Sorry, all, but I am still trying to figure out the new rider swap and FP. We are traveling with a party of 12. All, but my youngest DNephew (4 years old), are tall enough for most rides. So let's say, we want to ride FoP or any bigger ride for that matter. If I get 10 FPs for the majority of my group for FoP or the bigger ride and then 2 FPs for my DSIL and Dnephew on Navi or a smaller ride, can my DBIL and DSIL use child swap so that she ran FoP/the bigger ride or does she still need a FP for FoP/the bigger ride? I used to understand the old system, but this new system is confusing me. As the group planner, I am just trying to figure out a way that my DNephew is enjoying rides while his big cousins are riding the bigger rides. I just don't want him to be constantly sitting around waiting for people to get off of the bigger rides. Thanks!
New system?! When did a new system go into effect? Apparently I’m out of the loop and we have a trip coming up that we planned to use it for.
I thought they switched over to a digital system rather than the paper system. I thought it was all on MDE now???
The new system came into effect in June. It digitized rider swap and got rid of the paper passes. You go to the CM outside the line and ask for the rider swap and they add it to the Magic bands of up to 3 people riding in the second group. You can only have 1 rider swap at a time and it's valid for 1 hr, with the start time calculated by the posted wait time for whatever line Group 1 goes in minus 10 mins. The overall reports to this board have been that Group 2 does NOT need FP to get rider swap. The rider swap will admit those in Group 2 into the FP queue.
I am here now & we have been told that all riders must have a FP. They scan your band to confirm. I didn’t know this has changed until we got here.
We were a party of 7 (4 adults, a 7 yr old, a 4 yr old, and an infant) and I had high hopes of rider swap giving us some help but frankly it was such a pain point most of the time one of us adults volunteered to just skip the ride. The short version of the issue is - if you all have FP, and the ride has a long posted standby time, the return window of the RS will come AFTER the time closes for the rest of the FPs. Example: We all had FP for Soarin from 10:55-11:55. We showed up to do RS after our FP window opened (probably around 11 or 11:10). We went through the process of getting RS added, and the cast member even got my kids hyped to "ride twice". The problem? The return window for the rider swap was the current time + standby time, which when Soarin has a 75 minute posted wait time meant that it did not overlap the other FPs in the party. So, it was essentially useless unless our group as a whole wanted to hang out there for three ride cycles (one for the first FP group, one for the second FP group, and one for the RS people). We ended up not using the RS at all there - we just did the two FP groups. We did use it successfully a handful of times at rope drop other places - after a situation at Test Track where we watched hundreds of people who were behind us at rope drop get in ahead of us while we waited for a cast member to figure out why his handheld machine that scans the RS to the bands wasn't working, we started putting the riders in the main standby line and made sure the rider swap cast member could see we were all still checking in/talking/together and then they could put the swap on the other riders in their own sweet time. But it was stressful at crowded places like Space Mountain...we kinda felt like jerks trying to make sure the cast member could see the rest of the party. And, the RS cast members are the FP cast members and also deal with the DAS card folks, so they were often busy or there was a wait to get up there. At rope drop the standby times are short, so like Space for example, once the first set was done the second group was good to go since the ride time for the first group was longer than the posted standby, so the RS was pretty much immediately available when they got back, and we were done within a reasonable total timeframe. Using RS with any sort of FP really didn't work for us. It really is designed for the first group to wait standby, and the second group to ride afterward using the swap. It just doesn't seem to play well with FP. In the cases where we already had FP for everyone, it never made any difference for us. No one ever managed to "ride twice" with the other FP people due to the time issue. Maybe I am missing something too - I am sure I am no expert. But I really tried to get my head wrapped around it before we left, and it didn't work like I hoped.
Did you have the issue of the rider swap window being based on the standby time at any rides other than Soarin when the first group of riders used FP? The rider swap window is supposed to be based on the posted wait of whatever line Group 1 goes in minus 10 mins. So if Group 1 has FP for BTM and the posted FP wait is 15 mins and it's 3:00, the the rider swap window is from 3:05-4:05. If Group 1 didn't have FP and instead was going to ride standby with a posted wait of 50 mins, then the rider swap would be valid for 3:40-4:40. The window shouldn't have been based off the standby time if Group 1 had FP. That's why I'm curious if you encountered this at rides besides Soarin. Maybe the CM made a mistake/didn't understand how to add the rider swap correctly/ thought Group 1 was riding standby, etc. Regardless, it does suck that you encountered this issue.
