Tell me about your experiences with Rider Swap

[la79al]

My sister asked the other day what we are going to do about the rides that DD is too little for. I told her from what I hear, rider swap varies ride to ride and CM to CM. If all else fails, I will just hang out with DD so the others can ride but what have your experiences been with using rider swap?

[kenny]

Curious about this also.

Also can older sibling ride with both parents or just one time?

[Sandysbuddy]

We only used it once so I don't have a lot of experience with it. Our daughter was not tall enough for Soarin' so my husband was given a fastpass by the CM. He waited with her while I rode with our boys. Then he went through the fastpass queue while we waited for him. We didn't ask about the boys riding twice so I don't know if they would have given them passes or not.

Hopefully, others will answer with their experiences as well. Hope you have a great time!

[la79al]

Originally Posted by kenny

Curious about this also.

Also can older sibling ride with both parents or just one time?

From what I have heard, the rider swap is for up to 3 people (I think). So it is possible for kids to ride twice.

[larryb241]

My daughter is 6 now, so she can ride most everything, but when she was little, we used to do the swap all the time. Most CM's want to see the child. The few problems we ran into were at soarin', where she was asleep in the stroller outside and they said we couldn't take the stroller in, and the other was at rockin roller, where my wife was sitting at the nearby counter service and I went to go ride. You didn't have to get a fast pass to start with, but you did have to ride it then or get a fast pass.
I love the pass though, because it allows up to 3 people to ride when you come back. My son, who is older, got to ride 2 times on each ride.
The last time we went, my wife and daughter were waiting at the end of rockin roller coaster just inside the shop as the people were let off. The CM saw her there and had her put on her vest and usher people around to the exit. Then he gave her a special pass to let her get to the front of the line when she's tall enough to ride! Hope that helps!

[Claire&TheBoys]

The entire party approaches the CM at the entrance to the line. Say, "we need to do a Child Swap." The CM should give you a Rider Switch Pass, which looks like a FastPass, but says "Rider Switch Pass, good for up to 3 people," and the date. Then, whoever is staying behind with the under-height child should move from the queuing area and the others get in line. Anytime later the same day, the one adult who stayed behind, plus up to 2 other riders, can present the Rider Switch Pass at the FastPass line entrance. You only need 1 RSP for 3 riders.

Hope this helps!

[party-of-five]

rider swap is awesome. we used this last year and plan on using it again in dec.! We have 3 kiddos but DS3 is very small and can't ride a lot of the rides. We would just tell the CM at the ride that we needed to use rider swap. The CM would give me a rider swap pass to use when DH and the kids were done riding. Sometimes we were given a pass that was good for anytime during the day and on other rides we had to use it right after DH was done. (can't remember which rides were which) When DH was done riding the ride, the kids and I would go ride the ride together and DH would go do something with DS3. Here's where it's really great...
1) the older kids got to ride everything twice! once with dad and once with me. (i think you can have as many as 3 people enter again with the second adult)
2) DH had to wait in the standby line while I (the second adult) got to go thru the fast pass line. (we wised up quickly and would get a fast pass for DH and then we would tell the CM we needed rider swap... that way he could go through the shorter line with the kids and then I could too... saved lots of time)
3) DS3 got to spend some QT time with mom and dad!

hope it works well for you too!

enjoy!

[la79al]

Does the person using the Rider Swap card always use the FP entrance? If so, could we technically just get one fastpass at a time and thus have 3 different fastpasses at a time (3 adults)?

[I_believe_in_pixies]

Rider swap is great! We used rider swap with our fast passes. The entire party approaches the CM and states that they need a rider swap pass. The first group would use the fast passes we had gotten earlier to go ride. When they came out, the person who had waited with the little one plus two others(rider swap pass covers 3 people) would go use it through the fast pass line.

My DD 6 loved it because she got to ride everything twice!

Nick

[Wall-E1]

It worked out great for me. My son was too short for Tower of Terror. I swapped him out for a taller child. I ended up keeping the child I swapped for, as I found he had much better manners than my own child. Years later, I couldn't be happier. The new child does chores, completes his homework without me nagging him, goes to bed on time; etc. I do feel bad for whatever guest got duped into swapping for my son.

[larryb241]

Originally Posted by Wall-E1

It worked out great for me. My son was too short for Tower of Terror. I swapped him out for a taller child. I ended up keeping the child I swapped for, as I found he had much better manners than my own child. Years later, I couldn't be happier. The new child does chores, completes his homework without me nagging him, goes to bed on time; etc. I do feel bad for whatever guest got duped into swapping for my son.

Okay - that was hilarious!!!!

[mesaboy2]

Rider/Parent/Child Swap is a terrific idea and usually has worked great for us. After hearing about ToT for such a long time and how scary it was, I finally mustered the courage to ride it and let DW know how it was. We got then-DD3 through the queue without too much trouble, although the darkened library part frightened her a little. We got to the elevators, explained to the CM what we were doing, and I waved goodbye--possibly forever --to my family. (I had never done any kind of drop-ride before.) So I do the deed, love it, and am getting my heart rate and BP back to normal when the elevator opens and this little tiny "junior bellhop" screams "Welcome back!". Boy was I surprised to see DD3 there! That was pretty cool.

On the flip side, we did rider swap once on SM and they let us take DD3 in the loooong queue to the next CM, who said sure, DW and DD3 wait over there by the exit, and you ride then swap with DW. Fair enough. Six months later, same deal--tell outside CM what we're doing, go through looooong queue (FP'ed at least), get to inside CM who says DD3 can't be in here at all. I say no, we're doing the swap thing like we did a few months back. "Sorry, sir, she cannot be in here at all and must wait outside." I am not one to confront for sure, but that got me hot because I had told the first CM and he didn't say anything, plus we had done it just months before. Embarrassing to have to walk all the way back to the entrance--which felt even longer! Oh well, water under the bridge now....

[delmar411]

Originally Posted by la79al

Does the person using the Rider Swap card always use the FP entrance? If so, could we technically just get one fastpass at a time and thus have 3 different fastpasses at a time (3 adults)?

That's how we did it. I never got a FP for myself and just used the switch pass if the kids wanted to ride again.

And yes the person using the rider pass always uses the FP entrance.

[mom of 3G's]

Originally Posted by Wall-E1

It worked out great for me. My son was too short for Tower of Terror. I swapped him out for a taller child. I ended up keeping the child I swapped for, as I found he had much better manners than my own child. Years later, I couldn't be happier. The new child does chores, completes his homework without me nagging him, goes to bed on time; etc. I do feel bad for whatever guest got duped into swapping for my son.