Rider Switch

[Tigger Trainer]

It has been mentioned on some threads that rider switch rules and procedures have changed. Has anyone had any recent experiences they can share about how it is working currently?

 

[poptart90]

Last there at the end of February. The biggest changes are that there are no paper passes handed out for rider switch. Instead you wait in the stand-by line (or the FastPass/MaxPass line, if you have those passes) and make your way to the CM at the front. Child not riding and parent do not need to wait in line, but just be nearby to "wave" to CM who will issue the rider switch. There's been some debate on this. Some people say you don't need to be present. I have found that at Star Tours, they always check. So I'm always there waiting at every attraction entrance, regardless. I figure I'll be annoyed if somehow DH & DS don't get a rider switch for me because I'm not present, so I always am. Also....the rider switch gets added to MY annual pass (or it might be your park ticket?) and so I like to get it back from DH before he goes inside to wait the rest of the line, in case I want to take DD on something else while we wait. Also, you can only hold one rider switch at a time and there's a time limit to use it. So unlike before, when you could grab one and move on, coming back later to ride...now you need to go (more or less) back to back or risk losing the rider switch altogether. I can't think of anything else, but I'm sure someone else will fill in the gaps! Hope that helps.

 

[lcp9]

the rider switch can be added to ANY 3 passes. For example - we were with a party of 7, and usually I would just grab the first 3 passes I saw and they would scan the switch on. And then, anyone in your party can use them. Sometimes, the return time is not immediate (as in, there's a waiting period between the time party #1 gets off and #2 is allowed on) but generally speaking they will allow you to immediately reride. It seems to be arbitrary what time the switch is for. Otherwise, it works just like a maxpass (scanning, etc.) Ask for one at the beginning checkpoint, and sometimes you will have to ask at every checkpoint after until you get to the right CM (maybe this is better by now.) If you have a multiple experience pass, and a rider switch, the scanner will default to using the ME pass so be sure to use the ME first (or maybe a CM can do it manually.)

 

[ateam79828592]

We have 6 ticketed peopled in our group. The youngest (4yo) can ride most everything but Indiana Jones. For that ride, if we have FP or MaxPass for all 6 of us and ride at the beginning on of our time slot, could we use the one of the two unused FP/MaxPass for a 4th person to ride with the 3 rider swap?

1st ride w FP = DH, 13yo, 8yo, 6yo
2nd ride = Me (FP), 13yo (rider swap), 8yo (RS), 6yo (RS)

It would need to be a the beginning of the FP time slot so that the unused FP don't expire before the 1st group gets off. But otherwise, does this work? It does at WDW but I know the RS & FP systems are different at DL.

 

[agamble]

When they first made the switch last summer (we were there) it was a pain because the CM were still getting used to the system and the tech was having growing pains. It works well now.

If I take my 7 and 4 y/o on Big Thunder they will scan my DH and the two kids tickets and allow them to ride again. It doesn't really matter which tickets are scanned, they won't check the names when you return. The biggest annoyance is that there is a time restriction that is based on a guess of when you will get off the ride. So depending on the CM's guess you may get off the ride before your family's pass is available to use.

ETA: Second annoyance, you have to have the tickets with you to scan them. If they're on your phone this can work to your advantage. This can be a pain because you may want to walk over to Splash Mountain and pull a FP for later while your husband is on the ride with the kids. You need physical tickets to pull the FP though. So best to add all tickets to your phones for rider switching.

 

[agamble]

We have 6 ticketed peopled in our group. The youngest (4yo) can ride most everything but Indiana Jones. For that ride, if we have FP or MaxPass for all 6 of us and ride at the beginning on of our time slot, could we use the one of the two unused FP/MaxPass for a 4th person to ride with the 3 rider swap?

1st ride w FP = DH, 13yo, 8yo, 6yo
2nd ride = Me (FP), 13yo (rider swap), 8yo (RS), 6yo (RS)

It would need to be a the beginning of the FP time slot so that the unused FP don't expire before the 1st group gets off. But otherwise, does this work? It does at WDW but I know the RS & FP systems are different at DL.

YES!

 

[lcp9]

We have 6 ticketed peopled in our group. The youngest (4yo) can ride most everything but Indiana Jones. For that ride, if we have FP or MaxPass for all 6 of us and ride at the beginning on of our time slot, could we use the one of the two unused FP/MaxPass for a 4th person to ride with the 3 rider swap?

1st ride w FP = DH, 13yo, 8yo, 6yo
2nd ride = Me (FP), 13yo (rider swap), 8yo (RS), 6yo (RS)

It would need to be a the beginning of the FP time slot so that the unused FP don't expire before the 1st group gets off. But otherwise, does this work? It does at WDW but I know the RS & FP systems are different at DL.

