We will be in Disneyland in October. We have in the past used the single rider lines because DD was old enough. However, this time, we will have the almost 3 yr old with us and dont know if it would be faster to get in the main line and use child swap or use single rider twice in a row. Or…can you use childswap in the single rider line??? A whole different experience with a preschooler lol.
I assume it’s the same as at WDW and you can’t get a child swap pass in the single rider line.
To my knowledge, you can’t get a rider swap in a single rider line. But you can combine FP and rider swap.
In a related topic, I am wondering the best fastpass strategy for California Adventure. I have a 5 yr old son and a 7 yr old daughter. My son won’t do Guardian of the Galaxy, but the big sister will try it.
Staying off-site. Planning to go on a day when California Adventure does not have EMH and planning to be there at rope drop.
My plan is to go to the GotG first, get a child swap and let my wife/daughter do the ride as stand-by. While they are on GotG, go get FP for RSR.
Depending on the return time window of RSR, the stand-by wait at GotG and if my daughter liked the GotG, maybe ride it again stand-by and get another child swap (we’ll have two child swap for later in the day). If line is already long, then save the one child swap for later and do something else before RSR.
Please share thoughts. Thanks!
No rider switch in the single rider lines. Rider switch will be the same amount of time as FP line and is good for up to 3 people when using it. Not sure which is faster but do know not all rides have single rider.
So I think it’s a fine plan to rope drop GotG & get a rider swap & then go get RSR FPs. But as far as saving rider switch passes for later, that is no longer possible. When you ask for rider switch now, it is all done digitally and scanned onto your park ticket with just a 1 hr window to redeem ( the window doesn’t start until 15 min after it’s scanned into your ticket allowing the first riding group in your party time to get on & off the ride). So gone are the days of holding onto rider switches to use at the end of the day since they now have to be used right then & there.
However, your RSR FP window may be soon enough that if your daughter likes it enough you can get another FP for it once the RSR FP window opens up. And they aren’t that far away from each other so going back & forth to fit them all in wont be a problem with the plan, even with the change up in rider switch.
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That’s a bummer. I’m more familiar with WDW than DL. At WDW (even with FP+ as of last year), the “paper” rider switch passes were truly magical. Depending on when they printed them, you could even keep the rider switch for future days (I’ve seen one week window to use them). And we were even getting 4 FP+, switch the magic bands between son/daughter and get two rider switch passes. And I often gave unused passes at the end of the trip to strangers, when my kids just had enough. But thank you very much for the info. I will adjust my strategy knowing that.
I see that Disneyland.com has been updated accordingly, although they don’t explain how you can combine FP and Rider Switches.
Do you know how it works these days? Technically, I believe the waiting adult should have a FP. But if they load the rider switch on the waiting adult ticket (with a one hour window to use it), does the waiting adult need a FP as well?
On Disneyland.com, it says that the waiting adult “must wait in the designated area”. Do they enforce that? 
Is it because they load the rider switch after they ride? Or I can walk to the RSR FP kiosk to get them. Or get an ice cream somewhere?
Any info on the subject (combo of FP and Rider Switch) would be great. Thanks again!
We witnessed the magic of those WDW paper FPs last year when we went (all of them were good until the end of the month). We were able to gift our extras to a friend who arrived the day we left, so yes it’s a bummer. DL’s paper rider switches were usually only good for that same day but it was still nice to have them in your back pocket for when everything worth riding a 2nd time was either 45+ min wait and had no (or super late) FPs.
But anywho, on the FP/Rider switch combo, your mileage may vary but I found as long as I had proof that there was a non-riding adult staying back with a too small person, & everyone going through the initial FP line had a FP & was ready with the 3 tickets for them to load rider switch into they didn’t necessarily care if the waiting adult had a FP or not but again, your mileage may vary.
In over 100 park days over 4 yrs, using rider switch on probably upwards of 90% of those days I yet to be told to wait in designated waiting area so I have no idea what that is about or where it would even be. I believe it’s just more important that at the time you are asking for rider switch you can show proof that there is a non-rider who would like to ride but needs to stay back with someone who cannot ride. So just make sure the adult staying back and child who cannot ride are near you & can be pointed out to the CM manning the line you are joining. After that, they are free to go get ice cream! Just make sure they rendez vous back fairly soon to redeem their rider switch!
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Just returned from my trip to Southern California.
Overall, the FP/Rider switch combo generally worked well. On GotG, the CM might offer you to do the rider switch at the elevator loading area (so the party can ride it back-to-back and do the child swap between the rides). But if you insist that you prefer to wait outside of the ride, they could load the rider switch on the tickets.
Regarding the question whether the waiting adult needed a FP as well, they didn’t really care. But on the most popular rides running out of FP early, we had FP on all four tickets and asked for Rider Switch on the second ride (to get a third ride for my daughter and a second ride for one of the adult).
The CM were not always very clear regarding the return time of the Rider Switch.
The one advice I would give is even if you are not using the Maxpass (we didn’t and we walked a lot to get FP), I recommend downloading the app and linking your park tickets to your account. This way, once you get a Rider Switch, you can see the Rider Switch return time on the app. And you can use the app to enter the FP queue (and sometime re-scan the FP when they merge with the stand-by). This way, you can have the waiting adult getting more FP using the park tickets.
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