New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[MickeyLuv'r]

Another point is that those magical moments that have not been as obvious, this is why some people have begun doing a bit of "pixie dust" for other guests. It is also why sometimes people also thank the cast members with a small 'gift'.

All around, WDW of today = guests are more often pitted against one another.

Entering a park can be particularly frustrating if you happen to get in the slow/stuck line. While CM's try to keep people from running at rope drop, there are plenty of spots/times around WDW where walking a little faster or passing just a few people = a big time savings.

At rope drop, the wait for FoP can go from zero to 2hours in mere seconds.

Part of the me-first attitude is baked into all theme park touring, but some of WDW's practices exacerbate the problem.

******

In the days of paper FP, we often gave them away to strangers, and strangers sometimes gave them to us, that was fun.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Agreed, Disney has created a bit of a monster. Hopefully, the new changes will weed out the cheats. To be honest, my opinion of DAS is about is as low as possible, given that I know of 2 families abusing the system. Coming from the UK on a 9.5 flight, nobody should be getting DAS for anxiety regardless of how severe I'll die on this hill. That said, if other accommodations can be made, that's great.

I think its effect on the true cheats might be limited.

I'm sure it will scare a few who may not have realized that the lifetime ban for lying to get DAS was already a thing. I'm sure it'll crack down on people using DAS to essentially sell 3rd party VIP tours too.

What it will do, mostly, is cut down on the number of people using DAS who weren't lying about their conditions, but didn't actually need DAS. I'm not sure if I consider those people cheats. If you go tell the truth to someone under a blue umbrella and they sign you up for DAS, did you do anything wrong?

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I agree 100% which is why accommodations should be made based on each case for developmental disabilities. Just being diagnosed with "autism" doesn't mean someone requires accommodations. Some autistic people absolutely do.

This why the idea of more nuanced accommodation might be helpful. If someone says 20minute waits are fine, or another person might say they can tolerate all but a few specific queues.

WDW might now be able to offer more customized accommodations than they previously did.

Now that WDW has more interesting queues, always missing them, means not being able to experience the full entertainment. The GoG ILL comes to mind vs the regular queue. Nobody wants to wait a long time, but the queue is entertaining.

 

[UK Disney]

I think its effect on the true cheats might be limited.

I'm sure it will scare a few who may not have realized that the lifetime ban for lying to get DAS was already a thing. I'm sure it'll crack down on people using DAS to essentially sell 3rd party VIP tours too.

What it will do, mostly, is cut down on the number of people using DAS who weren't lying about their conditions, but didn't actually need DAS. I'm not sure if I consider those people cheats. If you go tell the truth to someone under a blue umbrella and they sign you up for DAS, did you do anything wrong?

This is where it comes down to integrity. If you can get on a 9 hour flight and go the blue umbrella and claim anxiety, yet it only ever manifests in Disneyworld, then that's a massive issue. Yes, Disney had created the problem, which is why it's changing.

 

[Happyday]

All around, WDW of today = guests are more often pitted against one another.

Entering a park can be particularly frustrating if you happen to get in the slow/stuck line. While CM's try to keep people from running at rope drop, there are plenty of spots/times around WDW where walking a little faster or passing just a few people = a big time savings.

At rope drop, the wait for FoP can go from zero to 2hours in mere seconds.

Part of the me-first attitude is baked into all theme park touring, but some of WDW's practices exacerbate the problem.

******

In the days of paper FP, we often gave them away to strangers, and strangers sometimes gave them to us, that was fun.

Unfortunately I have definitely seen this! I guess that is why I have begun being one of those with a few little gifts in my bag to hand out when I see a cast member that has had to deal with a rude guest or a guest that was kind in the face of an angry guest. I have seen some kindness and choose to concentrate on that recently I have seen posts of guests with left over meal credits from the dining plan before they leave 'buying' meals for others. This is what needs to be the norm and not the exception

 

[Happyday]

This is where it comes down to integrity. If you can get on a 9 hour flight and go the blue umbrella and claim anxiety, yet it only ever manifests in Disneyworld, then that's a massive issue. Yes, Disney had created the problem, which is why it's changing.

Yes and no as someone else explained before there are different situations that trigger anxiety. Not to mention there is medication that can help with anxiety with side effects where flying is not an issue but being in a theme park the side effects would interfere with the day.

 

[UK Disney]

Unfortunately I have definitely seen this! I guess that is why I have begun being one of those with a few little gifts in my bag to hand out when I see a cast member that has had to deal with a rude guest or a guest that was kind in the face of an angry guest. I have seen some kindness and choose to concentrate on that recently I have seen posts of guests with left over meal credits from the dining plan before they leave 'buying' meals for others. This is what needs to be the norm and not the exception

You know what makes Disney World so special to me? In the two weeks I spend in Orlando, I experience more random acts of kindness than I do in an entire year living in the UK. It's like, I can feel the divide growing because of this DAS issue. It's lovely that you do that.

 

[UK Disney]

Yes and no as someone else explained before there are different situations that trigger anxiety. Not to mention there is medication that can help with anxiety with side effects where flying is not an issue but being in a theme park the side effects would interfere with the day.

