SDMT Rider Switch: word of warning

[Weddingnyc]

We also book FP for the people wanting to ride, but it also means that we end up with unusable FPs for DD as there’s no one to ride with her.
There’s no easy answer unfortunately.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Miss_Tangled

So then in that case, Disney should change their rider policy to say those who are travelling with young children are not allowed to book FP.

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Why would or should they do that? Of course people with young children should be able to use fast passes.

But it seems to me there is a bit of a loop hole that people with young children are actually doubling up on fast passes versus everyone else. It seems fair to me that everyone that wants to utilise the FP queue has to use a FP. I am struggling to understand why this is not fair.

[Miss_Tangled]

Originally Posted by Claudette

Why would or should they do that? Of course people with young children should be able to use fast passes.

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I don’t think they should, I was simply referring to what another poster had said about they felt that fastpass and RS should not be used together and should be only allowed for stand by, thus making families with young children exempt from making FP.

I don't think it’s unfair, I was simply making anyone making FP aware that this is the case.

[Joshie1]

Originally Posted by STM79

Thanks for the heads up. This will mean my DS and I won't get to ride after my DH and DD use their FP. I had better prepare him for the disappointment.

We're a group of 5. My youngest can't ride, but if I book fastpasses for the 4 of us that want to ride SDMT the youngest's pass can't be used at all. It needs to be paired with an adult fastpass. I can't book as a group of three either on SDMT as my 2 older kids won't sit with a stranger on a rollercoaster.

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Why would it be an issue for you to book a FP for all of you even if your youngest doesn’t get to ride?
One adult rides with one child while the others wait in the rider switch and then the other adult and child get to ride - can’t see how anyone is missing out if your youngest isn’t going to ride anyway?

[Jon&Emz]

I think the point trying to be made is for example a family of 4 (3 adults, 1 child) want to ride two rides together, say dumbo and barnstormer for example, then all 4 will have fast passes to enter and rides together.

But for the third fastpass the adults all want to ride space mountain, well that then leaves 1 of the kids fastpasses unusable because they can't ride an attraction without an adult to supervise them.

So at this point rider switch comes in, 2 of the adults go on with a fastpass and 1 of the adults has a rider switch so they can ride while one of the other adults supervises the child. That then leaves 1 adult with a free fastpass to accompany the child - therefore all fast passes in the group of 4 are used.

Its not really cheating the system its ensuring that kids can ride on attractions appropriate to their age while still being supervised.

[Conno]

Originally Posted by bighal

If you went through the fastpass line then you would have needed a fastpass to ride in the first place. If you went through the normal queue you don't need one. I cannot see what the problem is.

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People want to game the system and get more quick entry via FP line but without using a FP. Glad they're clamping down on it.

[magickate]

I thought the point of rider swap was to avoid queuing twice. So the 1st party queue as normal & the 2nd party skip the majority of the queue by using the fastpass lane.
If the 1st party isn't queuing then the rider swap isn't necessary.

I understand how people were trying to use it & if I was in that position I would too but I also see why cast members are saying no, especially on the most popular rides.

[Joshie1]

Originally Posted by Jon&Emz

I think the point trying to be made is for example a family of 4 (3 adults, 1 child) want to ride two rides together, say dumbo and barnstormer for example, then all 4 will have fast passes to enter and rides together.

But for the third fastpass the adults all want to ride space mountain, well that then leaves 1 of the kids fastpasses unusable because they can't ride an attraction without an adult to supervise them.

So at this point rider switch comes in, 2 of the adults go on with a fastpass and 1 of the adults has a rider switch so they can ride while one of the other adults supervises the child. That then leaves 1 adult with a free fastpass to accompany the child - therefore all fast passes in the group of 4 are used.

Its not really cheating the system its ensuring that kids can ride on attractions appropriate to their age while still being supervised.

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I think you are missing the point the OP was making. It seems that people without fast passes were entering the FP queue with others in their party who did have fast passes and essentially were using the rider switch to jump the queue.
Disney are now starting to clamp down on this.

[Jon&Emz]

Originally Posted by Joshie1

I think you are missing the point the OP was making. It seems that people without fast passes were entering the FP queue with others in their party who did have fast passes and essentially were using the rider switch to jump the queue.
Disney are now starting to clamp down on this.

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I understand what the OP is saying and that is shown in my example, where one of the adults doesn't have a FP for Space Mountain but gets a rider switch when they arrive at the FP entrance with the other two adults - this allows the adult to use their last FP to accompany the child on a ride for their last FP.

My point is that there is a legitimate reason to use a rider switch + FP in this way, and this was the intention of Disney when they introduced it. I agree there are ways to play the system and unfortunately it seems that the few who try to capitalise and get 6 for the price of 3 FPs are ruining it for those who were trying to use it the way it was intended.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Joshie1

I don’t see the issue with this. Surely if you are in the FP queue you should hold a FP. Otherwise you get to cheat the system just because you are using the switch option.
Or am I missing something?

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The Rider Switch pass that the second group get is equivalent to a fastpass. You can enter the fastpass queue using the Rider Switch pass.

If the second group has to have fastpasses for the ride in order to get Rider Switch passes then it seems like a waste of those fastpasses. The second group is going to use the Rider Switch passes, so now their fastpasses are redundant.

Anyway, more to the point, it's only at SDMT that this is the case. Every other ride works differently. It seems the CMs at SDMT have a different interpretation of the rules compared to the other CMs.