Disney's Rider Switch, Explained
Picture this: A family is traveling to Walt Disney World. Unusual, right? (We're being sarcastic) Truth is, though, going to an amusement park can put some families into a bit of a conundrum, especially if there are young children.
Say the parents, and maybe even some older siblings, want to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but the height requirement is 3 feet 4 inches, and your two-year-old is not going to be able to ride. Or say you all want to ride a ride that looks a little bit scary for one of the kids. Does that mean you have to miss out?
No, fools, it's Disney! Of course nobody has to miss out! One of Disney's lesser advertised services is a Rider Switch program that enables one adult to ride (alone or with other kids to want to ride) while another adult stays behind with the non-riding guest(s), and then they get to trade places without having to wait in the standby line twice. This also goes by the names of Rider Swap, Baby Swap, and Child Swap.
How To Rider Switch
Here's how you do it:
Check with any Cast Member if Rider Switch is available for a given attraction. The most knowledgeable Cast Members in this regard will be those at the entrance to the attraction, but if that's a hike across the park, any Cast Member should be able to find out for you.
If Rider Switch is available, bring your entire party including non-riding guests to the entrance of the attraction and greet the Cast Member out front of the attraction and let them know you are interested in Rider Switch.
At least one adult and any guests not riding in round 1 will be issued a "Rider Switch" pass (functionally similar to an immediate FastPass or Lightning Lane) and will be asked to wait in a designated area. This pass has mostly gone digital right now, so will likely exist only in your MyDisneyExperience app and on your Magicband, which the Cast Member will scan.
Party 1 rides.
After riding, Party 1 locates Party 2 and takes over supervision duties of anyone not riding while Party 2 gets to ride.
Party 2 gets to ride without waiting in the regular queue, usually via the FastPass queue. The "Rider Switch" pass will be validated by a Cast Member at this time.
One recent update of note: Likely due to abuses of the system in the past, Disney has restricted the number of guests that get to ride with the second adult in Party 2. It used to be that adult 2 and up to three additional guests could ride, which resulted in party members who enjoyed riding the first time being able to ride immediately again a second time. You can see how this could be unfair to other guests, so Disney has recently changed their language to state that "if the person in Party 2 waited alone with the non-riding guest, the number of guests who could join them to ride again would be limited". More specifically, sources state that new limit is 2 additional guests, however the Cast Member issuing the Rider Switch passes will likely lay out the rules for that specific attraction at the time of issuing the passes.
Attractions Offering Rider Switch
Magic Kingdom Park The Barnstormer Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Space Mountain Splash Mountain Tomorrowland Indy Speedway
Epcot Frozen Ever After Mission: SPACE Soarin' Test Track
Disney’s Hollywood Studios Alien Swirling Saucers Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Slinky Dog Dash Star Tours Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park Avatar Flight of Passage DINOSAUR Expedition Everest Kali River Rapids Na'vi River Journey Primeval Whirl
Potential Abuses of the System
We debated putting these out there. A former Cast Member in our heart, part of us doesn't even want to mention abuses to this system because then people will try to exploit them which has potential of ruining an entirely fair and beautiful system. However, we know you found us online, so you are out there, reading THINGS and we know you may have heard these. So let's talk about it.
The first potential abuse is the one Disney has already cracked down on, and that is basically only the swapping out of one person while the entire party minus one other person rides a second time. By moving the system to a digital platform managed by your Magicband, and limiting the number of guests who can accompany adult 2, Disney is working to control this. Here's the thing: Nobody should have to ride all alone so adult 2 will likely still get to bring at least one other guest with them. But to bring the whole party minus one person and the non-riding person is an abuse of the system and is not fair to other guests, so don't do that.
And while we won't tell adult 2 to ride alone, we will say that we have had LOTS of experience riding alone and we LOVE it. When you are a lone rider, you interact with other guests you might have ignored and some of my best ride memories are from times I entered the queue alone or someone else entered the queue alone, ranging from the time I rode alone and encountered a scared child on Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and ended up distracting the child with "magic" (actually, physics) tricks during the drops, to the time my party encountered a lone mom riding who was a bit nervous on Mission: Space, so we invited her onto our crew and laughed the entire ride.
The second potential abuse might have just been phased out by the announcement of Lightning Lane replacing FastPass Plus. It used to be that guests could reserve up to three rides per day about 60 days ahead of time. Because swapped riders use the Lightning Lane/ former FastPass lane anyway, guests would only get the FastPasses for half the party. Then the other half of the party would get three different FastPasses resulting in the entire party having 6 pre-reserved rides that everyone could use the fast lane for because of rider swap. Now that Lightning Lane (only available with Genie +) will be coming soon, it's going to work differently and guests will only be able to reserve one ride at a time and only take the next available time slot when doing so. Can it still be abused? Yeah, probably, if half the guests take one ride and the other half take another and then rider swap happens. But the abuse is one third as significant as what it was, and we have yet to see how it plays out in real life.
Why Right Now is the Best Time to Rider Switch
Right now, FastPass is basically not a thing at most Walt Disney World attractions due to the pandemic, and Lightning Lane hasn't quite started up yet as of August 2021. But it IS still used for many Rider Switch situations. So instead of coming back and still joining a line (however fast-moving and reduced it is), right now, the Lightning Lane line is non-existent and riders who waited to ride second will basically walk on.
Also, the adult in group 2 does not have to just stand around in most cases while waiting to ride. As long as the first party can find you, you can do anything else. One perfect example was sitting down and enjoying an ice cream with my daughter while I waited my turn for Rock n Roller Coaster since there is an ice cream shop just outside the exit.
So, there you have it: Everything you might want to know, and more, about Rider Switch. Have you used it? Tell us how it went over on our Facebook page, where you can follow us to see when new articles are posted each week. Until next time...
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