Changes to the Rider Switch system

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by alkel2730

Well, as I previously mentioned it doesn't really work for us as my children would be waiting for two of us to do two lots of queuing. Think about it, we queue the same as every one else - we just queue separately so only one physical body in the queue at any one time rather than two or more in another party. Or if more than one ride it's just the same amount in the queue at any one time. If we do this my kids are hanging around for up to two hours, I'm sure if you are a parent you'd know with very young children this could be a nightmare. Or not, it may work for you but it probably won't for us and I've explained why so hopefully now you can see why. As it is and as I've mentioned, we often because of circumstances in the day due to our kids, don't even use our second ride and never get double fastpasses as we ride alone. We do much shorter park days and do them a lot different to how we used to pre kids. The vast majority of my FPs are used for kids rides and characters (which I actually dislike but obviously my children's delight comes first). I've been going to WDW for over 30yrs now and trust me when I say the other members of the public - as you put it - are not at any disadvantage to how I holiday with toddlers.

Anyway I'm guessing from your posts you don't use RS and haven't read the article and have perhaps just come on to have your say about RS which of course you are entitled to, but I would very much prefer to keep this thread for people who use the system to inform them of the rumoured changes and to help with the current system. I'd like to do this without people being made to feel like they're guilty for using a legit system in place. Cheers.

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I'm not sure why this new system would make any difference to your experience?

All it does is changes the existing paper "rider switch fastpasses" into new electronic "rider switch fastpasses" and limits the time you have to return to a 1 hour slot. So, the only real limitation is the new 1 hour time slot to use the Rider Switch. And, at the moment, we don't know how the 1 hour slot is chosen; it's possible that you, the guest, gets to choose the 1 hour slot.

Some of your party will still queue initially at first (or use an existing "normal" fastpass to bypass the queue). And then the rest of your party will use the Rider Switch to enter the fastpass queue afterwards. Just like before. Nothing will have changed.

All it means is that you can't save up multiple Rider Switch tickets for different rides. It also means you can't give (or sell) those additional Rider Switch tickets to someone else.

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

Do you mean shorter expiry dates?

The return time should be based on the current wait time. Shortening the return time will actually be a benefit, not a clamp down.



I'm not sure what the height of the child has to do with anything? Some rides don't have a height requirement and still offer Rider Switch - eg. Frozen Ever After. Rider Switch is for any child that feels that they don't want to go on the ride and requires supervision whilst the rest of the family go on the ride. The reason isn't only limited to not meeting the height requirement.

As it say on Disney's website, "If a child does not meet the height requirement or a Guest does not wish to board a particular attraction, no problem!". Note the word "Guest" and not "child".



I'm unsure why the CMs were giving away more than one Rider Switch ticket per party in the first place? The Rider Switch ticket is not limited by the amount of kids not riding. The only limit is on the number of parents who "switch" and the rider switch ticket could be used by up to 3 people. That means, currently, 3 adults can wait outside with the kids, and then switch with 3 other adults and go on the ride after the rest of the party have ridden. That surely enough adults for most party sizes?



The best way of stopping them being sold online is to limit the expiry date to the current day or even to a 1 hour slot. For example, if you get a Rider Switch ticket today then it can only be used today, not tomorrow or anytime in the next week or month.



I guess it makes sense making RS digital - everything else is going that way at Disney. It'll be interesting to see how it works though.

Looking at the link you provided, it looks like they are turning the existing paper Rider Switch facility into a separate Rider Switch Fastpass given to all those present. The Rider Switch fastpass will only be valid for a 1 hour window, like the other fastpasses. This actually makes a lot of sense.

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I've answered a lot of that in subsequent posts and will come back later to reply properly to others but re the 'guest does not want to ride' I've quoted and discussed this in late posts, i'm super aware of the official rules. My initial post is based on my very recent experience - ive been back a week - it's not how I feel they should operate it, or how it should actually be operated it's just how it was, as I said in later posts they often wanted to measure my son. However in reply to your first question...in the past the return date was to the end of the month. Now, a lot are daily. Neither of which bother me but a 1hr return time will be a problem for my family so we just won't use it often. One of those things that will thankfully get easier as kids get older. There is a question on how easy it'll be to even do an hour return, for example FOP took my DH an hour from getting in the queue to coming out but like you say it's probably like the current FPs and the hour starts an hour later - so effectively an hour window an hour after the first rider. Which would suit people and fall into line with the current system which makes sense.

[Firstxmastrip]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

I'm not sure why this new system would make any difference to your experience?

All it does is changes the existing paper "rider switch fastpasses" into new electronic "rider switch fastpasses" and limits the time you have to return to a 1 hour slot. So, the only real limitation is the new 1 hour time slot to use the Rider Switch. And, at the moment, we don't know how the 1 hour slot is chosen; it's possible that you, the guest, gets to choose the 1 hour slot.

Some of your party will still queue initially at first (or use an existing "normal" fastpass to bypass the queue). And then the rest of your party will use the Rider Switch to enter the fastpass queue afterwards. Just like before. Nothing will have changed.

All it means is that you can't save up multiple Rider Switch tickets for different rides. It also means you can't give (or sell) those additional Rider Switch tickets to someone else.

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if the 1 hour slot has to be used straight away then it does change it, only slightly, but the child waiting will then have to wait for quite a while. When we did rider swap for test track, even with the fastpass it was a good 30 minute total for each ride, same with tower of terror. Thats an hour plus whatever the original wait time is for the kid to be waiting. Theres not much to do around these rides for the little either to keep them occupied. At least in MK theres smaller rides you can take the little one on close to the bigger rides while you're waiting.

