Fastpasses and child swap and rides in general with toddlers

[Lissa_x]

Hi we are planning a trip next Easter with 2 kids under 3 therefore they won't have tickets. Will I still need to book them fastpasses or do I just book for me and my husband and they enter the fastpass queue without a fastpass?

Also how likely are we going to be able to get fastpasses for the bigger attractions for the adults with being offsite and only being able to book them 30 days in advance? Pandora, toy story land and the frozen ride/new soarin film will all have changed since our last visit so we would like to do these if possible.
If I booked a fastpass for one of us for example for soarin can that person ask for child swap and the 2nd person enter without a fastpass using the child swap? Freeing up the other persons tier 1 fastpass for test track where we could do the same thing with child swap?

Also random question can a 11 month old and a 2 and a half year old ride midway mania? I've read they can ride anything without a height restriction but don't know how this works with midway mania due to the lap restraints?

Hope I've made sense as I'm struggling myself to make sense of it in my head!

Thankyou

[alkel2730]

Hi ya!

Hopefully I can help as I've been twice now with my toddler(s) and am off again in a few weeks. In fact it my FP day this week!

So in answer to your question on booking FPs, you just book for you and DH and they come with you. You only need to book FPs for those of you that have tickets. With rider switch you are right so you'd book a FP for either you or your DH and then the non riding adult can go on the rider switch so no need for two FPs. You'll find this a real help as it means you can get round the parks a little quicker and minimise wait times for the adult left with the two toddlers!
And it means you don't have to miss out.

As for availability at 30 days...I stay onsite so I have mine at 60, however as I'm sure it's true with many people with kids we tend to chop and change our plans when there to fit around the children so we do rely on having some flexibility with the FPs. Also, last year my holiday had to be moved due to Irma so all my planning went out of the window and I had to battle with booking FPs a week out! But based on that... FOP is nigh on impossible to get after 60 days in my experience I'm not going to lie, HOWEVER someone very clever has worked out that they release extra ones at a certain time of day - I think it's 10:15 or 10:30 but I'm not sure, hopefully someone can confirm that but that's your best bet for FOP. Just one thing to bear in mind with FOP, it's a tier 1 attraction along with navi so if you book FOP you can't book navi in your first 3 and Navi is the one your kids can do so it might be you're only after one FP in you trip and save your tier 1s for Navi? I only say this as I did my FP planning last night and that's what we've done as it's better for us to do stuff as a family and that kids can do. We have booked FOP once though.

Yes they can both go in TSM, if they're tiny they sit on your knee, if they can sit unaided it's next to you with your arm round them!

Just another thing for when you are planning - test track, rock n rollercoaster and Everest all have single rider queues so you can do that without a FP. RnR tends to be a bit slow so maybe a FP for that but the others I wouldn't bother unless you're going high season.

As for booking at 30 days...I've not struggled to get frozen last minute and when TSM is up and running both tracks I didn't struggle with them either. Only ones I struggled with last min was FOP, Navi (but you may be ok at 30 days for that) and Illuminations. The others were ok but like I say this is very last minute, 30 days might be easier.

[alkel2730]

Oh meant to say with soarin it's hit and miss. I think youll be ok at 30 days and I've often picked up last minute ones for soarin but it's a bit of a grey one in terms of just keep trying. One thing to note about soarin as this caught me off guard...you can't take your pram in so whoever is left behind is in charge of two kids without a pram. You can stay outside but to get rider switch they need to see the children so you'd have to leave pram, go in together get RS and then come back out on your own. I really struggled with this and totally did not expect it!

[theDude5b]

As alkel2730 has said, you will only need 1 FP per ride to get you onto the ride, then use the rider switch for both of you to experience the ride.

This is a massive bonus to you! If you plan well, you can effectively pre book 6 FP rides in a row rather than the standard 3 since you only need 1 per ride.

So you book 3 FP rides with your ticket and 3 completely different FP rides with your husbands ticket. Winner winner chicken dinner!

[Eccle]

We were there last month, my youngest turned 2 on the trip.

