DAS changes coming WDW May 20/ DL June 18, 2024

[RamblinWreck]

I was able to book more than 6 on our DAS, but I was told that only 5 + the DAS user could be booked for each time we rode. Two different CM’s told me this.

100%

This person told her she was approved to book all 8 at once though.

 

[Jdavidm]

I go to Disneyland fairly often and never had issue with qualifying, never had a CM ask more than the usual what’s the concern about waiting in line. In fact, I’ve had several instances of not being asked any questions at all. Not saying thats good as I have no problem answering questions or explaining my issues but I’ve always found DL fairly lax about it.

It's interesting to read these Disneyland reports. We haven't been there since 2018 (before our Jan 2024 trip), but we have been to WDW in that interval. When we went to do our pre-arrival interview (december), I didn't find it to be more strict than WDW at all. I was asked like one question, she saw DD and I was moved on. I was acrually surprised and assumed it was easier because they could see the information from our WDW trips.

For me, it’s been pretty hit or miss depending on the particular cast member I get. Some will just ask the one question then move on to scanning my pass to register. Others have wanted me to go more in depth as to symptoms/issues. It’s also possible they ask less when the pass is for a child versus an adult.

With the abuse, I understand putting in more effort to make sure the accommodation is truly needed and someone isn’t simply claiming something like a developmental disability because they heard it’s typically approved.

I don’t have issue with needing to explain more and they’ve let my partner help in doing so if I struggle.

As one example of further questioning, if I were to state that being in a queue leads to X issue because of Y, they would sometimes ask additional questions to understand what that looks like for me (ie. a description of what would occur if X happens and what impact X happening would have on me). I would imagine this type of questioning would throw someone off if they’re trying to abuse the system and don’t actually live with that disability.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Actually, folks have reported some challenges getting DAS at Disneyland for several months now — long before the announcement in April. People have been told to leave the queue and return since at least last winter, maybe fall.

A plaid first offered me the Rider Switch option as an alternative accommodation for DAS over a year ago (Mar. '23?). So you're right that this option has been around at DLR for a while now. A plaid told me more recently that some people are using this instead of DAS and it has been working well for them.

 

[nalababybear]

A plaid first offered me the Rider Switch option as an alternative accommodation for DAS over a year ago (Mar. '23?). So you're right that this option has been around at DLR for a while now. A plaid told me more recently that some people are using this instead of DAS and it has been working well for them.

With the poor accuracy of wait times and the longer return lines in LL, rider switch probably is faster for those whose.party can wait in the queue and the one with accommodations rejoins at ride loading.

 

[Keladry84]

Disneyland has definitely slowly gotten stricter over the past couple years. There have been more follow up questions / further explanation needed when applying than when I first started using DAS. And this is for someone who was only trying to get it for myself + one guest to assist me so I can only imagine the pushback given to larger parties.

I would go as far as to say that DL was already slowly transitioning to this new limitation of what would qualify but that some exceptions were still happening since they didn’t yet have a process set up for alternate accommodations to fit those needs that they determined didn’t qualify a guest for DAS.

I got approved in park at DL no problem last summer, but had some difficulty from a different guest services cm later on….I was several hours past a DAS return time for Nemo because of needing to reset after difficulty in another area in the park. After finally being in a place I could actually ride, I went over to claim the DAS and the ride was down. I asked the ride cm what to do (this was my first trip/experience with a down ride ) and she said it was supposed to turn into an MEP and I’d have to talk with a cm at a blue umbrella. The umbrella cm looked at my account and basically said….you’re several hours late that’s not how the DAS is supposed to work, and you shouldn’t get the mep but I’ll give it to you because you are alone.

I was insane confused and started getting tics while she was adding the mep to my account (I don’t do well with rule breaking or even implied and wouldn’t have asked for the mep if I hadn’t been told to do so by a different cm!) She saw the tics and was a little more sympathetic, asking me if I was that late for the return time because of needing a quiet place in the park (um, yes….isnt that exactly what the das is for???)

