Are some of your children too short, too young, or just too terrified to accompany you on your favorite theme park rides?
Don’t let it spoil everyone’s vacation. Most major amusement parks have a program in place to allow you and your other family members to enjoy the attractions without too much inconvenience — just so long as you’re willing to take turns.
Popular family destinations including Disney Parks, Universal Resorts, SeaWorld and Legoland offer these services for families or groups with babies, small children or other guests unwilling or unable to wait alone. These services go by names such as “Child Swap,” “Parent Swap” or “Rider Switch” depending on which park you’re visiting, but they all work essentially the same way — and they can be a real time-saver for families hoping to experience as much of the park as possible.
“Child swap works great, just tell a team member at the entrance to the queue you’d like to do a child swap and they’ll tell you the procedure for that particular ride,” one recent visitor to Universal Studios Hollywood explained of the park’s “Child Swap” service on Reddit.
In general, the rider-swapping services work like this: One group from your party (or your entire party) waits in line for the ride. Once at the front, a member of your party informs a ride attendant that another adult is planning to sit out the ride — either to supervise a small child or to look after a guest who can’t wait alone. Once the ride is over, that person can then “swap” supervising duties with a member of their party and get on the ride without waiting in line again (or get on the ride after waiting in an expedited queue).
Some parks, however, handle the process slightly differently.
At Six Flags and Universal, for instance, the entire party has to wait in line the first time around. At the front, the guests that aren’t riding are then instructed to wait elsewhere (at the ride exit at Six Flags, or in a family room at Universal) until the rest of their party steps off the ride to relieve the parent/guardian, who can then take their own turn on the ride.
Disney Parks, meanwhile, allow the waiting party to wait outside the queue. But the Disney resorts also limit the waiting party to just two supervising guests — meaning that a maximum of only two people can skip back into the line after the rest of their group exits the ride.
Depending on which park you visit, some ride attendants will also provide the waiting guests with receipts or scan their tickets, to be sure that no one else attempts to take advantage of the service by falsely claiming to be a member of the waiting party to skip the line. (A representative for Six Flags told Nexstar that a waiting guest may indeed bring 1 companion with them on their ride, regardless of whether that person already rode with the first party.)
Of course, a worker or crew member at each park will be able to share more specifics before you get in line. It’s also smart to look up each park’s ride-switching or kid-swapping policies before planning your trip, to ensure you won’t be wasting too much time in line — unless, for some reason, you’re one of many social media users who believe that waiting in line is part of the fun.
“Some of the queues themselves are better than the rides they’re attached to,” one theme park fan argued.
