CM at HM wouldn't let us do a baby swap.

[BamaBaloo]

Welcome to the world of being a parent! When you are a parent you will always sacrifice things for your child, not just at Disney. That is just a fact of life. When you do Disney with a child you find ways to balance what you and your child want to do and can do and then you just do it. We took our DS for his 5th BD and DH went on the coasters while I waited with DS. Was I disappointed? Nope, just to be with my DS and see his face light up every time he saw something new more than made up for the sacrifices I made.

We feel the same way. We are going to take our DS for his 5th BD in December, and we have already decided that there are just some things we will not be able to do. However, this will still be our best trip ever since it will be his first trip and we get to see his face beaming for a whole week!!!!

 

[SaratogaShan]

There are many parents who may need to utilize "baby swap" for reasons other than height restrictions. They may have kids(of ANY age or size) with developmental disorders, autism, etc. that may decide not to experience certain attractions for reasons other than height. I think this should be available to these families. I know that the guest assistance card can help to facilitate this, but I think a little common sense from the CM is also in order. Most of the time, the wonderful Disney CM's do everything they can to ensure that a family is able to enjoy as many attractions as possible, even if they have to split up and take turns to do so.

 

[SandrainNC]

Thanks for all of your replies and thanks to everyone who pointed out that I in no way was trying to abuse anything. I just had no idea the reasoning behind not letting us babyswap at HM. I would never ever even consider doing this swap at Snow White or Peter Pan or something like that so I guess in my head I just thought of HM as different. So now I know and thanks!

With rides that are just "too scary," a child may never outgrow that! For example, should parents of 11 and 12 year olds be able to baby swap for ToT if their child is too afraid to ride it?

To this, my answer is yes I think if a child is unable to wait alone for his or her parents to ride whether they are too short or too scared, then the parents should be allowed to do the swap (on rides that it is allowed of course). It is up to the parents to know whether their children can wait by themselves. My son is 5 and he has Down syndrome. He might not be able to wait by himself until he is 17 or 18. I hope not, but who knows! Of course he loves rides so I don't see him not going on with us if he ever gets tall enough. So to your question, every child is different and I don't see a problem with being able to do a child swap if your child cannot be safely left alone.

I do hate that there are always people who are going to abuse the system and possibly ruin it for everyone else. It is a shame but it happens. Hopefully next time we go my son will be less afraid of the dark and it HM won't be a problem.

Sandra

 

[lorli]

Personally, I would hope, Disney being family friendly, would honor the fact that a child is scared and allow Baby Swap. Why would anyone especially a business, family friendly even want to discourage family participation and risk losing business. Also I could not imagine Disney not on the side of a frightened child. This has not changed my mind about loving Disney but as a mother of a dd (4) I want her to have a great experience along with dh and I enjoying what Disney has to offer. Needless to say I am a bit disappointed.

 

[bicker]

Actually we have had the CM ask to see the "baby" every time we used the swap. I didn't mind at all

Ditto here, on both counts. It did puzzle my brother a bit why he had to drag DN1 up to the door where she wasn't allowed to go through, but I explained to him why...

FWIW I didn't see the OP as 'abusing the system" either.

Ditto again. Rather this is a case where the OP is affected by the reasonable measures that need to be taken in response to the potential of abuse by others.

Come on people...It is not like this is "lying about child's age for cheaper ticket", or resort pool hopping...

However, it is somewhat similar to the FastPass abuses we saw early-on.

I just find it hard to believe that the baby swap is "being abused".

I won't say much, because I don't want to provide any incentive for what I observed first-hand, but what I saw was the abuse of baby swap so as to turn it into an "immediate FastPass" for anyone who had an infant with them and an adult willing to sit out the ride.

 

[SandrainNC]

Ditto again. Rather this is a case where the OP is affected by the reasonable measures that need to be taken in response to the potential of abuse by others

I wasn't majorly affected or anything. I just chose not to ride that day since I rode the day before. I wasn't mad or upset or anything. Just very curious as to the reason. And now I know. So thanks again!

Sandra

 

[SueM in MN]

Actually HM is probably one of the easier rides to do something like baby swap on.

When I was in a wheel chair on one of my trips, a while back, DH & I were sent through the exit, where we got into our buggie. So parent A could go wait on line & get on the ride, while parent B waited at the exit with the child. When parent A got to the exit, the switch.

