It's not hard to get the dash off. I've done it 3-5 times in the past two days.
You have to remove the center console piece first, then the piece around the shifter. After that you have to take the knobs off the AC and Fan. Once that is done you can just pop the cover off. Once you do that you will see two screws. Unscrew those and then pop the whole center dash piece off. You will see the connectors to the defroster, clock, emergency lights when you take off the center dash piece.