Child Swap - Should all parties have a FP+ for the ride?

[LucyBC80]

A friend and I were discussing Child Swap and she insisted that only one person per party was required a FP+ and that CMs had no problem with this strategy. Is she correct?

 

[Kirk]

Don't think so. CM gives you a child swap voucher and one person waits with child to go through the queue. That person goes through without waiting once they meet up again and can take one or 2 guests back through with them.

Child Swap

 

[ArwenMarie]

I don't think people should be able to double their FPs with it especially in the tiered parks. I've read some stuff advising groups to pass the kid to multiple adults in a party and get swap passes over and over
And I don't think you should be able to hold more than one child swap pass at a time. They could probably use the Magicband to help with that.
And they should expire at the end of the day
The list goes on

 

[mom2rtk]

While they're closing loopholes, I see no reason not to close this one as well. I have no issue with some members of the party getting to ride twice, but not with only 1 FP being redeemed.

 

[LucyBC80]

I don't think people should be able to double their FPs with it especially in the tiered parks. I've read some stuff advising groups to pass the kid to multiple adults in a party and get swap passes over and over
And I don't think you should be able to hold more than one child swap pass at a time. They could probably use the Magicband to help with that.
And they should expire at the end of the day
The list goes on

That's what the discussion was about. I completely agree with you about the double dipping. That's why I believe all parties must have a valid FP+ to use child swap.
\

 

[tlmadden73]

I think you can .. I haven't tried myself, because we found it too cumbersome to try and child swap. Getting the Mom and Infant to the line was challenging .. as sometimes they were off somewhere nursing or on another ride, etc.

But I think this is how it would work in a simple family of 4.

Mom/Dad have two children - Infant and 4yo.

To go on Test Track (for example).
Dad and 5yo use Fast Passes to go on the ride and get the Child Swap Voucher while Mom and infant wait.
After you get back .. Mom gets the voucher and takes 5yo on again .. getting in the FP line. I don't think she needs a FP because she has the voucher.

So .. that being said .. I could have split my Tier 1 Fast Passes and have Mom get one for Soaring later in the day.
Mom gets in FP line .. Dad gets the Rider Swap Voucher. Mom rides Soarin', comes back and Dad/4yo go on Soarin with the voucher (without a FP).

The thing is the 4yo can only then go on Soaring ONCE. While he was able to go on Test Track Twice.

So .. I think it could be done . .but like I said before .. I found Rider Swap to be a hassle to try and coordinate and we didn't end up using it once. We just booked our Fast Passes together and Mom ended up riding some rides solo.

 

[PSULion]

Your friend is correct on how the system has previously worked, but no one can be sure with the changes currently being made to FP.

We have personally done it, without really realizing what we were doing. I made DH and tall DS a 7DMT FP, and myself and short DS a FP for something else. We had them measure short DS to see how close he was, and the CM gave us a rider swap. So DH and tall DS rode, then tall DS and I rode, even though I never had a FP.

ETA: I just realized your friend said only 1 FP needed per party... everyone who will ride in the first group definitely needs a FP...

 

[KrazeeK120]

Not everyone in the party has to have a FP to use rider swap. But if everyone does have a FP, there's no need to use rider swap because rider swap uses the FP line anyway.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Not everyone in the party has to have a FP to use rider swap. But if everyone does have a FP, there's no need to use rider swap because rider swap uses the FP line anyway.

Well, the one reason to get a child swap is if by the time the first person is done riding via FP line the FP window closes. So if you have your FP window from 10am to 11am and you get there at 10:45 and the first person goes, and doesn't get back out until 11:15, then the 2nd person would be outside of the FP window (this happened to us on Space Mountain)

Also, the child swap is for multiple people so my oldest daughter was able to ride with both of us

 

[TheMaxRebo]

A friend and I were discussing Child Swap and she insisted that only one person per party was required a FP+ and that CMs had no problem with this strategy. Is she correct?

Your friend is correct in that you should be able to set up your FP like that - so, to some extent, doubling your FP. That said, it varies on how things are implemented (I saw reports of at least once the CMs checking that everyone in the party had a FP for a given attraction before giving out the rider swap) and Disney could change the policy and then start to check this all the time.

 

[mom2rtk]

Not everyone in the party has to have a FP to use rider swap. But if everyone does have a FP, there's no need to use rider swap because rider swap uses the FP line anyway.

Yes, there's a need. The second adult gets to take the kids again so they don't have to ride alone. I think that's a great perk and should not change.

Well, the one reason to get a child swap is if by the time the first person is done riding via FP line the FP window closes. So if you have your FP window from 10am to 11am and you get there at 10:45 and the first person goes, and doesn't get back out until 11:15, then the 2nd person would be outside of the FP window (this happened to us on Space Mountain)

Also, the child swap is for multiple people so my oldest daughter was able to ride with both of us

Have everyone present at the ride, redeem all FPs before the first group rides, then issue the rider swap ticket (good for re-entry into the FP line), which is good through the end of the day for the second group to ride.

