How exactly does baby swap work??

[amdisney1107]

I'm leaving shortly and my family keeps asking how this works. I just say we will find out when we get there but now I'm getting curious. Plus...what rides can I take my 11 month old baby on??

 

[BarbWB]

Baby swap is great, depending on your situation. And, it can differ from ride to ride. In general, at the entrance to the ride (at the BEGINNING of the line), you tell the CM you are doing babyswap. They give the person who is riding some swap tix (usually good for 3 or 4 people). The person holding the baby goes to get a snack and meets the riders after the ride. Then, the non-rider drops off the baby with the rider and then rides w/o the baby through the fastpass line. You can take people with you (whatever the swap ticket says) so you don't have to ride alone.
The swap is done at different places on different rides. For some rides (like Splash mountain and Thunder mountain), you wait completely outside the ride line. For other rides (Star tours, I think ??) you wait nearby and then swap just after your other party rides. Just ask.
ALL of the CM's know about baby swap. Just ask at each ride! For us, it meant that a couple of the other kids got to ride 2x! They were happy about it! It does take a lot of time to do the swap, but at least all of the adults get to experience the attractions and no one resents waiting!!!

 

[airtime247]

We took advantage of baby swap during our recent trip. One thing though is you do have to show the CM your baby. You can't just leave the non-riding party and child on a bench nearby. At least that's what I was told at both Disneyland and WDW.

One tip I have though is to get the most out of Fast Pass and the baby swap. Get a Fast Pass for your ride and when your time is up, get a baby swap pass and one of you ride using one of the Fast Passes. The other person can then get on the ride (usually in the Fast Pass line) using the baby swap pass and then you can ride both ride again using the other Fast Pass and a new baby swap pass. This will save you from having to wait in the regular line. It helps take some of the downside away from riding alone.

To answer your other question, we took our 10mo DD on everything that didn't have a height requirement. She didn't cry on anything, including Haunted Mansion and Pirates. The booming from the cannons in Pirates made her look a little uneasy as did the screaming from the crowd in the stretch room in Haunted Mansion. Other than that, she just looked around in awe of everything. I just had her on my chest facing me the entire time and she did surprisingly well. You can get a list of height requirements for the rides from Disney's web site or from probably any of the WDW travel books.

Another thing - I don't know if WDW is the same but at Disneyland, they wouldn't give out baby swap passes for rides that your child CAN ride on, even though they may be afraid to ride and choose not to. If there was no height requirement, there was no baby swap available. Again, I don't know if WDW was the same because we took her on everything we could.

I hope this helps! Have fun!

-steve

 

[amdisney1107]

That was exactly the info I was looking for. It helps so much to know ahead of time. Thanks so much!!