Confused about Rider Switch...

[kkayluvsdis]

Hi There,

Even though we are a family of 5, we have never utilized the Rider Switch. This April we will be traveling with some friends, another family of 5. So between the group there will be four adults, two 7-year olds, two 4-year olds, a two-year old, and an infant. Can someone help explain to me how rider switch would work for our group? Am I understanding this correctly...myself and my friend would wait with the little ones while our husbands and the four bigger kids ride, say, Splash Mountain. When they are done can then myself and my friend ride with all four big kids while the Daddies stay with the babies??


Thanks so much for your knowledge!

-Kelly

 

[MrInfinity]

Full details:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/rider-switch/

But yes, you seem to have it down. Rider Switch is very handy for a family going with little children. Some of you go on, wait thru the regular line, then when you're done, the rest of your party gets to go on quickly via the fastpass line. You can even get some of your kids on extra times by this because a fastpass return ticket lets you bring two guests.

So ideally, for a fam of 5 with 2 adults, 2 kids, and a baby, it's perfect. One parent goes on with the 2 kids. Ride. When done, parents switch. Other parent goes on via fastpass lane... but can bring 2 ppl with him (the 2 kids) so effectively your kids get to ride a 2nd time quickly, and each parent got to ride once.

 

[summermac]

Assuming you have two children that are too small, you can get two rider switches. Go to the standby or FP queue with the too short children and request a rider swap. CM gives it to you. Everyone that is riding enters the line. You and the other mom go wait somewhere (which by the way some of the rides have very nice little kids areas near the exits). Then you and the other mom and how many every ppl the rider swap allows to join you go back to the FP entrance and hand your tickets to the CM and get in line. I want to say that most of the attractions we used rider swap on allowed the person who didn't ride + 3 more if I'm remembering correctly.

You can also use rider swap to your advantage, combining it with FP+ to score extra rides later. So in this case you and other mom could enter FP+ line with your magic bands, keeping the rider swap for a second ride later for anyone who wanted to use it. Just a thought.

 

[Robo]

More HERE.

 

[summermac]

And the link does now say total of 2 guests for rider switch. So that has changed since our last trip b/c I am certain some of the attractions allowed us to have +3 but again I could be remembering wrong. Truthfully we might have used my mom and my daughter's FPs we pulled in combination with the rider swap to allow a second ride. My mom doesn't ride certain rides so really we didn't "need" to use rider switch but it was available so we did. Yeah, we were those people. *blush*

 

[Alesia]

And the link does now say total of 2 guests for rider switch. So that has changed since our last trip b/c I am certain some of the attractions allowed us to have +3 but again I could be remembering wrong.

No. The disney website is incorrect. Unfortunately, that's not incredibly uncommon.

For accurate info, check out the link that Robo posted.

 

[kkayluvsdis]

Thanks everyone! Now to figure out how to best utilize FP+! To complicate matters this will be the first visit to WDW for the family we're traveling with. So, they're not even sure what attractions their kids will be up to riding!

 

[serene56]

Assuming you have two children that are too small, you can get two rider switches. Go to the standby or FP queue with the too short children and request a rider swap. CM gives it to you. Everyone that is riding enters the line. You and the other mom go wait somewhere (which by the way some of the rides have very nice little kids areas near the exits). Then you and the other mom and how many every ppl the rider swap allows to join you go back to the FP entrance and hand your tickets to the CM and get in line. I want to say that most of the attractions we used rider swap on allowed the person who didn't ride + 3 more if I'm remembering correctly.

You can also use rider swap to your advantage, combining it with FP+ to score extra rides later. So in this case you and other mom could enter FP+ line with your magic bands, keeping the rider swap for a second ride later for anyone who wanted to use it. Just a thought.

You are only allowed ONE rider swap per group so ONE adult will take ONE child to get a swap pass so you can get two of them.
A pass allows for 3 people.

We tried this back in Dec with 3 babies==all under 1 and was refused 3 passed (actually only needed 2 passes so the Pop Pop and I could ride the stuff with the kids. But was refused each time. then we learned to present the babies one at a time

 

[Raenstoirm]

You are only allowed ONE rider swap per group so ONE adult will take ONE child to get a swap pass so you can get two of them.
A pass allows for 3 people.

We tried this back in Dec with 3 babies==all under 1 and was refused 3 passed (actually only needed 2 passes so the Pop Pop and I could ride the stuff with the kids. But was refused each time. then we learned to present the babies one at a time

I was going to mention this. Each family should present their baby separately and get a switch pass for each family. Technically, one adult could stay behind with both babies and everyone else could ride so you to account for that.