Guide to Rider Switch at Disney World
Rider Switch is Walt Disney World’s system that allows parents with small children to take turns experiencing thrill rides and other attractions with height requirements. In this post, we’ll cover how the service (also known as child swap, baby switch, or parent swap) works and new changes to Rider Switch at Walt Disney World. (Updated March 20, 2024.)
Let’s start with brief context for those who aren’t familiar with Rider Switch. If a child does not meet the height requirement or does not want to do a particular attraction (because it’s too scary, intense, etc.), one adult can wait with the non-rider (or riders) outside the entrance or exit while the rest of the party enjoys the attraction. When the other adult returns, they supervise the non-riding guests, and the waiting adult can board the attraction without having to wait in the regular line again.
To use Rider Switch, your entire party approaches the attraction, where they’ll find a greeter, little sandwich board, or kiosk near the entrance (basically, you’re looking for a Cast Member with an iPad). At least one adult member of your party and the guests who are not riding will be issued a digital Rider Switch entitlement by the Cast Member and asked to wait in a designated area near the exit or entrance of the attraction. This group is “Party 2.”
The other guests (“Party 1”) enter through the standby line as normal and ride the attraction first. After finishing, Party 1 finds Party 2. Then, Party 1 swaps supervision of the non-riding children–hence this being known informally as child swap. Party 2 enters and boards the attraction via the Lightning Lane courtesy of their digital Rider Switch entitlement with minimal wait.
Rider Switch is available on attractions with height requirements that have Lightning Lanes. Here’s a full list of current attractions that are Rider Switch eligible at all four Walt Disney World theme parks:
Magic Kingdom
- The Barnstormer
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Space Mountain
- Splash Mountain
- Tomorrowland Indy Speedway
- TRON Lightcycle Run
Epcot
- Frozen Ever After
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
- Mission: SPACE
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Test Track
Hollywood Studios
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Animal Kingdom
- Avatar Flight of Passage
- DINOSAUR
- Expedition Everest
- Kali River Rapids
- Na’vi River Journey
Note that there are currently two ways to experience Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT and TRON Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom: 1) Join the virtual queue; or 2) Buy an Individual Lightning Lane. There are currently no standby lines for these two attractions.
Rider Swap does not sidestep this requirement. Everyone in your party who plans on riding Cosmic Rewind or TRON needs to either join the VQ or buy an ILL. You cannot simply show up without a ride reservation and wait to ride this attraction, or use Rider Swap.
With the debut of paid Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, which replaced the free FastPass+ service, Walt Disney World has made a number of tweaks to queue procedures for other guests. Notably, this impacts both the Rider Switch service and Disability Access Service (DAS).
See our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for all of the foundational need-to-know info about this paid FastPass+ replacement. Here’s what you need to know about the changes to Rider Switch…
Previously, Walt Disney World’s official policy allows everyone (Party 1) except the first waiting adult and child (Party 2) to ride the first time. After Party 1 is done, the first waiting adult may bring two guests with them on the attraction–for a total of three guests riding.
For larger families with a total of 3 or more kids–let’s specifically use the example of two older siblings and one younger one–this meant that Rider Switch wasn’t just a convenient way to wait the same amount of time as everyone using the standby queue. It effectively allowed the older siblings to double dip and ride twice, once with each parent.
Walt Disney World has begun adjusting its Rider Switch policy, and will only allow one other guest to accompany the first waiting adult (Party 2) on an attraction via the Lightning Lane queue after Party 1 experiences it. For the example family of two older siblings and a younger one, this means that both will not be able to ride a second time. However, one will still be able to accompany the parent from Party 1 each time for a second ride.
As with other recent changes at Walt Disney World, this is being rolled out gradually.
Walt Disney World has updated the text of its official rider switch policy on DisneyWorld.com. In pertinent part, it now states: “Please note that if the person in party 2 waited alone with the child or non-riding Guest, the number of Guests who may join him or her and ride again is limited.”
While this policy change could be construed as even more stringent than what we reported last month, as it doesn’t mention any guests accompanying the waiting adult, that’s not what we’ve heard. Rather, the ambiguity exists in order to give Cast Members discretion over how many guests to allow on a case-by-case basis and given the seating circumstances of each attraction.
