DIGITAL Rider Swap/Rider Switch/Child Swap: In Effect as of June 16th

[M SH]

Hi all,
I visited all 4 parks this week. Our group of 4: me, wife, son (46’), daughter (42’).
We did rider swap for my daughter on 44’ limit rides: space mountain twice , FOP twice, EE.
Both kids on 48 limit rides, rock coaster only in this case.

In all cases, we had FP for the first group riding, which in our case was me and my son (me only for rock coaster), and not a single time we were required or asked if all riders have or need to have a fast pass. Before every ride, we step to the CM doing rider swaps and ask for one indicating our first group are going through the fast pass line. CM would ask who would be riding in second group, gives the rider swap, adjusted to start after the expected time to go through FP line, and lasts for an hour after, which worked well for us.
For the others who reported that everyone is required to have a FP, I never saw or experienced any of that. I did witness issues with second group being too large, more than 3 people, and those getting turned down, or others trying to get through FP line saying their first party ahead of them went already and they didn’t get rider swap, etc. but as to the issue at question in this thread, I am convinced that only first group of riders need FP, second group do not.

 

[Twitterpaited]

Okay... just confirming that this should be fine? Four of us: me, husband, daughter (over 44") and son (under 44").

- Husband & daughter use FP+ for Flight of Passage
- We get rider swap issued onto MB because son is too short for FOP
- Son & I use FP+ for Navi while husband & daughter are on FOP
- Daughter & I go on FOP within the allotted timeframe with rider swap
(even though she already rode and I did not have a FP+ since I had one for Navi instead)

...right?

Since you don’t have the FP for FoP, you might have to wait a bit for your RS window. The wait should be equal to the standby wait at the time your DH and DD entered the FP line, and it should give you a 1 hour window.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Since you don’t have the FP for FoP, you might have to wait a bit for your RS window. The wait should be equal to the standby wait at the time your DH and DD entered the FP line, and it should give you a 1 hour window.

I thought that was only if the first party was using standby?

 

[4Hawks]

Hi all,
I visited all 4 parks this week. Our group of 4: me, wife, son (46’), daughter (42’).
We did rider swap for my daughter on 44’ limit rides: space mountain twice , FOP twice, EE.
Both kids on 48 limit rides, rock coaster only in this case.

In all cases, we had FP for the first group riding, which in our case was me and my son (me only for rock coaster), and not a single time we were required or asked if all riders have or need to have a fast pass. Before every ride, we step to the CM doing rider swaps and ask for one indicating our first group are going through the fast pass line. CM would ask who would be riding in second group, gives the rider swap, adjusted to start after the expected time to go through FP line, and lasts for an hour after, which worked well for us.
For the others who reported that everyone is required to have a FP, I never saw or experienced any of that. I did witness issues with second group being too large, more than 3 people, and those getting turned down, or others trying to get through FP line saying their first party ahead of them went already and they didn’t get rider swap, etc. but as to the issue at question in this thread, I am convinced that only first group of riders need FP, second group do not.

Thanks for reporting your experience!!

Gives me hope that we won’t have any issues with RS on our upcoming trip.

 

[M SH]

Thanks for reporting your experience!!

Gives me hope that we won’t have any issues with RS on our upcoming trip.

You really shouldn’t.
One thing to note is that I never tried to inquire or ‘poke’ the issue with the CM asking if everyone who is riding needs a FP. I was afraid after some of the comments I saw here that we would hear an answer we didnt like. Instead, we just approached the CM doing rider swaps assuming the rule is only that group 1 should have FP, and asked for RS for group 2. Make sure to mention that group 1 is going through the FP line.

 

[OSUZorba]

Since you don’t have the FP for FoP, you might have to wait a bit for your RS window. The wait should be equal to the standby wait at the time your DH and DD entered the FP line, and it should give you a 1 hour window.

They base the return time on whichever line group 1 uses.

 

[Ashley Marie]

Since you don’t have the FP for FoP, you might have to wait a bit for your RS window. The wait should be equal to the standby wait at the time your DH and DD entered the FP line, and it should give you a 1 hour window.

I kept the FP for myself and my son (who's too short to ride) just in case after reading the posts here. I'd rather be able to FP Navi with him while my husband and daughter are on FOP, but sounds like a risk.

