I’m looking for a rundown on Rider Swap and if anyone has any personal experience and possibly recent experience as well.
Heres an example, I have 9 in my group in which 6 will ride Soarin via standby at RD. The other 3, which includes my Dgd3, DW, and DMiL will stay behind. How do we utilize the Rider Swap in this situation? What’s the process?
Those entering the Standby line will ask for a rider swap (have all of your party nearby in case they want to visually verify). The party of 6 will go thru the standby line, ride Soarin’, and will give you the Rider Swap paper pass when they exit. The other party can then enter the FPP line using the Rider Swap.
There is a nice sit down area directly between the ride entrance and the exit. From left to right, entrance, seating area, exit. There are also tables and chairs nearby as well.
Rider Swap allows for a total of 3 to ride. So if Dgd3 can’t ride, someone else gets to ride 2x
Ok sounds simple enough. Now if we are also riding Soarin again later in the day, this time using fpp, I should only need to pre-book 6 fpp’s correct? (6fpp+3RS from earlier)??? I realize there are chances we are taking doing this…like if Soarin is down when we initially show up for the first ride at RD and we aren’t able to get RS. Anything else I’m missing? Will this work at Test Track as well?
I suggest you just ask the CM at the ride entrance. Each ride might have SLIGHT differences in how they handle it, but the CM will clarify for you what to do. For the most part, though, it is pretty much the same and straightforward.
Okay, I’m new to this whole Rider Swap situation and am preparing to coach my mom through the FP+ booking since I won’t be available to do the bookings myself. So I have two questions. We will have 6 riding adults and 1 2yo.
With RS in general, no FPs. If we all want to ride BTM in MK, we can all 6 go to the standby line with the 2yo and get a rider swap pass. Then four of us ride while 2 adults go off to entertain the little one. Then the 2 who were on kid duty can return with the RS pass and hop in the FP line to ride. Is that correct? This is great since it means no one has to be the one to ride by themselves.
RS with FPs. From what I’m seeing above, it is safest for all adults to have a FP for the ride before approaching a CM for a RS pass. Is that correct?
Is there some sort of benefit I am missing out on since RS will be an option with our party? Just want to make sure I’m cutting down wait times as much as possible.
I just got back from my trip today so I’ll share my experiences.
You are correct, and in fact, a third person who rode the first time around can go back on the rider swap pass. It is good for up to 3 people. When you go up to the line you will ask the CM at the head of the line for the rider swap and they will ask you who is returning for the 2nd ride. They will scan each of their magic bands and add the pass to their MDE account. If you look in your account you will see it under fastpasses.
With FP, I had FP for everyone in my party, but my experience was that If you had 3 people with FP+ and 3 without, you could go for rider swap and the 3 without a FP could get the rider swap to ride 2nd. The only reason the CMs seem interested in whether the first group is using FP is to set the correct return time. They give you a return time that starts after however many minutes the first group should be expected to wait in line. I personally did not test this, but what I did notice is that after we did the 2 rides, either my wife or I would still have a rider swap FP remaining on our account. What this told me is that when I went for the 2nd ride with the kids, my FP was “used”, leaving the rider swap FP still hanging around.
So, safe bet is FP for everyone, but my experience says you could get away with FP for half of your party and let the other half ride on the rider swap, so you could effectively double your FPs. I have read some reports around that CMs at FOP and other popular attractions wanted everyone to have FP, but I did not experience that myself.
The biggest benefit I saw with RS with 2 adults, 2 children who could ride and one child who was too small, was that the big kids got to ride twice every time! If you have anyone in your group who will want 2 rides, they can take advantage.
Thanks so much! I think we will definitely have to try the FPP situation, probably not with one that we book in advance, but I will for sure test the system with one we pick up on the day of!
Might I suggest a line at the top or bottom of the post with something along the lines of “This post was edited with current information on such-and-such a date.”? Just so people know when the last time it was updated is?