Y’all the Disney DAS system is so fucked and I’m gonna talk about it.
I’ve lived in the Disney World area for most of my life and always went as a kid through family who worked there. Less as an adult but I’ve always had the reach, if not the means.
All this to say that I have a lot of experience with Disney, and before I rip them a new one for this asinine nonsense I want to say: The cast members themselves have always been fantastic and really, whatever magic Disney pulls in hiring the right people for the job to be as friendly, welcoming, and understanding as possible—I don’t know what it looks like behind closed doors but they really do a great job at making you feel like they want you to have a good time.
Their "healthcare providers” on the other hand are all ableist assholes.
Lemme explain.
DAS is Disney’s disability and accessibility service. It functions like a fast pass, allowing people who have difficulties waiting in long and crowded lines due to disability the option to make ride reservations and join their “Lightning Lane” (fast pass).
For what it’s worth, a Lightning Lane pass is like $39 per ticket, and tickets can be $200 per person at the gate. LL really is not that expensive in the grand scheme of all things Disney. LL is convoluted as fuck but we’re not here to talk about that.
Now. Because people are shitty, people who do not need DAS had been taking advantage of the system, and the rules were changed.
To get approved for DAS, previously you could show up at any of the parks, go to customer relations, and talk to a person about accommodations and get you and your park party all on your DAS.
Now, you gotta go through a zoom call with a cast member (CM) first. During this call, you discuss what you need accommodation for and what the issue is with waiting in these lines (Disney lines for their most popular rides can top 145 minutes) and what symptoms you suffer from this extra stress. If you don’t pass the CM, the CM sends you to a “healthcare provider” who asks all those same questions over again to determine your eligibility for DAS.
Folks, it’s a goddamn interrogation. With a “therapist” you don’t know and have no history with, whose goal is to, at any cost, deny you absolutely anything free on behalf of the Mouse. They’re not there to help you. They’re like HR: Their job is to save the company’s ass, not the employee’s.
This lady (both of them because I tried twice) absolutely grilled me on what accommodations I’ve gotten in the past to manage my autism and anxiety, looking for any holes in my argument and how badly I really needed their grace.
The problem is that I don’t have any accommodation history. Why? Because Disney is insane and an extenuating circumstance, the only occasion on which I could ever need accommodation for such an extreme environment otherwise I just don't go to things that upset me. Disney is supposed to have a system to let people like me enjoy a situation I otherwise would not.
Take Universal Studios, for example. I had an annual pass there last year and I could hit every single ride in one park in under 4 hours. How did I do this? I only went on non-busy days, and I only used the single-rider line. Almost every single ride at a Universal park has a single rider option, and if it doesn’t, it’s probably a 2-seater where single rider is moot. If a ride was busy, I simply would not ride it that day. I wouldn’t wait more than 25 minutes and because of that, it took me months to finally get on Hagrid’s, because I went to the park the day before a tropical storm hit and it was pretty empty (pro tip).
Back to Disney. Disney does not have very many single rider options. When they do—and Epcot is fantastic for it—it’s great. I love it. I went to Epcot 2 days ago and got to practically walk on to Test Track via single rider twice (and then immediately rode it a third time 'cause the car's audio was broken and the CM let me ride it again at the front of the line).
But not every ride. Animal Kingdom, for example, is not a ride-heavy park. Less rides mean less distribution of crowds, which means lines can get super long, super fast.
I also don’t have a Disney annual pass, so I wanted to hit every ride possible, long waits be damned. Which is a problem when Flight of Passage is 120 minute wait upon park opening.
Do we see the extenuating circumstances of what makes Disney a whole different circle of neurodivergent hell? Universal has their shit together.
**Universal's DAS system is, however, difficult to get into for different reasons. There, you need actual proof of diagnosis. Given how Disney lets opinion rule, I'd rather slap a letter from my therapist down in black and white and skip the interrogation.
So I try for DAS the first time, and I get denied. And I’m feeling taken advantage of and walked over and like I didn’t properly advocate for myself. Their solution is to have their anxious and neurodivergent guest explain at each and every ride, to multiple cast members, their situation for special accommodation that changes for each ride. Just give me a big yellow button that says “I’m Not Normal” and it’ll be faster. Accommodation that includes getting out of line and trying to rejoin it when the panic is over, with everybody staring at you wondering why you're cutting.
So I talk to my friend (also autistic and anxious), a former CM herself and someone who’s been on DAS for years, and she gets so mad on my behalf at all this rigamarole. She gives me a script and pulls out all the stops on all the keywords I need to say.
I try again. I get interrogated again. I even start crying at the stress I’m under to answer these questions correctly.
And both times, these two evil charlatans tell me, in a tritefully sad customer service voice, “I don’t think DAS is right for you at this time.”
Like I’m a fucking rehab patient demanding an Oxy prescription.
Not right for me? It’s not medicine, bitch, it’s a tiny accommodation to make my day enjoyable vs stressful and overwhelming.
But I’m not autistic enough for them. I’m not stereotypically neurodivergent enough to need accommodation. They must be looking for nonverbal kids in wheelchairs or prone to violent outbursts.
And if that is the criteria—absolutely fine—but make your eligibility requirements clear up front before you run people through the gauntlet who are just trying to get help.
I won’t detail what the second CM did for me upon seeing how distraught and upset I was about being denied twice. Because people taking advantage of DAS is what ruined it for the people who need it and I don’t want the wrong people seeing this and thinking it’s a cheat code.
Just know that this lady had enough empathy and compassion to take care of me and do what she could with the authority she had to make my trip better, when she didn’t have to do that and could have apologized and sent me on my way.
I ended up having a very good day, and it was actually 3-day birthday trip. When I went to Epcot with my little birthday button and my refillable popcorn bucket, another CM at the popcorn stand slyly took my bucket when the cashier wasn’t looking, refilled it, and when she tried to charge me (a whole $2.49) he waved and went “no that’s not necessary, it’s her birthday”.
I can afford a $2.49 popcorn refill. The free popcorn isn’t the point. It’s the kindness of strangers, the people who work there who, if they really don’t care and are just very good actors, work their asses off to make your day special. That’s what Disney has over Universal.
And shame on them for this ableist sham of an accessibility service.
So if you’re going to the parks and you want to try for DAS, just be warned that you may be put through the same interrogation. It’s shitty to have to explain and justify yourself to CMs at each ride, but give it a go if you get denied, be kind, and they’ll do whatever they can in their power to help you.
And also make sure you know which rides have a single-rider option. Rise of the Resistance had a 2 hour wait, and my party of 3 all went single rider, waited *maybe* 20 minutes. I was alone but the other two got to ride together.
