800 DAS chats scheduled in a day!

[muffyn]

while talking with a DAS pass video chat person they told us that yesterday they had 800 DAS chats scheduled !! holy batman!
no wonder the calls take forever to get an answer. seems its a small dept ( poor planning on Diz side ) & I bet many get burn out from this.
but ,, 800!? in one day? that is a heck of a lot of people , in the years we have been with a DAS family member we never noticed more than a dozen or so others in the park, am I naive? are they just so unnoticeable?

 

[fabfemmeboy]

while talking with a DAS pass video chat person they told us that yesterday they had 800 DAS chats scheduled !! holy batman!
no wonder the calls take forever to get an answer. seems its a small dept ( poor planning on Diz side ) & I bet many get burn out from this.
but ,, 800!? in one day? that is a heck of a lot of people , in the years we have been with a DAS family member we never noticed more than a dozen or so others in the park, am I naive? are they just so unnoticeable?

I think it's a combination of factors. Keep in mind that none of us notice every single DAS user in the park at any one time! Then add in that people are scheduling them for more than just the week you'll be in the park. And it's across multiple parks, over the course of a month. Even if it were a 1:1 ratio - e.g. they have around 800 scheduled per day because there will be about 800 DAS users in the parks per day...spread that across 4 parks (so 200-ish per park) and then drop those 200 people into a park with roughly 40,000 guests. That would make us 0.5% of the guests! Or, put another way, one of us for every 199 non-DAS guests. That's a pretty unnoticeable number of people, and even moreso when the FP/LL queues are open for other use meaning that not everyone in that line is a DAS-holder party.

 

[SueM in MN]

while talking with a DAS pass video chat person they told us that yesterday they had 800 DAS chats scheduled !! holy batman!
no wonder the calls take forever to get an answer. seems its a small dept ( poor planning on Diz side ) & I bet many get burn out from this.
but ,, 800!? in one day? that is a heck of a lot of people , in the years we have been with a DAS family member we never noticed more than a dozen or so others in the park, am I naive? are they just so unnoticeable?

You were seeing the ones who were noticed by you in the park on a specific day.

The chats represent all 4 parks and people who Would have requested DAS over the course of multiple days.

 

[ttintagel]

They absolutely need more people on the job. But I’m not holding my breath for Disney to cough up the money for adequate staffing in any department anytime soon.

 

[mamabunny]

I think it's a combination of factors. Keep in mind that none of us notice every single DAS user in the park at any one time! Then add in that people are scheduling them for more than just the week you'll be in the park. And it's across multiple parks, over the course of a month. Even if it were a 1:1 ratio - e.g. they have around 800 scheduled per day because there will be about 800 DAS users in the parks per day...spread that across 4 parks (so 200-ish per park) and then drop those 200 people into a park with roughly 40,000 guests. That would make us 0.5% of the guests! Or, put another way, one of us for every 199 non-DAS guests. That's a pretty unnoticeable number of people, and even moreso when the FP/LL queues are open for other use meaning that not everyone in that line is a DAS-holder party.

so... now I know who to call when I need some math done! LOL

 

[philharmagic fan]

so... now I know who to call when I need some math done! LOL

Actually, this isn't really the case, as a chat can set up a DAS for someone with a medical issue AND THEIR PARTY. If we assume an average of 4 guests per DAS, we're now talking 2% of guests, not 0.5%. Still a relatively small number, but not quite insignificant.

 

[mamabunny]

Actually, this isn't really the case, as a chat can set up a DAS for someone with a medical issue AND THEIR PARTY. If we assume an average of 4 guests per DAS, we're now talking 2% of guests, not 0.5%. Still a relatively small number, but not quite insignificant.

...and I just added you to my "math helper" list

But in all seriousness, the other folks who are with the DAS holder are merely beneficiaries of the DAS system, not the intended recipient who does actually benefit from the DAS. So, I'm not sure if we should count those who are in the traveling party or not?