 

[Kudmani]

Hi all,
I visited all 4 parks this week. Our group of 4: me, wife, son (46’), daughter (42’).
We did rider swap for my daughter on 44’ limit rides: space mountain twice , FOP twice, EE.
Both kids on 48 limit rides, rock coaster only in this case.

In all cases, we had FP for the first group riding, which in our case was me and my son (me only for rock coaster), and not a single time we were required or asked if all riders have or need to have a fast pass. Before every ride, we step to the CM doing rider swaps and ask for one indicating our first group are going through the fast pass line. CM would ask who would be riding in second group, gives the rider swap, adjusted to start after the expected time to go through FP line, and lasts for an hour after, which worked well for us.
For the others who reported that everyone is required to have a FP, I never saw or experienced any of that. I did witness issues with second group being too large, more than 3 people, and those getting turned down, or others trying to get through FP line saying their first party ahead of them went already and they didn’t get rider swap, etc. but as to the issue at question in this thread, I am convinced that only first group of riders need FP, second group do not.

I can report the same for our family using RS with a FP on FoP. We have used it twice on the attraction this week with only the first group needing a FP. It did take longer than expected for the second group to ride, so be sure to give yourself enough time between FPs.

 

[ChemMom]

Hi all,
I visited all 4 parks this week. Our group of 4: me, wife, son (46’), daughter (42’).
We did rider swap for my daughter on 44’ limit rides: space mountain twice , FOP twice, EE.
Both kids on 48 limit rides, rock coaster only in this case.

In all cases, we had FP for the first group riding, which in our case was me and my son (me only for rock coaster), and not a single time we were required or asked if all riders have or need to have a fast pass. Before every ride, we step to the CM doing rider swaps and ask for one indicating our first group are going through the fast pass line. CM would ask who would be riding in second group, gives the rider swap, adjusted to start after the expected time to go through FP line, and lasts for an hour after, which worked well for us.
For the others who reported that everyone is required to have a FP, I never saw or experienced any of that. I did witness issues with second group being too large, more than 3 people, and those getting turned down, or others trying to get through FP line saying their first party ahead of them went already and they didn’t get rider swap, etc. but as to the issue at question in this thread, I am convinced that only first group of riders need FP, second group do not.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This is our exact situation, and I made our fast passes before the change. I was hoping it would work this way, as it has in the past. It's so nice to get a first hand account!

 

[staceyrose55]

Does anyone know if RS (say for FOP) can work as follows: Family of four, DD is 44", DS is too short. Only DH has FPP. Can DD and I get a RS off of my DH's FPP, since we have one kid who is too short in our group? I didn't think it could work this way but one person on another forum reported that it did.

 

[M SH]

Does anyone know if RS (say for FOP) can work as follows: Family of four, DD is 44", DS is too short. Only DH has FPP. Can DD and I get a RS off of my DH's FPP, since we have one kid who is too short in our group? I didn't think it could work this way but one person on another forum reported that it did.

I think you might get mixed results with this. it did work for us with 1 person being in group 1 with a FP, and 2 others in group 2 with no FP.
that means that the person in group 1 will ride alone.
This goes against what RS is about, but again, it worked the one time we tried it on FOP.
TBH I would not tempt fate and try it that way, and just go with 2 FPs for group 1 (DH and DD in your case).

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Hi all,
I visited all 4 parks this week. Our group of 4: me, wife, son (46’), daughter (42’).
We did rider swap for my daughter on 44’ limit rides: space mountain twice , FOP twice, EE.
Both kids on 48 limit rides, rock coaster only in this case.

In all cases, we had FP for the first group riding, which in our case was me and my son (me only for rock coaster), and not a single time we were required or asked if all riders have or need to have a fast pass. Before every ride, we step to the CM doing rider swaps and ask for one indicating our first group are going through the fast pass line. CM would ask who would be riding in second group, gives the rider swap, adjusted to start after the expected time to go through FP line, and lasts for an hour after, which worked well for us.
For the others who reported that everyone is required to have a FP, I never saw or experienced any of that. I did witness issues with second group being too large, more than 3 people, and those getting turned down, or others trying to get through FP line saying their first party ahead of them went already and they didn’t get rider swap, etc. but as to the issue at question in this thread, I am convinced that only first group of riders need FP, second group do not.