So the parents dont get to wait online together. But this also makes it easy for the swap.

That is true, but wheelchair users wait in the regular line until the line almost gets into the building.
Also, there is sometimes quite a line of special needs people waiting there to board. We have been waiting in the exit area in a line of 5 or 6 groups. On several occasions, when we have been given a sort of CM written out Fastpass because they already had 8 or more people in need of special assistance waiting when we were getting into the line.

It's possible that type of situation was why the CMs didn't allow baby swap.

 

[justhat]

I won't say much, because I don't want to provide any incentive for what I observed first-hand, but what I saw was the abuse of baby swap so as to turn it into an "immediate FastPass" for anyone who had an infant with them and an adult willing to sit out the ride.

I don't really see a problem with this, though we've never done it cause we usually both want to ride. I mean, if parent A waited in the line and then parent B used the baby swap after parent A got off, or if parent A just used the baby swap pass and parent B never rides, that doesn't affect me either way. In fact, it's one less person riding so it essentially saves me time. We have used the baby swap pass though where my husband has ridden twice simply cause I didn't feel like going on the ride later. It doesn't happen often cause I'm usually pretty excited to get on a non-baby ride, but a couple of times he's come off ot TT or BTMRR and I don't feel like riding. He doesn't ride immediately cause sometimes I'll want to ride later, but then if I don't, he'll ride them again before we leave the park.

The only thing is, I don't know how anyone could get away with that, based on how baby swap has worked for us. Everytime we get a baby swap pass, my husband gets in line and they hand me the baby swap pass. They have never handed it to him, even when I stood a little further back so as not to block the line and he pointed, the CM would leave their post to walk the baby swap pass down to me, not hand it to my husband who was closer. They have also frequently asked which one is riding firs tand then hand the pass to the other one of us.

 

[bicker]

I'll PM you.

 

[justhat]

Okay, I get it. How extreme that people would go through all that just to save a few minutes.

 

[momshark]

Goodness! I've learned something else new - that child swap requires a ticket. When we tried to child swap (see my post pg. 1) at HM it was because my DS was afraid. As I said, we all waited and went through the regular line. This was the first and last time we ever even tried to child swap. I didn't even know about the ticket thing. I absolutely do not think I was trying to abuse the system, nor was the OP, I just was sharing my similar story with her. Sorry for all the hulabaloo. Gawrsh.

 

[SueM in MN]

Goodness! I've learned something else new - that child swap requires a ticket. When we tried to child swap (see my post pg. 1) at HM it was because my DS was afraid. As I said, we all waited and went through the regular line. This was the first and last time we ever even tried to child swap. I didn't even know about the ticket thing. I absolutely do not think I was trying to abuse the system, nor was the OP, I just was sharing my similar story with her. Sorry for all the hulabaloo. Gawrsh.

I just thought of something - at what point did you ask to do baby swap?
If it was at the turnstile right before you enter the building, there isn't really a way out/to the exit from there. So, it may be that baby swap may have been available if someone asked right at the time they entered the line, but not at the turnstile.

 

[bicker]

Except they didn't have a CM there (because they don't need one there, if they're not offering baby swap there that day).

I suspect that the vast majority of folks adversely affected by the reasonable measures that need to be taken in response to the potential of abuse by others aren't abusing the system, themselves. The actions of a few often has a negative impact on the experience of many.

 

[momshark]

I just thought of something - at what point did you ask to do baby swap?
If it was at the turnstile right before you enter the building, there isn't really a way out/to the exit from there. So, it may be that baby swap may have been available if someone asked right at the time they entered the line, but not at the turnstile.

We asked at the place where you get into the Doombuggy. This was the first point where we saw a CM. Also this was the point where my DS was getting really afraid. The pre ride scary room thing was barely working so it wasn't too scary. The rides on that side of the park had shut down a few times that afternoon so for rides being open that was sporadic. Maybe that's why the CMs were scarce.

 

[SueM in MN]

We asked at the place where you get into the Doombuggy. This was the first point where we saw a CM. Also this was the point where my DS was getting really afraid. The pre ride scary room thing was barely working so it wasn't too scary. The rides on that side of the park had shut down a few times that afternoon so for rides being open that was sporadic. Maybe that's why the CMs were scarce.

I don't think there is a way out there unless the CM actually accompanies you out. That's probably why they just sent you on; maybe only one CM in the area and he/she couldn't leave to take you out.