We were about half way through a thrilling day at Cedar Point. It was warm, the sun was shining, we’d just eaten our favorite lunch at the Farmhouse Kitchen and Grill, and we decided to ride the train from back behind Maverick up toward the front of the park.
We got onto the train and another family with two younger kids followed us into the row ahead of us.
As we waited for the train to depart the station, we started chatting – small talk at first, but then as we were two similar families enjoying Cedar Point with young kids, we started comparing notes on how our days were going.
And that’s when they dropped it on us: “We love coming here, we love the atmosphere and the fun, but it’s so hard with young kids! For the most part, our kids aren’t tall enough (or brave enough) to ride the biggest rides here, but Mom and Dad want to experience Top Thrill 2, Maverick, Steel Vengeance, Millennium Force – but waiting through the line twice takes up so much time.”
That stopped us in our tracks: “What do you mean, ‘waiting through the line twice’?”
“Well, we can’t all ride together, so if Mom and Dad both want to ride say: Top Thrill 2, Mom will wait with the kids while Dad waits through the line and rides, and then when he gets off, Dad will wait with the kids while Mom waits through the line and rides. It’s just such a long process.”
“Do you guys not utilize the parent swap?”
They looked at us like deer in the headlights.
“What’s a parent swap?”
This family had been to Cedar Point in the past and were already several hours into a fun day in the present, and they had NO IDEA that there was a special system in place to help parents ride rides and still have fun, even if their kids weren’t tall enough or brave enough to ride a specific ride.
This isn’t as rare an occurrence as you’d think either. As roller coaster enthusiasts, we visit a lot of amusement parks every year and every year, we meet families (just like this family on the train – yes, they are 100% real) who are unaware of the park’s parent swap system.
So, if you’ve always just assumed that one parent or adult has to sacrifice all the big rides and thrills and fun in order to take small children to an amusement park – this video is for you.
OVERVIEW
Just to be super clear right up front: parent swapping is NOT a loophole or line-skipping hack. It is an official park policy designed specifically for families with non-riders. Just like I would never advise you to take advantage of a park’s ADA policies (unless you actually have someone with a disability in your group), parent swapping is equally not a policy to be abused.
Disney is generally credited with popularizing the parent swap idea as thrill attractions became more and more common at amusement and theme parks.
This policy goes by several names: we tend to always call it a “Parent Swap”, but it also goes by “Rider Switch”, “Child Swap”, and we’ve heard “Baby Swap” too.
To boil it down to its most simplistic form, this is how the process works:
As a family, you walk up to a ride that not everyone can ride. One parent will stay out of the line with the child (or children) who are not riding, while the rest of the family heads into the main queue. They wait through the line and ride the ride. As they exit the ride, they then switch places with the parent who was waiting with the kids, and that second parent will then walk up the exit to board the ride, without having to wait through the entire queue again.
Just like each park calls this policy something slightly different, each park also has their own spin on this process. So, while my overview is simply that: an overview – a lot of parks do have specific pieces to their parent swap policy that can vary – sometimes even between parks in the same chain.
I’m going to do my best to break down the major park’s major differences in just a little bit, so if you have a specific park you are visiting soon, stick around.
Oh and one last thing to note before we start talking specifics: parent swapping isn’t just for families with babies or kids that aren’t tall enough to meet a ride’s height requirements. It’s also incredibly helpful if you have a child who gets nervous about big rides, is scared of certain dark rides, gets motion sickness easily, or you have a kid who might just not be mentally ready to handle a big ride. For example: our 7 year old is very tall for his age and technically can ride a lot of “bigger” rides, but mentally, he’s just not ready for certain rides yet – and that’s okay.
SPECIFICS
So, I’ve given you a high-level overview of how parent swapping works, but now let’s break down how different parks handle this concept:
Most parks fall into three main categories, we’ll call them:
1. The Digital Pass System
2. The Family Room System and
3. The Exit Gate System
The Digital Pass System
Disney
Parent swapping at Disney is now officially called Rider Switch and in our opinion: it is the MOST efficient and easy to navigate (which makes sense: after all, Disney specifically caters to families).
If you are heading to a Disney park, here’s how their Rider Switch process currently operates:
There are booths set up close to the entrance of every ride with a height requirement where you’ll head first. (Sometimes they are a bit tricky to spot, so if you can’t find it, just head to the entrance of the ride & ask the ride attendant there for directions.) A ride attendant will walk you through the process and load the waiting parent’s magic band with a free and immediate-use lightning lane pass. The first parent then walks through the regular queue, rides the ride, and when they exit, the second parent can just walk through the lightning lane.
Additionally, Disney (and many other parks) will allow the second parent to bring a partner with them through the Lightning Lane to ride with. So, if you have an older child or another adult in your party, they can have the best day ever by riding every ride that requires a parent swap twice.
This process is easy and seamless and since the second, waiting-parent is out in the park, depending on how long the line is – they can stroll through the gift shops, get a snack, even ride another ride or see a show nearby. This keeps everyone happy and feeling like they’re having a full, fun day, without feeling like all you can do is sit at the exit of a ride and wait endlessly.
