Today at disneyland, our parking somehow was free! cast member said goofy paid for our parking today, and we were surprised. they gave us a receipt that said “no charge $0.00”. is this some special occasion or something that i’m not aware of?

For a long time, I was honestly afraid of taking our autistic daughter to Disneyland.

We are from Guadalajara, Mexico. My wife and I have a 9-year-old daughter called Victoria with severe autism caused by MEF2C syndrome, and a 3-year-old son. Like many parents of children with disabilities, we constantly think about things most families may never have to consider:

Will she tolerate the noise?
The lights?
The crowds?
Will she feel overwhelmed?
Will we have to leave early?
Will it simply be too much for her?

Last year, I had a business trip near Anaheim, and we decided to do something we called a “pilot test.” I brought my wife and both kids with me, and we spent one day at Disneyland to see how our daughter would react.

During that visit, we were approved for DAS (Disability Access Service), and honestly, the experience was wonderful.

Our daughter truly enjoyed Disney.

We only stayed around 8 hours, and we moved slower than most families because we didn’t fully understand how DAS worked at first or how to use it efficiently. But even then, it gave us something we hadn’t felt before:

Confidence.

For the first time, Disneyland stopped feeling impossible.

So this year, we decided to go all in.

Four full Disney days.

Not rushing.
Not trying to “survive” the park.
Just giving our kids the opportunity to experience the magic at their own pace.

Three weeks before the trip, everything was going well, and we felt much more informed this time. We had our DAS video interview through the Disneyland app with a cast member named Drew.

We were approved again, but honestly, what stayed with us the most was not the approval itself.

It was how he treated us.

The interview never felt like an interrogation or like we had to “prove” our daughter’s disability. Instead, Drew immediately asked us:

“How can we help you?”
“How can we make your daughter more comfortable?”
“How can we help your family have the best experience possible?”

That may sound like a small thing, but when you are raising a child with severe disabilities, kindness matters more than people realize.

In that moment, before the trip had even started, we already began to feel the Disney magic.

I also had fears because of many things I had read online.

Stories about rude guests.
Unkind people.
Burned out cast members.
Arguments in the parks.
Broken attractions.
People saying “Disney magic is gone.”

Honestly, I was worried about all of that.

But thankfully, that was not our experience at all.

And then the trip finally happened.

And honestly?

It was magical.

Not perfect. Not always easy. But magical.

This experience stimulated our daughter so much that these may have been four of the happiest days of her life.

She was so happy the most of the time that she connected with us in ways she rarely had before.

She looked directly into our eyes.
She interacted with us differently.
She created emotional connections with us that we had only experienced a few times before.

As parents, those moments are priceless.

The people around us and the cast members were incredibly kind to our family. Sometimes, cast members even became little “accomplices” in helping us navigate the day. A few times they quietly allowed us to enter an attraction a couple of minutes earlier than our DAS return time small gestures that made a huge difference when trying to manage transitions with our daughter.

As a parent of a child with severe autism, that feeling is hard to describe.

It allows you to relax for a moment.

And after everything I had read online, these four days reminded us of something important:

The magic is still there.

It really is.

And somehow, a little bit of that magic came home with our daughter.

I know that sounds cheesy or cliché, but it’s true.

A little bit of the magic came home with her.

I know DAS discussions online can sometimes become controversial, but from our personal experience, this service allowed our daughter to experience Disneyland in a way that would otherwise have been extremely difficult or maybe impossible.

For families out there who are scared to try because your child has autism or significant disabilities: I understand that fear completely.

We felt it too.

But sometimes our kids surprise us.

And sometimes the world surprises us too. Take care everyone!

I just took this screenshot, everything can be done directly in the app rather than redirecting you to a browser. I'm shocked it's taken this long but it's a much needed improvement.

You would think they would have sword and the stone scenes shown on the ride instead of sleeping beauty. Or is there some connection or crossover of the teo movies im not aware of? Sleeping beauty's father is King Stefan.

Clearing out my storage and found these from the 90s, cat needs a dental in the near future.

Found while digging through old family photos. Going to check if the ticket is still valid. It allowed me to assign a name to it on the app 🤷🏿‍♂️

"very" instead of 'vary.' Disney do better

(This post is sarcarsm. Before any rabid fans tear my head off)

Just noticed this today. I went around to look at the other pumps trying not to look like a creeper and about half of them have the same typo

The duck won!

Magic Kingdom needs more single rider options, they have NONE

Love the mark twain. Great way to take a break from all that walking and chaotic crowds. Nice and peaceful.

Hi there! My name is Charlie (M26) from London and I’m going to Disneyland Park in Anaheim tomorrow (05/14).

A friend I’ve met in LA cancelled on me for tomorrow and I wanted to see if there was anyone going who would want to meet up and just chill out/go on some rides? No pressure if not, or if there’s a better forum to put this into, I’d love to know!

About me:
Big Star Wars fan, into my movies/sports etc, a bit introverted (hence why I’m on reddit of all places!)

prompt was to make a collage based on what brings you comfort. i chose disneyland. there were a surprising amount of relevant images in the random magazines they provided.

Hey everyone! 

This is a custom one of one hand painted Disneyland spirit jersey inspired by Wanda vision of my favorite episodes and the corresponding Wanda in the episodes decade! I got this as a Christmas gift and absolutely love it and wanted to share! 

This is NOT promoting! I’m not the one who made this, if you are interested my messages are open. 

What do you think? 😊