And what none of our numbers take into account are folks like me who are not "counted" because we have a mobility issue that is (theoretically) addressed by a personal mobility device. Not to mention the folks who are not "counted" because they either refuse to use a mobility device, and don't know about DAS (or refuse to ask for one, or have been rejected in the past). There is also a subset of people who are completely unaware that there are any real "accommodations" available; imagine if we counted *all* of those people...

 

[CBMom01]

If 800 people/day at the parks have DAS thats ~1% of park visitors - materially lower than the % of Americans who have disabilities that would qualify for DAS

 

[fabfemmeboy]

If 800 people/day at the parks have DAS thats ~1% of park visitors - materially lower than the % of Americans who have disabilities that would qualify for DAS

Definitely. I suspect the total number of people per day at the parks is higher because most people go to the parks for more than one day but would only need to chat once. But even if we assume that everyone who calls has a 4-day PH ticket, we're still talking about 3200 DAS-holders in the parks per day - but still WELL below the percentage of Americans who have disabilities that would qualify for DAS. Even if we assume that only half of DAS-holders are trying to do the online chat and the other half are going in-person, it's well below that number. Of course, considering the number of people with disabilities who are un/underemployed and lack the financial stability/resources to go to Disney, and that there aren't good numbers for the number of Americans with disabilities that fit within Disney's DAS criteria so any percentage would be both under- and over-inclusive...still. The percentage of DAS-holders (represented by 800 chats per day) is lower than the percentage of Americans on the Spectrum, let alone taking into account any other disabilities.

 

[charmed59]

Unless each of those 800 calls a day were only getting a DAS for one day the number of DAS users in the parks that called in is probably closer to 3 times that number. In addition to those 2400 DAS users each day there are all those that got their’s at the park, which given how long it takes to get one in advance, I would guess is about another 2000 users a day. Add in their parties and that’s about 17000 guests per day across 4 parks.

This is why Disney is strict on the 6 persons per DAS limits. You can see how the numbers could get out of hand.

As for not seeing them in the park, it’s really hard to tell who was using Fast Pass and who was using DAS before. I’ve chatted to people in the FP line before that volunteered they were because of a DAS and I would have never guessed. And that’s the way it should be.

 

[Evita_W]

Actually, this isn't really the case, as a chat can set up a DAS for someone with a medical issue AND THEIR PARTY. If we assume an average of 4 guests per DAS, we're now talking 2% of guests, not 0.5%. Still a relatively small number, but not quite insignificant.

But many DAS holders go by themselves or with only one other with a very limited number going with more than 6, so I am not sure itnwould average out to 4.

 

[mamabunny]

But many DAS holders go by themselves or with only one other with a very limited number going with more than 6, so I am not sure itnwould average out to 4.

But think for a moment, how many times in the past year have we seen folks here asking about "more than 6 on a DAS"? And that is undoubtedly a fraction of the number of people who just show up at GR with a large group in tow, blissfully unaware that they might be denied that many on a DAS...

 

[Evita_W]

But think for a moment, how many times in the past year have we seen folks here asking about "more than 6 on a DAS"? And that is undoubtedly a fraction of the number of people who just show up at GR with a large group in tow, blissfully unaware that they might be denied that many on a DAS...

True, but Disney makes exceptions, there are other parks that don't and some limit to 4 total, including the person that needs the assistance and are very strict about it.

 

[NYLibrarian]

while talking with a DAS pass video chat person they told us that yesterday they had 800 DAS chats scheduled !! holy batman!
no wonder the calls take forever to get an answer. seems its a small dept ( poor planning on Diz side ) & I bet many get burn out from this.
but ,, 800!? in one day? that is a heck of a lot of people , in the years we have been with a DAS family member we never noticed more than a dozen or so others in the park, am I naive? are they just so unnoticeable?

The online chat and video interviews just start Nov 1st and we’re open to people going within the next thirty days. I’m not sure about the math, but it’s 800 calls for this initial period where everyone is signing up for the month. Once they get through this backlog that they created by not letting anyone sign up until Nov 1st, the numbers should go down.