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

[GoingSince1990]

Yes, and they do this to get a higher capacity in LL to make more profit.
I dont say that everybody that used das realy needed this accommodation. And yes they have to find a way to avoid abuse of the das system. But splitting up parties that clearly need accommodations is juist not right.

How do you feel about parents of children who are too short to do a ride being forced to split up to wait when they need to do rider switch?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Disney is just fine with splitting up parties, isolating disabled people, and sending them to go wait alone in order to accomplish this. How this is a reasonable accomodation that provides the same access to a disabled person is beyond me.

Yes, this is a reasonable accommodation to the disabled person, who is unable to wait in the line so they may wait outside of the line in order to access the attraction. There is no obligation to the entire family to not have to wait in a line. Waiting in a line sucks. No one chooses to wait in line if there is another option. Disney can't have everyone who doesn't want to wait in a line, just not have to do it.

If the family wants to stay together, they are free to enter the line & make it work, or alter their touring style/times to avoid long lines - the same as everyone who prefers not to wait in a long line can do.

 

[Ollivier]

If the family wants to stay together, they are free to enter the line & make it work

If It only was this simple. A lot of dissabled people would like to be not dissabled and wait in line.

 

[Ollivier]

How do you feel about parents of children who are too short to do a ride being forced to split up to wait when they need to do rider switch?

I do not know how It works at Disney, but are they not only split up for a short time. Not for a one hour wait.

 

[GoingSince1990]

I do not know how It works at Disney, but are they not only split up for a short time. Not for a one hour wait.

Nope. If the standby wait for Space Mountain is 90 minutes, and mom and dad are visiting with a 2-year old and a 7-year old, one parent will wait in the standby line with the 7-year old while the other one stays outside with the 2-year old.

 

[mistysue]

I do not know how It works at Disney, but are they not only split up for a short time. Not for a one hour wait.

The splitting up for little kids is much longer, because there is not even a "part of the line" that is together, plus you have to wait the additional length of the ride x 2 AND another person doing the LL to get to the ride after the first group rode. But yet families of little ones still go - because more of the vacation is about the rides, hence going to a theme park and riding the rides. If it wasn't about the rides, nobody would be talking about the lines which are for the rides.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Nope. If the standby wait for Space Mountain is 90 minutes, and mom and dad are visiting with a 2-year old and a 7-year old, one parent will wait in the standby line with the 7-year old while the other one stays outside with the 2-year old.

Or it could be even worse— Dad is watching a 2 and 4 year old solo for 90m while mom waits in line.

 

[Ollivier]

Nope. If the standby wait for Space Mountain is 90 minutes, and mom and dad are visiting with a 2-year old and a 7-year old, one parent will wait in the standby line with the 7-year old while the other one stays outside with the 2-year old.

yes this is correct because you dont want the 2 year old waiting in line when not riding. As a parent you then make choices to make both kids day as magical as possible.
We also had this period when our children have different needs and then we also split up. One going to the thrill ride while the other did the kiddy rides.

But this is still different then being force to split up just becaus one of us has a dissability and we al want to ride the same ride.

 

[Disneylover99]

If It only was this simple. A lot of dissabled people would like to be not dissabled and wait in line.

Of course.

And there are a lot of people who do not qualify for DAS who cannot wait in lines for a variety of reasons as well. Families frequently must split up. It’s the nature of theme parks. Everyone needs to make concessions and compromises sometimes.

 

[mhautz]

And it appears that Disney is just fine with splitting up parties, isolating disabled people, and sending them to go wait alone in order to accomplish this. How this is a reasonable accomodation that provides the same access to a disabled person is beyond me. One goes to an amusement / themepark with others to enjoy the shared experience, not to spend 80% of their time sitting isolated, with brief periods of non-isolated time sprinkled in their day.

I would argue the primary goal of AQR is that the disabled person would remain with their party in the queue and AQR just gives them the ability to leave the line when necessary. Many of the previously DAS-eligible people who are no longer eligible need the ability to exit the line when they are having issues, but many times this need is not actually materialize. People still are with their family but given the flexibility to attend to their needs if they have to.

Also, this still seems to be a lot of hypotheticals and I'm still not convinced that the type of person who would need to use AQR in your suggested manner (splitting up and sitting out prior to even entering the queue) for every line is actually getting denied for DAS. And if it's not something you need, but would make you feel more comfortable, then it seems you need to do what all people do, choose the best option out of many imperfect options.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

yes this is correct because you dont want the 2 year old waiting in line when not riding. As a parent you then make choices to make both kids day as magical as possible.
We also had this period when our children have different needs and then we also split up. One going to the thrill ride while the other did the kiddy rides.

But this is still different then being force to split up just becaus one of us has a dissability and we al want to ride the same ride.

Respectfully I disagree. If it is REALLY that important to you to be together you have options (Genie+, visiting at less busy times, rope drop and/or ride at the end of the day, etc). They just aren’t the options that you want.

 

[Disneylover99]

But this is still different then being force to split up just becaus one of us has a dissability and we al want to ride the same ride.

Maybe you need to change things up and try to look at it differently. You’re not being forced to do anything. You still have a variety of options that can possibly work for you.

