Any recent accounts of using kid swap?

[DFII]

We've never used it but my friend is going with a 6 yo who is tall enough for every Disney ride and a 2 yo and I'm at a loss as to tell them how to do their FP. Hoping Mom can do rides with the little one while Dad does with the older one but then Mom would like to be able to ride with the 6 yo for a few of the coasters too. So wanted to direct them to use Rider Swap for those.

I would tell them to plan their fast passes per normal. I'm not saying some of these accounts aren't accurate, but I haven't experienced all people needing a FP in order to use rider swap and I use it all the time. Haven't been during spring break crowds so maybe that's changed. I can provide more info in the next few days after using rider swap.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

We were there March 1-12, did rider switch quite a bit and had never once was asked to prove everyone in the party had a FP. A major change from previous trips (and I’m sure this is old news, we hadn’t been in a few years) was they would give you a lanyard at the entrance instead of a pass, you received your pass closer to boarding.

The majority of the attractions were not same day, except for the already mentioned ultra popular ones.

 

[Artax]

Our last family trip was sept 16, but for multiple trips now we have always scheduled a FP for short child and 1 adult at a different attraction/meet n greet so they had something to do while the taller children and other adult rode the height restricted ride. We have never had a problem with getting a rider swap pass. I will schedule our upcoming trip the same way. If for some reason a CM says everyone needs a FP to get the rider swap I will explain the situation. Worst case is one adult wouldn't get to ride, but I doubt they would argue after explaining the smaller child needs something to do too.

 

[jo-jo]

We've never used it but my friend is going with a 6 yo who is tall enough for every Disney ride and a 2 yo and I'm at a loss as to tell them how to do their FP. Hoping Mom can do rides with the little one while Dad does with the older one but then Mom would like to be able to ride with the 6 yo for a few of the coasters too. So wanted to direct them to use Rider Swap for those.

I was hoping for that same type of situation. Last year it wasn't as much as an issue since (a) there were rides the then 5 yr wasn't able to rides and (b) the younger one wasn't as mobile and took for more naps in the stroller.

As it is now, we have most of the big rides with everyone having a FP. There are just a few times we have DIL and 2 yr old with separate ride.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Our last family trip was sept 16, but for multiple trips now we have always scheduled a FP for short child and 1 adult at a different attraction/meet n greet so they had something to do while the taller children and other adult rode the height restricted ride. We have never had a problem with getting a rider swap pass. I will schedule our upcoming trip the same way. If for some reason a CM says everyone needs a FP to get the rider swap I will explain the situation. Worst case is one adult wouldn't get to ride, but I doubt they would argue after explaining the smaller child needs something to do too.

Yep this is what we did for the most part too (especially with a ride like 7DMT that has lots of alternatives close by) and we had no issues.

 

[Hope Soda]

We've had no problem using rider swap without scanning/having FP for the second riders. This includes for FOP and 7DMT. Our last time using rider swap was the third week of December last year. We did not use rider swap on our March trip because I got pregnant and couldn't ride those rides. However, we were still offered rider swap without asking at several rides, including FOP, as I walked with my family to the queue and they just assumed we would swap. We did not take the offered rider swap passes, however.

My plan for our upcoming November trip, where we will definitely use rider swap (we'll have an infant), is to make FP+ for all of us (except the baby, obviously) for FOP and 7DMT, even though I don't think I'll actually need one on my band, based on past experience.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I’ll add the only park we really split FP at (in practice) was MK.

AK and DHS didn’t really have anything we needed to use the other half of our FP for, and at Epcot we ended up finding out that while a FP split between TT and Soarin is possible, it just takes up way too much time to send two groups through both those rides on the same day. But we had the luxury of multiple Epcot days.

We had the Epcot splits booked, but tended to only use one of the two.

