Toy Story Mania in 2012 was around 1,100 / hour (the third track was added in 2016 [cite])
Here's why I think it's 1,100 in the real world - we've counted the number of people exiting the ride over time:
View attachment 771556
- Let's assume DHS was open 12 hours per day in 2012.
- That's 1,100 guests/hour x 12 hours = 13,200 guests that can ride per day
- 30% of that daily capacity for GAC use is 3,960 guests using GAC on that ride per day
- 3,960 GAC uses divided by 815 GAC guests is 4.86 uses per GAC guest
So it's possible to make that math work if every GAC guest had with them 3.86 people with them on average, for every ride.
How likely is that to happen just based on Florida tourism demographics?
A 2022 report from Visit Florida [link] - the state's tourism office - says that 51% of Florida tourists have no kids (the Affluent Mature at 17% + Moderate Mature at 20% + Young & Free at 14% = 51%)
View attachment 771557
Let's assume those no-kid families are all two-person families, because the numbers would look more unlikely if they were 1-person units.
And let's assume that GAC use is evenly distributed across those segments. I don' think it is - I think it's skewed older, which means ... fewer kids and smaller families. But again, let's play it safe because the math looks worse otherwise.
So if half of GAC guests are two-person units, what's the average size of the other 49% of GAC users, if the overall average is 4.86 people per GAC use?
Here's the equation to solve:
(0.51 x 2) + (X * 0.49) = 4.86
which is 1.02 + 0.49X = 4.86
which is 0.49X = (4.86 - 1.02)
which is 0.49X = 3.84
which is X = (3.84 / 0.49)
which gives X = 7.84 people per GAC group
The "soft limit" for GAC/DAS party size is 6, but it's up to the ride CM's discretion [cite].
Let's play it safe - because the numbers are more unlikely if we don't - and say that every CM approved every 7+-person group for GAC.
So it's possible for 3% of GAC guests legitimately to use 30% of a ride's capacity only if the average GAC family with kids had just under 8 people.
That seems ... unlikely. So what other explanations are there?