New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

flynnibus

Premium Member
Are you limiting this accommodation to stamina issues stemming from a disability?
I think you misunderstand my intent here. For this text I’m elaborating how the bypass a wait can be used to address something that in itself… was not an inability to wait… by rather an alternative way to address some other specific limitation.

My point being - maybe wait tolerance isn’t something to be accommodated directly. Address the specifics… and say waiting is something that can’t be mitigated without fundamental alteration.
 

Jenny72

Well-Known Member
It was the heat last summer that kept us out of the park all day. We have a few issues that make it worse, but mostly we're just not used to it. We actually had to head back to the room before 11 am, it was so bad. We were generally done until about 6. I won't go back in the summer now until we have some way to mitigate the heat. We didn't buy Genie+ but I guess it would help. "Miserable" was a pretty good way to describe our experience in summer without genie/das/divine intervention.
 

KrzyKtty

Well-Known Member
Well, explain that to the president of American association of people with disabilities because she didn’t seem to see it that way. I’m guessing she is pretty knowledgeable about the ADA.
About ADA, sure. Disney and their policy, who knows. Everybody knows that no president of any organization can ever possibly speak without all accurate information. I would take their knowledge of the situation with a grain of salt. It's possible their getting most of their infrom one side which isn't a really accurate representation of the situation.
 

John park hopper

Well-Known Member
I emailed Disney explaining my situation got a generic email back-- they would contact me after review. Used to be a phone # you could call --no longer in service
 

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
That remains to be seen and is not a fact.

The current solution does not seem to be ideal for guests or CM’s so we shall see what ends up happening.

Getting publicity like that isn’t what disney needs either.
What is ideal. Continue with DAS for everyone?

I'm sure once they get used to this system it will be fine. People just need to give it a chance.
 

Vacationeer

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Prebooks were limited and could not be used for the same ride. They also did not include the E ticket rides.
Pre-books did include a few of what most would consider E-ticket rides. Each park had 2 or 3 rides that could not be pre-booked. Here’s the popular rides that could be booked:

—MAGIC KINGDOM PARK

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Haunted Mansion

Jungle Cruise

Peter Pan’s Flight

Pirates of the Caribbean

—EPCOT

Soarin’ Around the World

Test Track

—HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith

Slinky Dog Dash

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™

Toy Story Mania!

—ANIMAL KINGDOM PARK

DINOsaur

Kali River Rapids

Kilimanjaro Safaris

Na’vi River Journey

The complete list was longer - I trimmed to rides typically in the long wait range where pre-book was most useful.

People just need to give it a chance.

Yes. Right now nobody is quite sure exactly what will/won’t work and for who. There’s likely to be some fine-tuning. The biggest unknown is what affect this all has to park operations and if that helps reduce the need of DAS for some, like the way FP+ helped certain groups address their own needs well enough not to request DAS.
 

Angel Ariel

Well-Known Member
I give quite a bit of credence to Len’s numbers as well as Disney’s actions insofar as the need for changes.

I think accommodations would work better if our laws were modified. Expecting businesses to accommodate the disabled without any verification is not reasonable. Look at what is happening with service animals.
I'm not debating Len's numbers with regards to the need for changes. But I also don't think less DAS is going to drive down standby waits much. It may drive down LL waits (assuming those slots aren't moved to just being sold for G+), but I don't think it will significantly change standby (and IIRC, even len's comments were about lowering LL waits, not standby)

DAS was in full force last year when July 4th was so low for attendance that national news outlets wrote about it. When summer has been slow with lower waits for multiple years, looking at this year's waits being lower again and saying well this must be because of DAS doesn't make sense to me. 🤷‍♀️
 

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
Disney Parks got really obsessed with controlling guests when they spent the 1B on Magic Bands. I feel like this is a continuation of that - and I think it’s why I’m against it so much even though it doesn’t affect me at all.

To me, this is Disney trying to control guest behavior instead of trying to accommodate guests. That’s why I’m so against it even though it doesn’t affect me.

It’s the same reason I’m against virtual q’s - if an attraction is popular extend park hours so all guests can enjoy it - don’t create a system that controls which guests can and can’t experience an attraction.
 