I’m guessing she was thinking that I had the DAS nefariously or something because my disability is mostly hidden. I’m not sure what she meant though that we weren’t supposed to ever be past the return time….without my disability that would have been easy to do, with it not so much!

 

[lanejudy]

This person told her she was approved to book all 8 at once though.

She may find that’s not actually how it works in the park. DAS Return Times through the app limits to 6 even if more are listed.

 

[Perdita&Pongo]

With the poor accuracy of wait times and the longer return lines in LL, rider switch probably is faster for those whose.party can wait in the queue and the one with accommodations rejoins at ride loading.

Doesn’t rider switch wait in the standby queue and not the LL?

 

[nalababybear]

Doesn’t rider switch wait in the standby queue and not the LL?

Yes. The posted wait times tend to be wrong and favor longer estimates. Plus a DAS holder needs to return and wait in the LL after time arrives.

This is common for popular rides like Slinky dog and rise.

So if the estimated wait 60minutes and LL is another 30minutes. The das holder would have waited 90minutesntonride.

While if the party waited and the standby queue in reality was 45 minutes, the entire party gets the ride done faster

Of course it can go the other way, but it has been well known that the app trends longer estimates. Some same to encourage buying more G+ and ILL, bit I think it's just them not doing the red tag lanyards enough

 

[StarLime]

I went to Disneyland summer of 2021 for 2 days and for some reason, my DAS wasn’t working the second day. I had a CM tell me I might not qualify for it in the future, but she was giving it to me because I got it the day before. This was obviously long before they announced DAS changes. I’ve always gotten approved for DAS and other parks versions of disability passes due to several heart conditions. To me, Disneyland seemed stricter than WDW about getting approved. The CM kept asking all these additional questions that I’ve never gotten asked before. I didn’t mind, but I felt like she didn’t want to give me one.

 

[taradelao]

Just did our DAS registration for our May 31-June 11 trip. We were connected to CM in less than 10 minutes.
Given the upcoming changes and some people's experience with more condescending CMs, I was pretty nervous.

• I am the one who usually gets DAS for a non-developmental disease (although I do have the cognitive issue but I consider it less of an emergency situation compared to my first issue).
• Daughter (17) also qualifies under cognitive issue but we've only ever registered for myself.
• Party size: 7 for the first 3 days of our trip, then 6. Husband is flying with us to get us all set up and make sure we're fine and then my brother will "look" after us.
• My daughter and myself are APs.

Originally, I was thinking to register both of us because I've been having more frequent and urgent issues and I didn't want my daughter to have her own problems if I could not handle a planned park day.

The CM I talked to was amazing and very empathetic. I told him our reasoning and explained why I was thinking we needed two DAS holders. He didn't press for more info or more elaboration on why conventional lines are difficult for us, other than what I gave him.

• CM suggested having my daughter as the DAS holder and he would ask for a party-size exception, which was granted.
  • He mentioned that it was good I called in now vs. later because with the new rules would have been a lot more difficult to get a party exception.
• CM also started our DAS day on our non-park arrival day instead of first park day, in case we needed to make some changes to our schedule, which I appreciated.
• CM did not tell us when the DAS expired or mention the 10-minute rule. He did say he could see I've used DAS before and asked if I had any questions and if I wanted to go ahead with pre-selects. I opted not to do pre-selects because we don't use them. I'd rather not take up those timeslots in case someone else using DAS really does need them.

Overall, we had a great experience registering and I now feel this immense amount of relief!

 

[Jaay]

Sorry if it’s been posted many times (I’m sure it has) - but how do you actually get onto these online video chats with CMs?
I’ve only ever used the in-app chat and Guest Relations in person.
Just want to know in advance so I know what to expect! Thank you everyone

Edit: also been seeing posts that imply you can just jump into a video chat with a wait time, instead of scheduling in a date and time in advance?
Disney have said they can provide you an iPad at Guest Relations in person to then speak with a CM about DAS after 20th May, so I assume I’m right with this assumption?