Yes that is a perk to buying MP for everyone! We had 4 adults (husband, me, my parents) and 3 kids (6, 4, 2.) my mom didn’t want to go on a lot of bigger rides (plus she stayed with 2yo) so that was an extra pass, and 4yo is 42” so couldnt do Indy or screamin. We always just reserved MP for everyone so we had extras.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

Having never used rider swap as I didn’t know about it when DD was younger, I gotta say, this is a cool perk for the older kids getting to ride multiple times and nice of Disney to offer it

 

[poptart90]

Having never used rider swap as I didn’t know about it when DD was younger, I gotta say, this is a cool perk for the older kids getting to ride multiple times and nice of Disney to offer it

Agreed! And honestly the reason we've been going repeatedly since my DD was 4 months old. It was hard at first to not ride all together as a family (DS is 5 years older), but it's been awesome for him! Little sister is his 2-for-1 pass right now. LOL

And Disney's made out too. We've pretty much exclusively vacationed there since DD's birth. Wasn't the case before!

 

[SoCalDisneygal❤️]

Agreed! And honestly the reason we've been going repeatedly since my DD was 4 months old. It was hard at first to not ride all together as a family (DS is 5 years older), but it's been awesome for him! Little sister is his 2-for-1 pass right now. LOL

And Disney's made out too. We've pretty much exclusively vacationed there since DD's birth. Wasn't the case before!

This! My 7 yo LOVES riding twice back to back due to his toddler brother.

 

[Bluewild79]

We used Rider Switch frequently during our trip in April 2017. I'm curious how to best use Rider Switch plus MaxPass this year. We have a family of 6 - 2 adults, a 10 year old, 8 year old and 6 year old plus toddler baby brother. We are on a budget so I don't know that I can swing an extra $50/day for MaxPass for everyone for our 5 days in the park this summer. I'm thinking of just getting MaxPass for 2 -1 adult, 1 kid, then swapping adult and the 2 non-riding kids. Or getting it for 3 and rotating which kid gets to go a 2nd time. Using just the paper fastpasses last year the big kids got to go tons and we even had several times they would let the 3rd big kid ride (so 4 came back for rider switch instead of just 3). I'm not expecting that to happen this year. I want them to go on tons of rides. This is our one and only vacation this year so I really want a solid plan to make it great. Yay. I'm stupid excited and we have months and months to wait....and my kids still don't know. Sorry I'm rambling now!

 

[lcp9]

We used Rider Switch frequently during our trip in April 2017. I'm curious how to best use Rider Switch plus MaxPass this year. We have a family of 6 - 2 adults, a 10 year old, 8 year old and 6 year old plus toddler baby brother. We are on a budget so I don't know that I can swing an extra $50/day for MaxPass for everyone for our 5 days in the park this summer. I'm thinking of just getting MaxPass for 2 -1 adult, 1 kid, then swapping adult and the 2 non-riding kids. Or getting it for 3 and rotating which kid gets to go a 2nd time. Using just the paper fastpasses last year the big kids got to go tons and we even had several times they would let the 3rd big kid ride (so 4 came back for rider switch instead of just 3). I'm not expecting that to happen this year. I want them to go on tons of rides. This is our one and only vacation this year so I really want a solid plan to make it great. Yay. I'm stupid excited and we have months and months to wait....and my kids still don't know. Sorry I'm rambling now!

I was a total MP hater...until we actually used it. We did 3 day park hoppers last fall and honestly we were bored by afternoon day 3 because MP had allowed us to ride so. many. rides. Are there other things you can cut out of your budget? I would give up most extras for the convenience of maxpass for all. Additionally - for non height restricted rides, you'd have to pull paper fast passes for those of you without MP, so either you're dealing with paper for all of you anyway (having already paid for MP for some) OR trying to coordinate MP with paper return times (can be harder than you think due to MP cancellations.)

That said - because they're scanning tickets, they aren't just letting groups go with rider switch out of courtesy anymore. You would definitely be limited to the 3. So your rider switch plan will work...but having 3 kids myself it sounds super convoluted and an excellent breeding ground for fighting. hahaha.

 

[Bluewild79]

I was a total MP hater...until we actually used it. We did 3 day park hoppers last fall and honestly we were bored by afternoon day 3 because MP had allowed us to ride so. many. rides. Are there other things you can cut out of your budget? I would give up most extras for the convenience of maxpass for all. Additionally - for non height restricted rides, you'd have to pull paper fast passes for those of you without MP, so either you're dealing with paper for all of you anyway (having already paid for MP for some) OR trying to coordinate MP with paper return times (can be harder than you think due to MP cancellations.)

That said - because they're scanning tickets, they aren't just letting groups go with rider switch out of courtesy anymore. You would definitely be limited to the 3. So your rider switch plan will work...but having 3 kids myself it sounds super convoluted and an excellent breeding ground for fighting. hahaha.

