6 days left and confused about baby swap

[El&kris'mom]

Hi,
We are leaving in 6 days with our DS' 5 years and 8 months. I am confused as to how the baby swap actually works. Do DH and I both get in line? Does one of us wait outside the line and then get in line again with DS (5)...
How does it work?
Thanks in advance.

 

[aestapa]

The way it worked for us was that we went to the entrance and got a baby swap voucher. Dad went through the regular line, while I waited outside with the kiddos. When he came out, I took my voucher to the Fastpass line and went right up.

 

[NotUrsula]

The method varies, depending on whether or not you use FastPass (I'd recommend that you do, so that you are not killing quite so much time with baby waiting for others to come out of the ride.)

With FP, on rides where both kids are too little: Get *one* FP for the ride. When the FP ride time comes up, all of you go to the FP Return line, and ask for a Child Swap pass. One person uses the original FP to ride, while the other waits out with the kids. When the first adult comes out of the ride (you don't have to wait right at the exit; you can take the littles to another attraction if you want, and it's a good idea to do so), then the second adult uses the child swap pass to enter the ride via the FP line. This strategy frees up your additional tickets to be used to immediately get a FP for a different height-restricted ride. That is a big benefit, as normally you cannot get FP for another ride until the time for the first one comes up, but if you have a ticket that wasn't used to get a FP the first time, you can use it for something else right away. If you have a 5 yo, you can use his ticket to obtain a 3rd simultaneous FP for a ride above his height.

With FP, on rides where one child is old enough to ride with a parent: Go ahead and get two FP, then proceed as above. The entire family must go to the FP return gate when the time comes up, to pick up the child swap pass. Then the "babysitter" parent stays outside while the other parent and older child use FP to enter the ride. When they come out, then you leave the younger child with the other parent, and take the older child onto the ride a second time, using the Child Swap pass to enter via the FP line. One Child Swap pass is good for up to 4 riders at a time, and they do not have any time restrictions re: how soon you have to return.

Without FP: Proceed as above, only the entire family must go to the Standby Line entrance to ask for the Child Swap pass. The eligible family member(s) use the standby line to access the ride, while the others wait outside, doing whatever. When the original set of riders come back out, the other parent, along with up to 3 old-enough-to-ride other party members then may access the ride via the FP entrance.

Take your cell phones, and use text messaging to let the person riding know where you have gone. Don't just stand around waiting near the entrance, especially if the first rider(s) are going standby, because you could easily be waiting for 90 minutes or so. Voice mail is generally NOT the best choice; the ambient noise in the park is quite loud, and you'll have difficulty hearing it.

As with FP, you don't have to use the Child Swap pass right away, just sometime that day. You can hoard them and use them one after the other later in the day if you like.

 

[El&kris'mom]

The method varies, depending on whether or not you use FastPass (I'd recommend that you do, so that you are not killing quite so much time with baby waiting for others to come out of the ride.)

With FP, on rides where both kids are too little: Get *one* FP for the ride. When the FP ride time comes up, all of you go to the FP Return line, and ask for a Child Swap pass. One person uses the original FP to ride, while the other waits out with the kids. When the first adult comes out of the ride (you don't have to wait right at the exit; you can take the littles to another attraction if you want, and it's a good idea to do so), then the second adult uses the child swap pass to enter the ride via the FP line. This strategy frees up your additional tickets to be used to immediately get a FP for a different height-restricted ride. That is a big benefit, as normally you cannot get FP for another ride until the time for the first one comes up, but if you have a ticket that wasn't used to get a FP the first time, you can use it for something else right away. If you have a 5 yo, you can use his ticket to obtain a 3rd simultaneous FP for a ride above his height.

With FP, on rides where one child is old enough to ride with a parent: Go ahead and get two FP, then proceed as above. The entire family must go to the FP return gate when the time comes up, to pick up the child swap pass. Then the "babysitter" parent stays outside while the other parent and older child use FP to enter the ride. When they come out, then you leave the younger child with the other parent, and take the older child onto the ride a second time, using the Child Swap pass to enter via the FP line. One Child Swap pass is good for up to 4 riders at a time, and they do not have any time restrictions re: how soon you have to return.

Without FP: Proceed as above, only the entire family must go to the Standby Line entrance to ask for the Child Swap pass. The eligible family member(s) use the standby line to access the ride, while the others wait outside, doing whatever. When the original set of riders come back out, the other parent, along with up to 3 old-enough-to-ride other party members then may access the ride via the FP entrance.

Take your cell phones, and use text messaging to let the person riding know where you have gone. Don't just stand around waiting near the entrance, especially if the first rider(s) are going standby, because you could easily be waiting for 90 minutes or so. Voice mail is generally NOT the best choice; the ambient noise in the park is quite loud, and you'll have difficulty hearing it.

As with FP, you don't have to use the Child Swap pass right away, just sometime that day. You can hoard them and use them one after the other later in the day if you like.

Thank you - it makes more sense now

 

[karen624]

Thank you, I have printed this out for reference.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

NOTURSULA, You are the best!!!!

No one has ever been able to explain this to me in such a succinct fashion...and to add the benefit of using the kids to get more fastpasses..I knew I had those kids for a reason!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!

 

[NotUrsula]

You're all very welcome, LOL.

The part that trips up a lot of new baby-swappers is the requirement about having the whole family approach the line entrance and speak to the CM standing there. They require this precisely because the Child Swap pass is good for four people -- they need to actually SEE the child who is too small to ride before they give them out, because otherwise folks who don't have children would use them to maximize (and overload) the fass pass system in just the way I explained. Or of course, sell them on eBay

Just FYI for history's sake: The old baby swap system that was in place before the advent of FP did require both adults to stand in line together, WITH the littles. The way that worked was that the non-riding parent and the child would take the "chicken exit" and wait inside the ride's exit ramp for the other parent to come out; at which point a CM would then escort the second rider and any older children back onto the ride using the exit ramp. That tended to be faster, but was very labor-intensive for the CM's, boring for the kids who were too little to ride (who sometimes got disruptive and made major scenes in the queue) and problematic on rides that don't actually have chicken exits, such as Splash. I don't know of any rides at WDW that still use the old swap system now, (though as late as two years ago, Universal was still doing it that way -- we haven't been back since DD was born.)

 

[LPNmom]

Thanks for all the info, my grand gathering group loves babyswap!!! I have never thought to use FP with them, great idea.