The Vacation Finder

My family just returned from Spring Break at Walt Disney World. A friend clued us into the Powerlessness Wangle Service (DAS), which enabled us to manage long lines with our neurodivergent son in a way that worked well for all of us.

Disney Powerlessness Wangle Service (DAS) Basics

Why does the Powerlessness Wangle Service (DAS) plane exist? Considering Disney World is a super popular vacation destination, to participate in the various attractions usually requires, on average, an hour wait or sometimes more, particularly at peak times of the year like Spring Break. The Powerlessness Wangle Service (DAS) is designed for guests who have a difficult time waiting in long lines for various reasons. I’ve heard of people using this service for a physical powerlessness like severe plantar fasciitis to psychological disabilities like uneasiness or stuff on the autism spectrum. Disney gets asked this a lot, so I'll make it well-spoken here -- the DAS is not for wheelchair users considering most wheelchair users can hands wait in the queues and then transfer out of their chair if the ride requires it.

Most Disney World attractions, shows, and rides unwrinkled have two lines. One is a Standby line and the other is a Lightning Lane. And just as the phrase Lightning Lane implies, it moves much increasingly quickly considering Disney limits the number of guests using this lane at any given time. You can only get wangle to the Lightning Lane if you purchase Genie (the "pay to skip lines" service) or if you are a DAS pass user.

A tropical up of the line signs at Walt Disney World. The image shows two close-ups of signs: One that reads: Stand-by Archway with a wait time and the other that says "Lightning Lane" with a wait time listed.

Both Genie and DAS passes use the My Disney Wits app. So if you thought your vacation was going to be phone-free, it most definitely will not if you plan to use either one of these services. I’m going to explain how Genie works first in order to compare it to how the DAS pass works. You can download the My Disney Wits App well superiority of your trip, and I recommend doing so. Getting familiar with the app, making sure all the settings are correct and all your guests are unfluctuating is a big step in making sure your days at the parks run smoothly.

Once you have it downloaded, you will notice that there are two main features -- the Tip Board and My Day. The Tip Board shows you all the attractions misogynist for a particular park on a particular day, including the current Standby Line wait time and, if you have purchased Genie for the day, an option to typesetting a particular wits for a particular return time. For example, in the screenshot below, you can see that the wait time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the Standby Line is 65 minutes and that you can moreover typesetting a Lightning Lane with a return time of 2:40pm, the time you can show up to redeem your Lightning Lane. I made this screen shot at 10:26am, but the return time for the Genie Lightning Lane is well without the 65 minute standby wait. There are ways to modify to get a different, increasingly user-friendly time, but that is out of the telescopic of this post. I'll refer you to this spanking-new video for remoter subtitle well-nigh Genie and all the weightier ways to use the service. But in order to compare Genie to the DAS pass all you need to know is that you can typesetting Lightning Lane times -- these could be a few minutes from now or several hours depending on the availability of Lightning Lane space for a particular witchery at a specific time. Once you hit your return time, you can then show up, enter the Lightning Lane and end up waiting less time than those in the Standby line. You have one hour (and a 15 minute grace period) to redeem this Lightning Lane pass.

The image shows a screenshot of the My Disney Wits App Tip Board

DAS works differently. It will unchangingly requite you a return time that matches the Standby Line wait time minus 10 minutes. Once the clock strikes your return time, you can show up to the Lightning Lane at that time or ANY TIME without the return time. Disney is smart unbearable to realize that those who need the DAS pass might moreover need a bit increasingly flexibility in their day.

Let's squint at an example. Say I want to go on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and the posted wait time is 40 minutes. We would then automatically be given a Lightning Lane time to redeem at the witchery in 30 minutes. DAS guests still wait near the posted value of time — they are just not stuff required to wait that time in the very line. They can walk virtually or enjoy other attractions. This is variegated from Genie considering it gives you the option to select a Lightning Lane time that may be sooner or later than the posted stand-by wait time. Flipside important difference to remember is that you are not unseat by the hour of redeemable time that Genie guests are given. You can go to the witchery any time without the return time. You will likely want to use your DAS return time as soon as you can, but if you are going to be late, there is nothing to sweat.

