Parent Swaps???

[mom2jcc]

This will be a new thing for us this time. How does it work exactly....where do you wait for your spouse while he/she is on the ride? Will our 7 year old get to ride twice...once with me and then w/Dh.

Is this mainly for the roller coaster rides, Test Track, etc. I'm guessing most of the rides at MK don't have height requirements. I guess what I am asking is will we get to do things together as a family on most attractions, about 1/2 or what? We will have two 13 month olds. Thanks!

 

[alloyd1170]

We used it for the first time two weeks ago. When you enter a line, tell the CM you want to do Baby Swap. Depending on the ride, they will either hand you something like a fastpass, or tell you to go somewhere near the ride to get one. I then took my son while my dad stayed with my daughter. When we were done, we met my dad outside and then he went through the fastpass line, often taking my son again if he wanted to ride while I stayed with my daughter. We used it on rides where DD didnt meet the height req (shes 15 mos).

alison

 

[3littleHalls]

Yes, your 7yr old can ride twice! The ticket is the parent waiting and up to 3 others. It works like a Fast Pass(but doesn't expire at a certain time-just for that day-although we have had some that you could have used once but didn't expired for several days) Some CMs hand it to the person riding to hand to the one waiting when you get off, some CMs give it to the person who is swapping. You generally get the PS ticket from the CM standing at the entrance for the FP line. There are a couple of rides where the swap takes place at the exit for the ride...like Goofy's Barnstormer(I can't think of the other off the top of my head) Have a good trip!

 

[mom2jcc]

Thank you for your help. That really gives me an understanding of how it will work.

 

[Schmeck]

Just a reminder - everyone in the family needs to go up to the CM at the same time - you can't be off somewhere with the little one when the other adult in your party asks for a babyswap pass. The CM needs to see the little one who can't ride.

 

[WantToGoNow]

We usually wait on a bench somewhere close to the ride that we point out before the first parent gets in line.

Here are the rides that we will need to use it on since dd2 is 39" tall and ds5 is not the bravest soul. They (hopefully) ride everything else with us.

Magic Kingdom - Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Stitches Escape

Epcot - Test Track, Mission Space, Soarin

Disney Studios - Tower of Terror, Rock 'n Roller Coaster, Star Tours

Animal Kingdom - Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids

 

[LOLA2]

What if our child is tall enough to go on but is too scared. She is 10 and deathly scared of TOT. I would like to to baby swap for this but don't know if they will let us since she is tall enough to go on. My 5 yo loves it, go figure

 

[Schmeck]

What if our child is tall enough to go on but is too scared. She is 10 and deathly scared of TOT. I would like to to baby swap for this but don't know if they will let us since she is tall enough to go on. My 5 yo loves it, go figure

Then just get fastpasses - it's up to the CM at the attraction entrance if you are allowed to do a babyswap with a child that does meet the height requirement.

Also, for babyswap - if you do not get a fastpass for the first riders, then they may be asked to stay in the standby line - so if you want to speed things up, get a fastpass for the first riders!

 

[mom2jcc]

WantToGoNow---

----Thank you for the ride info. I wrote it down in my Disney Notebook!!!

So, for rides like Peter Pan, Small World and Pirates we are aloud to hold a baby that can't sit by his self or herself???

 

[mshawsc]

Yep - we just got back & took our 4 month old daughter on all rides that didn't have height restrictions! We either held her in our lap or wore our front carrier. It worked out great and the CMs were very nice with the Parent Swaps and gave us no problem at all with taking her on the other rides. Gotta love Disney - it is truly the most ACCOMODATING place on earth!

 

[mom2jcc]

Mshawsc---thanks!! Now I am ready

 

[momoftriplets]

Even if the child meets the height restricion, you can do the Kid Swap. We did it all the time last year with our then 8 year olds. No Questions asked. My word of warning to everyone about Kid Swap. Only attractions with height restictions will offer kid swap. We learned this the hard way on Haunted Mansion at MK. DD2 did NOT want to go. I thought, no problem, we''ll do kid swap. There isn't one on that attraction. Luckily, we were able to get out a side exit before the doom buggies, but only because DD2 was crying hysterically. My TR goes into more detail about it. Have a great time!
Barb

 

[tjmw2727]

We just got back from a wonderful trip last week with my 9 an d 11yo dd's, 2yo neice and 4yo nephew. One thing that remained constant was that the child who didn't meet the height restriction must be present to get the rider swap.

In addition when my sil and neice were taking a break we were were not able to get the rider swap pass for my 4yo nephew who was not willing but tall enough to ride TOT. (We skipped it!) Unlike the poster above the CM was not budging so this may be one of those "depends on the CM' things. I would not count on using childswap when the rider is tall enough - using FP can however work just as well in that case.

Here is a repost of my child swap 101, very unofficial but based on my many years of using the various evolutions of babyswap/childswap most recently in Feb and April and October of 2006 with my 2yo neice and 4yo nephew 9 and 10yo dd's.

My first advice on baby swap is to tell the CM at the attraction before you enter the line (either Fastpass or Standby) that you want to use the swap and find out how they handle it. Do not wait until you are boarding!

The baby/child unable to ride must be with you to do a swap so everyone must approach the line together. Some CM's have you all wait the line together, then the first parent and older child(ren) ride and other parent and younger child wait at the exit and then switch via the exit allowing the older child(ren) to ride with both parents. Off hand I think only Star Tours and Primeval Wirl still do it this way. Most rides now give you a rider swap pass. The rider swap pass works like a fast pass and allows up to 3 people total to return to that attraction anytime that day so the second parent can ride.

You still all enter the standby line or use a FP in the FP line and ask to use parent swap. The CM will give you the swap pass and the parent riding second and the baby (or young child) can then leave to do something else while the first party rides. The second parent then returns to ride via the FP line with the rider swap pass and can bring 2 others along if they like. I prefer the rider swap pass because the baby or child that dosen't meet the height requirement dosen't have to wait the line for something he/she can't ride.

Just to clarify, the purpose of parent swap is to allow a family with a child who dosen't meet the height restriction to enjoy the attraction with only "1 wait", rather than "2 waits" not to expeidate the wait.

Hope this helps, if you have more specific questions ask away!
TJ