 

[Ollivier]

Respectfully I disagree. If it is REALLY that important to you to be together you have options (Genie+, visiting at less busy times, rope drop and/or ride at the end of the day, etc). They just aren’t the options that you want.

Maybe it is just the fear of not getting the das but that my daughter will get it. She is autistic and waiting in line is just not possible at Disney. Every line above 10 minutes is problematic, also for other people waiting close to us.

 

[keishashadow]

Update mgm CMs on top of their game.

Every attraction we rode: RoR, slinky, m@M RR & Toy Story; CMs were informed, polite & happy to discuss

Note that unlike what we had been told this trip, only the DAS holder waits outside, unless a small child

Experiment over. Don’t think I want to go thru it again end of month

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Also, this still seems to be a lot of hypotheticals and I'm still not convinced that the type of person who would need to use AQR in your suggested manner (splitting up and sitting out prior to even entering the queue) for every line is actually getting denied for DAS. And if it's not something you need, but would make you feel more comfortable, then it seems you need to do what all people do, choose the best option out of many imperfect options.

I wish we could upvote this comment 100 times, as it explains what I think much better than I seem to be able to.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

When my husband started having panic attacks so much of how we visited Disney (with him) changed. He sits out of rides, so often times someone will stay out with him to keep him company (or two people and then we ride together once everyone else is back). He doesn’t come on all of the trips anymore because flying is too stressful, so the kids and I go without him. We rent cars when he is there because he can’t take an Uber. At some point he probably won’t be able to ride the skyliner either.

We made these accommodations because we want to be with him. None of it lessened our enjoyment of being at Disney, or being at Disney with him.

 

[starlite_]

The problem is we on Disney forums know that RTQ is different than AQR because we are keeping up with things. The problem is that CMs on the DAS side are telling guests 'RTQ' is their option and then describe it like AQR. Which is obviously what they meant, and what should be given in 90% of scenarios, but the miscommunication is likely breeding confusion. We've read reports like that from this thread and outside of it.

People shouldn't expect RTQ, but I imagine several confused guests are going and requesting 'it' when that was what they were mistakenly told.

At least that is my guess on some of what is going on as well.

Do we know that though? What I've read is one account of a CM saying that there is a dif. Everyone online ran with it and yet Disney has never said so, and 'RTQ' is not an official accommodation offered at all. The accommodations offered are DAS, AQR (sometimes called return to queue by CMs themselves according to reports on this forum as you mention) and Rider Switch.

As far as I know Return to Queue and AQR are the exact same thing.

I don't doubt that there is lots of confusion about it tho and just based on post here and other forums I can also see someone that was denied DAS going to an attraction and demanding 'RTQ' for their whole family instead of asking the CMs at the rides what accommodations they can offer them. Specially with how much folks seem to be against splitting their party for the length of the stand-by queue.

So I repeat: folks save yourselves the trouble of sounding like you are demanding the secret really-limited-accommodation-that-CMs-are-apparently-being-audited-for and simply ask how they can help you if you need to leave the queue at that particular ride. CMs will offer you what they can based on the ride, party makeup, etc. Maybe it's gonna be a pass to return to the LL later, maybe it's gonna be rider switch, maybe it's gonna be AQR, maybe it will be something else.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

If It only was this simple. A lot of dissabled people would like to be not dissabled and wait in line.

Agreed. But you also cut off the part of my post where I said to change up touring style to hit lines when they are shorter.

If it is REALLY that important to you to be together you have options (Genie+, visiting at less busy times, rope drop and/or ride at the end of the day, etc). They just aren’t the options that you want.

^This exactly.

You can make it work for your family one way another, or you can choose another destination. Disney does not need to let a whole family avoid a line because one person is able to wait in that line. That's accommodating the family, not the individual. I don't think Disney has any intention to back down on that, and nor should they.

 

[OurBigTrip]

Yes, and they do this to get a higher capacity in LL to make more profit.
I dont say that everybody that used das realy needed this accommodation. And yes they have to find a way to avoid abuse of the das system. But splitting up parties that clearly need accommodations is juist not right.

If they’re going to reduce DAS use and still provide accommodations, there is no choice but to split up parties in many cases. Otherwise the number of people in the LLs will remain the same.

And you can accuse Disney all you want regarding doing this to make more money via Genie+, but no one can deny that the LLs were out of control, and since Genie+ is limited sales, they weren’t the ones clogging up the LLs.

 

[Ollivier]

Agreed. But you also cut off the part of my post where I said to change up touring style to hit lines when they are shorter.

Rope dropping is in fact waiting in line before park opens and then move in group to the attraction. This is no option for us. I would like to do it but it does not work for us.
Before having our daughter we also visited Disney and did rope drop, I know this makes such a big difference. We used touring plans and a long time ago we use tour guide Mike website. There we got the information how to rope drop. I was so prepared that I even knew wat turnstile to use to be as fast as possible at the fp.
We go since 1980 to themeparks, first as a kid then as young adult, then parent and now with my kids that are young adults.
We visit 5 different resorts every year.
I always found ways to make it possible.
But now I feel that we will not be able to make it work at the 2 Disney parks in the USA.
But as I said, maybe I am afraid that my daughter wil not get the das pass but that this fear is not needed.