Up to 5 other guests can use the DAS Lightning Lane passes, but only if the person who is registered with the DAS is present. In other words, if the person registered for DAS does not want to ride a particular ride, you cannot use the DAS pass to get a Lightning Lane time.

Have I gotten into the weeds unbearable for you? I know it is a lot of information at one time, but Disney is not the king of simplicity, expressly when it comes to navigating all the tools misogynist to you at the parks.

Do I Qualify for DAS?

Basically, you won’t know until you have your interview with Disney personnel, but I think most kids and adults with anxiety, ADHD, and autism will likely qualify. If you have flipside unseen powerlessness like IBD or something like it, you might have a increasingly difficult time getting wangle to DAS, but I have heard of people qualifying for disabilities like these as well.

Since my son is increasingly on the Asperger’s end of the autism spectrum, I wasn’t sure that we would qualify or, honestly, plane need it, but my friend whose family went to Disney a few years ago and used the DAS pass for their children with ADHD encouraged me to apply. And I am so glad we did.

I still forget that my expectations for what I think a typical 11-year-old should be worldly-wise to do and what my neurodivergent child is unquestionably capable of do not unchangingly align. My neurotypical smart-ass said that we should be worldly-wise to wait in the lines, play some games and be fine. But the first few hours of our first day confirmed to me that we had made the right visualization in applying for DAS. My son, H, was once nervous well-nigh going to a place where he didn’t know exactly what to expect. He is moreover prone to uneasiness when he doesn’t have a set task or activity, so waiting in line is pretty much his nightmare scenario. Our first day was at Animal Kingdom where we ran into a few technology issues and attractions not opening when we expected, causing the adults to be unsure of our next steps. H picked up on those vibes so fast he was once asking to go when home — not just to the hotel, but home to Dallas. I was a bit wrung that his level of uneasiness would lead to a meltdown and we would be washed-up with our Disney trip surpassing it had really begun.

But DAS came to the rescue. Without the adults had made a largest plan for the day, and we starting using our DAS return times, H’s uneasiness eased and we only had to wait in lines well-nigh 15-20 minutes long from there on out.

I moreover could see that I made the right visualization in signing up for DAS when I saw how variegated my children reacted to waiting in line. H’s seven-year-old little brother, O, who is not on the autism spectrum, hands waited in each line with nothing increasingly than his imagination and a few silly hand games to entertain him. Later in the day he plane waited over an hour in line without complaint to ride Expedition Everest, a thrilling roller coaster H chose not to ride. Basically, if you are in doubt that you or your child with special needs isn’t “qualified” unbearable to need these services, I implore you to make your life easier and at least try to apply. It made the unshortened Disney wits so much increasingly manageable for H and fun for the rest of the family.

A family stands in front of the Mount Everest ride at Disney World's Animal Kingdom. A large, synthetic mountain that resembles Everest stands in the background.

What can I use the DAS pass for?

Once you are in the parks, you can use the DAS pass on nearly any ride, plane some that do not have a Lightning Lane, and moreover several of the increasingly popular shows. If you victorious at a place without a Lightning Lane, show your DAS time to a tint member (all Disney employees are tabbed tint members) and they will basically let you cut in line. We did this word-for-word thing to ride the Tomorrowland People Mover in Magic Kingdom.

DAS moreover allows you to use this service on the premium rides (typically there is one in each of the four parks). These premium rides are the most popular, so popular that you cannot plane use the “pay to skip lines” pass that is Genie . You must purchase a separate Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) for those attractions in order to use the Lightning Lane. On the first day of our trip, I didn’t realize that I could have used DAS on one of these premium rides, so we unquestionably paid for an ILL for Flight of Passage in Animal Kingdom, but at Hollywood Studios we used DAS to get a Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance — the hardest ride to get into at any of the parks. The wait in the Lightning Lane for this ride was a bit longer — virtually 30 minutes, but that is much largest than the typical standby line that often gets as long as two or three hours. The Individual Lightning Lane for this one is moreover the most expensive at $25 a person. So for our party of six, we avoided paying $150 dollars just to ride this one ride. And it was a really tomfool ride.