With rider switch I think you will need to wait and see nearer the time what the current situation is, it has been that only one of you needed FP, but I have started seeing reports that CMs are now saying both parents need FP. When we were there, rider switch tickets were valid until the end of the month except FOP and 7 Dwarfs which were same day, but again this is apparently changing to all be same day.

Toy Story Mania the little one could sit on your lap, my 2 year old sat on the seat next to me ok.

I had a one night stay so could book FPs on a rolling 60 days, so slightly behind those on site for longer. FOP was not available at 60 days (but I did get it by checking regularly), the other harder to get ones were Frozen, 7 Dwarfs and to a slightly less extent Toy Story Mania, where they were available but only afternoon onwards.

Anything else would be no problem at 30 days (hard to say with the new Toy Story rides but I imagine they will be very popular for a while)

Keep checking back though, especially if park hours change, and also make use of 4th+ FPs on the day - we got Frozen for 8 of us

[Lissa_x]

That's great thankyou so much. I fully expect we won't get to do FOP with being offsite but would be nice to do navi if we can all ride!

We always stayed on site pre children so this is all new to us but we could only afford to stay onsite in an all star resort next year and I'm not convinced being in a tiny room with 2 small children and no balcony is going to be much fun! Alkel I've read a lot of your posts whilst looking for info on travelling with 2 toddlers and they've been so helpful! My other on going saga is car seats! As we will be hiring a car. Baby number 2 is due next month if he's anything like my daughter he could still easily fit in a infant carrier as she was tiny but he's measuring a lot bigger so I'm not convinced! Did you buy seats out there in the end?

I am considering booking a night on site as a surprise for hubby at a deluxe resort as he is 30 whilst we are out there but would probably rent DVC points. If we did rent points are you able to link your booking to MDE and get 60 day fastpasses or not?

Sorry for all the questions!

[Eccle]

I definitely think you should be able to get Navi (and I know lots aren't that keen, but I liked it!)

Most airlines will let you take car seats in addition to your baggage allowance which is what we have always done. For my 2 year old, his seat at home is a Joie 360 which is big and heavy, so I got a cheaper lighter seat to take, think it is the Joie Elevate, it was only about £35 so cheaper than hiring and I at least knew it was ok.

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by Lissa_x

That's great thankyou so much. I fully expect we won't get to do FOP with being offsite but would be nice to do navi if we can all ride!

We always stayed on site pre children so this is all new to us but we could only afford to stay onsite in an all star resort next year and I'm not convinced being in a tiny room with 2 small children and no balcony is going to be much fun! Alkel I've read a lot of your posts whilst looking for info on travelling with 2 toddlers and they've been so helpful! My other on going saga is car seats! As we will be hiring a car. Baby number 2 is due next month if he's anything like my daughter he could still easily fit in a infant carrier as she was tiny but he's measuring a lot bigger so I'm not convinced! Did you buy seats out there in the end?

I am considering booking a night on site as a surprise for hubby at a deluxe resort as he is 30 whilst we are out there but would probably rent DVC points. If we did rent points are you able to link your booking to MDE and get 60 day fastpasses or not?

Sorry for all the questions!

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That would be cool! Yes I believe if you book it at the start you get 60 days out for FPs so that would help.

Ahh car seats... that old headache! Take your infant carrier for sure! They're light, can fit in a seatbelt and travel for free. My kids fit in theirs up to 15mths so at 6 you'll be fine. That's a big weight off your mind. We did buy car seats in the end. It was £70 to hire or $95 to buy so I figured for us it meant we could take our time to fit them and they were new so it made sense. I've got one stored in Orlando as I share it with another family but I'm buying another this year and getting it delivered to our hotel. Ask away, I'm happy to help as I had 101 questions before I went with two toddlers - it's a whole new logistical world! So happy to pay it forward.

[Lissa_x]

Our youngest will be 11 months when we travel. They have heavy isofix cybex seats here so think I'll have to buy some cheaper seats to take with us. You've been so helpful thankyou. I'm sure I'll think of a million more questions for you!

[Disney2019]

How does rider switch work if you've got one child tall enough to go on ride and two who are not? How many fast passes do you need, presuming one adult and a child will ride, then the second adult, could the second adult take the child back on for a second run?