Ayla

Well-Known Member
It was the heat last summer that kept us out of the park all day. We have a few issues that make it worse, but mostly we're just not used to it. We actually had to head back to the room before 11 am, it was so bad. We were generally done until about 6. I won't go back in the summer now until we have some way to mitigate the heat. We didn't buy Genie+ but I guess it would help. "Miserable" was a pretty good way to describe our experience in summer without genie/das/divine intervention.
Literally everyone is miserable outside in the heat during the summer in FL.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Now the cdc data is just for kids, but I think it’s probably safe to assume there is more going on than just awareness and better diagnosis. Adult disability diagnoses haven’t increased 3x in the last few years. I would have noticed because I do the diagnosing.
But there has been an increasing awareness of how planning needs to go into visiting Walt Disney World. With more people doing more in-depth research you’re going to have more people learning about DAS. Disney also has higher than average visitation for those with disabilities. That tripling of user only took the percentage to about 8% of visitors, higher than your previous guess of about 5% of the population qualifying, which means they were likely starting from a position of under use.

I believe the tripling has also been since the pandemic, a period when a variety of factors also would have depressed usage.
 

NotTheOne

Well-Known Member
I honestly doubt they care of a lot. For every person that might be against it there will be another person that is for it. Every situation is so divided right now disney probably accurately guessed that there would be no real lasting impacts from press.
Yeah, Disney can withstand the complaints...I think people forget what an uproar there was in 2013 when GAC was ended. Plenty of people claiming that Disney would back down, given the bad publicity.

Not only did they not back down, they fought an 8+ year court battle (and won) to keep from having to provide GAC-level accommodations.
 

Chi84

Premium Member
I'm not debating Len's numbers with regards to the need for changes. But I also don't think less DAS is going to drive down standby waits much. It may drive down LL waits (assuming those slots aren't moved to just being sold for G+), but I don't think it will significantly change standby (and IIRC, even len's comments were about lowering LL waits, not standby)

DAS was in full force last year when July 4th was so low for attendance that national news outlets wrote about it. When summer has been slow with lower waits for multiple years, looking at this year's waits being lower again and saying well this must be because of DAS doesn't make sense to me. 🤷‍♀️
I thought the problem was too many DAS people in the LLs. If people are denied DAS, they have a choice between going standby with accommodations or using the paid system. So more people in standby or more people using the LLs but with the paid system’s limitations.
 

Angel Ariel

Well-Known Member
I thought the problem was too many DAS people in the LLs. If people are denied DAS, they have a choice between going standby with accommodations or using the paid system. So more people in standby or more people using the LLs but with the paid system’s limitations.
Yes, the problem was too many DAS in LL. People have been hypothesizing that standby waits would drop significantly because of these DAS changes - I am disagreeing with that hypothesis.
 

hopemax

Well-Known Member
Yeah, Disney can withstand the complaints...I think people forget what an uproar there was in 2013 when GAC was ended. Plenty of people claiming that Disney would back down, given the bad publicity.

Not only did they not back down, they fought an 8+ year court battle (and won) to keep from having to provide GAC-level accommodations.
The difference might be that during that time, the larger Disney disability community still believed that Disney was among the most accessible places they could visit. The complaints were a subset of the population. These changes seem to have a lot more people asking themselves if a Disney theme park vacation is even possible for their affected person.

I’m not sure Disney wants the *general consensus* to be “don’t go to WDW, it’s not feasible anymore if you are dealing with condition X.” It’s a manageable position for dealing with a subset of high maintenance complainers. Businesses are okay with firing a few customers, if most people are successfully transitioning to the new rules. The fallout from this, is yet to be seen.
 

NotTheOne

Well-Known Member
The difference might be that during that time, the larger Disney disability community still believed that Disney was among the most accessible places they could visit. The complaints were a subset of the population. These changes seem to have a lot more people asking themselves if a Disney theme park vacation is even possible for their affected person.

I’m not sure Disney wants the *general consensus* to be “don’t go to WDW, it’s not feasible anymore if you are dealing with condition X.” It’s a manageable position for dealing with a subset of high maintenance complainers. Businesses are okay with firing a few customers, if most people are successfully transitioning to the new rules. The fallout from this, is yet to be seen.
We can agree to disagree on this point - there were just as many people in 2013 claiming that Disney was no longer possible for them.
 

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