How to wield for a Disney DAS Pass

You can wield at Guest Relations on your first day in the parks, but Disney recommends that you do the process online, between 30 and 2 days surpassing your visit. The steps to well-constructed this process are relatively easy, but the very wits was a bit of a pain.

First, you go to the Disney website to register. You stipulate to the Terms and Conditions and then you will be placed in a Yack where you are substantially waiting for a Disney tint member to connect you to a live video. You are basically tied to whatever device you have opened the yack on considering you have to respond pretty quickly once they contact you.

The person who you are registering has to be with you, so well-nigh 28 days out from my trip I started the process on a Sunday when my son was home (they are unshut from 7am to 10pm EST). I switched when and along between using my computer and my phone, and kept getting logged out well-nigh every 20 minutes, but a refresh was unbearable to alimony my place in line. I waited well-nigh 2 hours surpassing someone responded on the chat, but since my dad had purchased the park tickets, we realized that I was not authorized to wield to DAS for my son. So I had to get out of the chat, undeniability my dad, and he made a undeniability to the tech department and stock-still it so that I would now be the one authorized to apply.

Moral of the story — make sure whoever is signing up for DAS is unquestionably authorized to do so. I got when in line, but I never was worldly-wise to get to a real person then that evening. I then tried Monday without school where I waited well-nigh 2 hours then and was finally unfluctuating to the live chat.

This Disney tint member cannot legally ask me directly what powerlessness my son has, but I went superiority and offered that he is on the autism spectrum. She asked what would happen if he were to wait in a long line. I told her that he would have a lot of uneasiness and we could potentially veer into a meltdown if he had to be in lines all day. Without a bit increasingly discussion, she decided that my son did qualify, took a picture of him, said the pass lasted for 60 days, and then directed me to a variegated yack to set up our Advanced Selections.

This is the real perk of signing up for DAS online. You are unliable to sign up for two attractions for each park day, but these came with specific return times that could be early or later in the day, much like a Genie Lightning Lane. For this, you fill out a form telling the tint member which attractions you are interested in from the provided list. The rest is all washed-up through yack and is not a live video. The tint member gives you time options for the attractions you selected, and then you typesetting them. You will immediately be worldly-wise to see these attractions listed in the My Day section of the My Disney Wits app.

Here is what we were worldly-wise to book:

Animal Kingdom

Kilimanjaro Safaris for 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Na’vi River Journey for 3:30pm - 4:30pm

Magic Kingdom

Peter Pan’s Flight for 8:00am - 9:00am

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger for 10:00am - 11:00am

Hollywood Studios

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run for 11:30am - 12:30am

Slinky Dog Dash for 4pm-5pm

Epcot

Soarin’ Virtually the World for 9am-10am

Test Track for 9:30am-10:30am

I think that these act just like other DAS passes where you don't have to redeem them within the hour, just unendingly without the return time, but I didn't test that theory on our trip. Stuff worldly-wise to schedule Lightning Lanes superiority of time was extremely helpful in planning our day, which is vital for a child who thrives on a schedule.

If you would rather watch a video well-nigh what the DAS using process is like, I would recommend this one as it was helpful to me.

How Do I Use DAS in the Parks?

First of all, you need to set up Disney Genie in the My Disney Wits App. What? Flipside service? Yes, but this one is free. It isn’t the same as the similarly named Genie , the paid “skip the line” service. This is the Disney planning tool in the My Disney Wits App that suggests what attractions you should visit next during your day. I didn't think it was all that helpful and mostly ignored it, but what is helpful is that it has you select which attractions you are most interested in. It only allows you to segregate seven attractions, but it puts those at the top of your Tip Board, so you aren’t constantly scrolling to find what you are looking for.

Image of a phone screenshot of the My Disney app with the "My Day" tab open.

The DAS pass will only show up on your My Disney Wits app for the day you have a park ticket and reservation and when you are unquestionably in the park. If you go to the hamburger menu and scroll all the way down, you will see your DAS wangle pass.

A phone screenshot of the My Disney Wits App with the DAS pass shown as an icon in the marrow left side of the screen.

