Child Swap

tiffanymarie813

is awaiting vacation to WDW
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Hi Everyone -
So I am so new to going to Disney with a little child. Can someone explain child swap to me? My main question is so we will have my husbands mom and grandmom with us, can they ride while we stay with baby and then we ride and they stay with baby?

Thanks
 
So what we did is our whole party, with the child, went up to the cast member at the front of the line (where they check the height of riders) and we said “we will need to do a rider swap.” The cast member will give you a lanyard with something that says rider swap or similar and then you go through the ride. When you are done, give the lanyard to whoever was waiting with the baby the first time. They show the lanyard to the cm at the front of the line and get to go through the fast pass line. A cast member further down the queue collects the lanyard. I hope I’m explaining that correctly! That was how they were doing it when we went 2 years ago!
 
Rider swap is digital now and lanyards and paper passes are no longer given.

The way it works now is the entire party (including the too short child) approaches the CM at the queue. You ask for a rider swap and show the child (who may be measured if they look close to the height requirement). Tell them who will be riding in Group 1 and who will be waiting with the child and riding in Group 2. Up to 3 people can be in Group 2 and it can include people from Group 1. So for instance if you have 4 adults (you, DH, mom, and MIL), mom and MIL could be in Group 1, and Group 2 could be you, DH, and EITHER mom OR MIL (or you could just do you and DH). Those in Group 2 will get the rider swap added to their magic band (or park ticket if you don't have a magic band). Group 1 enters the line and rides while Group 2 waits with the child and does whatever they want outside the line (go on a different ride, get a snack, whatever). When Group 1 is done riding, they watch the child while Group 2 enters the FP line and rides. Each person can have 1 rider swap at a time listed on their magic band/ticket and cannot get another until it is used.
 
Rider swap is digital now and lanyards and paper passes are no longer given.

The way it works now is the entire party (including the too short child) approaches the CM at the queue. You ask for a rider swap and show the child (who may be measured if they look close to the height requirement). Tell them who will be riding in Group 1 and who will be waiting with the child and riding in Group 2. Up to 3 people can be in Group 2 and it can include people from Group 1. So for instance if you have 4 adults (you, DH, mom, and MIL), mom and MIL could be in Group 1, and Group 2 could be you, DH, and EITHER mom OR MIL (or you could just do you and DH). Those in Group 2 will get the rider swap added to their magic band (or park ticket if you don't have a magic band). Group 1 enters the line and rides while Group 2 waits with the child and does whatever they want outside the line (go on a different ride, get a snack, whatever). When Group 1 is done riding, they watch the child while Group 2 enters the FP line and rides. Each person can have 1 rider swap at a time listed on their magic band/ticket and cannot get another until it is used.
How would that work if one of the second party didn't want to go after all ? Would their magic band contain the rider swap to prevent them from getting one on a different ride later ? We will be heading down as a group next year and forsee this happening. Thanks.
 
How would that work if one of the second party didn't want to go after all ? Would their magic band contain the rider swap to prevent them from getting one on a different ride later ? We will be heading down as a group next year and forsee this happening. Thanks.

The only way this could possibly be an issue is if the person who has the rider swap added to their magic band and doesn't use it tries to get another rider swap (for another ride) added to their band. At that point, the CM will tell them that they can only have one rider swap on their band at a time and ask if they want to keep the one they have or remove it and add the rider swap for the new ride. So it's not really an issue. Any ride CM can remove an unwanted rider swap so you can obtain a different one.

Having a rider swap on your magic band does not affect your ability to ride anything in the standby lines or using a FP.
 
Sorry Im a bit confused. So when using a swap within a group, both parties do not go through the line together and then one party or person rides/swap is done inside ride area/other person or group goes on? I didnt realize as LongLiveRafiki mentions that one party would have enough time to go go do something else? That is a huge time gap, or am I missing something?
 


Sorry Im a bit confused. So when using a swap within a group, both parties do not go through the line together and then one party or person rides/swap is done inside ride area/other person or group goes on? I didnt realize as LongLiveRafiki mentions that one party would have enough time to go go do something else? That is a huge time gap, or am I missing something?
At WDW no one too short for a ride can enter a line so if my husband, son and I are outside of FOP and my son is too short hubby uses his FP and I get a swap for after while I wait with my son outside the line. Since FOP has a long pre-show and is a longer ride we have time to do something else while hubby rides and then I would use my swap to ride.
 
The only way this could possibly be an issue is if the person who has the rider swap added to their magic band and doesn't use it tries to get another rider swap (for another ride) added to their band. At that point, the CM will tell them that they can only have one rider swap on their band at a time and ask if they want to keep the one they have or remove it and add the rider swap for the new ride. So it's not really an issue. Any ride CM can remove an unwanted rider swap so you can obtain a different one.

Having a rider swap on your magic band does not affect your ability to ride anything in the standby lines or using a FP.

That answers my question completely , thanks.
 
