Welcome back to the Disney Parks Moms Panel, Jamie!
Planning a Walt Disney World Resort vacation for your family can be a delicate balance sometimes, right? There's so much to see and do and you definitely want to make sure that no one misses out on anything, especially when you're traveling with little ones. For that reason,
Rider Switch is going to be a great vacation planning tool for you, and I'm happy to walk you through some of the finer points of how it works so you can decide how you want to use it on your upcoming trip.
The point of Rider Switch is so that families like yours who have little ones that aren't quite tall enough to ride some of the more thrilling attractions can have everyone ride what they want without needing to wait in the standby line multiple times. If you want to use the Rider Switch service in conjunction with
FastPass+, meaning the first riding group will go through the FastPass+ entrance and not wait in the standby line, everyone in your party must have a valid FastPass+ for that attraction. Rider Switch recently went digital and has been integrated with your
MagicBand and
My Disney Experience app, so when you tap your MagicBand to receive your Rider Switch return time, a Cast Member will check to see that everyone has a valid FastPass+, if you want to use them.
For that reason, I recommend that you use your FastPass+ selections for attractions that you can all ride together as a family so that everyone can use all three that are available for them each day. For example, if you're spending the day together at
Magic Kingdom Park, use your FastPass+ to all ride
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and while one parent and the older kids are waiting in line for
Space Mountain, another parent and the little one who isn't tall enough to ride can go
Meet Buzz Lightyear himself, or grab a snack at
Auntie Gravity's Galactic Goodies. The older kids won't mind waiting in line since the Rider Switch entitlement is good for up to three guests, they'll be able to ride again using the FastPass+ entrance with the other parent!
I hope this answers your questions, Jamie, and let us know if there's anything else we can do to help you plan your magical vacation.
Jessica