I‘m disappointed too. There were quite a few things that seemed like really ‘iffy’ choices to me.
1) Why roll it out now?
Apparently, they wanted to roll everything out with Genie. This particular piece was, I guess you could say ‘highly anticipated’, but everything I‘ve read sounds like people expected it later. I expected it later, maybe not even until after the first of the year.
2) Why was the extent of the ‘value’ of the 2
DAS Advance Selections encouraging pre-sign up not anticipated?
Many, if not most, people who used DAS in the past (before the parks closed) also used Fastpasses. Obviously, first time visitors and those whose only visits were after re-opening, had not used Fastpass.
But, those of us who had knew how helpful they could be. And, since DAS Advance Selections was highly ‘advertised‘ on the website DAS information, people were ‘primed’ to sign up as soon as the live link appeared.
3) Taking away of Fastpasses
Many people are worried or doubtful of the Genie/
Genie+ roll out. Some people didn’t know about Fastpasses, but they were advertised as a free service on the Disney website in various places and also on the park maps. Plus, the buses had information.
IMHO, and in the view of many people posting on Disney forums and Facebook, DL’s paid Maxpass was/is looked at as porting WDW‘s free Fastpass service to DL (with a few added features). Genie+ is looked at as bringing paid Maxpass to WDW in place of the previous free service. People who used Maxpass at DL may not agree, but a large number of people on the internet do agree.
4) Why was the ‘viral’ aspect of the internet not anticipated?
They may have hoped for a ‘soft’ roll out and I can but once the link was out, it was out. I don’t know if a roll out was tried first for a small number; I don’t know how they could have, but maybe would be ways??
4) Why such a large timeframe for visits?
WDW has historical records of how many DAS are issued each day for each park, probably by day.
I don’t understand the reason for ‘pushing’ 28 days of DAS registration Into potentially all trying to contact Disney on the same day. I would have done a shorter timeframe - maybe 14 days or a week instead of 28, at least at first.
5) Why is it
that timeframe?
2 days to 30 days before visit puts people who are frantically trying to get it done for a visit coming up soon with people coming much later. Adds to the stress.
I would start the timeframe farther from the visit - 2 days is a very short time to try to get it done. Maybe, it could be moved back to 2 days after it’s been rolled out for a while, but right now it’s adding to the problem.
I understood all days of the visit needed to be within the 30 day time frame, but many didn’t. I don’t know if they clarified it, but it should have been clear from the start.
6) Person registering for DAS must be present.
I understand this - not requiring it is an invitation to fraud. But, maybe some type of creative solution - like separate links for guests registering for themselves or for someone else. The ‘someone else’ link could include a screening message verifying the person is available and saying to contact again if the person is not available.
Some people have posted in various places that they found out after waiting many hours that they could not register for this reason.
I am on chat right now waiting. The Information about the person being available is on the website, but not called out when you click to join chat or when you get the «please stay close to your browser » message.
7) Call return
Many people have mentioned being disappointed this wasn’t available. From my family‘s experience, this is not available at all on the Disney website.
