The Art of the Fast Pass & Child Swap

It never ceases to amaze me how some people who have been to Disney multiple times still don't know how to properly "work" the Fast Pass system.  For those of you who are pros, skip this post.  Or better yet, read it and add any additional information/tips to the comments section!

There are two lines for (most) attractions.  (This does not apply to smaller, less popular attractions.)  There’s the regular line called the Stand-By Line.  There is a time wait posted outside the ride that tells you how long the wait is for the ride.   Then there is a short cut line called the Fast Pass line.  You must have a special “ticket” to get inside this line that basically has no wait.  These people get to jump in front of all the Stand-by people.  This line is reserved for people with physical handicaps (they have a special ticket…that a friend of mine calls the "golden ticket"- if you have someone with a mental or physical handicap travelling with you, ask your Disney Travel Agent about this), child swap passes (will explain this hidden treasure later), and people with Fast Pass tickets.  You receive a Fast Pass ticket simply by scanning your park ticket at the kiosk in front of the attraction.  Completely free to everyone in the park, unlike the Flash Passes at Six Flags that you have to pay for!

Each attraction has a certain number of Fast Pass tickets that are given out each day.I don’t know the exact # so I’ll make it up so you can get the idea.Expedition Everest (shown in the picture below) is a very fun rollercoaster in Animal Kingdom.They give out a total of 200 Fastpass tickets each day for this ride and the tickets have time increments of every 15 minutes.Once those 200 tickets are gone, no others will be given out for the day.You can get multiple Fastpass tickets for the same ride (if you want to ride it more than once), as long as you are eligible.Clear as mud?I’ll explain a little further with a diagram of the ticket.

Any Stand-By time of 30 minutes and under is pretty good.  It kind of works like restaurant wait times ~ if they say 20 minutes, it’s probably only 15 minutes.  Because it’s Disney, the wait in line is almost always interesting.  There’s usually plenty to look at, read about, etc. so don’t be afraid of a 20-30 minute wait.  If you ever see a 5 minute wait time ~ RIDE IT!  That’s pretty much walking right on the ride.  If you get to a park right when it opens, you will be able to hit SEVERAL rides and just walk right on them.  That’s the BEST way to do it!  I have to mention this: Toy Story Mania in Disney Hollywood Studios is the MOST popular ride of all parks.  The wait time as the park opens…before people can even reach the line…is 50 minutes.  Seriously, they don’t EVER set the time lower than 50 minutes (according to the attendant at the line) so keep that in mind when you are debating this ride.  I give my thoughts on how to ride this attraction in the Disney Hollywood Studios section.  Btw ~ there’s a REASON it’s the most popular…it’s AWESOME!!

Mastering the art of the Fast Pass will help you experience the things you want as many times as you want to!  Also, don’t ever throw away a Fastpass.  If you aren’t going to get to use it, just give it away to another park-goer.  You’ll make their day.  Seriously, I loved doing that for people!

Another way to by-pass long lines is to use the Single Rider line.  This isn’t offered on a lot of rides, but where it IS offered, it can be shorter than the Fastpass line sometimes!  If you aren’t eligible to get a Fastpass, this can be a great way to ride quickly.  Sometimes you can manage to sit right in front of the people in your group so it still feels like you’re riding together!  I like to use this option when we want to ride something multiple times.

Fast passes are great, but there are a lot of restrictions put on them ~ like how many you’re allowed to get, what time you can use them, limited supply handed out, etc.  And I still recommend you use them when it fits your schedule (i.e. you qualify for one and the return time is acceptable.)  But THIS is a hidden gem that many people don’t know about or don’t know how to utilize properly…the Child Swap, aka Rider Switch Pass.  (I’m old-school so I still call it the Child Swap Pass.)

Back in the day, Disney had a Child Swap rule.  If you had a child with you who wasn’t tall enough to ride the attraction (or too scared), everyone would go through the line together.  At the point where you would load the ride, one adult would stay with the small child while the rest of the group went on.  When they returned, another adult would swap spots waiting with the small child and everyone would ride again.  Get it?  Mom could stay behind with Child #3 while Dad rode with child #1 and #2.  When their ride was over, Dad and mom would change spots, allowing child #1 and #2 to ride twice ~ once with Mom and once with Dad.

They have since changed it to incorporate the Rider Switch Pass.  How it works: entire party goes to the entrance of the ride where the attendant is and tells them you need a Rider Swap Pass.  They’ll give the pass to the adult who is waiting, while the rest of your party enters the attraction.  You wait outside with the small or scared child(ren).  When your party returns, you and two other guests can go on the attraction.  (When we went in 2009, I THOUGHT it allowed 4 people to ride with a child swap pass, but now it only allows 3.  Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but regardless it’s only 3 at a time.)

  The great part?  This pass allows the second group (the person who waited outside) to go through the Fastpass line without a Fastpass ticket!  And when you pair it up with actual Fastpasses, it’s AWESOME!  When we went in 2009, Andrew was only two years old.  There were lots of rides he couldn’t do.  So we learned to go to a busy attraction and get Fastpasses for it.  When the Fastpasses were eligible, we returned and got a Child Swap Pass.  Casey, Abigail & Aaron would go through the line using their Fastpasses that we got a few hours before while I waited with Andrew outside.  When they came out, I went through the Fast Pass line with Abigail and Aaron using the Child Swap ticket.  Awesome for the older kids because they got to ride everything twice if they wanted to without waiting in long lines.  This may seem like cheating, but it ISN’T.  This is fine with Disney.

