Here Now! Rider Switch Update!

poptart90

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Booked MP for Star Tours. DH and DS waited through FP line (which was around the corner by the bathrooms) and we met at the CM for a rider switch. Was issued WITH a specific time attached. Must be used within that hour or lose the rider switch. Our FP started at 12:50pm, by the time DH waited in FP line and redeemed (at 1:13pm) my rider switch was issued for 2:13-3:13pm. Thought I'd let others know. I'm not going to be going on Star Tours, unfortunately. DD is ready for her nap so I will take her back to hotel. My hope was to do what we've accomplished with rider switch in the past and ride this evening with my DS after returning to the park. I will miss the flexibility of the old system. I appreciated Disney's attention to the person doing the heavy lifting of family care at the time- Mommy or Daddy (or ---insert relative)...much the same way Mom got to be in the family photo with PhotoPass. ;)

Anyway! There's the update I promised. I will post more as the trip progresses or there are any changes in CM knowledge or policy that I encounter. :)
 
Horrible. I just sent this to guest services (a summary of the things I've already shared here). I urge everyone who is bummed about this change to do the same:


I am writing to share how disappointed I am that Disney has changed the Rider Swap program so that the second party must now ride within an hour window after the first rider. As a mom, I'm used to missing out on stuff, but it was so nice to have the option to maybe try again later. Your previous Rider Swap policy was a special something about Disney that this mom of a young toddler appreciated beyond words. Disney with a baby or toddler doesn't always go as planned. If I have to immediately ride every time we did a rider swap I simply won’t be able to ride a lot of the time. Being able to come back in an hour or later on in the day has always been very convenient when you are dealing with a diaper blowout or toddler meltdown or food emergency or whatever else can happen with a very young child. I prefer to rider swap immediately, but things simply don't always go as planned!


My 2-year-old won't just hang out and wait with me near the exit while my husband rides something. I need to entertain him in some way. Feed him, change his diaper, take him somewhere he can run around (in which case I might have to move my stroller, then repark it when I come back it can take time to find new stroller parking). Having more flexibility was really valuable (for this mom anyway) and I am just so disappointment that this is no longer the case. I really hope Disney will consider going back to the old policy, which allowed the second party to return any time in the same day.
 
Noooo. We get Rider Switch then use them for when kids are sleeping in the stroller... I don't like this change

Btw, do you know if a person in the 1st group could get Rider Switch pass along with the 2nd group? Before they change the system, DS and DH would use fastpasses for Star Tours (DS's favorite ride) then I'll take DS with me on ST again with Rider Switch since it was good for up to 3 people.
 
SOCalMouseMom could you add the email address you used? I'll write them as well if I know where to do so and others might as well if they knew where. Thanks!
 


Forgot a couple of important points:

1. Was issued a FP as a rider switch once the first party scanned their FP. It replaced my FP with a new FP that was good beginning ONE HOUR LATER.

2. Watched the CM make a rider switch 2nd party wait to the side because they were 6 minutes early to the start of their "rider switch hour". So you may not ride back-to-back. You have to wait until your hour is good. Like a traditional FP. (She did say they'd let you in 5 minutes early)

3. The CM told us that my son (one person) could come back in that hour to ride with me. She scanned his ticket to add the extra rider switch FP. Never showed up on my phone. I have only one FP valid for return an hour after my family rides.

I will watch this on the next rider switch attempt and get an answer from the CM on what I should do when only one FP shows...if that continues to be the case, what's the point? I'm not here to ride Star Tours (etc) by myself, right? And where exactly is the "switch"???????:rotfl:

More to come!!
 
Forgot a couple of important points:

1. Was issued a FP as a rider switch once the first party scanned their FP. It replaced my FP with a new FP that was good beginning ONE HOUR LATER.
So if instead of requesting the swap you had just ridden after they exited the ride, you could have used your original FP without waiting the additional time? I supposed that may be preferable to many than having to wait, assuming the first group can get through the ride without the first FP window.
 
I don't even use RS but I try to stay up to date with stuff- I thought I couldn't be reading this right. You got FPs (essentially waiting your turn) picked up a rider switch- and had to wait an EXTRA hour before your rider switch was valid?! And then you confirmed that actually happened. *jaw drop* That's ridiculous. I'm so glad you told City Hall it's 100% messed up. I wonder if it's an error, like the RS is supposed to be valid for 1 hour from the time of issuance but IT screwed it up?
 


