Yet another parent swap question

[ebowen]

In December, I will be going with my mother and grandmother, husband, sister and BIL, along with 2 1/2 year old niece and 8 month old daughter. For thrill rides, all adults will want to ride except for my 90 year old (acts like she's 60) grandmother. We don't want to "punish" GG by making her wait with the two little ones while the rest of us ride these attractions, so will need to ride in shifts and make use of parent swap. I understand the overall concept, but not sure how to make it work.

Say we are going on Space Mountain. Do all 5 of us that will eventually want to ride need to go to the entrance of the queue to get the parent swap pass, or just the few of us that are riding that shift? Is there anyway to combine this with Fastpass to make it go even quicker? Is there a limit to the number of adults that can participate (ie only 2 adults per child) if so this may pose a problem for our group because my mom will want to ride as well?

Thanks for the help. For something that seems so simple, I sure am doing a good job of over thinking it.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Here is the info on "child swap": http://www.wdwinfo.com/childswap.htm

Basically, one parent waits with the kids while the other rides. The second parent then waits with the kids while the first parent rides. It's not a freebee ride for all the adults in the group. If you have an adult to wait with the kiddos, you might not be able to "child swap".

 

[MisKaren1]

We were able to swap using Fastpasses. When you return to the ride at the Fastpass entrance, show the CM the "undersized" child. Usually the CM will hand the swap pass directly to the non-riding adult.

The only place we tried (successfully) to get a swap without the child present was Soarin (silly stroller rules).

The swaps look and work just like a fastpass, without the time restrictions!
All of our passes said something like "valid 11/5/12 only for up to 3 people". I have one we didn't use...I can find it and post a pic.

 

[kohlby]

I wouldn't think it would be a problem, even having an adult to stay with the child. Gma isn't the parent so I'd think they would understand if you wanted a parent to stay with young children. However, it would take longer to use rider swap than just everyone going on it together the first time. So, though I wouldn't force Gma to watch the kids everytime, I would take her up on any offers! What we do for thrill rides is only do them with fastpasses.

We never have more than two adults and one adult will break away for a short time to use the fastpass. Then the other adult. That's much faster and then the kids who aren't riding have less waiting time. But we did that back when you could go over the time window, so we would use more than one fastpass while away. That time window enforcement means that we'll only do that if we're at the very start this time, to give the second person time. Otherwise, we'll use rider swap along with fastpass. That's not any faster than using fastpass alone, but it means you don't have to get nervous about getting the second person in the window. (There is no time window with rider swap).

 

[Schmeck]

In December, I will be going with my mother and grandmother, husband, sister and BIL, along with 2 1/2 year old niece and 8 month old daughter. For thrill rides, all adults will want to ride except for my 90 year old (acts like she's 60) grandmother. We don't want to "punish" GG by making her wait with the two little ones while the rest of us ride these attractions, so will need to ride in shifts and make use of parent swap. I understand the overall concept, but not sure how to make it work.

Say we are going on Space Mountain. Do all 5 of us that will eventually want to ride need to go to the entrance of the queue to get the parent swap pass, or just the few of us that are riding that shift? Is there anyway to combine this with Fastpass to make it go even quicker? Is there a limit to the number of adults that can participate (ie only 2 adults per child) if so this may pose a problem for our group because my mom will want to ride as well?

Thanks for the help. For something that seems so simple, I sure am doing a good job of over thinking it.

The only thing the Rider Swap pass is going to do for you is allow 2 of the adults to ride twice. Do any of them really want to ride twice?

 

[tripletsmama]

So the swap pass is good for 3 adults?

 

[DopeyDame]

To make sure I understand, you have 6 adults, and 2 tiny kids. 5 of the adults want to ride the big rides, right?

Disney won't care that you have a grandma who could stay with the kids - they don't require people to declare their affinity for roller coasters before giving out swap passes So you certainly can use swaps, but for your situation, fastpasses will probably be your best bet, unless you really want to maximize your thrill ride time. Assuming everyone will be happy riding the big rides once a day or so, go with fastpasses. If you do want to eeck out every possible ride, here's how it could work:

1. All adults (including grandma) get fastpasses.
2. Two adults and at least one kid go to the attendant and get a swap pass.
Adults 1 - 3 ride with their fastpasses, while adults 4 - 6 and the kids do something else.
3. Adults 4 and 5 ride with fastpasses, while adults 1-3 and the kids do something else.
4. Adults 1 - 4 ride with a swap pass and grandma's fastpass.

So 4 of the 5 adults ride twice, without anyone waiting in the standby line.

I suppose if you REALLY wanted to push it, you could act as if you were two different groups and get two swaps because you have two kids... but that's really starting to take advantage of the situation.

Childswap is really most useful when you have older kids who do want to ride and when all adults want the opportunity to ride the ride with the older kid.
Our last trip was 8 adults and my 3 year old, and I don't think we ever used the childswap - it was just easier to use fastpasses.

 

[ebowen]

To make sure I understand, you have 6 adults, and 2 tiny kids. 5 of the adults want to ride the big rides, right?

You've got it! My grandma is a really "young" 90 but just doesn't think she's up for the thrill rides this time - no worries though, she has ridden all but Expedition Everest in the last 10 years!

I think all of this information has been helpful. Fastpasses may just be the way to go. Just looking for a way to minimize members of the group waiting around for others. Fortunately we are a pretty easy going group and know we will be happy just being at WDW.

Thanks everyone for the tips!

 

[Imagineer5]

You also can utilize getting more than 1 FP at a time with rider swap. Say, three adults want to ride first, they have 3 FP's, and they grab a rider swap before riding. Then when they are through, another 3 (repeat or not) can go through the FP line without FP's, allowing you (using grandma's ticket) to have 3 FP's to another attraction at the same time.

Also, FYI, I was unsuccessful getting a Soarin' rider swap card without showing baby. Very annoying when she was sleeping, since no strollers are allowed.