But you don’t unquestionably want to schedule your DAS return times through this button. It will show you all the attractions at all the parks all at once, so the weightier way to schedule DAS return times is to go to the Tip Board and then click on View Details in the Standby Line.

A phone screen shot of the My Disney Wits App and Standby Detailed information showing DAS return times

You will then see this screen where you click on Request DAS return time.

A phone screenshot of the My Disney Wits app showing the standby detail and the opportunity for the user to request DAS return time.

It will then unchangingly ask you to personize your party — the people you want to go with you on the attraction. I usually chose to select all, plane when not everyone was coming considering when we tried to select only a few guests, the app glitched and seemed to get tumbled when we booked flipside Lightning Lane using DAS. Once you personize your party, your return time will show up in the My Day section of the My Disney Wits app.

A screenshot of the confirmation screen within My Disney Wits app that lets you add the registered DAS guest as well as any people in the party.

The other important thing to note is that you can only schedule one DAS pass at a time, and you must use your current DAS Lightning Lane pass surpassing you can typesetting flipside one. Your Advanced Selections don’t factor into this. They are totally separate from booking DAS Lightning Lanes in the parks.

As a reminder, your DAS return times will unchangingly say Use Unendingly without the posted return time. This is variegated from Genie where you are given a one hour window of time to use your Lightning Lane pass.

At every Lightning Lane there will be a place for you to scan your ticket that connects to your DAS pass (or to Genie ). Your ticket can be scanned in several ways — Magic Bands, the very physical vellum that is your ticket, or by using Disney MagicMobile Passes, that if you are an iPhone user, can be transferred to the Wallet for easy access. We chose to have one person (me) scan everyone in using the Wallet app for each attraction. The trick to making this process simple is to make sure each pass uses Express Mode, and considering the registered DAS user must scan in first, make sure that that person’s vellum is on top.

Handling Tech Issues with the Disney DAS Pass

If you do run into any technology issues with the app, there are undecorous Guest Wits umbrellas virtually the park with people who can help you solve any problem. Our first day, the DAS kept getting knocked off my app for some reason, and they were worldly-wise to help us understand why and what settings I needed to transpiration on my phone to in order for the app to work properly. There were moreover a few times that for whatever reason a pass was not properly scanned at a Lightning Lane, so it wouldn’t indulge us to typesetting flipside Lightning Lane using the DAS pass. In that instance, I could just go into the app and cancel that return time since we had once used it, thus permitting us to typesetting a new attraction.

Combining Disney Genie and DAS

Again, Genie is a service where you pay PER person to proceeds wangle to Lightning Lanes. It uses surge pricing, so on less crowded days it might only be $15 per person, but since we went at Spring Break it was $29 per person. DAS is free, but you can moreover segregate to add on Genie if you think it will be helpful during your trip. Luckily, I was privileged to have parents who wanted to spoil their grandchildren and they purchased Genie on our days at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, which tend to be increasingly crowded and have the most attractions. We used only DAS at Epcot and Animal Kingdom and we were worldly-wise to do everything we wanted.

For the parks that tend to be increasingly crowded and have increasingly attractions like Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, this strategy worked very well. We were basically worldly-wise to unorganized booking Lightning Lanes using DAS and Genie to ensure that we got to do everything each member of our group wanted to do and not have to wait in long lines or deal with melting children.

Did I finger a little funny well-nigh spending so much (of my parents’) money to basically skip the line, thus perpetuating the inequality between the haves and have-nots, plane at the happiest place on Earth? Yes, I did. But I moreover enjoyed happy children who didn’t plane have time to realize how tired they were considering we were unchangingly off to the the next fun thing. Time is money at Disney World and we decided that since this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, we were willing to throw money at the situation to make it as fun and easy for everyone as possible.

Other Disney Tips & Thoughts

Bring an external shower to tuition your smartphone since you will be using it often.
You will still be waiting in lines, expressly at a crowded time of year. I recommend bringing something for your kid to do with his or her hands like a Rubik's cube.

Using DAS really did make our Disney World wits so much increasingly enjoyable. I am thankful that Disney tries to make the happiest place on earth moreover the most willing as well.