Disney With A “Disability” Using the DAS- Guest Post
The guest post on the Disability Access Services (DAS) card today comes from my (slightly) younger cousin, Janice.
This year Janice took the plunge and signed up for her very first runDisney event, the Tinker Bell 10K.? I guess I sorta rubbed off on her.? Or maybe all my Disney Disney Disney talk sucked another person into the magic that we call runDisney.? Or she was just in it for the churros.?
Whichever it is, she had to make some decisions about the race weekend.? Her husband was all in for a Disney vacation.? The wild card was her little man, Stevie.? He’s on the Autism Spectrum and Janice just wasn’t sure how the noise and crowds would work with him.? Enter the DAS card.? I don’t have any experience with the program or it’s successor, but I knew it existed and was there to help kids like Stevie enjoy the parks.? I encouraged her to come on down and bring the whole family!
They decided to give it a go and also said she’d be happy to share her experience on the blog.? Forget what you heard about it before: it’s been a couple of months since Disneyland first implemented the program so hopefully some of the quirks have worked themselves out.? Here’s a first timers experience with obtaining and using the DAS card.
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Disney with a “Disability”
Guest Post by Janice Wills
Ok, I don’t refer to my son’s Autism Spectrum Diagnosis (ASD) as a disability – haven’t so far, not likely to in the future. ?A blog I follow refers to her sons diagnoses (yes, 2 sons on the Spectrum) as a “super power.”
I kinda like that…
I had read about Disney’s “Guests with Disabilities” policy change a few months back and honestly didn’t pay a lot of attention. ?Sure, I was signed up to “runDisney,” but being the mean wife/mom I am, I wasn’t bringing the hubs or the kid – girls weekend! ?Yeah, that changed along about the New Year when I resolved to spend more time with my family, especially given the travel schedule for work that’s coming up…
Anyhoo… ?While we were driving to Walt’s place in Anaheim, I asked hubs to look into the “Guests with Disabilities” pass which he graciously did while I was getting my bib so I could “run” the next day. ?Once I completed the 10k, tried to recover, and secured our entry into the parks, we headed to the parks…. walking… the long way… (after doing the 10k, that was not my wisest decision)
After they let us into the Happiest Place on Earth, we headed to City Hall. ?We waited in that line for 20 minutes before deciding to come back – y’all, THE LINE HAD NOT MOVED IN 20 MINUTES. ?I am all for giving every guest the attention they deserve, but on the Saturday of a holiday weekend coupled with a running event of 13k people minimum – add some cast members! (rant over for now!)
So, we braved the lines, got some food, rode the choo-choo (thinking of my buddy Jake the entire time), caught a show, saw Mickey Mouse (“in his house” as my boy said) then headed back to City Hall.
Thankfully, the line was A LOT shorter this time and we succeeded. ?Since we had no experience with the previous “Guests with Disabilities” policy, this was all new to us, but was explained by cast member Luis this way: So, you sign up for a ride and are assigned a wait time – like a fast pass. Here’s the difference between this and the fast pass – you can come back ANYTIME after your assigned time (we tested this by coming back a few HOURS after our assigned time). ?Oh, and the person who’s picture is on the pass must accompany the group and be awake. ?They do list the number of your people in your party on the front of the pass (bummer) and it says on the pass that Fast Pass may be quicker for some rides – something that we tested as well. ?Also, if you request it (and they should ask,) the cast member will make the pass valid for your entire stay so you don’t have to renew it each day.
After you wait the necessary time for the ride you are signed up for, go to a cast member at the front of the line and they will direct you to a line (fast pass line for us each time). ?You wait in that line until it’s your turn to ride. ?Since you can only be “signed up” for one ride at a time (like a fast pass), he recommended something with a long stand-by wait – Carsland Racers.
We had a dinner engagement, so left for the night, but when we arrived Sunday morning, we headed to the Chamber of Commerce in California Adventure and got the boy’s Racers time renewed. ?(PS – the line at CA’s Chamber of Commerce was MUCH more manageable than DL’s City Hall and something we tell our friends old and new.)
As a child of the Pixar generation, the boy LOVED the Racers (not the line so much). ?He liked the ride so much that we found a cast member at an Info station (throughout both parks) and signed up for it again. He also enjoyed Flik’s Flyers, the Mater junkyard ride, the Ladybug boogie and the Ferris Wheel.
Since I hadn’t seen Shenanigans in over 24 hours, we decided to meet up for a quick ride at the end of our adventure. ?Space Mountain sounded good to us, so off we went to the Chamber of Commerce to make sure that our 4 yr old could ride Space Mountain and get signed up to do so.
We found a place to rest our tired feet outside Star Wars and the boy promptly fell asleep. ?Being the awesome mom that I am, I woke him up once we met up with Shenanigans and her friends and headed off to Space Mountain. ?Although his pass listed 3 guests and there were 5 in our present party, the cast member didn’t say anything and away we went. ?My little trooper didn’t make a peep in line or on the ride. ?(I *may*?have tightly grasped his hand and screamed like a little girl, but that’s not important.)
All in all, the Guests with Disabilities pass worked for us. We had no experience with the previous one, so I don’t have much to go on, but we didn’t face any issues and it was a relatively painless process. ?Look for us in August when we do this again (complete with a runDisney adventure we hope!)
Thanks so much for the post Janice.? And the ride on Space Mountain!? I’m so glad y’all came down, you ran, and that Stevie had a magical visit at Disneyland.? I know we’ll see you again… in August at the Disneyland Half, right?
Do you have any questions for Janice?? Any experience with the DAS that you’d like to share?? Do you think this would work for your family?
Patty Holliday is the owner and creator of all things No-Guilt Universe. As a lifelong fangirl and pop culture connoisseur, she’s been creating online since 2009. You can find her work at No-Guilt Disney.com, No-Guilt Fangirl.com, No-Guilt Life, and as host of the top-rated No-Guilt Disney Podcast.
At Disneyworld, they let our entire party of 8 on Toy Story even though the original party on the pass was only 4 (the other four of us had some skip the line passes we had planned to use, but the Cast Member said to keep them). I don’t know if it was because our guest of honor was in a wheelchair, but we were directed to through the exit each time at WDW in Hollywood Studios. Having used both the old system and the new system, I actually found this to be more convenient and less waiting in line. We once waited in line 45 minutes for Pirates in the wheelchair line when the regular wait was 5, so it really did vary greatly.
When we were at DCA, for the Racers, we went through the single rider line and then if you could walk you had to keep going to platform and if you can’t get out of chair you head to the left for assisted boarding. The woman in front of us was livid because her teenage son (who had a more hidden “disability”) would have to go to the platform and they were going to let us go left. They finally let her go left too after she yelled for while and freaked out all the little kids….
Oh my- so still come work to be done here! I have heard that about the DAS – sometimes standby lines are actually faster. It’s similar to how the FP+ is panning out at times. It’s interesting to see how this all works out! Lots of changes with Disney this year.
Thanks for the perspective! I always get asked about this, but have no experience. Addison still talks about Space Mountain, so thank you, Janice!!
I was glad I got to ride it for Stevie and Addison’s first times! But he never would have been able to stand in the regular standby line- so I’m glad this exists.
As an adult I find out hard to stand in the regular stand-by line for that ride. The sun is just there with minimal shade.
I noticed that a lot of the Disneyland lines are like that- the certainly took pains to fix that when they built Walt Disney World!