We are Disney junkies heading to the parks April 10-14 for a quick fix :). My hubby and I have been married 28 years and have 4 sons, ages 24 to 7. We are traveling with the 7 year old and his 20 year-old, non-verbal, disabled brother who is 20.
We’ve traveled many times with our disabled son who always gets the GAC, or whatever they are calling it now. However, this trip, we’ll be arriving at POR on the 10th and are not going into the parks until the 11th.
Sadly, I think I know the answer…but can you pick up the GAC without using your ticket…perhaps maybe the ticketing center, instead of guest relations. I hate to waste precious minutes doing that on the 11th, when I know every park will likely be at capacity on that day :/.
You can only get them at guest services where there are rides. In other words, it cannot be at Disney Springs (I tried). You can go to guest services outside of the park gates, so you don’t have to use your ticket. I would suggest going to the park of your choice on the 10th and go to guest services outside of the gates there. MK is a 5 and EPCOT is a 4 according to the crowd calendar.
Thank you :). However, I’m 100% sure all the Guest Services locations are located just inside each of the 4 parks :/. I just can’t imagine they’d let me in without using my ticket - which I don’t want to use that day, but I’ll keep researching :).
Guest Relations at the ticketed parks do have a windows just outside the entrance.
However, i have not confirmed if you can get the DAS (Disability Access Service) at these windows or not. Guest will require to have their picture taken, and not sure they can do this a the windows.
I’ve gotten DAS at the Guest Relations window outside of MK and AK. Both locations are capable of taking the individual’s picture. They have a little webcam that is movable that they use.
I checked repeatedly in advance (phone calls and emails) and once onsite and was never able to find a way to pick up our son’s assisted listening device before entering the park with a ticket. Unless something has changed since our trip last summer, unfortunately I think you will have to do it once you use a ticket to enter the park. I have suggested in every forum I have available that they change that because you do waste precious rope drop time at guest relations. I would love for them to have a way for you to pre-reserve a card/device, etc. like you can FPP or ADR. Every park we went to on all three of our trips I had to first convince the guest services folks that they had the device he needs, then encourage them to keep looking until they found it, then check it out. Apparently what he needs is rarely requested but is clearly listed in their services and each time they eventually found it after insisting no such thing was available. So needlessly inefficient. But still so grateful for all the ways Disney works to make WDW accessible. Once he has the device, it makes a huge difference on the rides/shows where he can use it. Maybe if enough of us ask, they will eventually make a change to when/how you can get them.
That’s wonderful…I’ve always been told I had to go to Guest Services–which are inside the park. If I can do this at the ticketing center, it will be a much smoother Saturday morning! Thank you, again!
Thank you for your response. I’ve never had any “wiggle room” as we usually enter the parks as soon as possible. I will keep you posted on how this goes down for us :). Have a great week!
So, after 24 hours of trying to pin down an answer, here’s what I have learned :).
*Since DS is already in the “system” the process is shorter – woohoo to that!
*You can do it outside the parks.
*Success is most often reported at the Disney Guest Services which is just through security and to the left.
*The best time to go is mid-afternoon, like between 2 and 5 pm.
*Our entire party still needs to be there.
I’ll report back after the trip and let you know how all that worked out for us :). Thanks so much!