baby swap for waiting in lines...

[Ariel on Land]

Ok, someone help me with this, my brain is not functioning. I tried to understand what UG had to say about it, but it wasn't clear to me if:

a) We ALL stand in line, dad rides w/ eligible members of the party while mom stays w/ kids there at the loading area. Then when dad returns, Mom rides w/ up to 2 other eligible members of party while dad waits for mom w/ kids.

OR

b) Dad and eligible party members stand in line, while mom can sit w/ kids somewhere in the park (not in line,) then when dad's done, mom gets to ride w/ the rest of the group while dad has kid duty.

Thanks for your help!!!

 

[wlwilliams9]

b! Mom, dad & little one have to approach the CM to ask for a baby swap "fastpass" so they see that you really need it. One of you gets in line to ride while the other waits in the park. When the ride is over, the other goes through the fastpass line and rides. You can both take up to 3 family members with you.

DH and I use it in conjunction with fastpasses so niether of us has to stand in line for too long.

 

[RMulieri]

If the ride has a height restriction, they only let the rider thru that meets the requirement.So you approach a ride Cm.They give Dh a switch pass and he goes thru the fastpass line.He rides comes off and hands you the pass to go thru the fastpass line.you ride and come off.They do not allow you to wait at the ride dispatch point anymore, because often the ride may not let out where it starts from and it gets way to crowded on loading platforms when large families with small children are waiting, and some of the ride queues are very themed /and or have a preshow...ex. Tot ..and can be frighteneing to younger riders.

 

[tzolkin]

If the ride has a height restriction, they only let the rider thru that meets the requirement.So you approach a ride Cm.They give Dh a switch pass and he goes thru the fastpass line.He rides comes off and hands you the pass to go thru the fastpass line.you ride and come off.They do not allow you to wait at the ride dispatch point anymore, because often the ride may not let out where it starts from and it gets way to crowded on loading platforms when large families with small children are waiting, and some of the ride queues are very themed /and or have a preshow...ex. Tot ..and can be frighteneing to younger riders.

Just to clarify for the OP... your DH would not go through the fastpass line unless he has a fastpass. If you do not have fastpasses, the first person must wait in the regular line. When the first person gets off the ride, the second person takes the rider switch ticket (and two other people) and goes through the fastpass line.

Also, there is one ride where everyone enters the line-- Star Wars. I don't know why they do it. We tried to ask the CMs about it, but they were actually fairly rude (our only negative experience at Disney). They claimed that all the rider switch passes work like that and just acted like we didn't know what we were talking about. I would skip this attraction if there is a line. It would be pretty miserable to wait in the line with an infant/small child.

 

[RMulieri]

Just to clarify for the OP... your DH would not go through the fastpass line unless he has a fastpass. If you do not have fastpasses, the first person must wait in the regular line. When the first person gets off the ride, the second person takes the rider switch ticket (and two other people) and goes through the fastpass line.

Also, there is one ride where everyone enters the line-- Star Wars. I don't know why they do it. We tried to ask the CMs about it, but they were actually fairly rude (our only negative experience at Disney). They claimed that all the rider switch passes work like that and just acted like we didn't know what we were talking about. I would skip this attraction if there is a line. It would be pretty miserable to wait in the line with an infant/small child.

You are correct...I had forgotton that is the way it should work...for some reason my last trip....twice they sent DH thru the fastpass line? I didn't understand that either since we didn't have fastpasses...But then again it took 15 mins of arguing since the CM didn't even know what a rider switch was

 

[asoko]

Just to clarify for the OP... your DH would not go through the fastpass line unless he has a fastpass. If you do not have fastpasses, the first person must wait in the regular line. When the first person gets off the ride, the second person takes the rider switch ticket (and two other people) and goes through the fastpass line.

Also, there is one ride where everyone enters the line-- Star Wars. I don't know why they do it. We tried to ask the CMs about it, but they were actually fairly rude (our only negative experience at Disney). They claimed that all the rider switch passes work like that and just acted like we didn't know what we were talking about. I would skip this attraction if there is a line. It would be pretty miserable to wait in the line with an infant/small child.

