FOP Child Swap & Time needed

disneyfan2kids

DisneyFan3Kids now, but I can't change my name.
Joined
Oct 12, 2005
We have fastpasses for FOP and a necessary child swap. After we receive our swap (is it on the magic bands now?) can I wonder away (nearby) for a bit and then meet my husband and older kids back at exit? Wondering if I can go shop/people watch with the toddler or if I have to wait in an exact spot. If I can wander - about how long from entrance to exit is FOP (assuming normal conditions and you have Fastpasses? Estimating if I could maybe leave for 30 minutes or so to sightsee with toddler before having to return to ride myself.

Any insight is appreciated. TY!
 
The exit path for FOP takes you to the gift shop there, which is also near Satuli Canteen if you wanted to grab some food.

Dpeending on the length of the FP queue, I'd say you'd probably have a 25-50 mins wait while the rest of your party makes it through the queue and rides. The last time we went, we rode FOP two separate times with rider swap and all 4 groups of riders going through the FP line took about 35-45 mins from entering the queue to exiting.

The important thing you want to pay attention to now is the window that the rider swap will be valid for. You can only use it during a 1 hr window (which SHOULD be set to begin roughly around the time the first group exits). As long as you meet up with the first group of riders to swap the little one and enter the queue before that window ends, you're good. You can do whatever you wish while waiting.
 
The exit path for FOP takes you to the gift shop there, which is also near Satuli Canteen if you wanted to grab some food.

Dpeending on the length of the FP queue, I'd say you'd probably have a 25-50 mins wait while the rest of your party makes it through the queue and rides. The last time we went, we rode FOP two separate times with rider swap and all 4 groups of riders going through the FP line took about 35-45 mins from entering the queue to exiting.

The important thing you want to pay attention to now is the window that the rider swap will be valid for. You can only use it during a 1 hr window (which SHOULD be set to begin roughly around the time the first group exits). As long as you meet up with the first group of riders to swap the little one and enter the queue before that window ends, you're good. You can do whatever you wish while waiting.
This is good info, thank you! Curious - if the swap is no longer paper - but on the magic band - how do you know when the window is up? Is it in MDE (assuming that's working)?
 
Yes, it's on MDE. Nothing is actually "on the band" but rather the MagicBand reads your MDE account.

You can certainly go for a walk, shop, snack, restroom, another ride, etc. while waiting for the first party to be done riding. The Swap window should coincide with when the first group is expected to exit, so that will let you know about how much time you have (it can depend on day and time of day and crowds).

Enjoy your vacation!
 
You can only use it during a 1 hr window

how do you know when the window is up? Is it in MDE (assuming that's working)?

Not sure if this is new, but I was just there this past week and the rider swap I got for FOP was valid for the whole day. Whenever I got a swap, the cast member would just tell me the return time, with no mention of an end time. Looking at the rider swap in MDE, it would show the return time for example as Nov. 27 at 11am, but for the end time, it would just say Nov. 27.

I specifically asked at FOP how much time I had to use it, because by the time my rider swap time opened up, my kids were hangry and I was afraid we'd take more than an hour to have lunch. The cast member said it would work for the day. I ended up using the rider swap about 4 hours later. The same held true for SDD and SDMT. The MDE app didn't list an end time, just a valid date like with FOP, so I just used it whenever, thinking if I had any problems, I would show the cast members that the app didn't specify an end time. Didn't have any need to do that though because they both worked.

The only rider swap that I'm not sure about is at ToT. When I got a rider swap there, the cast member specifically said "this swap is valid from 1:09-2:09pm". This is the only ride I was verbally told an end time. However, when I looked at MDE, there was no end time listed just like the other rides. It listed it being valid for the day. But we ended up using it within the hour timeframe, so not sure if we could have used later.
 
We used rider swap on FOP last week. DH rode first, while I rode NRJ with DD and walked around Pandora. He came out about 30 minuted after entering the FP line and then I entered and it took me about 20 minutes.
 



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