DIGITAL Rider Swap/Rider Switch/Child Swap: In Effect as of June 16th

[lanejudy]

With the old system I would ride Mine Train with my oldest using our fast passes. I would get my wife and youngest a fast pass at the same time for Pooh or Dumbo so they didn’t have to just sit there waiting on us.

With the new system, if you all enter the line together and the second group gets a RS fast pass added to the magic band, will you be able to still do this? Not sure if it’ll let you essentially have multiple fast passes on your account that overlap with one being a RS.

The whole party only enters the queue if everybody is tall enough to ride. In that situation, no Rider Swap pass is actually given; the swap occurs at the loading area.

If someone is too short, everybody must approach the queue and request the Rider Swap. It will then be added to the bands of "party 2" (those who will ride second). It's a Rider Swap pass, not a regular FP, so no it won't interfere with other FPs booked for another attraction. Using your scenario:

• Everyone approaches the attraction (Mine Train)
• Rider Swap is requested and added for wife and oldest child, which will not have an open return time window yet
• You and oldest child tap your bands and ride Mine Train with your FP+ (the system cannot use the Rider Swap for oldest child because the return time is still in the future)
• Wife and youngest child go to Pooh or Dumbo and ride with their FP+, no conflict with Rider Swap because it is a different ride at a later time
• Everyone meets outside Mine Train and the Rider Swap return time window opens
• Wife and oldest tap in and ride Mine Train with Rider Swap
• You and youngest can ride something standby or get a snack or bathroom break or whatever.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

The whole party only enters the queue if everybody is tall enough to ride. In that situation, no Rider Swap pass is actually given; the swap occurs at the loading area.

Does this apply if the reason for the swap is that there aren't enough adults to ride with kids under 7?

Mine will all be tall enough to ride 7DMT, Barnstormer, and SDD, but only 2 adults with 3 kids. I've seen people talking about using multiple back to back RS in the situation, but the procedure of all getting in line together and then swapping on and off the ride at the platform sounds like it would be much easier. Of course, since I can't leave one of the kids alone at the platform while two kids ride with two adults, we end up needing three rides to get all the kids through while keeping an adult on the platform to be responsible for those having their waiting turn.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Does this apply if the reason for the swap is that there aren't enough adults to ride with kids under 7?

Mine will all be tall enough to ride 7DMT, Barnstormer, and SDD, but only 2 adults with 3 kids. I've seen people talking about using multiple back to back RS in the situation, but the procedure of all getting in line together and then swapping on and off the ride at the platform sounds like it would be much easier. Of course, since I can't leave one of the kids alone at the platform while two kids ride with two adults, we end up needing three rides to get all the kids through while keeping an adult on the platform to be responsible for those having their waiting turn.

I can't see them giving you an actual RS (on magic bands) in that scenario. Each ride seems to handle this kind of thing differently, and sometimes it depends on the CM too, so I would ask. They *might* allow the two oldest to ride together with the youngest and one adult in the row directly behind them (same car). They might also allow a swap at the boarding area, with one adult taking one kid at a time. They may have another procedure. Another option, if you are all comfortable with it, is see if you find an odd-numbered party entering the line and ask them if someone might ride with one of your kids. When you get to the platform, include them in the number in your party (or vice versa) so that they and you will all be on the same train and directly in front of/ behind each other. Obviously, this is a little bit of work, but may be simpler than trying to do a swap at boarding. (And for what it's worth, I've been asked this several times and never had a problem sitting next to someone else's kid so they could ride. It's not a crazy request and most people aren't going to mind.)

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I can't see them giving you an actual RS (on magic bands) in that scenario. Each ride seems to handle this kind of thing differently, and sometimes it depends on the CM too, so I would ask. They *might* allow the two oldest to ride together with the youngest and one adult in the row directly behind them (same car). They might also allow a swap at the boarding area, with one adult taking one kid at a time. They may have another procedure. Another option, if you are all comfortable with it, is see if you find an odd-numbered party entering the line and ask them if someone might ride with one of your kids. When you get to the platform, include them in the number in your party (or vice versa) so that they and you will all be on the same train and directly in front of/ behind each other. Obviously, this is a little bit of work, but may be simpler than trying to do a swap at boarding. (And for what it's worth, I've been asked this several times and never had a problem sitting next to someone else's kid so they could ride. It's not a crazy request and most people aren't going to mind.)

Thanks. My oldest is only 2 minutes older than my youngest, so there's that. . Mine will be young 5s, so I'm not sure a CM will think they're close enough to 7 to let them ride in front of an adult, instead of next to them. From what I've been reading here, that's a firm "no" on Barnstormer with each car being separate, a depends-on-the-CM at 7DMT, and I haven't seen anything either way about SDD yet.

We are used to being outnumbered (we have passes to a local theme park and I take them by myself plenty) so they often make "line friends" so that we can all ride, or at least ride in fewer than 3 cycles. At our local parks, they will let the girls wait without an adult at the ride platform so, if I can't find extra adults, two wait while I ride back-to-back-to-back with each of them. That obviously doesn't fly at WDW.

