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

[SueM in MN]

Interesting. I just assumed they always scanned at the 2nd checkpoint. When we were at WDW, we always did. But now I'm trying to remember if we were prompted to do it by a CM or if we just did it because we're rule followers?

My family goes to WDW and we've found that the second scan is random for some attractions. The ones where it's at the Fastpass merge point are more likely to be always on. But on some trips, the same attraction has used the second scan one day and not the next when we ride it.

If it's not in use, it's usually covered up, so you you wouldn't have just automatically scanned

 

[nalababybear]

My biggest question is how do they plan on us getting out of line? For me, and probably a lot of those with IBD, we need to be able to exit immediately and head to the bathroom. Fighting to the entrance, merge point or loading platform then finding a CM and informing them of the issue before obtaining a pass is NOT a viable option.

How do you deal with it now? LL are often 30+ minutes long.

 

[SueM in MN]

I've read though this thread. The one thing that concerns me was the HIPPA discussion. Many people on here have divulged way, way too much personal info. A very bad person can find that "suzysnowflake" has conditon X and lives in Happyville, through your profile that person can find out many things (depending upon what you posted there). Just be careful with your personal info! That is all for my PSA. We now continue with our DAS speculation.

I agree with the warning about being careful sharing personal information. But, is a personal privacy concern, but it's not a HIPAA violation. People are allowed to tell their own medical information to anyone they want in any way they want.
People who work with caring for patients or with medical records/information are only allowed to look at the information they need to do their job. Their ability to share information with others is also regulated.

 

[Boopuff]

I agree with the warning about being careful sharing personal information. But, is a personal privacy concern, but it's not a HIPAA violation. People are allowed to tell their own medical information to anyone they want in any way they want.
People who work with caring for patients or with medical records/information are only allowed to look at the information they need to do their job. Their ability to share information with others is also regulated.

Yes, you are correct that an individual can divulge anything they want and not violate HIPPA. I'm very surprised at how many people on this thread are really spilling a lot of information.

 

[thRob]

Opinion: this is a much needed change that I agree with wholeheartedly. I'm so happy that people who have developmental disabilities will get the services that they need.

My 3 year old neurotypical child still won't be able to tolerate standing in lines for hours a day. Sometimes we just have to leave a line halfway through. We will continue to modify our approach to Disney to work within the expected parameters of operation rather than expect the world to bend to us

 

[piccolopat]

The fact is they are not the same condition though. The medical fact is they are entirely different. IBD has physical manifestations inside the colon (ulcerations, inflammation, bowel thickening, mucosa abnormality, dysplasia). IBS does not. This is not my opinion - it is fact. There have been lawsuits over the misdiagnosis of these conditions as the physical manifestations of IBD can be life threatening.

What I am stating now is fact and not opinion. I don’t expect you to understand these differences between the conditions, but anyone who does not should not be asserting what is reasonable for me.

I am in no way saying that IBD should equal DAS and IBS should not. I’ve always said any accommodations should be on an individual level and determined by health experts.

Thanks for explaining the difference between IBS and IBD. While it's clear that IBD is a much more serious mefical condition, what about it makes it tough to wait in line? For an uneducated person like me, I would have thought it was the need to quickly get to a bathroom but it sounds like it might be something more.

 

[LSUmiss]

I think it's still possible to abuse DAS by waiting in 2 lines. Some may consider it "abuse" if you use your DAS on one ride with an hour long wait because you can't possibly wait that long, then go and wait in a standby line that is also an hour long, then go back and ride the first ride with DAS. In that case, you were able to wait the hour, you just didn't want to. I would consider that abusing the system, and at the very least it is incentive for others to lie and game the system by getting DAS when they don't absolutely NEED it.

I don’t know anyone who would do that who needs das & if they don’t need it, then they’re already abusing the system.

 

[Stank]

How do you deal with it now? LL are often 30+ minutes long.

Exactly.

