FP+ and Rider Switch?

[beffysky]

If my husband and I want to both ride BTMRR with our 4 year old, but one us needs to stay with the 2 year old, are we able to book just one FP+ for him and one for my 4 year old and get the swap, OR do I also have to have a FP+ booked?

 

[doconeill]

Here we go again

In general, no, you are not both required to have a FP+ reservation to get a Rider Switch pass.

That was true before as well, but there were rare CMs who believe that everyone should be required to have a FP, and would trade a FP for the RS pass (since the RS pass was good for up to three people, it was sort of a 3-for-1 trade), but there was no actual operational policy that said it was required. And it was VERY rare, but reports persisted.

With the advent of FP+, nothing appears to have changed, but I think it is harder for these "rogue" CMs to trade the RS pass for the FP+, since the FP+ is electronic now.

 

[beffysky]

Here we go again

In general, no, you are not both required to have a FP+ reservation to get a Rider Switch pass.

That was true before as well, but there were rare CMs who believe that everyone should be required to have a FP, and would trade a FP for the RS pass (since the RS pass was good for up to three people, it was sort of a 3-for-1 trade), but there was no actual operational policy that said it was required. And it was VERY rare, but reports persisted.

With the advent of FP+, nothing appears to have changed, but I think it is harder for these "rogue" CMs to trade the RS pass for the FP+, since the FP+ is electronic now.

Thanks--I apologize if this is a repeat question. This is my first trip that I'm planning with my family and unfortunately the search function on the forum isn't working. I tried to find an answer on my own first since I figured this was a fairly common question!

 

[NoodlesMom]

Thank you for asking this question and don't feel the need to apologize for it. That's what these boards are for. I also needed the answer to this question and now I've got it without having to read through 100+ posts and bickering. I've been to WDW many times and reading all of these threads about FP+ overwhelm me, so I can imagine what it's like for a first timer.

Again, thanks for asking and have magical vacation! Despite what you read, WDW is still a very magical place.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

I made our FP+ reservations yesterday and I made a lot of "one adult and one kid" FP reservations, as we will also have a 4 year old and a 2 year old when we visit. The one thing I found is that it was a great big pain in the butt to make the reservations, to try to get the same time and ride for all family members for some rides and different ones for other rides. What I found worked best was to make the same reservation for all party members, and then to go to "change time" and change the time for the one party member that I wanted to separate out - this would break the FP+ reservation into two, effectively. After that, I could change the ride and then change the time to the same time as the other FP+ reservation (if that's what you wanted), but the key was to create one set of FP reservations, and then to separate out one family member by changing the time.

The other method I tried was to first make three FP+ reservations (because you always have to choose all three rides at once) for one adult and my older child, and then try to make three FP+ reservations for the other adult, to match the other party members. This totally didn't work. For example, I would make a FP+ reservation for 4:00 for Jungle Cruise for one adult and one child, but if I tried to get that same reservation for the other adult (because that's one ride we all wanted to ride together) it would only give me a 5:30-6:30 reservation. And then I'd have to go back to the start to try to change them both to a time that was available for both. Giant headache!!! As it is, I have a lot of FP+ reservations where we all want to ride the same ride, but the reservations are 10 or 15 minutes offset for some group members. That isn't a big deal, I can deal with 10-15 minutes, but when I was first setting it up, they were giving me a lot of times where I couldn't even get the reservations into the same hour slot at all, even when I went back to change the time from what they first suggested.

I don't know if that made any sense. LOL!

 

[doconeill]

Thanks--I apologize if this is a repeat question. This is my first trip that I'm planning with my family and unfortunately the search function on the forum isn't working. I tried to find an answer on my own first since I figured this was a fairly common question!

Sorry, it isn't so much that it is a frequently asked question...more that when it is asked, a great debate takes place as there are those who seem to not believe that there were CMs out there that required everyone to have a FP...