 

[lynzi2004]

I personally like that the Child Swap feature is good for longer than a day. Many of the rides even with a FP takes longer than 30 min to complete especially during busy times...thinking Test Track, Space Mtn (took DD and I almost 45 min during Spring Break with FP), Splash Mtn. I really appreciate that we don't have to ride the rides back to back and keep a baby or toddler waiting for 1 hour or more while everyone goes through the ride. We typically take the child swap and if it works out to ride again quickly will, if not will go about our touring and then come back and ride later that night or even sometime in the next couple days.

We have even ended up with a few that it just wasn't feasible to get back to ride whichever ride and was able to pass them along to others at the campground. It made their day and ours too!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Yes, there's a need. The second adult gets to take the kids again so they don't have to ride alone. I think that's a great perk and should not change.


Have everyone present at the ride, redeem all FPs before the first group rides, then issue the rider swap ticket (good for re-entry into the FP line), which is good through the end of the day for the second group to ride.

yup, that will work - I was just addressing the idea that if everyone has FP you don't need rider swap at all - but I think there is that scenario where it is still beneficial to get due to potentially running out of time

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I personally like that the Child Swap feature is good for longer than a day. Many of the rides even with a FP takes longer than 30 min to complete especially during busy times...thinking Test Track, Space Mtn (took DD and I almost 45 min during Spring Break with FP), Splash Mtn. I really appreciate that we don't have to ride the rides back to back and keep a baby or toddler waiting for 1 hour or more while everyone goes through the ride. We typically take the child swap and if it works out to ride again quickly will, if not will go about our touring and then come back and ride later that night or even sometime in the next couple days.

We have even ended up with a few that it just wasn't feasible to get back to ride whichever ride and was able to pass them along to others at the campground. It made their day and ours too!

We've also done that and it is a good way to get a ride during the day and then one at night for rides where the experience is a bit different during day vs at night (such as Big Thunder)

 

[mom2rtk]

yup, that will work - I was just addressing the idea that if everyone has FP you don't need rider swap at all - but I think there is that scenario where it is still beneficial to get due to potentially running out of time

But you do need rider swap so the person waiting out with the younger child doesn't have to ride alone. That's no fun. The rider swap would allow the older kids to ride with both adults.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I personally like that the Child Swap feature is good for longer than a day. Many of the rides even with a FP takes longer than 30 min to complete especially during busy times...thinking Test Track, Space Mtn (took DD and I almost 45 min during Spring Break with FP), Splash Mtn. I really appreciate that we don't have to ride the rides back to back and keep a baby or toddler waiting for 1 hour or more while everyone goes through the ride. We typically take the child swap and if it works out to ride again quickly will, if not will go about our touring and then come back and ride later that night or even sometime in the next couple days.

We have even ended up with a few that it just wasn't feasible to get back to ride whichever ride and was able to pass them along to others at the campground. It made their day and ours too!

I understand that you like it, but even people using the DAS don't get to carry theirs over to the next day as far as I know

And while it's nice to be able to gift them to people, that isn't the intent of rider switch

 

[TheMaxRebo]

But you do need rider swap so the person waiting out with the younger child doesn't have to ride alone. That's no fun. The rider swap would allow the older kids to ride with both adults.

Fully agree (maybe I am not wording things well as I think we are fully agreeing on everything but it isn't coming through - my comment was in response to the person who said you wouldn't need child swap and I was saying you still would want/need it)

 

[snowtommm]

I posted this yesterday but it is nice that only one parent has to have the fast pass for the child swap for any ride. My younger child is short but old enough to understand that she is missing out on a ride. Why should she have to ride nothing while my older kids get to ride twice? My husband can take my older two on say Soarin while I take her to see Frozen. I have my middle girl child pick what she would rather do of the two for that day and explain to her she will miss Frozen. I also get to enjoy my older two on soarin later that day while the younger naps or waits in line to see a princess or something. This is designed so all the kids get to have an enjoyable time.

 

[PSULion]

I posted this yesterday but it is nice that only one parent has to have the fast pass for the child swap for any ride. My younger child is short but old enough to understand that she is missing out on a ride. Why should she have to ride nothing while my older kids get to ride twice? My husband can take my older two on say Soarin while I take her to see Frozen. I have my middle girl child pick what she would rather do of the two for that day and explain to her she will miss Frozen. I also get to enjoy my older two on soarin later that day while the younger naps or waits in line to see a princess or something. This is designed so all the kids get to have an enjoyable time.

But in your example, your younger child wouldn't have to ride nothing... you and she could ride something with your own 2 FP. YOU would just not get to ride Soarin, which is sometimes how things work out when you have kids.

 

[mom2rtk]

But in your example, your younger child wouldn't have to ride nothing... you and she could ride something with your own 2 FP. YOU would just not get to ride Soarin, which is sometimes how things work out when you have kids.

Exactly. We all make choices, whether it's because someone is too short to ride of they just prefer to ride something else.

None of this was ever an issue before FP+ because headliner FPs were easier to come by and there was no tiering.