Video Chat

[SueM in MN]

So I finished talking to Rick - one important piece of information that he shared with me is that the 30 day DAS Advance Selection is NOT 30 days + Resort Stay like with ADRs or Fastpass+ of old. So even though I am within my 30 day window for the first DAS Advance Selections, I have to chat again later this week to finish my DAS Advance Selections. Very frustrating but at least I know this and can share it with others!

BTW- Rick was awesome, super friendly - I did not feel like there was any additional questioning to receive the DAS pass than there was doing it in person. Other than waiting nearly 7 hours, it was a smooth process once I got to talk to someone.

I guess I understood it to mean the entire trip would fall within the 2 to 30 day window.
I will say I was temped to join the insanity yesterday when I saw the chat was open. The beginning of our next trip is within 30 days, but the last day is more than 30, so I (luckily) restrained myself LOL

Sure, this is a learning process for us all - glad to share what I've learned

The times I was offered were very similar to others, 10am, 12pm and 5pm - and some rides he offered 10:30am, 12:30pm and 5:30pm.

Disney has a huge trove of historical data regarding wait times, how busy it is on various days and various times of day that they are using to drive the information Genie will offer.
My GUESS is that the DAS Advance Selections are probably using this same data to suggest times and determine which attractions are available (with additional info about which have already been ‘booked’ by other DAS users.
It would make sense that some times would be similar because the ‘conditions’ in the historical record would be similar.

In retrospect it probably wasn't worth it - although seeing the DAS Advance Selection for 2 rides each day makes me feel a lot better knowing I have those, just like with FP+.

Hopefully in the future the waits won't be so long like this as Disney works out the kinks in the system and perhaps there is less demand for it.

I will say though, it wasn't like I spent those 7 hours doing nothing but stare at the screen waiting for someone to join. On a laptop or PC it makes a loud pop noise when someone sends you a message - so I turned my speakers up very loudly and did other things (was on work meetings and stuff) while I waited. I'm lucky that I currently work from home most days, so I can wait the 7 hours, I'm sure not everyone can do that.

I think there will be less kinks in the future. People have been waiting for this since the first announcement that it was coming. I think Disney purposely chose to not announce it was starting in hope of having a good ‘soft’ start.
I do think they miscalculated how quickly the news would spread over the internet and how quickly the ‘flood’ would come or how big it would be.

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

Well, a new message just popped up and it says… "We apologize for the continued wait times. Due to the high-volume we wanted to share that we will be available again tomorrow starting at 7 AM Eastern time. You're welcome to continue to wait and stay connected to your browser for a cast member but may need to re-join the queue again tomorrow morning if we're unable to assist this evening."

Sooo odd! I actually decided to try again (just now) & see what it said… first off, it let me through. Only to the “high wait times” message in the queue, but it did not tell me to try back again tomorrow. Second, and this is really not great news for you (though it’s honestly not surprising since we know this is being rolled out with Genie). It says:

Thank you for contacting us to pre-register for the Disability Access Service. It is our pleasure to assist. Due to the popularity of the new video chat registration we are experiencing especially high wait times. If you are arriving soon and would like to pre-register, please continue to wait and stay close to your browser until connected with a Cast Member. Currently pre-planning is only available for arrivals on or after 10/19. If you are not arriving soon, we encourage you to try again closer to your arrival date as we value your time.

It looks like those with trips before 10/19 need to plan to use the old/regular system. If your trip is long enough to still be there on 10/19- then jump in there and get yourself preregistered!!

 

[TioAdis78]

Bc

correct - DAS Return Times were and still are valid until used, cancelled, modified or the park closes. I just didn’t add all the ‘ifs, ands, or buts to my answer.

We often had to ‘abandon’ our daughter’s DAS Return Times without using them because she needed to leave the park before the start time arrived. So, in our case, they just expired at park close.

When there were 3 free Fastpasses for every guest, we always scheduled them, but they often expired without being used - something with our daughter took longer than expected, we couldn’t get her ready in time to make our first Fastpass time, she was ‘done’ with the park before the Fastpass time.
There were times when we were a little late and the CM kindly let us in after we explained our issue.
Trying to keep on a schedule didn’t really bother us that much, if we couldn’t use the Fastpass, we couldn’t use it.
If it makes someone uneasy to be tied to scheduled DAS Advance Selection window times, remember you don’t have to do 2 per day. It says « up to 2 ».
If only scheduling 1 per day or not scheduling DAS Advance Selections for every day of your stay feels more comfortable to you, that is an option.

