Have you ever done a "child swap?"

[dallasdisneymommy]

How does a "child swap" work? Does the whole family wait in line -- one parent rides, swap the child, then the other rides? Or does one parent ride while the other parent stays with the child somewhere outside of the queue? Can you child swap if you're using a fast pass?

I've only tried this once -- with my then 3 month old baby on Soarin'. Our whole family got fast passes, thinking that we'd all get up to the ride and one of us would hang back with the baby and hand him off to someone in the first group after we had ridden. But the CM wouldn't let us do this and told us that we couldn't use the child swap with fast passes.

This seemed so contrary to us -- are they really giving parents with very young children the only option of standing in a 90 minute line (the only rides small kids cannot ride on are typically long wait adult oriented rides) if they want to utilize child swap? We were so perturbed that we just didn't try it again, but now I'm wondering if that CM gave us bad information.

Has anyone out there had any experiences they can share? I'm thinking ahead to our next trip and want to be prepared.

Thanks!!!

 

[ronmama5]

we always baby swap with a Fastpass? You go to the Fastpass line with your whole party, tell them CM you want to Babyswap, They give you a different pass, one parents goes and sits with the baby while the other parent rides. When the riding parent comes back the non-riding parent goes through the Fastpass line with the babyswap pass.

 

[dallasdisneymommy]

Do they get to bypass the line and go to the front, or do they just wait in the regular fast pass line? If they just wait in the regular line, why is this better than just using your regular fast pass?

 

[las3888]

I don't think it is all that better. I have only done child swap a few times but I found it very confusing and difficult. The CM's don't seem to know how it works for the very rides that they operate. Most of the time, we had fast passes and we just took turns. I expected more situations where you ride and DH stands INSIDE the ride and you literally hand the child off while you hop on. Again, we haven't done it too often, so maybe that's how it works on SOME of the rides (just not the ones we have ridden)?

 

[dallasdisneymommy]

I don't think it is all that better. I have only done child swap a few times but I found it very confusing and difficult. The CM's don't seem to know how it works for the very rides that they operate. Most of the time, we had fast passes and we just took turns. I expected more situations where you ride and DH stands INSIDE the ride and you literally hand the child off while you hop on.

This is exactly my impression. You would think that Disney of all people would have this down. Letting the child holding parent stand inside makes much more sense than some 'return later' pass. That just eats up time and really, where's the convenience in that?

 

[Princess Roo]

On rides with Fastpass, it is very similar to just getting a fastpass for each parent. But I imagine they don't want people waiting right in the boarding area for safety reasons, plus it could slow the line down to have to check child height at that point, too (which they would need to do if they let young ones through the line). However, each parent can get a Fastpass for a different ride at the same time, so you have more effective use of time that way. (Ex: Dad gets Mission Space and Mom gets Test Track and you use 2 fastpasses and 2 babyswaps so each gets to ride each once). Also, you can use it at times when Fastpass isn't available or is only available too late in the day for you to come back so that only one parent has to wait in the long line. Lastly, if you do have an older child that can ride the ride, it lets them ride twice, which I imagine is a great benefit!
We've been very happy with Baby swap!

 

[dallasdisneymommy]

Does the second parent get to cut to the front of the line? How does that work?

 

[all4fun]

Here's one explanation:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/childswap.htm

First, check that it's offered at the theme park attraction. The Disney Cast Member will then instruct you to enter the queue. Once you're at the boarding area, let the Cast Member know that you want to "child swap." They'll show you where to wait while the rest of your party enjoys the ride. Once they get back, you hand the little guy over to them and you get your turn without having to get back on the line.

This works best with kids who are too young to be aware of what's going on. It may not be the best plan if you have a 3 year old and everyone else gets to ride. They know that they're missing something and could be quite vocal about it.

Three attractions offer another option, a separate Single Rider queue. This usually moves faster than the standby line and is a great alternative if you don't have a Fast Pass for that attraction and don't mind riding alone. This is offered at Test Track, Mission:SPACE and Expedition Everest.

