Disney Better Explains Queue Re-Entry and Meet-Up for Non-DAS Guests

Update: Some have shared that the rules language has been in place in the past. However, our Disney website monitor alerted us to changes over the weekend. Regardless of when it was published, Disney’s queue rules and tips are beneficial for all guests to know.

Disney has quietly updated its Walt Disney World and Disneyland websites with clearer rules and guidance for guests with disabilities who may not qualify for Disability Access Service (DAS). It’s a welcome move, laying out in plain language how its Attraction Queue Re-Entry and Meet-Up options work.

DAS has been under scrutiny since Disney implemented sweeping changes in April 2024. While those updates were largely driven by widespread abuse of the system, many felt the pendulum swung too far the other way. Today, DAS is limited to guests with a “developmental disability such as autism or a similar disorder.”

Until now, Disney hasn’t done a particularly good job explaining how guests with non-covered disabilities can experience attractions without standing in line. That’s exactly what this update does. To be clear, the rules aren’t changing. Disney is just doing a better job of laying things out.

Attraction Queue Re-Entry or Meet-Up

Disney describes the two similar accommodations this way:

“Guests with specific needs that may arise while waiting in an attraction queue may exit the queue while the rest of their party waits in the queue. The Guest may then re-enter the queue prior to boarding the ride. A Guest may also wait outside the queue and meet up with their party before boarding the ride if needed based on the nature or condition of the queue at a particular attraction and the Guest’s specific needs. Every attraction has a defined process to support these options.”

To leave and Re-Enter a queue

1. At the entrance of the attraction, talk with a Cast Member to learn about exit options should you need to leave the queue.
   Helpful hint: If you already know how to exit the queue, then you don’t need to speak with a Cast Member prior – just join the queue.
2. In the event your specific need requires you to leave the queue, simply exit while the remainder of your party stays in the queue.
   Helpful hint: If you need someone to help you – they can leave with you while the remainder of your party waits in the queue.
   Helpful hint: If you are traveling alone or with party members who can’t be left alone in the queue, please contact Accessibility Services prior to your visit.
3. When you are ready to return, go to the front of the attraction and let a Cast Member know that you are using the Attraction Queue Re-Entry accommodation and need to regroup with your party in the queue.
   Helpful hint: You don’t need to discuss your reason for needing to leave the queue.
4. The Cast Member will help you meet your group to ride together.

To Meet Up with your party that has been waiting in the queue

1. At the entrance of the attraction, the members of your party joining the queue should ask a Cast Member at what point they should let you know it’s time to join them.
   Helpful hint: Other members of your party must join the queue, and you should make sure your party can call or text you to meet up.
2. When your party lets you know that it’s time for you to join them, go to the front of the attraction and tell the Cast Member you are using the Attraction Queue Meet-Up accommodation and need to meet up with your party in the queue.
   Helpful hint: You don’t need to discuss your reason for waiting outside the queue with the Cast Member at the attraction.
3. The Cast Member will help you meet your group to ride together.

I’d like more clarity around the final item in each of those lists:

The Cast Member will help you meet your group to ride together.

We’ve never personally used Attraction Queue Re-Entry or Meet-Up, so we’re relying on third-party accounts of how these services work. For many, “rejoining your party” involves weaving through a packed queue, repeatedly apologizing to strangers along the way. I’m an extrovert, and that sounds like a nightmare.

No matter how polite someone is, most guests in line are going to assume they’re being cut. In an ideal world, Cast Members would escort re-entry and meet-up users back to their parties. That may not always be realistic from a staffing standpoint, but an alternative, like issuing temporary lanyards or badges, would still be better than forcing guests to justify themselves.

Because the alternative is this:

“Pardon me, but I have a disability that prevents me from standing in line. Would you mind very much letting me by so I can find my family in this long line of people giving me the stink eye?”

Hard pass.

Now I’d love to see Disney take it one step further: educate guests in the parks. Information boards. Reminder signage. Anything that normalizes the service and removes the social burden from the people who rely on it. Because the last thing anyone needs is to explain themselves to a line full of strangers.

For Disney’s official queue re-entry and meet-up rules and other queue information, visit the official Walt Disney World and Disneyland websites.

Want to learn more about DAS? Our accessibility expert, Mariann Bell, shares her recommendations.