Rider Swap/Rider Switch/Child Swap: Digital System begins in late June

[DizneyMommy]

I would hope there would be some flexibility and ability for CM's to make exceptions. We planned back to back FP's one hour apart with some needing RS and some not. If the FP line is moving particularly slow or if we are too close to our next FP window, we may not have the ability to do rides back to back without missing the next FP window. Since we booked those before this new policy, whatever it ends up being, I would have to think they would allow for something like that and maybe have the ability to give us an hour one hour later or something.

That is a good example of why the one hour window would not work at WDW even when it works just fine at DL. You cannot book FP in advance and have 3 pre-planned like that. At DL, it would be rare to be able to stack them so close together because you have to retrieve them as each window becomes available.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I would hope there would be some flexibility and ability for CM's to make exceptions. We planned back to back FP's one hour apart with some needing RS and some not. If the FP line is moving particularly slow or if we are too close to our next FP window, we may not have the ability to do rides back to back without missing the next FP window. Since we booked those before this new policy, whatever it ends up being, I would have to think they would allow for something like that and maybe have the ability to give us an hour one hour later or something.

I mean, I think that flexibility has always and will always be there, but at a CMs discretion so there’s nothing concrete to count on.

We saw some flexibility twice our last trip with rider switch. Once at FoP my husband was in such a rush to get out of the congestion in Pandora with sleeping kids that he zoomed off and forgot we needed to show the kids to the CM. She asked me how old the kids were, I told her and was about to pull out a picture but she said she trusted me and gave me a pass. Another time, also at AK but a different day, we had a switch pass from earlier from FoP that we hadn’t used yet, but my son was dead set on riding EE. The CM at EE heard us talking about how the park was closing soon and we could only pick one, so he handed us a rider switch pass to use in the EE line to save us time. We got on both .

So that’s my long winded way of saying they definitely don’t need to stick to the rules all the time and I’m sure that goes for just about everything that doesn’t involve safety, so if anyone runs into big issues with a new RS system I don’t think all is necessarily lost but you can always run into rigid CMs too.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

With my family’s next day in the parks being June 24th, I look forward to reading any firsthand reports of the new changes.

Thanks in advance to any RS families that will be visiting in mid-June who choose to share their experiences with the new electronic RS rollout.

 

[Wubar]

I think it is a mix of it all. Disney has been trying to stop "cheating" their systems as of late.

As they should. If I'm running a business, loopholes would be something I would look to minimize or eliminate for sure.

 

[piccolopat]

If the one hour window materializes, I would expect people that run into problems will contact Disney with their experiences. If it's a problem for enough people, I would expect Disney to consider adjusting the policy, perhaps by making the RS return window 2 or even 3 hours. With technology, they could even make the window variable for some high demand rides like FoP so it accounts for extra long FP lines in real time.

 

[bimiller0720]

How would a 1 hour window work if you wait in a standby line that has over an hour wait? It seems that the second group would then have to also wait in the standby line because the rider switch would have expired.

 

[anomamatt]

While I understand the reason for some of the changes, the return window sounds confusing. I guess we will have to see when the firsthand reports start coming in. If it's really limited to an hour after you get the RS, I'm not sure how useful this will be (at least to me). Essentially if what we are interpreting is correct, it will mandate back-to-back rides. After all, FOP can take up to 40 minutes from first tap to meeting back up with your party...

 

[bumbershoot]

When a family uses the rider switch, don't they wait in the "designated area" while the other party go on the ride? Then when the riding family is done with the ride, the waiting family will just go on without having to wait in line again? Isn't that how the rider switch program works???

No that isn’t how rider switch has worked. There’s no designated place to wait at Disney. You can do whatever you want. Though now it seems you need to stay in the basic area to get that window. But...that’s what we did when my guy was little anyway. At dL. Once we started going to Wdw he was tall enough for everything there.


But now with a window of time that strict they might want to consider a waiting spot. cant go too far away!

I mean, universal has rider swap without digital or paper passes and they work just fine.

