"milking" baby swap

[Raenstoirm]

Next trip will be my husband and I and our baby twins. By the way I see it, baby swap is inherently unfair to those without small kids. (We have never used it so I haven't given it much thought in the past). But I guess it works out in our favor if I am understanding it. In theory, my husband can get prebooked FP+ for say soarin and I can get mine for TT. We present the babies at soarin, dh rides FP and I get a swap ticket. Later I can ride soarin on that ticket without using one of my FP+, right? At the same time we present the babies at TT and I ride and dh gets a swap ticket and can ride TT without using one of his FP+. So we each still have two left? Right? I don't want to milk the system, but it seems designed that way so I am very confused. Is that how it is supposed to work? Or we can book his FP+ in one park and mine in another and we both can use the fastpass line in both parks via swap tickets? If so, it really doesn't seem fair to our former selves that were missing out. . But I guess we do lose out since we can't ride anything together since one of us has to stay with the babies. And we both need FP+ for things the babies can ride (such as Peter Pan) if we don't want to stand in line.

 

[tzolkin]

Some will argue that with just two adults you should both get FPs for the same attraction and use those instead of bothering to ask for the RS pass. It's intended to allow you to only wait in standby once or to allow both parents the opportunity to ride an attraction with older child(ren). It isn't supposed to be a way for couples with babies to double up on FPs, but it does work out that way.

With the old FP system, yes, what you mention would work (each adult pull FPs for different attractions). There were many threads where people claimed the CM would ask for both adults FPs and refuse to give them the RS if they were "scamming" the system, but I don't know if there was really truth to that. We were never asked to produce FPs for our entire group before receiving a RS pass, but we also didn't have just two riders so it wasn't feasible for us to double our FPs.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

There have been reports of CMs requiring the non-riding parent to scan his/her magic band to get the rider swap ticket, particularly at 7DMT. I did not experience this, and we were able to get rider swap tickets without scanning the non-rider's band. This allowed us to have our little one use his FP+ at a ride he was big enough to do, and the non-rider go on 7DMT with our big one with the non-rider....if that makes sense.

 

[Dayzy]

I could be way off, but I thought now with the FP+ on MagicBands that each rider's band had to be scanned in the FP line. So even to do rider swap, if you are in the FP line, you need a FP attached to your band

 

[aaarcher86]

I could be way off, but I thought now with the FP+ on MagicBands that each rider's band had to be scanned in the FP line. So even to do rider swap, if you are in the FP line, you need a FP attached to your band

It does, but the rider swap ticket takes the place of a FP+.

 

[DopeyDame]

Next trip will be my husband and I and our baby twins. By the way I see it, baby swap is inherently unfair to those without small kids. (We have never used it so I haven't given it much thought in the past). But I guess it works out in our favor if I am understanding it. In theory, my husband can get prebooked FP+ for say soarin and I can get mine for TT. We present the babies at soarin, dh rides FP and I get a swap ticket. Later I can ride soarin on that ticket without using one of my FP+, right? At the same time we present the babies at TT and I ride and dh gets a swap ticket and can ride TT without using one of his FP+. So we each still have two left? Right? I don't want to milk the system, but it seems designed that way so I am very confused. Is that how it is supposed to work? Or we can book his FP+ in one park and mine in another and we both can use the fastpass line in both parks via swap tickets? If so, it really doesn't seem fair to our former selves that were missing out. . But I guess we do lose out since we can't ride anything together since one of us has to stay with the babies. And we both need FP+ for things the babies can ride (such as Peter Pan) if we don't want to stand in line.

This is exactly how it works, and how it's designed to work. It's not milking the system and you shouldn't feel guilty. There will be times when you find using single rider lines are better anyway, so you might not have much use for babyswap since you don't have any older kids, but it's absolutely there to be used just like you described.

And despite the flare up several months ago about needing FP to use babyswap, it's not true and as far as I can tell never was true, except for maybe a few clueless CMs when 7DMT first opened.

WDW WANTS families with small children to go and have a fantastic time. They want to make it as easy as possible for families to do what they want to do. They desperately want you and your twins to go and have an easy, flexible, family-friendly time, so that you come back again and again and again over the twins' lifetime. Babyswap is part of the package that they have to sell to parents and part of what sets them apart from other vacations.

All that said... you haven't been to WDW with babies yet. My bet is that you will have lots of babyswap passes that you never actually end up using. It's just a very different way to see the world. It's amazing and spectacular and awesome, but you move at a much slower pace and enjoy very different things - there's not a lot of bopping between headliners. I think you'll also find that most of the time you'd rather be together as a whole family instead of splitting up, even if that means you don't ride TT at all.

Have a great trip!

 

[DopeyDame]

I could be way off, but I thought now with the FP+ on MagicBands that each rider's band had to be scanned in the FP line. So even to do rider swap, if you are in the FP line, you need a FP attached to your band

Nope. If you show up with a babyswap pass (a physical ticket that looks like the old fastpasses) they don't scan your magic band. You just use the babyswap pass to get into the FP line.