Wow, I wish I knew that was how it was supposed to work. No, we stopped trying to use it with FP after that since we always did the math and it never worked out for us.
Dang, that really sucks! I'm sure it would have been beneficial if you could have used it more. I hope you all still enjoyed your trip.
I was told by the CM yes they would have denied us. Supposedly they check your bands for those waiting with the child before they give you the swap.
We just returned from a 6 day Thanksgiving trip and had mixed experiences with RS. We needed someone to wait with our 2 yr old GD and we had not booked FPs for the person waiting which had been the normal process for our previous trips. At AK, we had no issue at FOP. We also had no problem at Epcot Test Track or HS SDD. however, MK was a different story. We were there 2 days and at both BTMR and SDMT, they required the waiting riders to have a FP. Since we had not planned that I was worried that would mean no RS. However they said they would still issue the RS, but said they had to give the return time based on the standby line wait time unless the people waiting had a FP. So the return windows were quite a bit later. Since there is lots to do there, it wasn’t a big problem but it did mean having to come back later. So I don’t know what the rule is. I’m curious if others had similar experiences.
Interesting. It wasn’t an issue for us at the other parks b/c we all had FPs, but it was MK (same rides) where we had the issues.
Thanks for sharing. Your experience at FOP is encouraging. I was really hoping to be able to get DNephew and either DSIL or DBIL (his mom or dad) a FP for Navi so he didn't have to just sit around and wait while everyone else was riding, but at the same time I really want both DSIL and DBIL to have a chance to ride FOP too. Of course I could be self-sacrificing and not ride FOP making sure they both had a chance to ride, but I do not want to do that unless I have too.
I was a PRO at the paper FP rider swap. DD got to ride ToT 7 times one Saturday of President's weekend with it. (so yeah, probably people like me are to blame for the new system) I was completely caught off guard by this change. It is troublesome to make to your benefit. My experience was different both times I tried to do it. (Both at HS). Once it looked like we had till the end of the day to complete, and the other we had within an hour to complete. The only consistencies we had were: *One non-rider who is sitting out with the too small/too afraid child swap person MUST have a FP to add the rider swap to. *You can only have one rider swap at a time. Example: Daddy, Susie and Mike want to ride ToT. Mommy sits out with baby Jack. Mommy must have a FP in order to get the rider swap. Everyone walks up to the CM doing rider swaps. They scan Mommy's band/ticket and add the rider swap. Daddy takes kiddos on ToT. When they are done, there is roughly one hour for Mommy and her 2 others to go on ToT again. Daddy and crew can't go to ST and do the same thing to get a rider swap until ToT rider swap is used. This was our experience over Vetern's weekend only in HS. We didn't try in any other park. The big let down for me (other than the time hog of scanning the bands) is not being able to "collect" the multiple paper fp and use them whenever we want throughout the day. My kids are getting older and only have one too short for the 48" rides. I've got one that is not a fan of riding, but she is old enough to sit by herself for a few minutes while the rest of us go on something. So I don't see us using the new system that much any more.
Absolutely agree. Efficient FP+ queues benefit the overall experience for all guests. That being said, it still seems like the new system is not being implemented consistently, and I am still not sure what to expect when we get there. I guess I will just get FP+s for both my DSIL and DBIL for the big rides that they want to ride, and we will do our best to keep DNephew having fun while he waits for others to ride the big rides. I just don't think his Disney experience should be sitting around and waiting while others ride the big rides. I think he should be enjoying age appropriate rides and activities, and to be honest that is on us to do. I guess it is important to remember that rider swap is a nice benefit that Disney offers and not something that they have to do.
This is still confusing me and now I’m not sure what to expect in our situation. I booked FP at the big scary rides for my husband and friend and booked a kid friendly ride for myself, son (who is too little) and sister. Would my sister and I be eligible to get the Riderswap for the big scary ride based on the standby time at least?
