Exactly how does baby swap work on Soarin?

[TammyC]

I found the baby swap on Test Track to be a total waste of time, as we had to go through the long queue and pre-show twice. I was expecting the whole group to go through the line, then when it was time to board half of us would ride and when we returned the others would ride. So, is Soarin any better?

 

[cleo]

I've never heard of queueing twice for Test Track. That defeats the whole purpose of Child Swap, which is designed to avoid having to queue twice. Is it possible someone gave you a bit of mis-information?

 

[TammyC]

Yes, it did defeat the purpose. We had 4 adults and 1 child age 2. We got 4 fastpasses and entered the line at our designated time. We told the attendant we would like to child swap and she said "ok". We went through the line and pre-show (took about 25 minutes). When it came time to load, 3 of us got on. DH was standing with our son, and asked how to swap. They sent him to the exit and gave him 2 fastpasses that would be good anytime, but would require going through the queue again. He chose to skip it, since the fastpass return line had been moving so slowly.

 

[strmtroopr96]

When we used the Baby Swap at Test Track in 2002, we didn't have to wait in line twice. We were given a special pass (different from regular Fast Passes). Half of us rode the ride, while one of us stayed with my DD. After we rode, the other adult took the pass and up to 3 others in our party and got on the ride by going through the exit area. We didn't have to go through the line again.

My DD is tall enough and brave enough to go on most of the rides now so we haven't used the Baby Swap lately so not sure if they changed things around. Rebecca

 

[cavepig]

We agree that Test Track does take a lot of time with Baby swap. We have done all rides with Baby Swap and all but Star Tours give you a Rider Switch pass to use & enter through the Fast Pass entrance (We just got back too on June 17). Star Tours everybody waits in line and then when 1st group is done group 2 gets on & group 1 takes kids out (best one).

Soarin uses the Rider Switch Pass & Fast Pass lane. It takes forever. It takes at least 30 minutes for group 1 (first thing in the AM or with fast pass) and then at least another 30 minutes for group 2 through fast pass lane. We even did where one group would do the boat ride while the other rode Soarin and the 2nd group was done with the boat and still had a 20 minute wait for us.

The problem with Rider Switch/Baby Swap is when the ride is long, has a preshow, or fastpass is long then it takes an hour just for everyone to ride (2 groups). We found that the Singles line is the best wait to ride Test Track. When we did last week we waited 30 minutes and the Single riders in our car only waited 10 minutes and were together in the same car.

We found that if we were getting fast passes then we didn't really need a Rider Switch, but got one anyway in case the 2nd group didn't get there in the time window then they could still get in.

The best rides for Baby swap were:
Star Tours, Big Thunder, Space Mountain

The worst are:
Test Track, Soarin, Splash Mt. (Ride is long), Rockin (fastpass line always clogs up), Tower of Terror, Dinosaur (most of these have Pre-shows & it takes twice as long for both groups to go through when group 1 uses a fast pass - I guess you would save time if group 1 waited in Standby and then 2 did Fast Pass Rider Switch)