I don't even use RS but I try to stay up to date with stuff- I thought I couldn't be reading this right. You got FPs (essentially waiting your turn) picked up a rider switch- and had to wait an EXTRA hour before your rider switch was valid?! And then you confirmed that actually happened. *jaw drop* That's ridiculous. I'm so glad you told City Hall it's 100% messed up. I wonder if it's an error, like the RS is supposed to be valid for 1 hour from the time of issuance but IT screwed it up?
I suppose there could be just as many times when the first party isn't done within the hour and starting the window right away would also end up with the second party not riding. Extending the return window 30 minutes instead of an hour would likely be sufficient for most queue and ride lengths, though.
 
I too prefer to swap immediately, but have loved the old policy of flexibility if that didn't work out.

In our example today, by the time DH and DS exited the ride. I still had 40 minutes to wait until my rider switch was even VALID.

How is that a rider switch? To be fair, my whole family waited for our 3 FPs to be good for Star Tours (an hour in this case) and then my DH and DS waited 20 minutes in the FP line while DD and I waited outside.

Shouldn't we get to skip the additional wait time necessary to activate a rider switch FP? How much time is our family supposed to dedicate to one ride or one particular area of the park just so our son can "switch" to ride with both parents...so a child or parent doesn't miss out. That was the point, right? The "rider" was the CHILD. Switching to build incredible Disney memories with both parents. No one left out. The reason we've become annual pass holders and exclusively traveled to DL for our vacations these last several years.

Excuse the vent. Feeling bummed. Three minutes left on my "solo" rider switch pass...for real? Goin' to change my avatar to Disney Nanny instead!
 
Sorry to the OP who had this change happen during their trip. We were visiting with our three little ones 7, 4, and 1 when they began issuing the RS passes on the tickets (and also when they put the FP on tickets the month before). Change mid-trip is never fun. Thank you for letting us know about the change so we can all be prepared. I do not like this at change, and it will definitely impact how we use RS at the parks.

As it is, my husband and I often don't use RS even after asking for them because it's still inconvenient for us to do so. For those who think that those of us using the RS system are somehow gaming the system, we're not. It takes TWICE as long to ride each ride in this manner. I would much, much rather ride together as a family then RS (one of the main reasons I can't justify a trip to WDW until our youngest is at least 40"). The RS system is nice because it means my husband and I can ride the big rides, but it's inconvenient because it ties us down into doing the same attraction for an extended time. Now this one hour window ties you down even more. If you FP RSR at 11:00 and are off by 11:20 but you can't use your RS pass until 12:00 that means you need to stay in the general area for another 40 minutes OR backtrack all the way across the park. We'll probably end up only using RS on rides like RSR and Guardians that are popular and difficult to get FP for. And we'll likely just split up more often where one of us takes one kid and the other takes two depending on which big ride(s) we're going for.
 
How is that a rider switch? To be fair, my whole family waited for our 3 FPs to be good for Star Tours (an hour in this case) and then my DH and DS waited 20 minutes in the FP line while DD and I waited outside.

It seems to me they could fix this problem by giving a two hour window that starts as soon as the RS is scanned onto the ticket. Or a window that is equal to double the current wait time plus ride time. That way even if the wait and ride were especially long it would still be enough time for the riders to use the bathroom, get a drink, and meet up to switch, but still immediate so you didn't have to wait around in the same area of the park so that you could use the SP "soon."

ETA or if they can't do immediate because they're afraid of people abusing the system, they could still make it a 30 minute out pass.
 
So if instead of requesting the swap you had just ridden after they exited the ride, you could have used your original FP without waiting the additional time? I supposed that may be preferable to many than having to wait, assuming the first group can get through the ride without the first FP window.

With your example above, how does my son come back through the FP line to ride with me?
 
Booked MP for Star Tours. DH and DS waited through FP line (which was around the corner by the bathrooms) and we met at the CM for a rider switch. Was issued WITH a specific time attached. Must be used within that hour or lose the rider switch. Our FP started at 12:50pm, by the time DH waited in FP line and redeemed (at 1:13pm) my rider switch was issued for 2:13-3:13pm. Thought I'd let others know. I'm not going to be going on Star Tours, unfortunately. DD is ready for her nap so I will take her back to hotel. My hope was to do what we've accomplished with rider switch in the past and ride this evening with my DS after returning to the park. I will miss the flexibility of the old system. I appreciated Disney's attention to the person doing the heavy lifting of family care at the time- Mommy or Daddy (or ---insert relative)...much the same way Mom got to be in the family photo with PhotoPass. ;)

