We’ll be going to the World the first week of November, 10 of us total, for a family trip, ages 7 - 70.
My mother is blind, but adventurous, and willing to try most everything except the biggest coasters (i.e., no Rock 'n Roller Coaster, but Tower of Terror is OK).
I’ve read the Disney World info about how the DAS works, but was wondering if anyone has first-hand experience using it? How was your experience getting registered? How does it work with MagicBands? I see a tab for it in MDE, how does that work? How does it work practically in the park when you go to a ride?
Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences!
This forum has been so friendly and helpful whenever I’ve had a question.
We used DAS during Spring Break we have 2 children with disabilities. REgistering was easy just stop at guest services when you arrive at the park. Since ours was for different a different type of disability I’m not sure if it changes anything. They set up all our groups magic bands and linked it with one of the children who has a disability we were a group of 11 they took her picture. The person that has DAS has to be riding the ride! You talk to a cast member at the entrance to the ride you want and they will give you a return time sometimes they scan the MB and other times they will give you a written one. You may only have 1 DAS return time at a time. The person using the DAS must enter first during the return time they will ask her how many people are riding with her. Basically they give out a return time that coincides with the wait time so say Dumbo has a 40 minute standby line and you go up at noon they will give you a return time of 12:40. I think this covers it if you have any more questions just ask I will do my best to help answer them! Have a great trip!
Of course, I now have another question. Would my mom need to be the one to set up the DAS return time, or could someone else go and do that, while she and the rest of the group were doing something else? If she doesn’t need to be the one to set up the DAS return time, does the person who does need her DAS id or anything to do so?
I think she needs to be with you to set it up…I can not remember for sure but my guess is yes. When you return to ride she definitely needs to be the first person scanned in.
Actually, the person setting up the return time doesn’t have to the be the one with the DAS. They don’t even have to be with you to set the return time, just be with you when you actually return and scan first at that point, if that makes sense. My DS is 5 and was the one with the DAS, and there were a couple times I sent DH ahead to get the return time while DS sat and had a snack or whatever, then we all returned at that time. It shows up like a FPP in your MDE, only as a separate entry.
Excellent. Thank you. My mom will be 70. She’s in good shape for 70, but if we can reduce some walking for her by letting her stay with the group while one of us runs ahead for the DAS, that’d be great!
She definitely does not need to be the person asking for the DAS return time. Anyone in your party (registered as a DAS party member) can go to the kiosk to get the return time. She must ride the ride, though.
Important note: Depending on how busy the parks are, when your person goes to the kiosk for the DAS, they might be told “come on in now.” This happens when the standby line is short, or sometimes if the cast member’s DAS scanner machine isn’t working (it happens frequently - apparently, if there’s a long time between DAS guests, it times out, and they have to re-login or something, which they seem to find annoying). So I don’t recommend sending someone clear across the park for a DAS, otherwise your entire party might have to hike over to get on the ride right then. Ideally, the person going for the DAS could text or call the rest of the party to apprise them of the situation!
If you’re told to ride immediately, and really can’t ride right then (dining res, other FP+, etc.), the CM may not be able to give you a DAS pass (see scanner machine not working, above), in which case you should go back later.
Another important note: You can only have one DAS pass active at a time. Therefore, think about how to plan getting and using your DAS passes kind of in the order you would need to use them. When I create Touring Plans, I put the attraction I want to visit into my TP, but I put a note in an earlier step (30 min-1 hour earlier, depending on how long the waits for the attraction will be) that say something like “Go to Test Track to get DAS.” That way I’m not holding a DAS for too long, preventing me from getting a DAS for something else in the meantime.
Lastly: Given that your mom is in pretty good shape, you may only end up using a few DAS each day, along with your FP+. I’m the person in our party with a DAS, also need to minimize walking and standing for a long time (like in a line), and in order to conserve steps, we found that we only needed DAS for the most popular rides in midday throughout most of our Jan-Feb visit. We’re going back next week in a very quiet week and I expect to use them even less.
As I was creating my touring plans, I was coming to that conclusion, as well. We’re travelling the first week of November, so hopefully, most rides won’t have long waits anyhow, and I’m trying to make the best use of FP+ that I can. Plus, we’re a group of 10, and from what I’ve read, DAS is 6 persons max, so that would make things awkward, too. Who gets to ride with Grandma and who doesn’t?
So, ultimately, I don’t think we’ll use it often, but want to know how it works, so we’re ready in case my mom really wants to ride something like Soarin’ twice (who wouldn’t?) and she can take the grandkids with her, while the rest of us hit up Sunshine Seasons while waiting.
We haven’t been since they integrated the DAS in the FP+ system, but we did go 2 or 3 times with the DAS paper cards, and 3 or 4 times with the old GAC.
I believe you need to have your entire party together at Guest Relations, so they can link everyone’s Magic Bands to the DAS. But anyone in the linked group can register for the next DAS time.
Although the typical limit for the DAS is 6 people, you can have it issued for more. It’s really CM and situation dependent. We had a trip with 13 people, over Easter week one time. We only had 6 of us on our first park day, so that’s what ended up on the DAS the first day. I had mentioned that our total group was 13, the CM said they could only make if for the number of people we had with us that day, but if everyone in the party came to guest relations together, that they would increase the number allowed on the DAS.
A couple days later we had the entire group of 13 going to Epcot together. I dragged the whole group to guest relations. At Guest Relations I told the CM that greeted us, what the CM at the first park had said about changing the limit on the DAS. To my surprise, she counted us up and took my son’s DAS card. Two minutes later she was back with a new card and a limit of 13 people. We used the DAS for Soaring, and Living with the Land and didn’t even get a sideways glance from the CM when all 13 of us came back at our time for the ride.
I’m willing to believe that the CM’s still have a similar latitude with bigger groups.
@dannyjojo - That is great to know. It would be nice not to have to leave some of us waiting for others. I will plan to have everyone with Mom at Guest Relations when she registers. Thanks!
I imagine you can add more people to the DAS group if you bring them to Guest Relations, but they may insist on the whole group being there all at once to prove you are all in the same party on that day.
We did one or two days with a smaller group, and then they made this change for us, but I had to get my group (the wife’s family) to come to GR all at once. – herding cats is the expression I like to use. But this was using the paper DAS, not the FP+ type Magic Band link.