Now Universal *does* have in-line waiting areas. Everyone gets to go through lines there, whereas at Disney only those tall enough get to go through the line.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

My problem with the "everyone has to have a fp" is we have 3 girls, we have fps for say Splash Mountain for DH and 2 older girls, then FP for me and youngest for PP at the same time, so she doesn't totally miss out and we have something to do at least during one of the rides that 3 go on....if I have to get FP for Splash Mountain I can't use it to go on PP with DD3.

So why is that a problem? I expect to make choices and sacrifices when I go to Disney. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Until reading about this change, I would never have even known it was possible in the past not to “miss out.” When we go in a few weeks, I got my whole party (my family plus my parents and sister) splash mountain fast passes even though my youngest is too short to ride. I figured my husband and I would just take turns riding with our son and waiting with our daughter. I would never have thought that it was fair (or possible) for me to get a Peter Pan fast pass so I could ride with her on that and then expect to also ride splash mountain with a rider swap pass. I’m kind of glad Disney is closing this loophole.

I can see where the hour thing could be problematic, so I’m hoping there is some leeway here. Esp when lines are long.

 

[jo-jo]

I wonder what would happen if say mom, dad , one big kid, one little kid and grandparents are at disney. But grandparents aren't in the park that morning. Does that still count as everyone in the party must have FP? Maybe grandparents don't like rope drop and their FP don't start until noon.

 

[DavidNYC]

My kids are now just 48 so we have experience with pre and post height recently. I can definitely say it’s far easier touring now than it was even taking advantage of every rider swap option. I don’t mind the digital pass but I don’t like if Disney now says a family to choose between a FP for a toddler and a FP for an adult ride. To all those who say a family using rider swap to get an “extra” FP isn’t fair - I’d say it’s less fair for a family using the new rider swap to have to give up a FP for a too short child. If it’s going to have to be unfair - err on the side of making it easy for parents of little kids. Going digital and making it one at a time and saying same day would be perfectly sufficient to cut down on most every issue. All the added restrictions will do is create a lot more unhappy and impatient children.

 

[CMNJ]

I wonder what would happen if say mom, dad , one big kid, one little kid and grandparents are at disney. But grandparents aren't in the park that morning. Does that still count as everyone in the party must have FP? Maybe grandparents don't like rope drop and their FP don't start until noon.

This is obviously all speculation until it takes effect but I’d assume they don’t have to have FP. However since they aren’t there when the swap is requested they can’t participate in the swap either. If I understand the new info correctly they will load the entitlement for the swap onto the magic bands of those using the swap (up to a max of 3 people). Since the grandparents aren’t there they don’t need a FP but they also can’t go as part of the swap group. Only those present when the swap is requested can go as it is loaded onto their bands (unless people switch bands with those in their group)

 

[hiroMYhero]

I wonder what would happen if say mom, dad , one big kid, one little kid and grandparents are at disney. But grandparents aren't in the park that morning. Does that still count as everyone in the party must have FP? Maybe grandparents don't like rope drop and their FP don't start until noon.

It will only apply to the guests who are actually standing at the FP touch point. And, MagicBands may still be swapped amongst the party to use the Swap entitlements within the window.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I am in the camp of thinking this revised policy is fair. When my kids were little, the rider swap involved waiting in a little room during the swap. I even think that usually the 2nd adult riding did not go thru the line again, they were ushered pretty quickly onto the line. So it was one adult rode, then the other, did not take much time, this was probably even before FP, lol. So this new policy is really back to the original one, where each adult rides one after another. And we just came back from Universal, and I saw several rides still using the little room to wait concept.

I sympathize with those who already planned their trip FP+. And I had 4 kids, so I understand having older kids and younger ones, and how some rides are not available to the younger ones. We would split up sometimes, for a couple of hours here and there. It was manageable.

Last trip on the FoP FP+ line, the guy in front of me had a rider swap ticket. It was him and 3 teens. In his backpack, in the mesh pocket on the side, there was a stack of the rider swap tickets 1/2" thick, I even snapped a photo, just of the ticket stash. No idea if he collected them, or if he bought them.

Good luck to you all with little ones! Before you know it, they will be all grown up.