 

[Angel Ariel]

rider switch probably is faster for those whose.party can wait in the queue and the one with accommodations rejoins at ride loading.

That's not how rider switch works though? When using rider switch the first party rides the ride and exits, and the second party goes through the lightning lane to then ride.

 

[keishashadow]

We've never traveled with our grandkids while DH had a DAS. But I would hope they could add a bunch of names but only 4 at a time. Be nice for grandpa to be able to take a few different kids each time.

Re new guidelines.

I’ve repeatedly seen the max # of people permitted posted here to be DAS holder plus three immediate family members. Exceptions to be granted, upon review, for larger immediate family members.

I’d like to point out that Immediate Family definition can, and does, vary by state law. That’s why I’m confused by what appears to be WDW’s interpretation of it in regard to their DAS accommodation.

I’m not a lawyer, Google (admittedly, not the best source for legal info lol) indicated Florida law defines an adult’s “immediate family” as: A person’s spouse or the parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling of the person or the person’s spouse.

That take is even broader that what I’ve in my mind as immediate family members (i.e. sibling of the person’s spouse), long before this issue arose. Perhaps, an entity doesn’t have to abide by the state edict in all matters & has the right to develop their own criteria in this sort of situation

 

[RamblinWreck]

She may find that’s not actually how it works in the park. DAS Return Times through the app limits to 6 even if more are listed.

That may be the case but she was told she had been granted an exception to the 6 person limit.

My understanding is in the past this was not exactly uncommon.

 

[Kerr84]

That may be the case but she was told she had been granted an exception to the 6 person limit.

My understanding is in the past this was not exactly uncommon.

This was in 2022, but they put 7 of us on one DAS. My daughter was just under 3 and she was the DAS holder so they had to do a special fake ticket for her and then at rides, we selected all 7 of us. I think they made an exception because she wasn’t riding any e ticket rides at the time.

 

[taradelao]

That may be the case but she was told she had been granted an exception to the 6 person limit.

My understanding is in the past this was not exactly uncommon.

We were granted an exception to the 6-person limit this morning. CM didn't mention anything about only being able to select 6 at a time.

 

[lanejudy]

I’d like to point out that Immediate Family definition can, and does, vary by state law. That’s why I’m confused by what appears to be WDW’s interpretation of it in regard to their DAS accommodation.

Disney has removed any mention of “immediate family” a few weeks ago now; it actually wasn’t up for long. And any state definition really only applies to any state policies, not private businesses. There is no formal “legal” definition; it’s always defined by that body (business/employer/insurance/financial/etc.).

 

[Rivergirl2005]

Hi everyone,

I forget the format so please let me know if I am sharing too much or missed something.

Made my video call this morning. I waited maybe 10 minutes. My cm was very kind and gave me a lot of helpful information. I did get das (not a developmental disorder) for myself. It's only two of us for the week June 10-17. He mentioned things would be changing. I asked if it was another organization and he said no. No mention of a 10 minute wait or rider swap but then the rider swap wouldnt work for me.

Thank you to everyone here who helped me remain calm. You are made me feel so much better!

 

[Evita_W]

Actually, folks have reported some challenges getting DAS at Disneyland for several months now — long before the announcement in April. People have been told to leave the queue and return since at least last winter, maybe fall.

Yep and it doesn't work for those with mobility devices at most attractions, which is one of the big concerns we have with this approach.

 

[Disneychick75]

Yep and it doesn't work for those with mobility devices at most attractions, which is one of the big concerns we have with this approach.

Return to the line is one thing but I cannot imagine it with a scooter or wheelchair. Bypassing others in line would get a real thrill out of that! Maybe Disney will allow return to the line through the exit once the others on the DAS get to boarding area?