But if you cannot afford the Dr visits needed for a diagnosis and treatment, I feel like chances are high you aren't really able to afford Disney anyway?
For many people/conditions, getting all of the necessary appointments to determine a diagnosis can be cost-prohibitive. Just saying if you can afford Disney then you can afford to get diagnosed doesn't really cut it in many scenarios and also leaves out that some people are gifted their Disney trips by family or others. So not everyone who goes to Disney can afford the oftentimes ridiculously expensive appts and tests required for a diagnosis.
And since this comment was part of the discussion on proving disability with documentation, cost isn't the only factor making documentation difficult. I'm fortunate in that my medical care is free at the VA as all of my disabilities are service connected so paying for diagnosis would not be the issue for me. It is almost impossible, however, to get doctors to write a letter though, and even more unlikely to receive a letter that would actually include info required to verify it's contents (like doctor id number, direct phone number, email), nor will they verify they wrote a letter should whoever actually get through to them to ask them. This isn't only limited to the VA. Many other doctors won't write letters, provide direct contact info, or confirm the contents of letters they write for privacy reasons.
Beyond that, getting doctor's appointments in a timely manner isn't always possible. I've been waiting for several referrals for 3.5 years! Getting documentation isn't always a quick phone call. It often requires in-person appts, even for issues that have already been diagnosed, with no guarantee that you will even get the documentation needed, and no true way to verify. Plus, as has already been stated, diagnosis doesn't mean accomodations are required.
It's pretty close. These are the numbers that Disney released from the 2020 lawsuit.
3.3% of the people in the park were using 30% of Toy Story's ride capacity.
Disney said on that use of the system has tripled in the last 5 years.
Okay, so if back in 2013, 3.3% of guests were using 30% of ride capacity at a popular ride, and use has tripled since then, you'd think roughly 33% to 90% of riders on popular rides were using DAS to access the ride.
Right, and if the statistic of usage tripling in the last 5 years is to be believed, that's usage since 2019. It's likely that between 2013-2019 there was an increase in usage as well, which would mean that there's a good chance that it's greater than 9.9% now (3.3% guests issued DAS in 2013 times 3). Multiply that by the number of total people in a DAS party, that could be 10-60% of guests (not counting any additional increase of DAS users between 2013-2019). Even for the lower range, that's not an insignificant number.
While this may be true, the flip side of this is that most often posted ride times are significantly inflated vs. the actual wait time being experienced by standby guests.
Disney has a conflict of interest in posting accurate standby wait times:
1) The economic incentive to post higher standby wait times = driving more sales of
Genie+ and ILL. It's a cost/benefit analysis that everybody performs whether they explicitly do some math, or just weigh whether they are willing to pay the amount or not.
2) Guest happiness / satisfaction = if the posted time is 30 minutes, and you wait 15 or 20 minutes for the ride, you are happier. If the posted wait time is 30 minutes and you wait 45 minutes, you are upset that you ended up waiting longer.
3) Maintenance / Ride break down margin. This also falls into #2, but by erring on the side of over-estimating a wait time, it allows for a delay in operations without failing to meet the wait time.
While DAS is supposed to take into account the LL wait time when scheduling your return time, in my experience often the return time I receive is the current time plus the posted standby wait time. Or the LL wait time is significantly longer than the adjustment granted.
I grumble about it a bit with my family, but know that being able to go to a shop, or go to a walk-on ride while waiting helps to offset the impact of these things. If Disney removed the ability to do any other experience while waiting, then I would expect them to get greater scrutiny over their posted wait times.
Hopefully, with enacting these changes, the LL wait times go down, and are more in line with the adjustment to return times given. But, I think that any conversation about the benefits of DAS needs to be tempered with the drawbacks.
I agree that inflated standby waits do make DAS users have to wait longer. I do wonder, however, how much that is off-set by the benefit of being able to schedule wait times online. DAS users can get a DAS wait time while they are standing in the LL for another ride. It sounds like currently once you tap in to the LL (or the second checkpoint on some rides), you are then immediately able to schedule another DAS ride. This allows a DAS user to be in two lines at once, whereas a non-DAS user can't be. Also, a non-DAS user has to physically walk to and enter a line for their wait to begin, whereas a DAS can be on the other side of the park, schedule their return time and be waiting. This is completely disregarding a DAS user being able to be in a DAS wait for one ride and entering a standby line during that wait. If the ability to do that were eliminated as you discussed, there's still the opportunity for a DAS user to be virtually waiting in in 2 lines at once, and for a DAS guest to potentially be in lines sooner (therefore more frequently) than a non-DAS user.
Ex. Non-DAS guests enters BTMR queue at 10, rides BTMR at 11, exits at 11:05. Then they spend 20 mins walking to Buzz (not sure if that's how long it would take, but just an example). Enter standby queue for Buzz at 11:25, ride at 12:05.
DAS guest requests return time online for BTMR at 10, gets return time of 10:50 (standby of 1 hr minus 10 mins). Gets in line, waits 10 mins (new change seems to indicate a 10 min wait before scheduling next ride) and right before they get on the ride, they are able to schedule return time for Buzz. Standby is 40 mins, so their return time is 11:30. Exits ride at 11:05, spends 20 mins walking to Buzz and it's not 11:25. They wait 5 mins and enter LL queue at 11:30, ride by 11:40.
They were able to get through those 2 rides quicker than the non-DAS user because they can be in that second line virtually while still in the LL for the first, and while they are walking to the second ride. A non-DAS user can't be in the line until they are physically in the line.
If we factor in current inflated standby waits, then the DAS user would then be waiting longer than the non-DAS user for that particular ride, but would it still be longer overall/throughout the day considering the factors above with being able to enter a line much sooner than a non-DAS user?
You specifically mentioned that if they remove the current ability for a DAS user to enter a standby line during their virtual wait for another ride, then they have to stop inflating standby waits to compensate. If they do that, a DAS user could *perceivably* get through several attractions in a quicker time. Now, I know that disabilities aren't always going to make something like that possible, nor am I saying that I think Disney should do this or that. This is merely an example of how it is *possible* (not guaranteed or applicable to ALL DAS users) for them to make it through lines quicker than a non-DAS guest.
it seems.