For the average United States family with 1.93 kids (let’s round up to 2 for the sake of simplicity), things are unchanged. That lucky older sibling will be able to ride with both Party 1 and Party 2, if they so desire. The perk still exists, and it’s a sensible one so that the adult doesn’t have to ride solo. Quality family time on vacation and all that.
When it comes to any type of queue or line skipping policy, any change is bound to be controversial among some Walt Disney World fans.
How you react to this will undoubtedly depend upon whether you’re a family with the demographics of the example one above. Those with two or more older kids likely won’t be fans of this change.
Unsurprisingly, we have a dramatically different perspective here. We’ve only used Rider Switch on rare occasion when visiting the parks with friends who have small kids. While it’s not something we’ve regularly used, we’re not anti-Rider Switch. We’re glad it exists as a courtesy for parents with small children.
In our view, this is something you can file under “it was nice while it lasted!” for select guests. With that said, the new policy is eminently fair. In fact, I’d go a step further and say that, when viewing the previous policy v. the new one at arm’s length, I I don’t know how you reach any conclusion other than that this is an equitable and reasonable rule change.
The prior policy was effectively a Walt Disney World-sanctioned ‘legal loophole.’ Sure, the change stinks for those who it benefitted, but it undeniably was a windfall. Nothing entitled the two older siblings (or whomever) to experience every thrill ride twice while waiting once.
Like so many loopholes Walt Disney World has closed over the years, it’s unfortunate (for some) to see it go, but the change is fair. For the overall pool of guests at Walt Disney World, the closing of this loophole is a good thing. It will improve ride capacity and hourly operational efficiency for those in the standby line.
Obviously, it probably will not make attractions more efficient and standby waits shorter by a huge degree–the number of guests previously taking advantage of this ‘legal loophole’ probably was not that high–but it won’t be by a negligible amount, either.
The quick, cynical, and lazy commentary here is that Walt Disney World is tightening up any perceived policy abuses, anticipating more with the paid Lightning Lanes. The company is probably cognizant of the fact that charging for line-skipping will exacerbate utilization and abuse of policies like Rider Swap, and wants to minimize all of that–while maximizing uptake of paid line-skipping privileges.
There’s undoubtedly some truth to that. I suspect that Walt Disney World would not have bothered with this were it not for an overhaul of the queue system being on the horizon.
Potentially unpopular opinion (given the readership demographics here), but Disney should’ve addressed this rule regardless. This Rider Switch change is good news for the majority of guests regardless of its motivations.
It was one thing for this to be the official, unwritten policy a decade ago. During the nascent years of social media and when most Walt Disney World hacks were confined to fan forums and obscure blogs like this one it didn’t really matter. Those communities were generally pretty careful with advice that abused systems, seeing countless loopholes closed over the years as they grew too large.
That ceased to be the case years ago. Today, there are dozens of Facebook groups devoted to Walt Disney World with hundreds of thousands of members. Popular YouTube channels cover how to beat the system and get millions of views. Tips go viral in the mainstream and reach tens of millions of people. The game has changed.
If Walt Disney World has a policy that could be described as a “beneficial courtesy” intended for a small pool of guests, you can bet it won’t be long before social media finds a way to exploit that and ruin it for everyone. (One TikTokers highly questionable “free shirt hack” literally made international headlines!)
Ultimately, we can completely empathize with the example family who used this loophole sparingly and will now have to explain to their kids why they can’t ride with both parents. It’s undoubtedly disappointing, and I can understand that. It’s always nice to have a semi-exclusive perk and it sucks to lose that.
However, this change is fair. There’s no two ways about it. Word had gotten out about Rider Swap and other ways to leverage the Lightning Lane queue without paying for it. Closing some loopholes is going to be more challenging than others, but this is definitely something that’s needed and overdue. I’m still holding out a sliver of hope that the potential Premier Access + Standby Pass system will be a net positive for guests like us who will never buy Premier Access, but that requires some sensible and reasonable reforms to Walt Disney World’s current queue policies (among other things).
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Rider Switch changes? Are Walt Disney World’s policy tweaks in closing this ‘legal loophole’ fair or excessive? Disappointed by the change, pleased by it, or indifferent to it? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
This policy would have been a nightmare for me. I have three children and quite frankly, I always waited with the baby and rerode with the older two. And I liked going with both my children. As for paid fastpass, the lines are so manageable without fastpass. I am so happy it is gone. A paid fastpass will just make longer lines for everyone.