Maybe in general, I'm specifically talking about the families I know. They get DAS because it's easy to obtain. I've been with them queuing in Hagrids and Velocicoaster for 2 hours, but yet they don't apply for the universal equivalent. Why is that? Why does Disney trigger their anxiety, but 9 hours of flight and 2 hour queues in universal not?

 

[Drdcm]

Serious question.. is DAS needed at party events? Aren’t the lines supposed to be pretty short?

Exactly…

 

[Jenny72]

Yeah...everyone keeps saying "cheaters gonna cheat," but I'm not sure that's always true. It's like those self-checkouts at supermarkets. They've increased shoplifting by *a lot* apparently. Presumably that's because it's easy and low risk. A lot fewer people are willing to sneak stuff into shoes or coats and walk out the door.

To me, there's a huge gulf between telling a CM a family member has adhd/anxiety/etc. (I mean, these days, who doesn't?) and actually lying extensively to a doctor and having that on record.

 

[Happyday]

Maybe in general, I'm specifically talking about the families I know. They get DAS because it's easy to obtain. I've been with them queuing in Hagrids and Velocicoaster for 2 hours, but yet they don't apply for the universal equivalent. Why is that? Why does Disney trigger their anxiety, but 9 hours of flight and 2 hour queues in universal not?

Yeah that is abuse

 

[DisneyCane]

Yeah...everyone keeps saying "cheaters gonna cheat," but I'm not sure that's always true. It's like those self-checkouts at supermarkets. They've increased shoplifting by *a lot* apparently. Presumably that's because it's easy and low risk. A lot fewer people are willing to sneak stuff into shoes or coats and walk out the door.

To me, there's a huge gulf between telling a CM a family member has adhd/anxiety/etc. (I mean, these days, who doesn't?) and actually lying extensively to a doctor and having that on record.

Not to go to far off topic but I have no idea how self checkout can possibly be cost effective for retailers. I would think that a lot more stuff per hour walks out the door than the cost of having cashiers. The only way you can possibly control it is with very sophisticated AI monitoring with enough camera inputs to determine if everything is being scanned and paid for and alerting a security officer if it isn't. I don't know if that level of AI is available yet. If it is, I would think it would be prohibitively expensive.

To your point though, the easier it is to break rules, the more people will break the rules.

 

[flynnibus]

Not to go to far off topic but I have no idea how self checkout can possibly be cost effective for retailers.

Scale. Loss is also a writedown... labor never is.

So if someone steals $10 in extra noodles... compare that to the $20/hr x how many cashiers they eliminated.

People aren't stealing $10 every order... because the vast majority are honest. But the labor overhead savings is there every hour all the time.

 

[DisneyCane]

Scale. Loss is also a writedown... labor never is.

So if someone steals $10 in extra noodles... compare that to the $20/hr x how many cashiers they eliminated.

People aren't stealing $10 every order... because the vast majority are honest. But the labor overhead savings is there every hour all the time.

The dishonest ones steal a lot more than $10. I've overheard the monitors at Target and Home Depot discussing people who they discovered walked out with several hundred dollars worth of stuff.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Yeah...everyone keeps saying "cheaters gonna cheat," but I'm not sure that's always true. It's like those self-checkouts at supermarkets. They've increased shoplifting by *a lot* apparently. Presumably that's because it's easy and low risk. A lot fewer people are willing to sneak stuff into shoes or coats and walk out the door.

To me, there's a huge gulf between telling a CM a family member has adhd/anxiety/etc. (I mean, these days, who doesn't?) and actually lying extensively to a doctor and having that on record.

Totally agree

“Whoopsie! I guess I accidentally forgot to scan the most expensive thing in my cart! My bad!”

It’s a lot less scary to play that game than to shove cell phones down your pants and walk out.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

I like to play "Guess the Resort" as people head to the buses. I'm always impressed/amazed by the GF guests who can leave a theme park with no stains on their white t-shirts and their khaki shorts still perfectly pressed!

Especially if they’re drinking around the world at Epcot…

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Serious question.. is DAS needed at party events? Aren’t the lines supposed to be pretty short?

A DAS poweruser can repeatedly ride popular rides at parties for basically no wait instead of the 5-15 minute wait everyone else might have to wait.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Yeah but on a low capacity ride it doesn’t matter… if the inglow into the LL queue is higher than the ride capacity…. You still can’t drain the queue.

You can temporarily bump up the ratio so high such that the lightning lane gets dumped before the regular queue steps foot on the ride though, and that’s what usually happens in these extreme scenarios.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I agree that the number of individuals who genuinely require the DAS pass in it's current form is small.

However, Disney at present only offers two tiers of accommodations:

1. No accommodations at all
2. Unlimited front of the line access

So anyone who does need accommodations of any kind is automatically slotted into DAS. That's on Disney.

And this is what they are fixing. The return to line accomodation should work for most. Now some of the loudest and angriest voices in this thread are from those who are mad that they are going to have to use this accommodation instead now, but that’s effectively what Disney is doing here.

 

[seabreezept813]

A DAS poweruser can repeatedly ride popular rides at parties for basically no wait instead of the 5-15 minute wait everyone else might have to wait.

Our family has used DAS and would never dream of using it for something with a wait 15 minutes or under because it pretty much defeats why we have to get it. But we feel pretty strongly about only using it in scenarios that it’s truly needed.