 

[jwolfpack]

We've never used it but my friend is going with a 6 yo who is tall enough for every Disney ride and a 2 yo and I'm at a loss as to tell them how to do their FP. Hoping Mom can do rides with the little one while Dad does with the older one but then Mom would like to be able to ride with the 6 yo for a few of the coasters too. So wanted to direct them to use Rider Swap for those.

We have used rider swap on several trips as a family of 5 with 2 adults, 2 older kids, and 1 toddler. When we book FP for rides the toddler is too short to ride, I always book the toddler and 1 adult a FP for something else nearby, usually at the same or similar time. Some of our favorite combos are SDMT and Peter Pan, Space & Buzz, BTMRR or Splash and Jungle Cruise, Test Track and Character Spot, etc.

This isn't cheating the system as the toddler would never be able to use his FP's if the waiting adult always had to have their FP's booked with the group riding the rides with height requirements.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

We have used rider swap on several trips as a family of 5 with 2 adults, 2 older kids, and 1 toddler. When we book FP for rides the toddler is too short to ride, I always book the toddler and 1 adult a FP for something else nearby, usually at the same or similar time. Some of our favorite combos are SDMT and Peter Pan, Space & Buzz, BTMRR or Splash and Jungle Cruise, Test Track and Character Spot, etc.

This isn't cheating the system as the toddler would never be able to use his FP's if the waiting adult always had to have their FP's booked with the group riding the rides with height requirements.

To build on this, my 2 year olds loved the little playground near Splash and BTMRR.

We had 6 riders in our party so split 3 and 3 between Splash and BTMRR (at different times of day) and had the toddlers either playing at that playground or napping in the stroller. One right before lunch, lunch at Columbia harbour house, then one right after lunch (during nap) worked well for us.

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks all. I found a great chart at WDW Prep School that gave them lots of ideas of activities to do near all the rides with Height Requirements. Some I had thought of but a few were things I hadn't paid attention to before.
The only trip DH and I made with DGD too short to do things it was just the 3 of us so we didn't have a need for rider swap. This is all new ground

 

[djc9699]

But back to the original question, in addition to the above, does everyone in the group need a FP to obtain a Rider Swap? I have never used it but I'm giving advice to someone who is planning a trip that will need to use it and wanted to be sure to give them the most current info. I had just came here to start a search and saw this post.
I'm going to just stick with telling them to plan to use their Rider Swap that day but what about booking their initial FP. Do they need to go ahead and book FP for everyone for all rides? How do they even check that if they aren't planning on the 2nd group riding till later in the day?

When we were there second week of March with my granddaughter, all 5 adults had a FP for FOP but when the other 4 went to the line I went with them with my GD and they gave them a child swap ticket. When they came off my FP time was still good so I gave it to my daughter and all 4 were allowed to ride again. We did that twice in the trip. No one checked to see that I had a FP. This was the first time I ever used the rider swap and I found it very easy. We also did it for Soarin' and Everest without showing that I had a FP even though I did. We just swapped who rode which ride with me. Two got to ride Soarin again and two got to ride Everest again. But only one original person (in this case my son) in the party needed to ask for the rider swap. It didn't matter how many were riding with him.

 

[Minniemoo15]

WE were there 3/1-3/11 and I was worried about this. But we had absolutely no issues, at FOP they were slightly stricter than most (ie: most places I could just point out the stroller and general direction of my waiting Dh and LO, at FOP they actually wanted my Dh to bring the baby right at the entrance to see her).

They definitely weren’t checking to see if everyone in the party had a FP though.

 

[Crystal824]

I hope this isn't the situation in two weeks. If it is, we may not get to ride certain attractions. In the end, that will be ok as most parents can attest, we skip many of the attractions that our kids can't/won't ride. Many times, we end up not using the RS passes. We are a family of 5. 2 adults and three kids ages, 7, 3, and infant. I generally book FP with a height restrictions that both the older kids can't ride for 2 people and then another nearby attraction for two so my three year old doesn't have to just sit and wait. For instance, when riding 7DMT, I would book it for two and then two for Winnie the Pooh. I hate that some of the RS are now same day because it is nice to let one person ride it. Then let the other ride it later. That way you can get some family attractions in between the two rides. That way the under height kid doesn't feel like they are just standing there waiting.