Rider swap is digital now and lanyards and paper passes are no longer given.

The way it works now is the entire party (including the too short child) approaches the CM at the queue. You ask for a rider swap and show the child (who may be measured if they look close to the height requirement). Tell them who will be riding in Group 1 and who will be waiting with the child and riding in Group 2. Up to 3 people can be in Group 2 and it can include people from Group 1. So for instance if you have 4 adults (you, DH, mom, and MIL), mom and MIL could be in Group 1, and Group 2 could be you, DH, and EITHER mom OR MIL (or you could just do you and DH). Those in Group 2 will get the rider swap added to their magic band (or park ticket if you don't have a magic band). Group 1 enters the line and rides while Group 2 waits with the child and does whatever they want outside the line (go on a different ride, get a snack, whatever). When Group 1 is done riding, they watch the child while Group 2 enters the FP line and rides. Each person can have 1 rider swap at a time listed on their magic band/ticket and cannot get another until it is used.

So now that it's digital, can my older child still be in both "groups"? Can he ride with my husband while I wait with my daughter and then also ride with me?
 
So now that it's digital, can my older child still be in both "groups"? Can he ride with my husband while I wait with my daughter and then also ride with me?

@TinkLoverSam is correct. Up to 3 people can ride in Group 2, and it can include people who ride in Group 1. If you had 2 kids who were tall enough for instance, both could ride twice along with the adult who waited.
 
Do the people in group 2 need fastpasses for the ride?
Example
3 adults 3 kids. 1 is tall enough 2 are not.
We are fastpassing Kali River Rapids

1 adult haas fast pass and 1 kid and do rider swap they go on first
Other 2 adult and 2 kids have a fast pass for something else and go on it.

can 1 of those without a fastpass on Kali, go on Kali with the rider swap in group 2 with the kid who went already? or does everyone need fastpasses for Kali for this to work?

Not trying to "game" the system, but trying to make sure the 2nd group with the younguns have something to do (with fastpass) while we go on Kali (or whatever), and that thing isn't waiting in line for 2 hrs for the next attraction
 
Do the people in group 2 need fastpasses for the ride?
Example
3 adults 3 kids. 1 is tall enough 2 are not.
We are fastpassing Kali River Rapids

1 adult haas fast pass and 1 kid and do rider swap they go on first
Other 2 adult and 2 kids have a fast pass for something else and go on it.

can 1 of those without a fastpass on Kali, go on Kali with the rider swap in group 2 with the kid who went already? or does everyone need fastpasses for Kali for this to work?

Not trying to "game" the system, but trying to make sure the 2nd group with the younguns have something to do (with fastpass) while we go on Kali (or whatever), and that thing isn't waiting in line for 2 hrs for the next attraction

Now that seems to be the greatest mystery surrounding rider swap as of late. Personally, whenever I have gone FP was never required for Group 2, and several friends and family members have had the same experience. There have been some reports on here of CM asking if everyone has FP or saying all in Group 2 need FP. I think the reports have only been for certain rides, SDMT, SDD, and possibly FOP. Several other people on here have reported that Group 2 did not need FP at any ride on their recent trips. Contacting Disney (through chat, email, or phone) about this question is pretty much pointless as sometimes the answer is yes and other times no. Many of us have shared our conflicting answers here on the board after asking Disney reps (phone, chat, email), if you care to do a search on the boards.

Disney doesn't have a written, publicized policy about whether Group 2 needs FP, so basically it appears to be however the CM at the ride when you ask for rider swap decides to handle it. With most rides, you probably won't have an issue. With a couple of the most popular rides, you might (but you might not too).
 
This was shared recently by Disney’s official guest services Twitter account.
 

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On our recent trip this week we successfully used rider swap with only the first group having fastpasses for the following rides: SDD, TOT, SOARIN, TEST TRACK, Space mountain, BTMR, Splash, SDMT, EVEREST, FOP.

Also note, some of the rides have the rider swap cast member a little bit away from the ride entrance. This was the case with SDD and FOP.
 
Tell me more about this "child swap". Is this a new system where I can swap my hot, tired, cranky kid for a fresh one? 😂
 
On our recent trip this week we successfully used rider swap with only the first group having fastpasses for the following rides: SDD, TOT, SOARIN, TEST TRACK, Space mountain, BTMR, Splash, SDMT, EVEREST, FOP.

Also note, some of the rides have the rider swap cast member a little bit away from the ride entrance. This was the case with SDD and FOP.
This is great first hand reporting. Thank you for posting.
 
I was following this thread for our trip and want to share our experience with rider swap this trip. We got rider swaps on every ride with a height limit and never had an issue with the second group not having fastpass, even on SDMT and FOP. We all had fastpass for SDD so no experience on that one. The CM always asked, “Is the first group using fastpass or stand-by?” We were never asked if the second group had fastpass. The rider swaps were always valid for the rest of the day so we didn’t have to use them right away. Worked great for us!
 

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