We did Star Wars with a swap. They put the riders in a lane first, the the child and 2nd rider in the same lane, but for the next tour. We swapped when we went into the car, so the non riding child just walked through the first room then through the ride and out with parent #1.

 

[phins_jazy]

Thanks for the clarification on this. I wasn't sure how baby swap worked. My two oldest will be happy to learn that they'll get to ride the ride twice! Once with mom and once with dad.

 

[Ariel on Land]

Ok great! That makes a lot of sense, and I hadn't thought about how the ToT line IS scary, good call on Disney's part!

Thank you so much for clearing that up- I was having a hard time getting my brain to understand what UG was describing!!

 

[lilmakattack]

Just to throw this out there:

We were there a few weeks ago. It was me, DH, our 2 year old DD, and another couple. To maxmize our fastpasses, 2 of us would get fastpasses for one ride and 2 for another. Then we'd do the baby swap and get the rider switch pass. That way you can technically get fastpasses for 2 rides at the same time because you only need fastpasses for the first set of riders. I hope that makes sense. This saved us a ton of time and we got to ride everything we wanted!

 

[mejkjj97]

Funny this is being asked today. I sent this question to the Pod Cast team yesterday to understand the whole concept of child swap with Fast Passes. We had issues last year where the cast memeber also didn't understand either and I didn't want to go through that hassle again this year.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

There is another option. We did rider swap only once on our last trip. The kids not riding got bored witing in line. I got fastpasses for 4 of us (3 were riding..DD was riding twice). While DH and DD rode RnR I took the little ones to the RnR store to look around. When they were done riding I went with DD. This worked because the fastpass lines were pretty short. This also helped so the little ones wouldn't spend the whole day waiting in lines for rides ther weren't going on.

 

[tzolkin]

We did Star Wars with a swap. They put the riders in a lane first, the the child and 2nd rider in the same lane, but for the next tour. We swapped when we went into the car, so the non riding child just walked through the first room then through the ride and out with parent #1.

Yes, we did it too.

What I was saying was that this is the only ride where the baby and other parent get into the line in order to do the swap. Every other ride the baby and parent wait outside or walk around that park. If the ride has a half hour wait, you could walk around with the baby or do another attraction while waiting. For Star Wars, you will need to stand in the line with baby (and no stroller.)

Just to throw this out there:

We were there a few weeks ago. It was me, DH, our 2 year old DD, and another couple. To maxmize our fastpasses, 2 of us would get fastpasses for one ride and 2 for another. Then we'd do the baby swap and get the rider switch pass. That way you can technically get fastpasses for 2 rides at the same time because you only need fastpasses for the first set of riders. I hope that makes sense. This saved us a ton of time and we got to ride everything we wanted!

We did this a few times. We are a family of 5 (one under 3), so we could get fastpasses for two different rides. We didn't do it every time because usually the two kids liked to ride twice, so we still needed three fastpasses.

I have read a few posts where people said they had to surrender fastpasses for everyone (even those not riding) when they asked for the rider switch. I'm not sure if that was just a few confused CMs or if you really need to get fastpasses for everyone (including those that will ride using the rider switch pass).

 

[brymolmom]

Ok great! That makes a lot of sense, and I hadn't thought about how the ToT line IS scary, good call on Disney's part!

Thank you so much for clearing that up- I was having a hard time getting my brain to understand what UG was describing!!

FYI- if the child is just scared but IS tall enough - the whole group must wait in the TOT line. I disagree with this on Disney's part. Here's the clincher - ds5 knew he did NOT want to ride TOT and kept talking about how it is a pretend elevator that breaks. Then, he has to wait in line with us, saying MULTIPLE times 'but Mommy, I don't WANT to ride this' and then at the last minute - they have me and ds ride, you guessed it - an elevator! He was freaking out that our real elevator to the bottom was going to 'break' too. On this ride, with kids that are 40 inches, you wait at the letoff area at the bottom for the riders in your group, then you go back UP the real elevator to get on the next ride elevator after you have handed off the non-rider to the other adult.