As someone who only has used rider swap once or twice and reading everything it seems to me that the slightly more fair approach would be to say that on rides without 2(or less) seats let 2 kids ride twice. For instance on seven dwarfs, I’m not actually riding with both my kids, only 1, while the other rides ahead or behind,(or they ride together and I’m alone/with a stranger. On test track or dinosaur however I am actually with both kids riding at the same time. I can look and see them smiling and laughing… But I’m not in charge of anything at WDW so oh well.
DAS is such a blessing for those of us with unseen disabilities. To see the comments surrounding it is rather hurtful. The fact that there are people who abuse this benefit is disgusting. But for those with disabilities reading it’s another instance of people not understanding, the terrible feeling of not being believed, or worse yet despised. I went to Disney for the first time in early 2020 with my daughter. I used DAS pass only twice. The thing is: often people with disabilities do NOT want to ‘work the system’ or have unfair advantages. The fact that Disney had a system in place at all nearly brought me to tears. Because most people don’t know what it’s like, or they don’t care. To be seen, to have my experience cares about was an unexpected grace. Because fast pass is not available, I would expect I’d need to use DAS more on this year’s trip. I’d hope not to be derided for it.
On my most recent trip to Disney World in May I had to use the DAS system. I had just had major abdominal surgery 10 days prior, but at the time the surgery was schedule it was too late to change our trip for our family vacation to celebrate my youngest daughters graduation from college. I didn’t know how to use it the first day, and I found standing in lines was the hardest thing for me to do. My surgeon had cleared me for walking and I was getting in over 20,000 steps a day according to my Fitbit. I asked someone how to sign up and they told me I could do it at this one kiosk in the middle of Animal Kingdom that day, so I walked up to the lady and asked to about. She looked at me and rolled her eyes a little, and I said would you like me to lift my shirt and show you my eight incision sites and bruising. She asked me why I didn’t have a wheel chair, and I said, my doctor wants me to walk, but standing in line for 60 – 120 minutes becomes very painful because of having to hold my core abdominal muscles tight the entire time. Walking you can relax you abdominal muscles more. She grudgingly gave me a DAS Pass and added the other 5 members of my party to it. It felt weird to use it the first time or too, but it was very helpful. The Disney Team member would scan my wrist band and give me a time to return equal to the time of the line wait, maybe a few minutes shorter because they still had to leave in time to walk all of the Fast Pass Line Cue. Being able to walk around during the wait time helped me a lot and let me get in more steps. Sadly the next day I had to reregister for DAS because she had not done it right, after that it worked fine for the rest of our visit. Sometimes it is the small things that can make a trip special.
Maria, the DAS allows up to six guests, not twelve. It is difficult to abuse the system since they changed it. It works the same as fast pass. It doesn’t get you to the head of the line, nor is it given out freely by Disney.
Despite HIPAA laws, prior to issuing a DAS, Disney asks for a description of how the disability affects your day at a Disney park. If you are able to sit in a wheelchair, you will not get a DAS. But if you qualify for one, you will be able to use it on future trips.
Every time you enter a park, your party must accompany you to Guest Relations to have their Magic Bands scanned for the day. The DAS may not be perfect but it does allow people with certain disabilities a chance to enjoy a day at a Disney park, although sometimes for just a few hours. But even a few hours at Disney is better than an entire day at home.
I’m going to be interested to see how DAS reform looks. That one is much more delicate but it sorely needs it. We have used it on occasion and it works great (sorta) but is highly abused. When Disney was sued (it was a lawsuit to make a change not get monetary damages) it was revealed that DAS users ride the most popular rides 25% more often then other guests. The lawsuit was over changes that would make the day easier of some families of kids with Autism. Others theme parks let you plan your entire day ahead of time. Going to the line to get a return time and then leaving without riding the ride is a hard and confusing concept for some children with developmental delays. The old disability system didn’t work that way. Disney had the most lack requirements for DAS of local theme parks.
I don’t really know how to fix it though because making a person with disabilities ride by themselves or with one other person seems a little cruel but having large parties skip all the lines all day is unfair to people not using some type of virtual queue for their rides.
But they also have to be careful because if you can still get your party of 12 through the DAS line why would you switch to paid FP?
We are pass holders at our local amusement park and their policy does not allow for anyone to ride twice, they make the entire party wait in the whole line then cross the train with the non-riding child.
