I think the discussion was mixing up the case of everyone having a FP versus the case of where only some of the party had a FP. The case when they had to come back “way later” indicates a situation where they are calculating based on SB wait time since not everyone had a FP. But if everyhone has a FP, they calculate return time based on the FP wait time instead.
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yes, generally speaking. that was in a reply about a party without a fastpass though, little out of context. I was referring to a situation where the RS was given for the length of the standby line because the other party didn’t have a fastpass.
So? I’m not sure why that’s a problem.
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It’s a discussion, and what I said about it starting immediately after came from Disney, it’s not my personal opinion.
Thank you.
They’ve paid for their ticket and are entitled to 3 FPs that they can use, the same as everybody else. That’s why it’s a problem.
but the parents are entitled to extra fastpasses if they want to ride things their kids aren’t tall enough for. 
That’s fine. I agree.
But what I don’t agree with, then, is that if they choose to have a different FP than the rest of the party that the rest of the party gets to RS without the SB wait.
In practice, I would see it play out like this for a family of, say, 4 with one DAS (DS) child. Dad and DD have FPs for Space Mountain. Mom and DS have FPs for, I don’t know…the Little Mermaid.
- Family arrives at SM and request RS. SB line is 1 hour. FP line is 5 minutes. Dad and DD go on the ride, and the RS return time for Mom and DS (who won’t ride SM) is set for 1 hour.
- Dad and DD go and ride while Mom and DS wait.
- 7 minutes later, they all head to Little Mermaid where the SB line is 30 minutes, but the FP line has no wait. They request RS for Dad and DD, which has a return time of 30 minutes. Mom and DS ride, and are off in 5 minutes.
- Now, 25 minutes later, Dad and DD ride Mermaid. (In that 25 minute period, they can all do something else if they want.)
- By the time they get off, the window for SM opens up. Mom rides, and takes DD with her as her “extra”.
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100% this.
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I don’t see any reason for them not to get the rider swap after the length of the standby wait either - that’s just not how Disney have chosen to do it.
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At least, not officially. I wish they would make it official and clearly stated, though.
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It’s not for you or me, but i think we both know there are people who will go yell at CMs over this. I’m guessing the frequency of complaints factored into the policy.
When i had 2 kids that were 2 and 4, my wife and i just didn’t ride anything the kids couldn’t ride. I didn’t even know RS existed but i don’t think it would have mattered anyway.
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Yes the policy should be clearly spelt out on their site and it should be stuck to.
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Truth is, at Disney there is a LOT that families can ride together, so we are talking about a small subset of rides. But my wife and I took advantage of RS, for sure, with younger kids when it was a ride they couldn’t do and we wanted to. It wasn’t often.
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I think this whole scenario, though, does point out one of the fundamental issues I have with the FP system. It takes so much effort and coordination on the part of guests. Who, at 60 days out, wants to have to think through all the details of how they are going to manage all of this? (I mean, SOME people might, but a vast majority, not.)
Without FP, this all becomes rather moot.
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It matters when you have a 5 yo who has fallen in love with the fast rides and that’s all she wants to ride, but you also have a 2 yo who thinks that FEA, Haunted Mansion and Pirates are too scary. Our 2 yo loved the People Mover most, which didn’t satisfy the 5 yo at all. And of course, we knew none of this before showing up.
You do what you have to do to make your kids happy at the happiest place on earth. We unexpectedly spent 90% of our time doing rider swaps.
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Is this a reliable source?
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Well I wouldn’t take it without the corroborating evidence of hundreds of liners and other people using rider swap on other sites.
The link wording actually made it sound like the article said the opposite. I posted before i read it.