The new Disabled Assistance System Card (DASC). The Empowering Strategies Thread for Managing the Magic - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
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To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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I'm not sure if this is the right thread, but how do we go about getting the new GAC (I know that's not what it is called but I can't remember the new name)? I have a doctor's not that says High functioning autism, should I bring that? We've spent the last year at our local theme park practicing waiting in lines and slowly increasing the wait time, so I'm not sure if we will even need it. I want to know how to do it just so I understand so I can do it if need be.
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We used the new DAS for our son this past spring. We found, for us, that it worked very well in conjunction with the FP+ system. We used the DAS for some rides and FP+ for others. The DAS return time is any time after the time they put on there so it is open ended after that time. For example, we got a DAS return time for HM and then went on POTC, had lunch and then watched the parade and then went on HM with the DAS. We also used it at Epcot for Test Track, my son's favorite ride there, and used the FP+ for Soarin'(DH)/ Epcot Character spot(my son and myself). This enabled us to utilize the FP+ better with the Tiers and still have him go on his favorite ride. We really like that the open ended return time enables you to not have to worry if a meltdown happens or you need to leave for a while, that ride will still be waiting for you when your ready that day. :-)
I used the DAS during our recent mid-November 2014 trip to WDW. This was my first time using it, and I had not previously used the GAC.
Obtaining the DAS was painless at Hollywood Studios in-the-park Guest Services. In fact, the CM had quite a few great suggestions for additional ways of how to deal with my issue in the parks -- him giving me the suggestions took longer than getting the card !
Although i have multiple issues that result in a need for the DAS, I started with and only had to use one, the most significant. I had figured I would make it as simple as possible, but would use the others if needed. I approached the CM at the entrance to GS and said "I need to get a DAS card". He asked me why, and I said, "I am XXX, and because of that it would be better for me to be able to spend the wait time somewhere outside the line, as that would help me AAA". I know the XXX is not required, but I could not figure out a way to explain why I needed the DAS without saying it as part of the explanation. I was prepared to then add "I also...", but I did not need to, I was invited inside and the CM prepared the DAS for me, then gave me lots of good suggestions on managing the issue :-)
I managed to misplace the card while transferring to our second hotel, so late in the trip i went tio Epcot's international gateway outside the park GS to request a replacement. That was also easy.
We used a combination of pre-arranged FP+ and the DAS, as well as a few standbys. The combo worked really well, especially considering some standby waits were 80-120+ minutes. Most FP lines were walk-on or a very short wait of only a few minutes. One exception was Spaceship Earth, whose standby line was almost 2 hours (!!!!) and FP line probably 15 minutes for us. We had FP+ for it, and were very glad we did (we have never seen spaceship earth like that before, and my sister had scoffed at the FP+ for it saying we would not need them for spaceship. needless to say, she and I were glad we had them!!). We rearranged some of our FP on the fly on the day of (you can change them as long as it is before a particular FP's start time) as our plans changed. For example, one morning I woke up not feeling great, so we had a delayed start. We just moved our morning FP+ to afternoon ones.
Getting return times was easy and all of the CMs we dealt with were great.
We used a FP+ for illumunations, and were glad we did. Agreat viewing spot (though ash from the fireworks did fall down on us, which I was not expecting). I was able to sit on the scooter and my sister sat on her poncho on the ground in front of me at the rope. Worked great and we think a good use of the FP+.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad the new system worked well for you! Most of the feedback I've heard has been quite positive, especially for those who used a combination of pre-booked FP+ and return times with the DAS.
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