We are going to try getting in line at FOP at the end of the night, however I have 1 short kid who can’t ride…will the castmembers still allow rider switch at the end of the night? For example, if parent #1 gets in line at 7:59pm (with park closing 8pm), and the rider switch window is for 60 minutes, will I (parent #2) still be allow to ride at 8.59pm? I thought the parks closed at 1 hour, or is this not even a potential situation as in, do castmember still honor rider switch at the end of the night?
I would be surprised if anyone was admitted back into the line for an attraction after the closing time for the park, however I don’t know for sure how rider swap would be handled in that situation and I’m interested in the answer.
I asked this in chat and bumped it several times. No one knew. I was really hoping a regular with a shorter might give it a try just to see. The best suggestion was to talk with guest services about adding a return that would go until the next day. Although I know that might not be useful for us since we don’t hop or do same park back to back.
I haven’t done it myself right before closing. However I can confirm that the RS window is not for only one hour. The RS FPP usually stays in your plans for at least 24 hrs.
CM are usually very helpful and they have enormous control on how to set up the FPP times. I would ask them just to confirm. If they deny you the RD then that would be the end of it.
I would be really surprised if they let anyone in even a minute after park closing and even with RS.
I know this isn’t an answer, but I would suggest NOT waiting until 7:59. ASSUME you won’t be allowed back in the line after closing, and plan accordingly. So, get there well before closing if you are going to use RS just to be safe. Of course, if a CM tells you otherwise, fine. I just wouldn’t bet on it.
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Wait, so RS isn’t time limited to an hour? So if I do BTMR at 10:30 with RS, and then something comes up that prevents my wife from getting back until 1, that should work?
That is correct. RS is not limited to one hour. A RS FPP lasts at least 24 hrs from my experience 2 weeks ago.
That’s great. That was the thing I was dreading from the switch from paper to digital, because with the paper FPs it came in handy a couple of times. Looking forward to trying that and will report back here after my trip in two weeks.
Now here’s a question for all you Liner experts: If you have a Rider Swap FPP and you have an anytime FPP, is the system smart enough to know tio use the Rider Swap FPP?
While I don’t know the answer I would say for the example of 7:59 it is no. I imagine the 1st person would be on one of the last rides of the night so by the time the switch took place the ride would be shut down.
Would it be an option for one parent to RD and the other to get in line at the end of the night? That might be a really long day, but I’m pretty sure they cut the line off at park closing, no matter what.
While at AK in mid January, we wanted to check on this as well, and the cast member organizing the line confirmed that you can do RS for FOP at the end of the night, even though the return would happen after park close. We asked the castmember at the line to confirm this would work since the plan was to jump in line a few minutes before close, wait the two hours, and then swap who was waiting with the kid and return to get in line and ride again, even though the park would have been closed for awhile at that point. The cast member said that they usually have several people do this and they do keep the ride open for those swaps. We ended up not wanting to have the toddler wait 2 hours since it was unusually cold the evening we went, but were surprised they allowed this to begin with!
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Wow, I’m really surprised to hear that too. Although I guess that really only means they have to keep it open one more show since it probably isn’t that many people doing RS. But definitely a long wait for the waiting parent and toddler. Is it really still a 2 hour line at park close? Man!
That’s really amazing. Thanks for the info.
I have never found it to be that long. More like 30-60 minutes in my experience (despite what might be posted).
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When we jumped in line at park close it was 110 posted, and ended up being very close to that. This was on a VERY busy day at AK (CL 10, predicted 7) where posted FOP line times were basically always 180-240 minutes. So likely not a usual occurrence. But the cast member said they would still allow RS that late!
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I would honestly hope and pray that you get that same cast member there when you try to come back 2 hours after closing. The RS itself is electronic in MDE and I don’t think that this (super duper technical) system would even be able to handle a return window after closing time.
I don’t know the answer to the anytime FPP vs Rider Swap question, but I would just take a minute to stop and ask the CM before I tap in because they can probably override and do the correct one if needed. My hope would be that priority would be to take RS first, then regular FPP then Anytime FPP if all are valid simultaneously, but then, the RS doesn’t expire so there might be somebody who wants to use the FPP first so it doesn’t expire, or to double up on headliner rides (ex: Family of 5, one child too short for FOP. 4 who are tall enough get FPP, 2 ride with FPP and do rider swap. Then other 2 ride on FPP ride and also do rider swap. Result is parents ride 2x and kids ride 3x.)
Key to remember, if I remember correctly, with Digital Rider Swap, you can only hold one rider swap at a time. Unlike paper rider swap where you could collect them to use later, you can only have one at a time. I think if you don’t use it and then do another rider swap, the new one will just replace the old.
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This has not been my experience. I get a new RS FPP regardless if I have other RS in queue or not, there is no replacement.
Really? I thought it was explicitly called out by Disney in the info about Digital Rider Swap that you could only have one. Maybe I’m remembering it wrong.
I do know that in September at RD for BTMRR they didn’t have the scanner working for rider swap so they were issuing paper ones that were only good for one hour. I thought that was consistent with trying not to let people have more than one at a time.
Did you later go back and use multiple rider swap passes you accumulated from early in the day?
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