Anyway! There's the update I promised. I will post more as the trip progresses or there are any changes in CM knowledge or policy that I encounter. :)

Poptart, thank you for updating us. We'll be there in just over two weeks and had wanted to use rider swap for the first time. However, these changes sound really inconvenient. The idea of waiting around for the rider swap window to open up seems, to me, to defeat the whole purpose.. :(
 
Forgot a couple of important points:

2. Watched the CM make a rider switch 2nd party wait to the side because they were 6 minutes early to the start of their "rider switch hour". So you may not ride back-to-back. You have to wait until your hour is good. Like a traditional FP. (She did say they'd let you in 5 minutes early)

3. The CM told us that my son (one person) could come back in that hour to ride with me. She scanned his ticket to add the extra rider switch FP. Never showed up on my phone. I have only one FP valid for return an hour after my family rides.

Oh man. This makes things even HARDER. What is the point of rider switch then? You should just get fast passes and ride separately. Ugh, this is so incredibly disappointing!
 
It seems to me they could fix this problem by giving a two hour window that starts as soon as the RS is scanned onto the ticket. Or a window that is equal to double the current wait time plus ride time. That way even if the wait and ride were especially long it would still be enough time for the riders to use the bathroom, get a drink, and meet up to switch, but still immediate so you didn't have to wait around in the same area of the park so that you could use the SP "soon."

ETA or if they can't do immediate because they're afraid of people abusing the system, they could still make it a 30 minute out pass.
The hour wait is pretty disappointing and I hope they adjust it. A two hour immediate window sounds best for the new system.

I'm still unclear on additional riders. Can you no longer bring up to 3 (or was it 2) guests on one switch?
 
With your example above, how does my son come back through the FP line to ride with me?
He wouldn't, but in this case you didn't get to ride at all. At least you would have ridden.

Disney has never said the point of rider swap is for a child to have a memory with both parents. It is so the parent that stays with a non-rider doesn't have to wait through the entire queue. There are families with more than 2 children who can ride and they have to choose who rides twice. It's nice that Disney makes it so the parent that waits doesn't have to wait or ride alone by allowing up to 2 additional people, but the wait time and number of riders may not work for everyone.
 
Wow that stinks. Try on other rides and tell us if it's the same. As a family of 5 with just one kid who's too short we will probably end up dividing in half and using our own fast passes instead of rider switch then. Will take some thought and planning so that the two hanging with the little have something to do but don't miss their fast pass window. Or one parent takes shorty and skips the bigger rides
 
I think there's no one way to appease everyone every time. This change is obviously to stop people from gaming the system. Like how one poster picked up a rider swap and then merrily went about riding several other rides in other lands with plans to come back later in the evening.. There was no child emergency, they were just using RS as a tool to schedule evening rides & keep picking up FPs. Might be better for parents to just FastPass the big rides and "switch" on their own. It's the same thing! Think Disney has made it this way on purpose so there isn't a real benefit to it. Perhaps they'll do away with it altogether, is my guess.
 
I've always swapped immediately. It kind of seems annoying to have to return later if your party happens to get through quickly. And, I totally get what people are saying about not always getting to return. I have 3 kids of my own. I've missed out on so many things. I hope Disney takes everyone's comments into consideration and comes up with a decent solution. I think I'll stick with what I've been doing lately anyway. We get FP for everyone who is tall enough in the party to ride who wants to. Then, one of us waits with everyone else and rides alone through FP after the others are done. It's a little lonelier, but at least we all get to ride within a relatively short period of time.
 
It seems to me they could fix this problem by giving a two hour window that starts as soon as the RS is scanned onto the ticket. Or a window that is equal to double the current wait time plus ride time. That way even if the wait and ride were especially long it would still be enough time for the riders to use the bathroom, get a drink, and meet up to switch, but still immediate so you didn't have to wait around in the same area of the park so that you could use the SP "soon."

ETA or if they can't do immediate because they're afraid of people abusing the system, they could still make it a 30 minute out pass.
Yes, that would be a great compromise!

I called Disney relations earlier and this is what she told me: the exact time the rider pass is issued (start time) is based on the stand-by time (which could be over an hour or under 30 min).

The end time of the rider swap is exactly one hour after that start time.

So if hubby breezes through the fastpass line in 10 min, it doesn't matter. If the standby time says 55 min, then you can't even return to the ride for 55 min!!! No immediate swap.

If they were trying to curb the rider pass abusers, you would think they would at least let you do immediate swap,right?

My theory all along is that they are making this hard so that we all give in and just buy maxpass.
 
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