Back in the days of FP+, we typically used them to ride things the kids would not ride, and tried to use DAS solely for what they wanted, and that worked really well in general.
Under the new system, I felt uneasy at first, but I’ve been corrected in my assumption that you had to redeem your advanced pre selections before scheduling new return times, when in actuality you can ask for return times regardless of your advanced preselections, which is an unexpected and welcome development!

 

[StaciMay]

Sooo odd! I actually decided to try again (just now) & see what it said… first off, it let me through. Only to the “high wait times” message in the queue, but it did not tell me to try back again tomorrow. Second, and this is really not great news for you (though it’s honestly not surprising since we know this is being rolled out with Genie). It says:

Thank you for contacting us to pre-register for the Disability Access Service. It is our pleasure to assist. Due to the popularity of the new video chat registration we are experiencing especially high wait times. If you are arriving soon and would like to pre-register, please continue to wait and stay close to your browser until connected with a Cast Member. Currently pre-planning is only available for arrivals on or after 10/19. If you are not arriving soon, we encourage you to try again closer to your arrival date as we value your time.

It looks like those with trips before 10/19 need to plan to use the old/regular system. If your trip is long enough to still be there on 10/19- then jump in there and get yourself preregistered!!

Been waiting over 8 hours and I can’t wait much longer. Although my trip does start on October 16th, I was hoping to get advanced reservations for the 19th through the 21st.

 

[Liquidice]

[

Did you happen to ask about your next trip concerning the advance passes...I think you said you have another one planned before your DAS expires, or was that someone else?

Yes, sorry I added that information in a different thread but not here

So in my case, the people are different for the 2 trips - so they said I needed to chat with them again to get those 2 people added onto my DAS party. If I didn't need to do that - I could maintain my DAS pass and get return times on the next trip w/o needing to chat with them again, but I couldn't get the DAS Advance Selections (The abbreviation for DAS Advance Selections is DAS, is that confusing?) without chatting with them again too.

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

BTW- Rick was awesome, super friendly - I did not feel like there was any additional questioning to receive the DAS pass than there was doing it in person. Other than waiting nearly 7 hours, it was a smooth process once I got to talk to someone.

Thank you so much for addressing this! I really didn’t like the idea of this chat leading to more personal/difficult and “probing questions.” It’s hard enough for me to ask for help the regular way (it’s just not fun to drudge up all the reasons my life is, shall we say… challenging ).

I’m super thankful that it seemed “normal” to you. Thank you so much for sharing!!

Yes, sorry I added that information in a different thread but not here

So in my case, the people are different for the 2 trips - so they said I needed to chat with them again to get those 2 people added onto my DAS party. If I didn't need to do that - I could maintain my DAS pass and get return times on the next trip w/o needing to chat with them again, but I couldn't get the DAS Advance Selections (The abbreviation for DAS Advance Selections is DAS, is that confusing?) without chatting with them again too.

Interesting. It sounds like I won’t have any problems booking DAS-AS (I just can’t simplify it down to DAS ) for my upcoming split-stay with the same party. Fantastic!!

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Not sure if anyone can answer this question, but if we are renewing DAS, does the cast member need to speak directly to the person with the disability? My wife got it on our last trip, but she is not home during the day. I work from home so was hoping I could speak with them on her behalf.

 

[SueM in MN]

Bc

Back in the days of FP+, we typically used them to ride things the kids would not ride, and tried to use DAS solely for what they wanted, and that worked really well in general.
Under the new system, I felt uneasy at first, but I’ve been corrected in my assumption that you had to redeem your advanced pre selections before scheduling new return times, when in actuality you can ask for return times regardless of your advanced preselections, which is an unexpected and welcome development!

Back in the days of FP+, we used them 4 ways:

1) for things our daughter would go on that normally had a very long wait. If we scheduled a DAS Return Time for those, it often was not ready to use until she was DONE with the park for the day.

2) for things our daughter would want to ride that we needed to do when she or we were ‘fresh’. For example, Test Track & Tower of Terror are ones of her favorites, but it’s hard to get her on and off and takes a lot out of all of us.