Thanks for that info! Cheers!

 

[AEA1127]

Just got home from our trip and wanted to post my experience with Rider Swap. Most importantly, that not everyone in the party needed a FP...not even for FOP or Slinky. We did rider swap multiple times on those rides with different cast members and it was never a problem. I definitely much prefer the old system because there were times where one of us didn't end up going on the ride with the swap due to different situations with the kids, but it is what it is.

I must say my major complaint is the fact that even at the more popular rides there was always just one cast member with the ability to add the swap to our magic bands. There were backups of people standing in clusters at the start of the lines trying to get the swap passes and it made the area congested for everyone, including people just trying to get into the line. It seems like they're over complicating the whole process now in my opinion, but obviously they have their reasons.

Hope this helps anyone trying to make their fast passes soon!

 

[JenniferYoung44]

Just got home from our trip and wanted to post my experience with Rider Swap. Most importantly, that not everyone in the party needed a FP...not even for FOP or Slinky. We did rider swap multiple times on those rides with different cast members and it was never a problem. I definitely much prefer the old system because there were times where one of us didn't end up going on the ride with the swap due to different situations with the kids, but it is what it is.

I must say my major complaint is the fact that even at the more popular rides there was always just one cast member with the ability to add the swap to our magic bands. There were backups of people standing in clusters at the start of the lines trying to get the swap passes and it made the area congested for everyone, including people just trying to get into the line. It seems like they're over complicating the whole process now in my opinion, but obviously they have their reasons.

Hope this helps anyone trying to make their fast passes soon!

On our way home and we had similar results. For the most part none of the CMs seemed to care who you wanted to ride when or who had FPs. There was after a line to get the the CM issuing the RS. The biggest issue we had though was we had anytime FPs from a DVC tour and also from a ride going down and almost every time the second group scanned tapped in the FP last me it would use an anytime FP instead of the RS. We ended up going to GS three times bc we were trying to save our FPs for our last day when we were doing two parks (the second was AK where we had FOP FPs) so we wanted to use them at the morning park. It was very very annoying. The last day of the trip we went to universal and all I can say is I wish Disney would build child swap rooms and do it that way. It is 1000x better. Everyone is in the AC. Family stays together and you don’t waste time standing through the FP line (which isn’t always that fast) and having to do any preshows twice. I’m a die hard Disney fan, but logistics wise with a one year old we had a much better experience at universal.

 

[Missyrose]

On our way home and we had similar results. For the most part none of the CMs seemed to care who you wanted to ride when or who had FPs. There was after a line to get the the CM issuing the RS. The biggest issue we had though was we had anytime FPs from a DVC tour and also from a ride going down and almost every time the second group scanned tapped in the FP last me it would use an anytime FP instead of the RS. We ended up going to GS three times bc we were trying to save our FPs for our last day when we were doing two parks (the second was AK where we had FOP FPs) so we wanted to use them at the morning park. It was very very annoying. The last day of the trip we went to universal and all I can say is I wish Disney would build child swap rooms and do it that way. It is 1000x better. Everyone is in the AC. Family stays together and you don’t waste time standing through the FP line (which isn’t always that fast) and having to do any preshows twice. I’m a die hard Disney fan, but logistics wise with a one year old we had a much better experience at universal.

+1 on liking Universal's setup much better It felt less frenzied and more efficient to have everyone together.

I wonder if the backups at the lines to get RS set up could be changing some CMs' tunes about checking to make sure that everyone has a FP? No inside knowledge, just a guess.

 

[kboo]

Hi all,
I visited all 4 parks this week. Our group of 4: me, wife, son (46’), daughter (42’).
We did rider swap for my daughter on 44’ limit rides: space mountain twice , FOP twice, EE.
Both kids on 48 limit rides, rock coaster only in this case.