What happens on a 10-20 minute attraction 1 minute in? I think it’s more of a stretching of DAS intentionality. The program has grown 3x in the past 5 years. Quite clearly, the program has more people in it than actually should be in it.

It comes down to *reasonable* accommodation. DAS is for a narrow audience; it’s been transformed into a catch-all. There are alternative accommodations for non-DAS circumstances. Those alternatives are appropriate for those circumstances. A potential need to use the bathroom isn’t a DAS circumstance.

 

[AnneK]

Telling someone with a severe GI disease to just “leave the line & reenter” when in an episode of GI distress is like telling a child with autism to quiet down and stay calm during a meltdown. Both episodes are completely out of the control of the person in question. There needs to be a middle of the road solution for keeping DAS available for all needed parties and to prevent DAS scammers from abusing the system; but this is not it.

Also, as a solo traveler, who is going to hold my place in line? If a LL is 30+ minutes I wait it out until it clears out, rarely have I waited more than 10 minutes in a Lightning Lane.

 

[Gentry2004]

Exactly.

What happens on a 10-20 minute attraction 1 minute in? I think it’s more of a stretching of DAS intentionality. The program has grown 3x in the past 5 years. Quite clearly, the program has more people in it than actually should be in it.

It comes down to *reasonable* accommodation. DAS is for a narrow audience; it’s been transformed into a catch-all. There are alternative accommodations for non-DAS circumstances. Those alternatives are appropriate for those circumstances. A potential need to use the bathroom isn’t a DAS circumstance.

Neither is a potential meltdown from an autistic child, but somehow that still qualifies.

 

[thRob]

Telling someone with a severe GI disease to just “leave the line & reenter” when in an episode of GI distress is like telling a child with autism to quiet down and stay calm during a meltdown. Both episodes are completely out of the control of the person in question. There needs to be a middle of the road solution for keeping DAS available for all needed parties and to prevent DAS scammers from abusing the system; but this is not it.

Also, as a solo traveler, who is going to hold my place in line?

Any 3 year old is going to have a hard time holding it for 1-2 hours. So yeah, DAS pass for them and their 20 closest friends?

 

[AnneK]

Any 3 year old is going to have a hard time holding it for 1-2 hours. So yeah, DAS pass for them and their 20 closest friends?

Are you somehow comparing someone with an incurable bowel disease with a 3 year old who has to go potty? Seriously?

 

[HopperFan]

People across the internet in chat forums say that the DAS is abused and they have witnessed it. I've wondered how because for the LL, everyone has to show their phone or have their Magic Band scanned. If someone is dumb enough or arrogant enough to brag in line, then it's obvious but otherwise how would someone be able to tell? Of course, when we were in the parks in November, I was there to have fun with our grandchildren and oblivious to who might cheat the system.

I addressed this early but to repeat ... I travel mostly just DS and I. He is nonverbal. I spend much of my trip watching, observing, listening, talking to CMs etc. It is very obvious who is using DAS.

Usually someone is guiding someone to the front - as I do with my son so he scans first OR you'll hear a party member say "wait I have to scan first", there are your first red flags.

Then the scanner turns blue. Instead of the CM saying "you are too early or you are the wrong ride or you don't have Genie+" and asking them to step out - they look at the screen, then look at the guest to match the faces. Then they override for the rest to scan. Then usually they will say "enjoy the ride Billy Bob" when they normally say nothing to other guests.

We have gone 4-6 weeks a year for the last 15 years. It is rare that there isn't at least one other group with DAS in front or behind, very common to be several groups going in with us. Especially when they are not regulars they are not efficient at scanning and holding up the line. The increase in these folks around us has gone up considerably since COVID and FP+ going away.

Virtual queue for every single ride is the solution. There is no reason anyone needs to stand for hours in a queue. I feel like everyone has a diagnosis these days. IBS is so common something needed to change.

Park Capacity is calculated by adding ride capacity, queue capacity, store capacity, dining capacity, etc. If you eliminate queue capacity you in effect reduce park capacity. That is a large $$$ loss.