Most often in our experience we are handed a Rider Swap pass and then the person or group w/out small child enters the regular standby line while the other parent waits outside the ride with the child. If you thought ahead and got fast passes then the original party can enter the FP line using their FP's so that the wait is shortened for both parties. Once the original rider/riders exit the ride, they "swap" places w/the child who can't ride and the other parent can then enter the FP queue using the child swap pass (and the child swap usually allows a total of three people so other riders can go a second time if they want) to get on the ride, which at least get closer to the front of the line but you still may have to wait a few minutes to get on. DH and I carry cell phones so that one of us could wander a bit and we wouldn't have any trouble finding one another after the ride was over.

hth

 

[Hannathy]

Does the second parent get to cut to the front of the line? How does that work?

No they let you into the fast pass line.

 

[Nicolepa]

Also the baby swap pass allows 3 additional people to ride with you. So it's like getting an extra fast pass (for your entire party) for free. This enables you to not have to ride the ride alone. So if you are traveling w/more than 2 people who can ride the ride you get a lot more riding time in.

We love the fast pass. I would take the baby shopping or on another ride while dh would ride the big ride. He'd call me when he was done and I'd either let him ride again or I'd meet him and we'd swap.

 

[slo]

We child swap all the time

When we go to WDW it's normally during the off season, and we rarely use fastpasses, so I can't help there. But I normally just go up to the CM and ask for a child swap and they hand one over.

Does the whole family wait in line -- one parent rides, swap the child, then the other rides? Or does one parent ride while the other parent stays with the child somewhere outside of the queue? Can you child swap if you're using a fast pass?

The whole family doesn't wait in line You wait for your party outside of the queue in either the gift shop or outside (I normally wait in the gift shop). Then when the member in your party is done with the ride, it's your turn to go. Now, I would think they should honor this with the fastpass, because the member of the party that waited goes through the fastpass line - so either way, you're doing the same thing. If a CM wouldn't let you do that before, maybe they were new and didn't know

 

[Fellowship9798]

I expected more situations where you ride and DH stands INSIDE the ride and you literally hand the child off while you hop on. Again, we haven't done it too often, so maybe that's how it works on SOME of the rides (just not the ones we have ridden)?

Actually, Universal has a lot of rides set up like this. There are actually special rooms at the exits of many rides where one parent can wait with the child(ren) while the other rides. The rooms often had a TV with some cartoons playing for the kids as well. The cartoons oftem matched the theme of the ride (Spiderman, Men in Black, etc.) Once the first parent was done riding, the second went right ahead to boarding the next available vehicle. The attractions that I remember having this system were The Mummy, Spiderman, Cat in the Hat, Men in Black (I think)...

There were probably more like this, but these are the ones I remember for now.

I actually think that Universal had the "child swap" systems worked out a little better than Disney, but both were just fine with us.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

When I saw the title of this thread all I could think was "well if your child is cranky do you swap them for a happy version?" They would need fastpass for that line!

Sorry but I couldn't resist.

 

[tjmw2727]

Also the baby swap pass allows 3 additional people to ride with you. So it's like getting an extra fast pass (for your entire party) for free. This enables you to not have to ride the ride alone. So if you are traveling w/more than 2 people who can ride the ride you get a lot more riding time in.

We love the fast pass. I would take the baby shopping or on another ride while dh would ride the big ride. He'd call me when he was done and I'd either let him ride again or I'd meet him and we'd swap.

Just to avoid confusion at WDW its two additional people for a total of 3 and at Disneyland its 2 people total.

TJ

 

[Whosemom]

I don't think it is all that better. I have only done child swap a few times but I found it very confusing and difficult. The CM's don't seem to know how it works for the very rides that they operate. Most of the time, we had fast passes and we just took turns. I expected more situations where you ride and DH stands INSIDE the ride and you literally hand the child off while you hop on. Again, we haven't done it too often, so maybe that's how it works on SOME of the rides (just not the ones we have ridden)?

Ain't that the truth! We used it only once last year for EE. I asked how to do it at the back of the line, she sent me in the line to the FP ticket checker, who sent me to the ride exit, who sent me to the cashier confused3 ) who sent me to the back of the line. I was feeling unmagical at that point.

It did work out great for my 2 girls. I had gotten FP for all 5 of us. DH took the girls with 3 FPs. Then when I went, the three of us got in on the baby swap thing, so my fp was still good, So then the girls went on my FP and my son's. runnin laps on EVerest uh-HUH-uh uh-HUH! Before I get yelled at, we didn't set out to do that - I thought he could ride it when I was grabbing FPs.