In all cases, we had FP for the first group riding, which in our case was me and my son (me only for rock coaster), and not a single time we were required or asked if all riders have or need to have a fast pass. Before every ride, we step to the CM doing rider swaps and ask for one indicating our first group are going through the fast pass line. CM would ask who would be riding in second group, gives the rider swap, adjusted to start after the expected time to go through FP line, and lasts for an hour after, which worked well for us.
For the others who reported that everyone is required to have a FP, I never saw or experienced any of that. I did witness issues with second group being too large, more than 3 people, and those getting turned down, or others trying to get through FP line saying their first party ahead of them went already and they didn’t get rider swap, etc. but as to the issue at question in this thread, I am convinced that only first group of riders need FP, second group do not.

Just got home from our trip and wanted to post my experience with Rider Swap. Most importantly, that not everyone in the party needed a FP...not even for FOP or Slinky. We did rider swap multiple times on those rides with different cast members and it was never a problem. I definitely much prefer the old system because there were times where one of us didn't end up going on the ride with the swap due to different situations with the kids, but it is what it is.

I must say my major complaint is the fact that even at the more popular rides there was always just one cast member with the ability to add the swap to our magic bands. There were backups of people standing in clusters at the start of the lines trying to get the swap passes and it made the area congested for everyone, including people just trying to get into the line. It seems like they're over complicating the whole process now in my opinion, but obviously they have their reasons.

Hope this helps anyone trying to make their fast passes soon!

Happened the same way with us a couple weeks ago. One bummer with the new system - with the paper rider switch, we didn't have to come back right after, and we could "pixie dust" 1-2 additional people and bring them through the line with us. That was always such a fun thing to do - we usually looked for kids being told by their parents that the wait was too long, and offer to take them through the FP line with us. Now, you have to have the people scanned at the same time (when the 1st group goes in). Also a bummer - at the end of our trip, we sometimes had paper rider switch passes we weren't going to use, and we'd just give them away to people we met in line or in other circumstances. It encouraged us to interact with new people, and we enjoyed surprising people.

 

[JenniferYoung44]

+1 on liking Universal's setup much better It felt less frenzied and more efficient to have everyone together.

I wonder if the backups at the lines to get RS set up could be changing some CMs' tunes about checking to make sure that everyone has a FP? No inside knowledge, just a guess.

Most of the back ups seemed to come from the machines not working, the cm not knowing how to work the machine, and the fact that there was only one CM to issue both rider swap and DAS return times, so even when the machine worked and the cm knew what they were doing there was still 3-4 people in line.

 

[ChemMom]

We just got back Saturday, and I agree with all the recent posts here.

Our group was myself, DH, DD (44"), and DD (42"). We used rider swap at space mountain, Everest, and Flight of Passage. In all cases, party two did not have a fast pass, and we were never asked. You just have to find the CM at the entrance who is holding the tablet. They ask who is in group two, and if group one is using fast pass or standby (in order to determine when the return window will start for group 2). They then scan the bands of the people in group two, and a fast pass will show up for those people in the app. Our app only showed what time the fast pass started for group two, it did not list an ending time, nor did they ever mention an ending time. We never tested the limit though and group 2 always rode right after group one.
The only time a question was ever asked of us was for space mountain. They asked who was too short to ride, and checked my younger daughters height before issuing the rider swaps.

 

[Clark W Griswold]

With the old system I would ride Mine Train with my oldest using our fast passes. I would get my wife and youngest a fast pass at the same time for Pooh or Dumbo so they didn’t have to just sit there waiting on us.

With the new system, if you all enter the line together and the second group gets a RS fast pass added to the magic band, will you be able to still do this? Not sure if it’ll let you essentially have multiple fast passes on your account that overlap with one being a RS.

 

[JenniferYoung44]

With the old system I would ride Mine Train with my oldest using our fast passes. I would get my wife and youngest a fast pass at the same time for Pooh or Dumbo so they didn’t have to just sit there waiting on us.

With the new system, if you all enter the line together and the second group gets a RS fast pass added to the magic band, will you be able to still do this? Not sure if it’ll let you essentially have multiple fast passes on your account that overlap with one being a RS.

Yes you can. It shows up a little different in MDE than just a regular fastpass and it doesn’t mess up any of your scheduled fast passes. However if you get and “anytime fast passes” or “multiple experience fast-pass.” Like from a ride going down we had multiple problems with when the second group rode the ride the system would automatically use those and leave the rider swap pass. Which the. Requires a trip to guest services to get your anytime fps reinstates.