Rider Swap

[AVanstraten]

First time to Universal in a VERY long time and first time ever with kids coming up! My son and I are HUGE HP fans so I can not wait!! We skipped Universal last Disney trip as we felt our kids were too young and most of the rides are pretty jarring. They should be good now (12 and 9) but curious on if Universal has something like a rider swap at Disney. So, say our daughter wants to do Spiderman and then we get up to the ride and she is like nope, not gonna do it... can we swap out kids...? Thanks in advance!

 

[macraven]

Yes if they are in line with you
Daughter can wait for you in the swap room

 

[AVanstraten]

Yes if they are in line with you
Daughter can wait for you in the swap room

what is a "swap room"? Not sure she will dig hanging by herself with strangers in a room but we'll have to just see how this play out..

 

[bchbetha]

They are rooms right off of the loading platform. Often movies are shown.

What's the alternative? Having her wait outside of the entire ride by herself? At least this way the wait is only for the duration of the ride.

 

[macraven]

There are some rides where a child does not meet height requirement or changes their mind before getting on the ride

The swap room is a place for someone in your group to wait until you are off the ride

 

[AVanstraten]

They are rooms right off of the loading platform. Often movies are shown.

What's the alternative? Having her wait outside of the entire ride by herself? At least this way the wait is only for the duration of the ride.

Good to know on movies. Unfortunately, the alternative would be her freaking out and me skipping the ride to back out with her. I wouldn't feel comfortable having her wait outside the ride by herself. I just wanted to get a feel for how it worked and what my options are. Thanks for the info!

 

[bchbetha]

Good to know on movies. Unfortunately, the alternative would be her freaking out and me skipping the ride to back out with her. I wouldn't feel comfortable having her wait outside the ride by herself. I just wanted to get a feel for how it worked and what my options are. Thanks for the info!

Makes sense. Fingers crossed! If she's ok with spoilers you can have her look at YouTube ride along videos.

 

[macraven]

Good to know on movies. Unfortunately, the alternative would be her freaking out and me skipping the ride to back out with her. I wouldn't feel comfortable having her wait outside the ride by herself. I just wanted to get a feel for how it worked and what my options are. Thanks for the info!

If there is another adult or 18 yo in your group, one can sit with your daughter in the swap room and when rest of your group returns to the swap room, you do the ride then with not much of a wait

(talk to the TM at the ride and they will let you switch places with the person in the swap room with your daughter )

 

[Disxuni]

If there is another adult or 18 yo in your group, one can sit with your daughter in the swap room and when rest of your group returns to the swap room, you do the ride then with not much of a wait

(talk to the TM at the ride and they will let you switch places with the person in the swap room with your daughter )

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. Traditionally, someone is with the child while other guests in the party go onto the ride, then have that person go onto the ride after the other guests return. However, if that is not possible, as others stated, there are not only strangers, but TMs that are there (which I'd hope would reassure her more), films that are shown, and it is purely for only the duration of the ride. Which SpiderMan for example is five minutes. I want to also state that rides either have the rider swap right at the end of the attraction, or have an easy access point to the rider swap area. You can always ask a TM.

However, another option and I do not know how comfortable you are with this, but I am assuming your son could be the 12 year old and if your son is tall enough he can go on the attraction himself while you wait with your daughter, from there he can wait with her while you go. I suggest this as I started relatively young doing SR lines with my father and worked well as I've always been good at listening to my parents and we established a spot at the end of the ride we would wait in the end for the other.

Also, I do want to say even though this is a little off topic that if it is just you and your two children (which I do not know if it is) to establish a meeting place in both US, or IoA in the case that anyone is separated. As it can happen just in general. We started that when we first went to the parks and although it's rare I have my parents with me, still do it when we all do happen to go. Might be grown now and have cell phones, but it's just a good thing to establish possibly. As running around trying to find someone isn't helpful if the other person keeps running around looking too.

 

[AVanstraten]

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. Traditionally, someone is with the child while other guests in the party go onto the ride, then have that person go onto the ride after the other guests return. However, if that is not possible, as others stated, there are not only strangers, but TMs that are there (which I'd hope would reassure her more), films that are shown, and it is purely for only the duration of the ride. Which SpiderMan for example is five minutes. I want to also state that rides either have the rider swap right at the end of the attraction, or have an easy access point to the rider swap area. You can always ask a TM.

However, another option and I do not know how comfortable you are with this, but I am assuming your son could be the 12 year old and if your son is tall enough he can go on the attraction himself while you wait with your daughter, from there he can wait with her while you go. I suggest this as I started relatively young doing SR lines with my father and worked well as I've always been good at listening to my parents and we established a spot at the end of the ride we would wait in the end for the other.

Also, I do want to say even though this is a little off topic that if it is just you and your two children (which I do not know if it is) to establish a meeting place in both US, or IoA in the case that anyone is separated. As it can happen just in general. We started that when we first went to the parks and although it's rare I have my parents with me, still do it when we all do happen to go. Might be grown now and have cell phones, but it's just a good thing to establish possibly. As running around trying to find someone isn't helpful if the other person keeps running around looking too.

