Orlando, Fla. (Nexstar) – Are some of your kids too short, too young, or too scary to accompany you on your favorite theme park ride?
Don’t ruin everyone’s holidays. Most major entertainment parks have programs that allow you and your other families to enjoy the attraction without causing too much inconvenience.
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Popular family destinations such as Disney Parks, Universal Resort, Sea World, and Legoland offer these services for families and groups who don’t want to wait alone or have other guests. These services are told by names like “child swap”, “parent swap”, “rider switch”, etc., depending on the park you are visiting, but everything works essentially the same. And it’s a real time saving for families who want to experience as many parks as possible.
“Children swap works well. I want to do a child swap to team members at the entrance to the queue. I’ll tell them the specific ride steps,” a recent visitor to Universal Studios Hollywood explained on Reddit about the park’s “child swap” service.
Generally, rider swapping services work as follows: One group of parties (or the whole party) is waiting for a ride. Once before, the party members will inform the rider that another adult is planning a ride to oversee the small child or to look after a guest who cannot wait alone. Once the ride is finished, the person can “exchange” the duty to supervise with the party members and get on the ride without waiting in line again (or wait in a quick queue before getting on the ride).
However, some parks handle the process in a slightly different way.
For example, at Six Flags and Universal, the whole party has to wait in line for the first time. Front, non-riding guests will be instructed to wait elsewhere (in the Six Flags exit, or at the family room at Universal).
Disney Parks, meanwhile, allows waiters to wait outside the line. However, Disney Resort will also limit the waiting party to two supervising guests. This means that only up to two people can return to the line and skip after the rest of the group has finished riding.
Depending on the park you are visiting, some boarding attendants will provide receipts to waiting guests or scan tickets. (A representative of Six Flags told Nexstar that the waiting guest actually has one companion on board, whether the person was already on the first party.)
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Of course, workers or crews from each park can share more details before they line up. It is also wise to look into each park’s ride or child-friendly policies before planning your trip so you don’t waste time by lining up.
“Some of the queue itself is better than the rides they’re attached,” a fan of one theme park claimed.
