FastPass and child-swap

[nfbibou]

Does the following technique work?

Here is a tip for getting the most out of the fastpass line if you have small children with you. We arrived early in the day at the Magic Kingdom and went straight to Space Mountain when the wait was only about 10 minutes. Go up to the fastpass entrance and tell them that you need to do a child-swap for the ride. They will give you a ticket that allows up to three people to enter the fastpass line. The ticket is good all day, so don't use it right away when the lines are really short. Have the person/people that stayed behind with the kids go through the stand-by line and save the fastpass ticket for later in the day when the lines are over an hour long. This worked for us on just about every major ride at all the parks. We also had pretty good luck getting a fastpass, then going up and telling them we needed a child-swap. Get the ticket and wait a little while before going in. Use your fastpass ticket that expires within an hour at that time, and save the child-swap fastpass ticket for later in the day."

 

[bicker]

It will work, but arguably is abusing the system, since the intention is for the family to ride the attraction twice in succession. Eventually, if this tactic becomes widespread and becomes a problem, like many other things at WDW, it could result in them doing away with the child swap entirely.

 

[Hannathy]

I have to agree with the abuse, someone on another thread wanted to do babyswap with 9 and 12 yr olds! I think pretty soon it will be gone. when we used baby swap in the past the didn't give you an automatic fast pass, you used one if you had it or the first person at least waited in the regular line if they didn't. Why do people always have to try and take advantage of a good thing.

 

[beattyfamily]

We used child swap quite a bit when younger DD wasn't tall enough to ride a ride and it was great. Every time, though, they measured her to make sure she really wasn't tall enough to ride. If she was tall enough then no rider-switch pass was given, instead they said we could swap at the ride itself but we always opted to just do Fastpass and create our own child-swap with it. Works like a charm with a family of four.

I have, though in the past (for a ride we all love), gotten Fastpass for it and rider-switch child swap pass as well. DH would use the rider-switch with older DD and then I'd use our Fastpasses to ride it with older DD as well. Nothing wrong with that! I didn't want to do the standby line so I did Fastpass.

As long as your child is under the height requirement, I think you can use the rider-switch pass as you wish, IMHO. Luckily most CMs will check the height of your child and not issue the rider-switch Fastpass if your child meets the height requirement. Those who try to get a rider-switch pass without a child present (because they are over the height requirement) are, IMHO, trying to abuse the system.

 

[dlaushey]

I don't see how that is abusing the system unless I'm missing something in their post. They got a child swap pass and decided to use it later in the day? What's wrong with that? We do that quite often. We get a swap pass for DS2 and 1 adult will take him to ride something else while the other adult and DD's 11 & 8 ride. We may then meet up and go ride a few other things and then come back later in the day to use the swap pass. The other adult gets to ride w/o much wait and the 2 older kids get to ride using the swap. Once again DS2 and 1 adult will go to ride something else. This way DS2 doesn't have to wait around for 2 rides and not get to ride anything. Also the older kids get to ride some other things before going back to a ride they have already ridden. There are times we don't ever make it back to even do the swap and 1 adult doesn't even get to ride. Also this gives us a chance to take advantage of the smaller lines first thing in the morning rather than riding the same thing twice while the lines build.

 

[bicker]

It isn't the purpose of the child-swap pass to be used as a means to avoid long lines later in the day. It is intended specifically so a party can wait in queue once, have one half of the party ride the ride, and then have the other half of their party ride the ride without having to wait in the queue again. While some folks may inadvertently capitalize on the "later in the day" stuff, I'm sure you can see how some folks will make it into an aggressive, abusive tactic, visiting every ride early in the day in rapid succession, just to collect up child-swap to use whenever they wish, later in the day.

Indeed, there are several ways you can truly abuse child-swap, some of which I will not repeat online for fear of providing incentive to the weak-willed. I suspect, though, that these abuses will result in more and more restrictions and limitations placed on child-swap over the years. When that happens, folks shouldn't complain about Disney "ruining" child-swap, but rather should blame their fellow guests for having exploited every avenue they could, forcing Disney to take such actions.

 

[beattyfamily]

I never felt any guilt if, for some reason, I couldn't use my child swap pass right away (when I used to get them for my DD) and ended up using it later in the day, or even the next day.

All child swap passes state right on them that they are good all day so saving it isn't doing anything wrong in Disney's eyes. Some child swap passes even allow you to come back up to 3 days later! Once we held onto our RnR child swap because DH didn't feel well and we then ran out of time that day so we came back on our last day, 2 days later, on the way to the airport. The pass was good for 3 days.

If Disney doesn't want parents to be able to use the pass later in the day or later on their trip, then they should make them good for only 2 hours like regular Fastpasses, IMHO.