But I have learned that some people have cheated the system using this pass.  They will collect Child Swap tickets without going through the line at all and once they have two tickets THEN they ride the attraction ~ going through the Fastpass line twice without using a Fastpass ticket at all.  Disney has caught onto this some from what I’ve heard and the attendants are watching a little closer to make sure people enter an actual line.  But there’s always someone who thinks like a cheater.  I’ve heard of some instances where an adult waits outside (like they are supposed to) and the first party gets in the Stand-By line because they didn't have a Fastpass (like they are supposed to).  But the adults made a “ticket exchange” and once past the attendant, the first party jumps the rope into the Fastpass line.  The adult who was waiting outside usually didn’t want to ride the attraction at all, so it allowed the group to cheat their way through the Fastpass line without a Fastpass. 

Cheating is not necessary if you know how to plan out your day!  When we followed the flow chart on which days are best to go to which park and know which rides are the attractions to go to first that was given to us, it went smoothly.  Seriously, this is gold!  And that is why I recommend a good Disney travel agent.  J

Bottom's Up!!!

 On this first day of fall, as I drink my coffee in my Disney cup, I figure this is a great time to discuss the refillable mug.  So I turn on my mood music ~ Radio Disney ~ and can't help but wonder, "How DO you love someone like a love song, Selena Gomez?"  But I digress... Every Disney hotel offers a refillable mug that you can buy for, what seems like, an outrageous price like $20.  It can be refilled with coffee, juice or fountain drinks an endless number of times at any Disney hotel food courts.  (Please note that you can take this IN the parks but don't get free refills in the parks with it, just the hotels.) 

Every year the design/theme changes on the cup.  This is the mug we bought on our first family trip in January 2009.  We bought 2 mugs that trip actually.  When we go back November 2012, we will probably buy two more.  Here's why I like this deal...not only is this a souvenir that you can take home and break out on cool, fall days like today, but you can use it EVERYTIME you go to Disney.  Yep, first time we went, we stayed all the All-Star Music resort.  Used it every morning before we left for the parks and every evening when we returned, before we went back to our rooms.  (The buses usually drop off fairly close to the eatery areas so this was conveinent.)  On our first trip, we probably used the cups 12-15 times.  A fairly decent deal for only one trip when you use it like we did. 

Second trip in October 2010, we stayed at the Port Orleans - Riverside, brought the cups and used them AGAIN every single morning & evening.  There was a completely different design on the 2010 cups so it was OBVIOUS our cups were old.  I was kind of nervous the first time I walked up to the register with my breakfast and, what I thought was, an illegimate cup.  You see, I was told that the cups were honored every year by a friend.  I was skeptical since they didn't advertise that when we bought them (you would think that would be a selling point, right?), but no one said boo to us. (What does that expression even mean?)

Now, there is a rumor that Disney is no longer going to honor this deal - that you can no longer use cups that don't match the current design. But I am now skeptical of THAT.  Most of the fountain drinks, juice machines and coffee area are usually out of veiw of the cashiers.  They really can't see if someone even goes and fills up a non-Disney brand mug.  (I went through the check-out with my mug the first time to get true confirmation on whether it was legit or not.)  Until I hear first hand from someone that they are cracking down on this, I am planning to bring my 2 mugs back to Disney for Thanksgiving 2012!!!  If you still don't want to spend the money on the mugs, the least you could do is try to find a friend that would let you borrow their mugs for your trip.  : )

Best FREE thing about Disney

I really can't express to you how important it is for you to use a personal Disney Travel Agent when planning your trip.  I don't mean calling an agent through 1-800-Disney (or whatever it is) and booking your trip; I mean going through a certified Disney travel agent that has been recommended to you by someone you know.  If you don't have someone, I recommend my friend Tammy Ewert 100%.  She will help you no matter where you live at no cost to you!!  Isn't that amazing?  (Please note that I do not get any kind of kick-backs from Tammy for saying all of this!  This is just my heart-felt opinion!!)

Even for a Disney-guru like myself, I will always use Tammy to book my trips from now on.  Don't get me wrong; I planned our entire Jan '09 trip by myself.  It's doable (and even enjoyable if you're an organizational freak like me!).  But here's the reason I will always use Tammy: she books the trip for me and alerts me when/if Disney announces any new specials that would apply to my trip.  She is super smart about all the different hotel options since she has stayed at most of them!  She also handles all the dining reservations for me, after giving me the low-down on which restaurants are best.  She gives you a Disney flow chart of which parks are expected to be least crowded on which day of your trip so you can plan accordingly.  (That is a huge difference between her and an agent on the phone.)  That chart can make going at peak season, like holidays or summer, not a complete crowd-disaster!!  Then a week or so before your trip, she gives you this handy Disney for dummies packet telling you her suggestions on how to hit the parks.  Love it.  : )

I am convinced that she somehow arranged for us to get the closest room to the bus depot at our hotel on our last visit in Oct '10.  Seriously, it was the best room we could have gotten!  She may have had nothing to do with our room selection, but I think she might have.  The trip I planned had us a mile away from the the bus depot.  I don't want to sweat before I ever get on the bus, if I can help it.  Also, I did not have that awesome crowd-control flow chart when I planned my first trip.  I'm pretty sure I was at the same park at the same time as everyone else!  I'm sure all Disney travel agents are as talented and knowledgeable as Tammy but if you don't know any and would like her contact information, let me know.  You can also follow her at her company's Facebook page.  Just search for "A Time to Treasure Travel, LLC."  When I grow up, I want to be Tammy....