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

I'm not sure why this new system would make any difference to your experience?

All it does is changes the existing paper "rider switch fastpasses" into new electronic "rider switch fastpasses" and limits the time you have to return to a 1 hour slot. So, the only real limitation is the new 1 hour time slot to use the Rider Switch. And, at the moment, we don't know how the 1 hour slot is chosen; it's possible that you, the guest, gets to choose the 1 hour slot.

Some of your party will still queue initially at first (or use an existing "normal" fastpass to bypass the queue). And then the rest of your party will use the Rider Switch to enter the fastpass queue afterwards. Just like before. Nothing will have changed.

All it means is that you can't save up multiple Rider Switch tickets for different rides. It also means you can't give (or sell) those additional Rider Switch tickets to someone else.

See more...

If you get to choose the slot that would be fine, but if it's an hour after the first rider gets in the queue then it won't be flexible enough for us. I've no interest in gathering multiple RS. Its very rare we more than one 'big' ride a day and still do all things kids want to do too especially with tiers.

TBH this doesn't really affect us as much as others depending on how many people can ride on the new RS as I know a lot of families with more than one child may be more affected. We tend to use single riders and no FP or RS where we can as much quicker. Like everything else we wait and see, this thread is just to give people who use it a heads up.

How does RS work for your family? Do you tend to do big rides first or do you find it's easier with your little ones to wait until they nap?

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by Firstxmastrip

if the 1 hour slot has to be used straight away then it does change it, only slightly, but the child waiting will then have to wait for quite a while. When we did rider swap for test track, even with the fastpass it was a good 30 minute total for each ride, same with tower of terror. Thats an hour plus whatever the original wait time is for the kid to be waiting. Theres not much to do around these rides for the little either to keep them occupied. At least in MK theres smaller rides you can take the little one on close to the bigger rides while you're waiting.

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FOP and Splash Mountain can also take an hour even with FPs.

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by WDWfangirl

I remember reading posts prior to my last trip on how to maximize RS to gain an extra fastpass. I have to admit it all sounded a little too complicated and sneaky for me. I ended up booking fastpasses for rides that I knew my youngest was too short for. One adult went with the oldest and then the other adult went on with the oldest again (wearing the youngest's magic band). On the few occasions we got RS our oldest rode twice with both adults straight after the other. I thought that was fair as it prevented one of the adults from riding on their own. But to have allowed more than one person to ride more than once on RS seems cheeky to me.

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I've seen posts where people have been almost giddy about gaming the system and getting double FPs effectively using RS. But I don't get why they would do that as it just means the non rider hanging round all day doing nothing and taking away the ability to go family rides as no matter how you slice and dice it each person still only gets three FPs so that non rider of over 3 still has only their own 3 FPs.

So for us for example (I never actually did this btw! ) say me as hubby chose to use our three FPs on thunder, 7DMT, Space, Splash and Speedway (as all have height requirements) and got RS for them to double our FPs, our little ones would spend the vast majority of the day hanging around waiting for us stuck in their pram. It would also mean we spent the most of the day split up as a family and one adult looking after both kids for like 50% of the day (bearing in mind we do much much shorter theme park days now). I can guarantee that would lead to some epic fed up bored meltdowns - for parents and kids!
I just can't see that being fun at all. We want to spend time together and experience things together not hung around in giftshops waiting for our partners to get off stuff. RS for us is a way of occasionally going on a ride we like whilst making sure our little kids aren't waiting too long and we try and do so when they're napping or when the other parent can take them on something they like.

[Firstxmastrip]

Originally Posted by alkel2730

FOP and Splash Mountain can also take an hour even with FPs.

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yeah forgot about that one. Although there is a play area near there.

I actually prefer the universal system, all queue together once and then swap at the ride. That way no one is split up for long periods and you don't go through the queue area twice.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

I'm not sure why this new system would make any difference to your experience?

All it does is changes the existing paper "rider switch fastpasses" into new electronic "rider switch fastpasses" and limits the time you have to return to a 1 hour slot. So, the only real limitation is the new 1 hour time slot to use the Rider Switch. And, at the moment, we don't know how the 1 hour slot is chosen; it's possible that you, the guest, gets to choose the 1 hour slot.

Some of your party will still queue initially at first (or use an existing "normal" fastpass to bypass the queue). And then the rest of your party will use the Rider Switch to enter the fastpass queue afterwards. Just like before. Nothing will have changed.

All it means is that you can't save up multiple Rider Switch tickets for different rides. It also means you can't give (or sell) those additional Rider Switch tickets to someone else.

See more...

The 1 hour slot would be a huge change. My kids are a year younger than the OP’s and I agree with her that it’s really awkward. FOP for example is around 25 minutes door to door with a fastpass. We do tend to do it back to back, but that means the kids are hanging around for the best part of an hour so that we can both ride. It’s a lot easier if you can go off and entertain the kids before they have to hang around for ages again.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Firstxmastrip

yeah forgot about that one. Although there is a play area near there.

I actually prefer the universal system, all queue together once and then swap at the ride. That way no one is split up for long periods and you don't go through the queue area twice.

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I would much prefer that too. It takes a lot of the fun out of rides if you’re stuck in a queue on your own.

[shack69]

The only issue i have with this would be the 1 hour return unless you can select the 1 hour slot. If I want to ride and my child can't , my partner will take child to a ride they can ride eg peter pan , but if they had to ride with the RS within the hour i had entered then they would not be able to as the ride line they where in could be an hour.
I agree the RS should go against the ticket/band and have an expiry of the same day, but they will need to allow you to select the slot to accomodate naps, foods, bathrooms etc.