On our last trip, we had a rider switch pass (child swap pass) given to us for Expedition Everest, which they passed out to everyone because the ride broke down. It was good for 2 days. We never made it back so the next day at MK we ended up giving it to a family for them to use the next day at AK. I was sharing the magic and didn't want the Fastpass to go to waste. Again, I felt no guilt.

 

[Kellyscrapbooks]

I have to agree with the abuse, someone on another thread wanted to do babyswap with 9 and 12 yr olds! I think pretty soon it will be gone. when we used baby swap in the past the didn't give you an automatic fast pass, you used one if you had it or the first person at least waited in the regular line if they didn't. Why do people always have to try and take advantage of a good thing.

You can't take into consideration their ages. I was 16 before I was tall enough to ride many coasters. My 9 year old was terrified to go anywhere NEAR Haunted Mansion, so we we were told that we could utilize it for that. I don't know if that's the standard practice, but it made sense for us.

 

[beattyfamily]

You can't take into consideration their ages. I was 16 before I was tall enough to ride many coasters. My 9 year old was terrified to go anywhere NEAR Haunted Mansion, so we will use Kid swap to do that when we go back.

Like I said earlier, if you are tall enough to ride then they will not give you a child swap pass but will say that you can swap at the ride itself or at the exit of the ride; just ask the CM at the ride line.

They will measure the child first before giving out a child swap pass. That is what they did to my DD at ToT, Splash and Thunder and since she was tall enough they told us to enter the line together and swap at the ride; no swap pass given.

I didn't think there was child swap at any rides with no height requirement, like Haunted Mansion???

 

[bicker]

If Disney doesn't want parents to be able to use the pass later in the day or later on their trip, then they should make them good for only 2 hours like regular Fastpasses, IMHO.

I agree. They probably will end up having to do that, eventually.

 

[meab]

the big issue we've had with fastpass vs child swap, is that the child swap is good for up to 3 people accompanying you, while the fastpass is technically only good for the person holding it.

this is what happened to us last month at soarin: the line was something like a 2 hour wait. DH, DD, and I all got fastpasses to ride later in the afternoon. DS is only 2, so he's not even close to being able to ride it. DH took DD on the ride, while i waited with DS. then, it was my turn to ride. DD (she's 5) wanted to go with me, while DH took DS elsewhere to run around. when i got to the line with my fastpass, the CM hassled me a bit since DD didn't have a fastpass also. meanwhile, DH already went off on his way with DS. i explained this to the CM, and she grudgingly exchanged my fastpass with a child swap ticket.

on the flip side, we've used our fastpasses (and let DD tag along while the 2nd adult rides) at test track with absolutely no problems.

sometimes it's not feasible or practical (ie 90 minute wait) to have one adult wait in the standby line in order to utilize the child swap (which is why one would opt for fastpass), but it's hard when you have another small child who wants to tag along with the adults. has anyone had luck using a child swap in conjunction with the fastpass for the other adult?

 

[Kellyscrapbooks]

Like I said earlier, if you are tall enough to ride then they will not give you a child swap pass but will say that you can swap at the ride itself or at the exit of the ride; just ask the CM at the ride line.

They will measure the child first before giving out a child swap pass. That is what they did to my DD at ToT, Splash and Thunder and since she was tall enough they told us to enter the line together and swap at the ride; no swap pass given.

I didn't think there was child swap at any rides with no height requirement, like Haunted Mansion???

I meant Tower of Terror! Omg... I'm such a dork. In my defense I have a sick kiddo at home today! LOL
I knew what I was talking about! LOL and that was what I meant, that they let you swap out. I apparently missed the whole point of this conversations. @@ They let us swap out at the ride, we never got a pass.

 

[beattyfamily]

I meant Tower of Terror! Omg... I'm such a dork. In my defense I have a sick kiddo at home today! LOL
I knew what I was talking about! LOL and that was what I meant, that they let you swap out. I apparently missed the whole point of this conversations. @@ They let us swap out at the ride, we never got a pass.

No worries! Hope your little one feels better soon!

 

[dlaushey]

has anyone had luck using a child swap in conjunction with the fastpass for the other adult?

You can use a Child Swap in conjunction with a Fast Pass. Get your FP, return after the 1st time on your FP to the FP line, Let the CM at the FP line know you want to do a Child Swap, the CM will give the adult waiting with the child (who is too small to ride - not too scared) a Child Swap pass good for 3 people. Once the 1st group of riders returns they can then swap and the 2nd group of up to 3 people can use the Child Swap pass. We do this on almost all rides with FP except for the 1st thing in the morning when a FP isn’t needed.