Isn't that the point of Riderswitch so you can take your child who is too short to do an attraction to do something else? I get that you sort get an additional FP. However, if you book FP for everyone for the attraction with a height restriction doesn't it have the same result? Technically, if you are within in the hour time frame, both adults could ride with a FP and still get a RS unless that make you scan your band, which still doesn't make sense because then you are tagged in as using the FP when you haven't.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I hope this isn't the situation in two weeks. If it is, we may not get to ride certain attractions. In the end, that will be ok as most parents can attest, we skip many of the attractions that our kids can't/won't ride. Many times, we end up not using the RS passes. We are a family of 5. 2 adults and three kids ages, 7, 3, and infant. I generally book FP with a height restrictions that both the older kids can't ride for 2 people and then another nearby attraction for two so my three year old doesn't have to just sit and wait. For instance, when riding 7DMT, I would book it for two and then two for Winnie the Pooh. I hate that some of the RS are now same day because it is nice to let one person ride it. Then let the other ride it later. That way you can get some family attractions in between the two rides. That way the under height kid doesn't feel like they are just standing there waiting.

Isn't that the point of Riderswitch so you can take your child who is too short to do an attraction to do something else? I get that you sort get an additional FP. However, if you book FP for everyone for the attraction with a height restriction doesn't it have the same result? Technically, if you are within in the hour time frame, both adults could ride with a FP and still get a RS unless that make you scan your band, which still doesn't make sense because then you are tagged in as using the FP when you haven't.

“Technically,” the point of rider switch is so that both adults don’t have to wait through the standby line.

 

[AngiTN]

We were there March 1-12, did rider switch quite a bit and had never once was asked to prove everyone in the party had a FP. A major change from previous trips (and I’m sure this is old news, we hadn’t been in a few years) was they would give you a lanyard at the entrance instead of a pass, you received your pass closer to boarding.

The majority of the attractions were not same day, except for the already mentioned ultra popular ones.

This changes something too. I was thinking they gave them out as you entered the ride. So you get in the FP line and then get the actually paper swap pass before you board?
They may have a couple of friends there a few hours one day and instead of trying to coordinate their FP they were going to let them use the Rider Swap to ride just those couple of rides. Which they can still do but I need to let them know they'll not ride together if they do that, since they won't get the rider swap pass till time to ride. They'll have to pass off the rider swap after the ride, right?

 

[DFII]

This changes something too. I was thinking they gave them out as you entered the ride. So you get in the FP line and then get the actually paper swap pass before you board?
They may have a couple of friends there a few hours one day and instead of trying to coordinate their FP they were going to let them use the Rider Swap to ride just those couple of rides. Which they can still do but I need to let them know they'll not ride together if they do that, since they won't get the rider swap pass till time to ride. They'll have to pass off the rider swap after the ride, right?

Correct

 

[AngiTN]

Oh, and the Rider Swap is good for 3 people to enter, right? The Adult, child and one more?

 

[Eccle]

We were there in February and used rider switch a lot, we were never asked if the non riding adult had a fast pass booked, but mostly they did want to see the child before giving out the lanyard. FOP and 7DMT were same day, others were end of the month, but since we got back I have read reports of more rides being same day.

 

[Eccle]

Oh, and the Rider Swap is good for 3 people to enter, right? The Adult, child and one more?

Yes it is 3 people

 

[DopeyDame]

We were there end of January/beginning of February and used Rider Swap a bunch. We were occasionally asked to show the too-short child, but we were never asked to prove that everyone else had a FP. (Not sure how they would even do that - at most you'd be proving that one extra person has a FP, but the rider swap passes are good for 3 people.)