Thank you, this is very helpful!! It will be my husband and I, and yes, my son who is 12 and my daughter who is 9. So the swap would work great where my husband/son could go and I would wait with her, and then I would go. Do you know if my son could go with me again so that we could ride together (I know I probably sound like a whiny teen, LOL, but it would be more fun for me to go with one of my family members then with someone I don't know) or would I need to go by myself. Hoping/thinking she will be fine but just want to be prepared in case she has a freak out at some point... Good idea on the meet up point too! My son has a cell phone and my daughter will be wearing a Gizmo watch that can make calls only to us but I like the idea of the meet up point!

 

[Disxuni]

Thank you, this is very helpful!! It will be my husband and I, and yes, my son who is 12 and my daughter who is 9. So the swap would work great where my husband/son could go and I would wait with her, and then I would go. Do you know if my son could go with me again so that we could ride together (I know I probably sound like a whiny teen, LOL, but it would be more fun for me to go with one of my family members then with someone I don't know) or would I need to go by myself. Hoping/thinking she will be fine but just want to be prepared in case she has a freak out at some point... Good idea on the meet up point too! My son has a cell phone and my daughter will be wearing a Gizmo watch that can make calls only to us but I like the idea of the meet up point!

Someone can verify as I never done it, but from what I've heard it's the person who waited, but you can always ask a TM, or someone here can confirm if you can go with your son afterwards. I know at Disney you can select up to a certain amount of people to re-ride with you. I do not know the full rules here, but I wouldn't think it'd be any harm if it's just two people, especially if one's a child.

Glad you liked the meeting suggestion. It's always best to be prepared. It's a habit we picked up on with anywhere we go. It kind of makes your mind at ease when you have a plan.

 

[TommyJK]

Do you know if my son could go with me again so that we could ride together (I know I probably sound like a whiny teen, LOL, but it would be more fun for me to go with one of my family members then with someone I don't know) or would I need to go by myself.

I've heard they are very good with allowing the above to happen.

 

[damo]

Thank you, this is very helpful!! It will be my husband and I, and yes, my son who is 12 and my daughter who is 9. So the swap would work great where my husband/son could go and I would wait with her, and then I would go. Do you know if my son could go with me again so that we could ride together (I know I probably sound like a whiny teen, LOL, but it would be more fun for me to go with one of my family members then with someone I don't know) or would I need to go by myself. Hoping/thinking she will be fine but just want to be prepared in case she has a freak out at some point... Good idea on the meet up point too! My son has a cell phone and my daughter will be wearing a Gizmo watch that can make calls only to us but I like the idea of the meet up point!

That's exactly what we did with my niece. She got to ride everything twice.

 

[smiths02]

When we went, we had me, DH, 12 year old, 2 6 year olds (and one of them who met the height on some things, did not want to ride because of fear).
Anyhow, when we did rider swap, we often would have say DH wait with my daughter (who was too scared even on some rides she could ride like Gringotts, Jurassic Park, Kong) while I rode with both DS 12 and DS 6. Then, DH would ride with both DS 12 and DS 6.

The way it works is that you get basically to the loading of the ride vehicle and the people waiting are diverted to the waiting room. When those initial riders get off, they go back to the waiting room to do the swap and the waiting person/people go to the load area. The loading TMs never questioned us (there was no "didn't you ride a minute ago?") as they could see we were coming from the Rider Swap room.
ETA: Gringott's was the only ride that was kind of a PITA to get to the rider swap, but all the others were located very close to where the ride vehicles loaded.

 

[damo]

When we went, we had me, DH, 12 year old, 2 6 year olds (and one of them who met the height on some things, did not want to ride because of fear).
Anyhow, when we did rider swap, we often would have say DH wait with my daughter (who was too scared even on some rides she could ride like Gringotts, Jurassic Park, Kong) while I rode with both DS 12 and DS 6. Then, DH would ride with both DS 12 and DS 6.

The way it works is that you get basically to the loading of the ride vehicle and the people waiting are diverted to the waiting room. When those initial riders get off, they go back to the waiting room to do the swap and the waiting person/people go to the load area. The loading TMs never questioned us (there was no "didn't you ride a minute ago?") as they could see we were coming from the Rider Swap room.
ETA: Gringott's was the only ride that was kind of a PITA to get to the rider swap, but all the others were located very close to where the ride vehicles loaded.

You can watch Gringotts being loaded from the windows in the rider swap room. It is directly adjacent.

 

[smiths02]

You can watch Gringotts being loaded from the windows in the rider swap room. It is directly adjacent.

You're right Maybe it wawas just the way the TMs made us walk to it. Or maybe it was Forbidden Journey? One of them getting to the Rider Swap was a pain, the others seemed easier

 

[Disxuni]

You're right Maybe it wawas just the way the TMs made us walk to it. Or maybe it was Forbidden Journey? One of them getting to the Rider Swap was a pain, the others seemed easier

FJ is right when people are unloading, which you could say is also in the loading area as well. The door to the rider swap is the first thing you see before exiting the ride, where as for Gringotts you have to walk a little bit to get to the rider swap when off the ride. I do not know if they have multiple door ways to the rider swap room, but if it has only one door to the room in FJ I wonder if the difficulty is them going a different route to not be in the way of TMs that are directing people onto the ride?