The thing that makes this complicated is that they generally want to try a ride the first time with a parent. They're fine with a stranger on subsequent rides, but they want Mom or Dad for the first time, especially on coasters. They've never been to Disney, so every ride is going to be a first. We'll see if I can convince my bravest that riding right in front of me with another adult is good enough for a first ride.

 

[CouponGirl]

We hadn’t planned on using rider switch, as there’s only few rides that we plan to go on that the entire group can’t ride, but now I am thinking it may be beneficial in a couple of scenarios if I am understanding correctly....

We have four adults & two toddlers

1 - Two of the group were going to do a fast pass for test track & two for soarin (at a later time). While one group used their fast pass the other was going to do something with the kids. We just picked which attraction we thought each person would like the most, but it sounds like on those the other two adults could get the rider switch even though they don’t have a fast pass and still go do something with the little ones while the first group rides. Is that correct?

2 - One child is tall enough to ride Tomorrowland Speedway. I planned to have fast passes for all the adults and tall enough child could ride multiple times if he wants to. Downside is it would *possibly* get boring for too short child - I think he’d enjoy watching the cars for at least a little while. Now I am thinking one or two adults could get fast pass for dumbo (or something close by) and do rider switch for speedway. Only downside would be one adult would not get to ride with taller child and would have to ride alone. Am I thinking that through correctly?

 

[dmband]

The whole party only enters the queue if everybody is tall enough to ride. In that situation, no Rider Swap pass is actually given; the swap occurs at the loading area.

If someone is too short, everybody must approach the queue and request the Rider Swap. It will then be added to the bands of "party 2" (those who will ride second). It's a Rider Swap pass, not a regular FP, so no it won't interfere with other FPs booked for another attraction. Using your scenario:

• Everyone approaches the attraction (Mine Train)
• Rider Swap is requested and added for wife and oldest child, which will not have an open return time window yet
• You and oldest child tap your bands and ride Mine Train with your FP+ (the system cannot use the Rider Swap for oldest child because the return time is still in the future)
• Wife and youngest child go to Pooh or Dumbo and ride with their FP+, no conflict with Rider Swap because it is a different ride at a later time
• Everyone meets outside Mine Train and the Rider Swap return time window opens
• Wife and oldest tap in and ride Mine Train with Rider Swap
• You and youngest can ride something standby or get a snack or bathroom break or whatever.

Enjoy your vacation!

So there are two real differences vs the old paper ones.
1- you need everyone there to have their band scanned vs where one person could bring the child while other were eating or whatever
2- the return window is for an hr vs days

 

[Crusader10hky]

So there are two real differences vs the old paper ones.
1- you need everyone there to have their band scanned vs where one person could bring the child while other were eating or whatever
2- the return window is for an hr vs days

I wonder if you really need to have everyone present, or if you just need to have their magic bands (plus someone presenting a 'too-short' child).

We have a split stay planned, which means multiple reservation numbers, which means multiple magic band orders per person. I think I'm walking into this with 3 magic bands per person. Nothing is stored on an actual MB, it is just a 'digital key' to their MDE profile. You can have multiple copies of a key. If each person wears their own MB and we have a 'keychain' 2nd set of MBs for everyone, I wonder if this scenario would work:

6 people tall enough, and 1 infant. 3 original FPs



3FPs + 1 member of Party2 and infant arrive at FP gate to scan in and request rider swap, while remaining 2 members of Party2 are eating or whatever. RS is applied to 1 member of Party 2 and to the duplicate MBs of the 2 remaining members of Party 2 who are absent.


This isn't anything sketchy, just more convenient. I hope it works.

 

[M SH]

I wonder if you really need to have everyone present, or if you just need to have their magic bands (plus someone presenting a 'too-short' child).

We have a split stay planned, which means multiple reservation numbers, which means multiple magic band orders per person. I think I'm walking into this with 3 magic bands per person. Nothing is stored on an actual MB, it is just a 'digital key' to their MDE profile. You can have multiple copies of a key. If each person wears their own MB and we have a 'keychain' 2nd set of MBs for everyone, I wonder if this scenario would work:

6 people tall enough, and 1 infant. 3 original FPs



3FPs + 1 member of Party2 and infant arrive at FP gate to scan in and request rider swap, while remaining 2 members of Party2 are eating or whatever. RS is applied to 1 member of Party 2 and to the duplicate MBs of the 2 remaining members of Party 2 who are absent.


This isn't anything sketchy, just more convenient. I hope it works.

nope, everyone needs to be present i believe.

 

[jeremy1002]

2 questions:

1) do I understand correctly that Rider Switch passes are added individually to each band of everyone in party number 2?

2) does the CM manually set the return time, or is it done automatically? Like if you asked nicely, does the CM actually have the tools to set whatever time they want?

 

[M SH]

2 questions:

1) do I understand correctly that Rider Switch passes are added individually to each band of everyone in party number 2?