3) for things our daughter might or might not ride. If she refused, we would do Rider Swap

4) For things we knew our daughter was not able to ride that my husband or I wanted to ride - that decreased the time someone had to wait outside of the line with her since we often have limited time that she tolerates being in the park.

The first 2, we can probably still do between DAS Advanced Selections and DAS Return Times. The other 2 were hard for us without Fastpass during our June 2021 trip, but may work out with the ‘hints’ in Genie

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

Not sure if anyone can answer this question, but if we are renewing DAS, does the cast member need to speak directly to the person with the disability? My wife got it on our last trip, but she is not home during the day. I work from home so was hoping I could speak with them on her behalf.

Yes, she must be present. Even if the DAS is for a minor, they must be present (along with a guardian). They do have the video chat open until 11pm EST, so hopefully you can get through in the evening when she’s home.

 

[SueM in MN]

Yes, sorry I added that information in a different thread but not here

So in my case, the people are different for the 2 trips - so they said I needed to chat with them again to get those 2 people added onto my DAS party. If I didn't need to do that - I could maintain my DAS pass and get return times on the next trip w/o needing to chat with them again, but I couldn't get the DAS Advance Selections (The abbreviation for DAS Advance Selections is DAS, is that confusing?) without chatting with them again too.

I had decided to either type it all out (word prediction on my iPad already suggests the phrase) or use DAS-AS

Not sure if anyone can answer this question, but if we are renewing DAS, does the cast member need to speak directly to the person with the disability? My wife got it on our last trip, but she is not home during the day. I work from home so was hoping I could speak with them on her behalf.

The guest requesting DAS must be present during the video chat.
This is similar to the way it functions in person at Guest Relations - the guest must be present.
The live video chat is open until 10 P.M. Eastern Time, so calling after she gets home or on a weekend should be an option.
Screenshot from Disney website DAS information

 

[SueM in MN]

Yes, she must be present. Even if the DAS is for a minor, they must be present (along with a guardian). They do have the video chat open until 11pm EST, so hopefully you can get through in the evening when she’s home.

I‘m quite certain it said 11 pm EST yesterday, but now (or at least on the link I looked at last today), it now says 10pm

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

Thanks. One last question. If we are lucky enough to get through, do we need to make our advance selections right away, or is there a way to get registered and go back later to make our selections?

 

[prettypatchesmsu]

I‘m quite certain it said 11 pm EST yesterday, but now (or at least on the link I looked at last today), it now says 10pm

I just noticed it’s 10pm EST time now too

 

[Mcmd11]

So after 6 hours I am thinking of calling it a night and trying tomorrow. I hope you all get through quickly

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

I‘m quite certain it said 11 pm EST yesterday, but now (or at least on the link I looked at last today), it now says 10pm

So weird. It said 11pm all day for me… until just now. It magically changed during a(nother) refresh! Thanks for the correction

 

[JillyMouse]

Thanks. One last question. If we are lucky enough to get through, do we need to make our advance selections right away, or is there a way to get registered and go back later to make our selections?

When I had my call, it was assumed by the castmember that I would be making the DAS selections on the video call. I personally wouldn't risk trying to connect an on-line call a second time prior to a trip. The castmember had me log into my account to confirm all my selections before she disconnected. Full service.

 

[SueM in MN]

So weird. It said 11pm all day for me… until just now. It magically changed during a(nother) refresh! Thanks for the correction ☺

My GUESS is that the video chat still is open until 11pm, but they are closing access to join the queue at 10 so they have a better chance of getting thru those already in the queue

 

[Liquidice]

Thanks. One last question. If we are lucky enough to get through, do we need to make our advance selections right away, or is there a way to get registered and go back later to make our selections?

If you want to do that, you would have to chat with a CM again and if the wait times to talk to someone are generally going to be hours long - you ideally want to be prepared to make your selections right then and there. You can't change the selections via MDE once they've been made either.

 

[Mickey_Maniac]

If you want to do that, you would have to chat with a CM again and if the wait times to talk to someone are generally going to be hours long - you ideally want to be prepared to make your selections right then and there. You can't change the selections via MDE once they've been made either.

Thanks for the info

 

[prettypatchesmsu]

I got on after work and waited hours just to have the message now come up in the chat that they are no longer taking chats and to try again tomorrow.