 

[amyren]

Next trip will be my husband and I and our baby twins. By the way I see it, baby swap is inherently unfair to those without small kids. (We have never used it so I haven't given it much thought in the past). But I guess it works out in our favor if I am understanding it. In theory, my husband can get prebooked FP+ for say soarin and I can get mine for TT. We present the babies at soarin, dh rides FP and I get a swap ticket. Later I can ride soarin on that ticket without using one of my FP+, right? At the same time we present the babies at TT and I ride and dh gets a swap ticket and can ride TT without using one of his FP+. So we each still have two left? Right? I don't want to milk the system, but it seems designed that way so I am very confused. Is that how it is supposed to work? Or we can book his FP+ in one park and mine in another and we both can use the fastpass line in both parks via swap tickets? If so, it really doesn't seem fair to our former selves that were missing out. . But I guess we do lose out since we can't ride anything together since one of us has to stay with the babies. And we both need FP+ for things the babies can ride (such as Peter Pan) if we don't want to stand in line.

hmmm... so you're saying you and your DH would have different fast passes and in theory be able to do 6 fp experiences by using baby swap? I've never thought of that. We have had CMs ask us at multiple attractions if we each had FP before issuing a baby swap ticket but I can't remember ever having to scan both bands.
In my opinion you could probably get away with that but ya... it's milking the system.

 

[amyren]

Nope. If you show up with a babyswap pass (a physical ticket that looks like the old fastpasses) they don't scan your magic band. You just use the babyswap pass to get into the FP line.

Ya here is the paper ticket you're issued. I got this one on Dec 20 and it was good through Dec 31 for up to 3 riders. DD loved that she got to ride everything twice!

 

[TinkerKeeks]

Just my opinion, but anyone who thinks using baby swap like that is milking the system has probably never traveled with small children before ROFTL the amount of attractions and rides you experience as a family without small children, and even more adults alone, is far more than any family with kids small enough to need baby swap.
The reality is traveling with small kids, particularly infants, is A LOT work, and more often or not things do not go to plan. Just to give some perspective, the amount of time we spend in the park as a family with small children is much more reduced, just because my kids go to bed early, and forget the thought of waking up 10 month old Infants to get to a park early, unless I want to deal with cranky babies all day, I have to let them wake up on their own. When we went in November with our 10 month old twins, and 3 year old son, our average park time was 10 am to 6 pm. And in that time, did we utilize child swap? Yes we did. And I would say half of those passes went to waste and half of them helped us out. My 3 year old was able to ride tomorrowland speedway 4 times one day(his favorite ride). The downside, we didn't do much else besides that and watch the parade.my husband rode space mountain and got a rider swap for me, but by the time it was my turn the kids were freaking out from waiting for him and we had to move along. I kept the rider swap but never had a chance to use it. This happened with a lot of our rider swaps and at the end of the trip we ended up with a bunch of unused ones.

Basically my point was, The last thing I would be worried about is parents with small children milking the system. The reality is those families probably get to experience a fraction of what everyone else does in the park. So if they end up lucking out once in awhile and get to ride both soaring and test track in the fastpass line, it doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Oodalally13]

Forget "renting" a disable person for the old disability pass, now we can rent children to shorten our wait time!

 

[Crystal824]

This is exactly how it works, and how it's designed to work. It's not milking the system and you shouldn't feel guilty. There will be times when you find using single rider lines are better anyway, so you might not have much use for babyswap since you don't have any older kids, but it's absolutely there to be used just like you described.

And despite the flare up several months ago about needing FP to use babyswap, it's not true and as far as I can tell never was true, except for maybe a few clueless CMs when 7DMT first opened.

WDW WANTS families with small children to go and have a fantastic time. They want to make it as easy as possible for families to do what they want to do. They desperately want you and your twins to go and have an easy, flexible, family-friendly time, so that you come back again and again and again over the twins' lifetime. Babyswap is part of the package that they have to sell to parents and part of what sets them apart from other vacations.

All that said... you haven't been to WDW with babies yet. My bet is that you will have lots of babyswap passes that you never actually end up using. It's just a very different way to see the world. It's amazing and spectacular and awesome, but you move at a much slower pace and enjoy very different things - there's not a lot of bopping between headliners. I think you'll also find that most of the time you'd rather be together as a whole family instead of splitting up, even if that means you don't ride TT at all.

Have a great trip!

Yes, that is how it has always worked in my experience. DH and I haven't been since FP+ started, but that was how it worked with FP. With that being said I totally agree with the PP's post that I quoted. DH and I would occasionally split up, but for the most part we would rather stay together and do things we could all do. We are about to embark on our first trip with FP+. We will have a baby this time too, our older daughter is 4 so she can do many more things, but we plan to book FP+ for those things she can do with us. If somehow I get on SM, great, if not, I haven't ridden it my past 4 trips to WDW, so I'll live.