2) does the CM manually set the return time, or is it done automatically? Like if you asked nicely, does the CM actually have the tools to set whatever time they want?

yes to both.
If you are going through FP lane, the return time is set to what the CM thinks it takes to get through FP line (he used 1/2 hr for FOP).
If you are going through stand-by, they use the posted wait time.
In both cases you have 1 or 1.5 hours from the return time to use the RS pass.
We never tried to ask for a different time because we didn't need it. Party 2 went right after party 1 were out in our case.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Im 100% sure this has been answered already so apologies.

Our situation.

DH
DW
DD 4
DS 2

In the past we always rider swapped between parents so the other could hold DS, and DD always got to ride twice. Has this been stopped now with the digital tracking?

 

[lanejudy]

n the past we always rider swapped between parents so the other could hold DS, and DD always got to ride twice. Has this been stopped now with the digital tracking?

Your daughter will still be able to ride twice - once with each parent.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[jessicadisneygirl]

Just back from a trip and this thread was a great help to me when planning out rider swaps so I wanted to update on a little snag we hit. We had 2 adults and 2 kids, one too short for FOP. When making FPs for the ride, I was able to get an early morning time and just went ahead and made them for all of us since there were conflicting reports on whether the second adult (waiting out first ride with short child) would need to prove if they had one. Just FWIW, this never happened to us on either FoP or Expedition Everest.

This is where we messed up. I rode with older child and rider switch was put on her and husbands band. When I pulled them up in MDE they had no expiration time. The park was packed and Pandora was a mob by the time we came off our first ride. Son was also tired of waiting around doing nothing. So we left to do Safari and a few other things with intentions of coming back later. Well we went to EE to use our FP a few hours later and foolishly had a new rider switch added to my husbands band so he could ride with daughter. This caused the earlier unused one for FoP to be deleted! We didn’t realize this until standing in front of the ride when it didn’t work. And of course the earlier unused FP that he had on his account was long expired. Looking back we should have just used all the FPs and not even messed with rider switch. I had never ridden the ride and had no idea how long it would take to get through and thought rider switch would give us some cushion.

And as the real clencher, my daughter hated EE (it was her first time) and refused to ride again with my husband so he skipped that one as well.

Long story short, don’t try to have two rider switch passes on the same account at the same time. I stopped in guest services on the way out for the afternoon and asked just to see if what happened was what I thought. She confirmed that was correct, you can’t have two rider switches at the same time. Then she offered to basically reactivate it for us so my husband could ride that evening when we came back for RoL. Disney customer service at work! And what a great ride. Wish I had rode it more than once.

 

[Nathan.tan]

Just came back from a 10 day trip and wanted to confirm what has been written here. Everything on the process works as explained, but what I found was that there was not a 1 hour expiration on the RS even for FOP, Slinky Dog. I found this to be consistent for me. I rope dropped FOP while also having a fastpass. We got a rider switch for our fastpass and I didn't go right away because I already rode it in the morning. I noticed it was still on my MDE 5 hours later and tried it. I was able to use it well past the 1 hour time. This also occurred for me for the rest of the trip.

 

[rideswithchrist]

Oh man... I can see that we may not be able to follow a "normal touring plan" if we are using RS with a party of 6.
How many people can be in group 1?
If I get a FP for hubby and 3 kids, will I be able to get a RS for me and the kids ride again- or will only 2 kids be able to ride again?
OR would it just be easier to get a FP for 3 of our party and then RS for the other 2 of us to ride in group 2?

 

[ChrisCross27]

I have a party with 3 adults and one toddler. Can all 3 adults rider swap with one FP (1 in party 1, 2 in party 2)? Or should we plan 2 adults in party 1 and 1 adult in party 2? I’m so confused.

 

[mom22boys]

I have a party with 3 adults and one toddler. Can all 3 adults rider swap with one FP (1 in party 1, 2 in party 2)? Or should we plan 2 adults in party 1 and 1 adult in party 2? I’m so confused.

OP here, and to be honest I am still so confused too!

I just went ahead and booked FP+s for all of 12 of us (even for DNephew who is too short) for the big rides, just to be on the safe side.

 

[M SH]

I have a party with 3 adults and one toddler. Can all 3 adults rider swap with one FP (1 in party 1, 2 in party 2)? Or should we plan 2 adults in party 1 and 1 adult in party 2? I’m so confused.

You should be able to do that, but it’s probably safer to get 2 FPs for 2 adults.

 

[Nathan.tan]

I have a party with 3 adults and one toddler. Can all 3 adults rider swap with one FP (1 in party 1, 2 in party 2)? Or should we plan 2 adults in party 1 and 1 adult in party 2? I’m so confused.

If I understand you, 1 in your party can get a fast pass and the other 2 adults can get the RS.

 

[ChrisCross27]

If I understand you, 1 in your party can get a fast pass and the other 2 adults can get the RS.

Yes that’s what I am asking. Thank you.