I have noticed (on both coasts) the second taps for LL entry are almost never used (I think test track is the only place I’ve had to do a second tap, maybe 7DMT?) — it always seems to me like it would be easy to slip between lines on many of the rides as I walk the LL queue. I assume they are doing it to save labor costs (maybe relying on cameras?) so I wonder if the “return to line” idea is actually feasible given labor shortages — I would think you’d either need everybody to scan in (to determine when they could return to line) at initial line entry OR you would need someone manning an exit tap point (and even then you’d need to figure out how long they had been in line)— otherwise everybody abusing DAS will suddenly have a teeny tiny bladder and leave lines 5m in only to return to LL. I wonder if it’s going to be a separate feature that may require pre-registering?

The second scan is really only needed when the SB and LL lanes are side by side at any point and folks can jump the line. I've seen folks try to jump and when they get to the second scan .. and it doesn't work they are sent out of the ride.

 

[Stank]

Neither is a potential meltdown from an autistic child, but somehow that still qualifies.

Developmental disabilities absolutely are DAS-qualified. If fact, that’s the point of DAS.

But you don’t need an outburst, so your analogy falls flat.

 

[thRob]

Are you somehow comparing someone with an incurable bowel disease with a 3 year old who has to go potty? Seriously?

Yup. Different etiology of urgency, same outcome.

Source: I'm a physician, GI specialist

 

[Jdavidm]

Neither is a potential meltdown from an autistic child, but somehow that still qualifies.

The difference is when you know the line environment itself is what would cause the issue. It’s not just a “possibility” of having to leave the line for a lot of autistic people when being in a confined space with others is in itself an issue.

Expecting them to “try” waiting in the regular queue with the option to leave could and would probably mean every time they try to wait, it ends with them needing to leave the line. They would never make it on any rides this way unless the ride is literally a walk on, is that fair to you?

 

[Baytothemax]

Opinion: this is a much needed change that I agree with wholeheartedly. I'm so happy that people who have developmental disabilities will get the services that they need.

My 3 year old neurotypical child still won't be able to tolerate standing in lines for hours a day. Sometimes we just have to leave a line halfway through. We will continue to modify our approach to Disney to work within the expected parameters of operation rather than expect the world to bend to us

I believe what has most people on this thread nervous is not the fact that developmental disabilities are getting services. Everyone easily agrees that is great. It’s those who also have issues that do not fall under the developmental umbrella are seemingly having the services they also depend on taken away. we don’t know for sure but all the changes Disney has made to documentation points in this direction.

 

[Tatebeck]

I don’t know anyone who would do that who needs das & if they don’t need it, then they’re already abusing the system.

Exactly. They created a system that can be around twice as efficient as a normal park day (can effectively be waiting in 2 lines at once), and were giving it to anybody that knew the correct answers to the interview questions, whether they needed it or not. They made it far too attractive and too many people started using it. They need desperately to clean it up and limit access or the DAS/LL lines will end up the same length as the regular lines and anyone who truly needs it will have an hour long line either way with no actual accommodations anymore that differ it from a normal park day

 

[Gentry2004]

Developmental disabilities absolutely are DAS-qualified. If fact, that’s the point of DAS.

Point is. An autistic person with DAS could be fine in a particular standby line. They don’t know. Same as a person with a bowel disease. And yet one is now disqualified and the other remains. Both are dealing with potential or speculative issues.

 

[Gentry2004]

The difference is when you know the line environment itself is what would cause the issue. It’s not just a “possibility” of having to leave the line for a lot of autistic people when being in a confined space with others is in itself an issue.

Expecting them to “try” waiting in the regular queue with the option to leave could and would probably mean every time they try to wait, it ends with them needing to leave the line. They would never make it on any rides this way unless the ride is literally a walk on, is that fair to you?

I don’t have a problem with Autism, etc. having DAS. The point is it’s still a speculative problem and just as easily faked as IBS. So why are bowel issues being singled out?