Thank you! My kids are pretty dang good about not fighting over stuff like that especially when we will have a lot of park time. Oooh, and we have a bunch of fastpasses waiting for us from our last trip when we had issues. I had already budgeted for at least one MaxPass per day, just for the photopass benefits because I NEED TO BE IN A PHOTO ONCE IN A BLUE MOON! I figured the minimum we'd need is 2 maxpasses, use rider switch plus paper fastpasses or standby for the other rides. It just sounds complicated compared to how easy (minus all the walking for fastpasses) it was last year before MaxPass. I'd love to get all 5 and I suppose I do have time to save up but it just kills me to pay another $100-$250 after paying $1700 for 5-day park hopper passes and I really want to do at least 1 of the new character meals. Hmmm, this whole plan might go out the window anyway because my parents still haven't decided if they are coming with us. Ha. I just want to plan all the things!

 

[agamble]

Thank you! My kids are pretty dang good about not fighting over stuff like that especially when we will have a lot of park time. Oooh, and we have a bunch of fastpasses waiting for us from our last trip when we had issues. I had already budgeted for at least one MaxPass per day, just for the photopass benefits because I NEED TO BE IN A PHOTO ONCE IN A BLUE MOON! I figured the minimum we'd need is 2 maxpasses, use rider switch plus paper fastpasses or standby for the other rides. It just sounds complicated compared to how easy (minus all the walking for fastpasses) it was last year before MaxPass. I'd love to get all 5 and I suppose I do have time to save up but it just kills me to pay another $100-$250 after paying $1700 for 5-day park hopper passes and I really want to do at least 1 of the new character meals. Hmmm, this whole plan might go out the window anyway because my parents still haven't decided if they are coming with us. Ha. I just want to plan all the things!

You could do just 2 or 3 passes. We did that once. You could also choose one day that everyone does MP since it will allow you to ride a lot and then just do MP for pictures the rest of the week. MP is convenient, but we have only used it once or twice because of the cost to add it to the other passes. I have it on my AP for the photos. Using the paper FP isn't any harder than it was before, and they do still show up on your phone. The BONUS to MP though is that you can get FP every 90 minutes instead of 2 hours later in the day when FP times are further out.

 

[lcp9]

Thank you! My kids are pretty dang good about not fighting over stuff like that especially when we will have a lot of park time. Oooh, and we have a bunch of fastpasses waiting for us from our last trip when we had issues. I had already budgeted for at least one MaxPass per day, just for the photopass benefits because I NEED TO BE IN A PHOTO ONCE IN A BLUE MOON! I figured the minimum we'd need is 2 maxpasses, use rider switch plus paper fastpasses or standby for the other rides. It just sounds complicated compared to how easy (minus all the walking for fastpasses) it was last year before MaxPass. I'd love to get all 5 and I suppose I do have time to save up but it just kills me to pay another $100-$250 after paying $1700 for 5-day park hopper passes and I really want to do at least 1 of the new character meals. Hmmm, this whole plan might go out the window anyway because my parents still haven't decided if they are coming with us. Ha. I just want to plan all the things!

It does sound complicated but once you see it it just makes sense! I mean - we got there at a 9am rope drop, immediately got 9:15 FP for haunted mansion, at 9:15 got 9:45 FP for space, at 9:45 got FP for something else, and then in another 15 minutes got FP for guardians...all while just being right there on my phone, you know? We've always been hustlers but that required running back and forth between parks and all over creation to get FP and it wasted quite a bit of time. I agree with below - maybe one day get them for everyone to try to knock out a bunch of rides?

 

[agamble]

It does sound complicated but once you see it it just makes sense! I mean - we got there at a 9am rope drop, immediately got 9:15 FP for haunted mansion, at 9:15 got 9:45 FP for space, at 9:45 got FP for something else, and then in another 15 minutes got FP for guardians...all while just being right there on my phone, you know? We've always been hustlers but that required running back and forth between parks and all over creation to get FP and it wasted quite a bit of time. I agree with below - maybe one day get them for everyone to try to knock out a bunch of rides?

That's odd. My FP tickets always say that I have to wait 30 minutes to get another FP. And I have Max Pass on my AP.

 

[lcp9]

That's odd. My FP tickets always say that I have to wait 30 minutes to get another FP. And I have Max Pass on my AP.

I'm almost certain we could get new FPs as soon as the return time opened. In fact, I know we did, even in 5 minute windows sometimes. Maybe they've changed it? or it's different for APs? This was November. ETA: If the return window hadn't come up it was 90 minutes as opposed to the 2 hours on paper FP. But if the return window opened, regardless of time, we could get new ones.

 

[agamble]

I'm almost certain we could get new FPs as soon as the return time opened. In fact, I know we did, even in 5 minute windows sometimes. Maybe they've changed it? or it's different for APs? This was November. ETA: If the return window hadn't come up it was 90 minutes as opposed to the 2 hours on paper FP. But if the return window opened, regardless of time, we could get new ones.

It may just be that that is what prints on a paper ticket for everyone. I wondered but never tested it since I was the only one with Maxpass. That is good to know.