 

[jennilouwho]

Before our September trip I contacted Disney about this. I received both a phone call and an email telling me it is designed to do it the way you said "milking the system." They are absolutely okay with it. We never were asked to scan the second adult's band at the ride. And like someone else said, if people think you are getting away with something that they are missing out on, then clearly they have not traveled with little ones in tow. One day, even with fastpass and rider switch, it took us 90 minutes total to accomplish Test Track. I would have preferred we could have just all ridden it together one time. In fact, we aren't going back to a Disney park until the youngest is 40 inches. My older two measure him weekly Even with 6 fastpasses, you will accomplish less than a group of adults would because you will be spending a lot of time, feeding, changing, napping and overall trying to appease your babies

 

[North of Mouse]

I could be way off, but I thought now with the FP+ on MagicBands that each rider's band had to be scanned in the FP line. So even to do rider swap, if you are in the FP line, you need a FP attached to your band

It does, but the rider swap ticket takes the place of a FP+.

Can't believe another loop hole at Disney! Why shouldn't everyone that intends to ride need a FP+?? Has nothing to do with Baby Swap! Yep, sounds like what a pp said - just borrow a baby, who needs a any other reason to ride it without the pass that everyone has to have in advance. They basically get 6 FP+ advance each day to our 3, right??

 

[Camshell]

Just my opinion, but anyone who thinks using baby swap like that is milking the system has probably never traveled with small children before ROFTL the amount of attractions and rides you experience as a family without small children, and even more adults alone, is far more than any family with kids small enough to need baby swap.
The reality is traveling with small kids, particularly infants, is A LOT work, and more often or not things do not go to plan. Just to give some perspective, the amount of time we spend in the park as a family with small children is much more reduced, just because my kids go to bed early, and forget the thought of waking up 10 month old Infants to get to a park early, unless I want to deal with cranky babies all day, I have to let them wake up on their own. When we went in November with our 10 month old twins, and 3 year old son, our average park time was 10 am to 6 pm. And in that time, did we utilize child swap? Yes we did. And I would say half of those passes went to waste and half of them helped us out. My 3 year old was able to ride tomorrowland speedway 4 times one day(his favorite ride). The downside, we didn't do much else besides that and watch the parade.my husband rode space mountain and got a rider swap for me, but by the time it was my turn the kids were freaking out from waiting for him and we had to move along. I kept the rider swap but never had a chance to use it. This happened with a lot of our rider swaps and at the end of the trip we ended up with a bunch of unused ones.

Basically my point was, The last thing I would be worried about is parents with small children milking the system. The reality is those families probably get to experience a fraction of what everyone else does in the park. So if they end up lucking out once in awhile and get to ride both soaring and test track in the fastpass line, it doesn't bother me at all.

I'd agree with you based on my own experience. Most families travelling with small children are not able to move at the pace of families with older children or families with no children. Additionally you find yourself wanting to do more things as a family anyway, so you end up doing more parades, meet and greets, and non-thrill rides, etc. so the rider swap doesn't get used as much as you might think. While its theoretically possible to abuse it, I can't see too many parents wanting to put their own needs ahead of the family unit.

 

[Oodalally13]

Can't believe another loop hole at Disney! Why shouldn't everyone that intends to ride need a FP+?? Has nothing to do with Baby Swap! Yep, sounds like what a pp said - just borrow a baby, who needs a any other reason to ride it without the pass that everyone has to have in advance. They basically get 6 FP+ advance each day to our 3, right??

You are correct!!!! And people are justifying to themselves by saying they cant so as much as people with older kids or grown ups alone do. The DAS reform police need to come down on this.

And to end with one of my catchphrases...I didnt impregnate you, so why am i being forcibly inconvenienced???

 

[Crystal824]

Can't believe another loop hole at Disney! Why shouldn't everyone that intends to ride need a FP+?? Has nothing to do with Baby Swap! Yep, sounds like what a pp said - just borrow a baby, who needs a any other reason to ride it without the pass that everyone has to have in advance. They basically get 6 FP+ advance each day to our 3, right??

No, this only works if all of their children are under 3. Otherwise, I don't see many parents using their FP+ selections to do attractions the children can't do. At that point the kid needs a FP+. Even then it only works if you use your FP+ selections for things with height requirements. Trust me, I've been to WDW 5 times with a child under 3. More than half the time, we didn't use the rider swap pass. It just wasn't feasible because we wanted to spend time with our children, and WDW has many attractions the littles can do.

Don't get so bent out of shape that you are missing something. I would venture to say that most families book most of their FP+ for things that the whole family can do together. I know that is what we did for our April trip. Moms and Dad aren't leaving their kids sitting around while they are riding Space Mt. and BTMRR multiple times.

 

[Crystal824]

You are correct!!!! And people are justifying to themselves by saying they cant so as much as people with older kids or grown ups alone do. The DAS reform police need to come down on this.

And to end with one of my catchphrases...I didnt impregnate you, so why am i being forcibly inconvenienced???

How exactly are you being inconvenienced?

 

[Oodalally13]

I could be next in line and now I have to wait PLUS I don't get 6 FP+ a day.

 

[Oodalally13]

Now I have a question....is there a limit to the party size? Let's say a family of 7 came, but 1 kid doesn't want to ride....does that mean that 5 get to ride each time while mom and dad take turns waiting with the 1 kid? Or does only mom/dad get to go 2nd time?