The fact that Disney makes it convenient for parents to not have to stand in line with I child that can’t/won’t ride is a total blessing. The first time we used rider swap at Disney we were flabbergasted that they let anyone ride twice! I do think calling it a “loophole” is a little deceiving, cast members inform guests of this- they encourage it because it is/was the policy! However, I think it is fair that they are only limiting it to 1 extra guest. When we visit next month we will just manage our childrens’ expectations before we ride.
Mom of Twins: You could have one twin ride with mom and the other ride with dad. Then nobody gets to ride twice.
We always looked at rider swap as each parent would get to ride with kids. I have 3 and 1 is too little for the big rides so my husband would ride with the 2 older and then i would get to ride with them. It was nice to experience things with the 2 olders. But now I see a lot of arguments and unhappy families having to choose which kid gets to ride again.
This is definitely sad to hear. I feel like this was a really great benefit for those with babies and little ones. When you bring a baby to Disney it is very hard to do near as many rides as those without (naps, changes, more breaks, more waiting for RS), so it was a little something extra magical for the older kids to get to experience something twice. Oh well.
Very recently (this week) in a popular Disney planning Facebook I saw a post from a mom who said for EVERY ride on her family’s recent trip they just had her husband wait in line while she and the kids went and did other things and then they joined the dad when he was at the front of the line. 150 comments or so of parents taking notes for their own trip and I felt like I was the only one going …uhhh that’s not fair?
I get it, I have small children myself and waiting with a 3 year old is HARD. But it’s part of it! It’s one thing to have to take a young kid to the bathroom or whatever and need to rejoin your party but to skip the line *entirely* is an abuse of a courtesy and then to share it as some legitimate line hack is so gross.
This was a nice perk for those of us with large families but it does make sense. Just to point out, those of us that used it for two kids weren’t cheating or using a loophole. When we first went to Disney we had no idea how it worked and every cast member told us to scan the other parent plus two others so I don’t see it as cheating the system. We have not been post Covid so maybe something involving that is what you are referring to but those of us that are rule followers don’t like to be told we are cheating when we were following cast member’s instructions
I really hope they start turning guests away that don’t have a shirt or a proper shirt, because I’ve seen the videos of people wearing very small/short shirts just to get a spirit jersey and calling it a hack. With so many people eager to copy it, does not sit well with me at all. Also, frustrating seeing a Disney blogger on Instagram complain that they didn’t know you couldn’t get a WEB slingers boarding pass if you haven’t used your RISE boarding pass. We have a trip coming up in July for DLR, we have never ridden RISE, we have tried at DL and WDW, and have not been lucky so far. We’ve been following all the tips and rules. And then this influencer whined about not being able to get a WEB slingers pass, then goes and cries to cast members and is given a WEB slingers boarding pass at the end of the night. And publishes it on their stories as another “hack”. Frustrating. Just follow the rules. Or stop sharing “hacks” that exploits systems and cast members.
My Dad has sciatica in his back and cannot sit or stand in place for long periods of time (meaning renting a wheelchair wouldn’t help) without being in excruciating pain. You wouldn’t be able to guess by looking at him because as long as he’s able to keep moving it doesn’t bother him. I promise you cannot ‘tell’ who is a legitimate DAS user by sight. YES even if they seem able-bodied or healthy.
We just went to WDW last month and we used his DAS more than we usually would because of the absence of Fastpass. That doesn’t mean he needed it any less before, just that there used to be another mechanism that accomplished the same thing (not forcing him to sit or stand in place to the extent it caused him severe pain) that wasn’t available this time. I’m sure the same is true for many other people and that could certainly account for at least part of a perceived amount of increased use of the service with no ‘normal’ Fastpass use to compare it to.
As for changes IDK what would be “fair?” Have the rest of the party stand in line? There’s a lot of ways that could get very awkward.
FYI for how DAS currently works for anyone unfamiliar. It is not an immediate jump to the front of the line:
1. You have to request it at Guest Services when you enter your first park. They take the picture of the DAS rider. They’ll usually set DAS for about length of stay, sometimes it might be more. You don’t have to be staying on property, just if they ask what your last park day is for the trip let them know.
2. Anyone who’s going to be in the party needs to be added and anyone who’s NOT going to be in the party needs to be switched out. (I.e. my Mom and brother were listed from our last trip and had to be removed.) You can make changes day by day but you have to go to GS each time. (Example one day my aunt and uncle who live nearby met us at the park. We had to add them that day and take them off the next day.)