 

[QueenHeather]

I am in the camp of thinking this revised policy is fair. When my kids were little, the rider swap involved waiting in a little room during the swap. I even think that usually the 2nd adult riding did not go thru the line again, they were ushered pretty quickly onto the line. So it was one adult rode, then the other, did not take much time, this was probably even before FP, lol. So this new policy is really back to the original one, where each adult rides one after another. And we just came back from Universal, and I saw several rides still using the little room to wait concept.

I sympathize with those who already planned their trip FP+. And I had 4 kids, so I understand having older kids and younger ones, and how some rides are not available to the younger ones. We would split up sometimes, for a couple of hours here and there. It was manageable.

Last trip on the FoP FP+ line, the guy in front of me had a rider swap ticket. It was him and 3 teens. In his backpack, in the mesh pocket on the side, there was a stack of the rider swap tickets 1/2" thick, I even snapped a photo, just of the ticket stash. No idea if he collected them, or if he bought them.

Good luck to you all with little ones! Before you know it, they will be all grown up.

Except this is not waiting in a room for one parent to ride. The second group has to go through the fastpass line again. Those of you who haven’t done this may say that’s not a big deal, but this means that for all my family to ride one ride, it takes at least an hour for many (I’d say most) rides. With fastpasses! It would be much faster for all my party to enter the line and then swap in a little room.

Also, I’ve seen this mentioned before - the complaint about having a stack of rider swaps. It was not unusual for my family, over the course of a week’s vacation, to amass 5 - 10 rider swaps at a time. We like to go to the parks early and take advantage of short lines in the first few hours of park opening. We would do the headliners once each, grabbing rider swaps at each one, and return later to use them. I fail to see how simply having more than one rider swap at one time is abuse of the system.

 

[brockash]

There are no bands at DL... did you mean WDW? How did you know it was an hour window? I have never seen an expiration time in my app.

Sorry, I meant scanned our tix. We knew it was an hour because the CM told us it was and what time it started and when we went into the account it showed the time window, just like a regular fastpass. I will say not both ppl had to have a fastpass when we did it, but not sure if that's the norm.

 

[brockash]

Except this is not waiting in a room for one parent to ride. The second group has to go through the fastpass line again. Those of you who haven’t done this may say that’s not a big deal, but this means that for all my family to ride one ride, it takes at least an hour for many (I’d say most) rides. With fastpasses! It would be much faster for all my party to enter the line and then swap in a little room.

Also, I’ve seen this mentioned before - the complaint about having a stack of rider swaps. It was not unusual for my family, over the course of a week’s vacation, to amass 5 - 10 rider swaps at a time. We like to go to the parks early and take advantage of short lines in the first few hours of park opening. We would do the headliners once each, grabbing rider swaps at each one, and return later to use them. I fail to see how simply having more than one rider swap at one time is abuse of the system.

ITA! Doing the baby swap is so much wasted time. The only time it's really an advantage is at tier parks that happen to have 2 rides in tier 1 with a height requirement, otherwise it always takes double the time it would a regular group.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Yes, you are correct in that waiting in the little room and then the 2nd group was ushered into the front of the line worked well, and was quicker, because the 2nd group did not wait more than a few minutes. I think it is harder for them to have these rooms set up, and have CMs there to usher people to and from the rooms, vs using having people use the FP line.

I can see them not really liking people getting many return tickets when the lines are short, and returning to use them when the lines are long. Great for the guests WITH the return tickets, of course. If that option was there for us, I probably would have done the same thing.

 

[bravenyc]

I like the ditigization but I don't really understand the need to restrict to one hour - this will be tricky for those with very young children (I would understand restricting to same day and one at a time though). My biggest issue is that I wish we had more warning. Our trip starts on June 18 and the 60 day FP has long passed - I did not make our touring schedule and FP's with this in mind and we will need a few RS for my 4 yo. I wish they had announced a change like this with more lead time.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I have a question I haven’t seen addressed.

Just as an example: say I have a FoP FP for 2-3 PM and a safari FP for 3-4 PM. My family gets to FoP at 2:15 PM. We get a RS to ensure that both of us will be able to get on the ride since it can take awhile for one person to get through. Now I’ve got a RS pass that runs over my safari FP window. Will the system allow that?