3. Someone from the party goes to the ride entrance (or the blue umbrellas at Studios). This does NOT have to be the DAS rider. They get the return time for the whole party.
4. Usually the return time is what the standby wait is or sometimes a little less. (If the line is very short they may let you go through the FP queue right then, but that’s only happened to us once.)
5. When you return the DAS rider taps first at the FP queue, the CM checks their picture, then the rest of the party taps. You go on the ride.
6. You can only have one DAS reservation at a time. If you’re at AK and have a return time for FOP you can’t go and get one for Everest until you’ve ridden FOP. This helps somewhat keep things fair IMO. Your party can only be in one ‘long line’ at once. No-double-dipping.
7. For ROTR you still need a boarding group. What you can do is go to the front of the line and do DAS to go through the FP line when your group is called. (We actually didn’t do that this trip since I forgot it was a thing so I don’t know the exact process, just that there is one. Luckily the line wasn’t too bad and kept moving.)
IMO it’s a big improvement on the old version for fairness because it’s not an instant line hop and Disney has a record of repeat users and who they used it with. Tour guides or whoever trying to exploit it would definitely get flagged with their parties constantly changing and being full of unrelated people.
As a person with an unseen disability. I would gladly wait in the longest of lines and not have this disability. It is a serious infraction when people abuse these services. One needs to ask oneself, am I such a jerk that I can’t play fair in society. For those who do abuse the DAS, count your blessing and pray to God you don’t become disabled yourself someday! … MS, Lupus, Parkinson, Type 1 diabetes, epilepsy just to name a few. These disabilities can strike you at ANY age.
i am an avid user of parent swap and i completely understand. we have twins under 2 who are short anyway and then 6 and 8 so they get to ride rides twice a lot and it’s not fair to everyone else so i do understand the change.
with that said i don’t understand how they implement this and don’t touch the handicap/wheelchair etc. of course people with needs can’t wait in lines and i don’t think they should but on every ride how can you get a return time for all of your party 6+ people.?
we saw this last week. Space mountain we were waiting for rider switch. My husband and boys waited 55 i got the switch. the lady in front of me said we need return time for all 9 of us. The operator didn’t bat an eye.
I would expect a similar reform to come for DAS, but Disney needs to tread lightly there. It’ll be interesting to see what changes happen with that, though.
We have 5 kids (right now 7-17) and do Disney roughly every other year. Prior to using Magic Bands they would give us 2-4 paper FastPass to use the rest of the day. Now with Magic Bands and scanning everyone who is riding (and at times it has taken 20+ min in line to even get this scan done ) they only let 2 people join the waiting parent. I always felt that was a strange number because they either had the waiting parent ride by themselves or one of the kids ride with a stranger or even weirder an empty seat (why couldn’t we had that one too?). I think it is perfectly fair to just give the waiting parent a turn to ride the ride and have a companion to ride with which is exactly what Rider Swap was made for! I know that it i hard to disappoint your kids especially at Disney and it can be super hard for kids to not get to ride it twice when a sibling does, then just set it up where the sibling riding with the waiting parent doesn’t go the first time. I’m with you Tom, “it was great while it lasted”. ~ Natalie
It’s as fair as anything can be. I see people talking about families of 4 vs 5 well what about 6?
Under the old system you have to choose 2 out of three. Of course anyone who’s had 4 or more children knows it’s not that difficult as there’s always one who is out of favor that day or one you suspect might actually be the neighbors.
It’s really not difficult. They take turns at every other ride.
If there’s a ride they really really love and they both want to do it a second time than do it twice and each kid will actually ride it three times.
As a side note Parent Swap was one of those R rated early Netflix films.
This was us – two older boys with a little brother. We too are have no little ones left to use this now. I think this change is fair. It wouldn’t have bothered us. I too remember back when we spent two weeks here around the opening of FoP – my hubby and I got fast passes for three different days and my older two boys rode that 6 times during the height of its newness and popularity. How lucky they were.
@ Jim, WDW is legally prohibited from asking for proof of disability for families and individuals who need the DAS pass. It violates the ADA, and would allow for discrimination. While some people certainly abuse it, it’s more likely that their disability is ‘invisible’ to others. That is the case for me and many people I know. Something to keep in mind.