(Also, spoiler alert, it’s almost guaranteed that as soon as you initiate a parent swap process, one of your kids will need to use the bathroom – so having the lightning lane on your magic band that you can use any time alleviates any stress about having to be right there at the exit the moment the first parent gets off the ride.)
You might expect Universal to have a similar system to Disney, but no – their process is very different.
THE FAMILY ROOM SYSTEM
Universal
At most Universal attractions (especially the newer ones), the entire family will enter and wait through the queue together. As you near the front of the line, you will be separated off and the waiting parent and too-small-child will head into a “family room” where they will wait while the first parent rides the ride. Upon exiting the ride, the first parent comes back to that family room and swaps places with the second parent, who then joins the line and rides the ride.
This works well, for the most part.
Most rides have that family room situated almost right where you board and exit the ride. For example, on Mine Cart Madness in Super Nintendo World, the family room is literally steps away from where you board the ride. At Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, the waiting parent and child enter the family room, while the first parent simply has to walk up a set of stairs, over the bridge, and then down a set of stairs into the station (so, a 5-10 minute wait). At Star Dust Racers, the waiting parent and child enter the family room right after the metal detectors – but the trick with this ride is: there is still about 20-30 minutes of queue left to wait through after this point. So not only does the first parent have to wait upwards of 30 minutes after separating off, the second parent also has to wait that long (and if you’ve never ridden Star Dust Racers before, this long wait will definitely confuse you – it confused us!)
So, besides every ride having a slightly different waiting situation, here’s my major problem with Universal’s parent swap policy:
A lot of Universal’s major rides have thematic, story-telling elements IN the queue. This is amazing to help set the stage for the ride and keep you occupied as you wait, BUT when the storyline is dark, suspenseful, or scary, taking little ones through the queue can be traumatizing.
Specifically, I’m thinking about Monsters Unchained at Epic Universe – my children would not even walk through the front gate of that ride, let alone wait through the queue. If we tried to force our kids through that queue, our entire day would be ruined – full stop.
We weren’t able to ride the Ministry of Magic ride at Epic Universe because the line was too long (and the ride kept breaking down) on the day we were there, but we did walk through the beginning of the queue just to see it, and even that was too much for our kids to handle.
So, needless to say: if your kids scare easily, parent swapping at Universal can be a bit tricky to navigate.
To be fair, I understand WHY Universal structures it this way. Their queues are heavily story-driven, so having the whole family experience the queue together helps preserve the narrative of the attraction.
Disney’s Lightning Lanes tend to give a mini version of the queue’s story (or deposit you into the pieces that are important), but still, I understand why Universal has the entire family walk through the queue together – I just prefer Disney’s system for freedom and ultimate flexibility.
So, to summarize: the major difference between parent swapping at Disney & Universal is: at Disney, the family is separated before even entering the queue, whereas at Universal, everyone stays together and waits through the queue until the very end.
Moving on.
Dollywood and Silver Dollar City
Dollywood and Silver Dollar City similarly have a “family room” situation for families to wait in for a lot of their rides (just like Universal does). So, the whole family waits through the queue together and then at the end, splits into half riding the ride and the other half waiting in the family area.
Now, where this gets tricky is: this isn’t the case for all of their rides, just some of them. So, you’ll want to ask the ride attendant at the front of each attraction how the parent swap works for that specific ride – never just assume. Some rides, everyone waits through the queue together and utilizes the family room, while other rides, the second parent waits outside of the queue and walks up the exit to get their ride.
One other thing I’ll specifically note about Dollywood and Silver Dollar City – every other park, including Disney and Universal – will allow the second, waiting parent to bring a partner to ride with them after “the swap” occurs. This means, if you have an older child or other adults in your party – someone can ride the ride twice (once with the first parent and again with the second).
Dollywood and Silver Dollar City both have a “no one can ride twice” policy. This means that typically, the seat next to the second parent rides empty (unless they can fill it quickly with a single rider).
This policy really confused us when we initially encountered it because we were used to parks like Disney, Universal, and Cedar Point allowing the second parent to take a partner with them if a partner is available.
Once we realized the rule was simply: “no one can ride twice”, we started splitting our party so that another adult or older child would wait with the second parent – and thus they’d have a partner to ride with. (Let’s be honest: riding roller coasters and rides are MUCH more enjoyable with a buddy!)
Of course, this only works if you have more than two adults in your party (in our case, we were visiting with my Mom and teenage sister), but if it’s just a family with a Mom and Dad and younger kids – well, you’re out of luck and will always be riding alone.
THE EXIT GATE SYSTEM
Cedar Point and Kings Island
I mentioned Cedar Point, so let’s talk about their parent swap policy next – it pretty much follows the “first parent waits through the queue and upon exiting the ride, the second parent walks up the exit” overview I gave earlier – but there is one small tweak: you need a paper.
At Cedar Point and Kings Island, you have to get a paper from either Guest Relations at the front of the park, at Kings Island, there is a booth to the left as soon as you go in, or most of the major attractions now have these parent swap papers at the entrance to the ride. Of course, this is an amazing upgrade, because once upon a time you could only get the parent swap paper from Guest Relations and we definitely forgot many many times and ended up walking a lot of steps backwards to go get that paper. But anyways, you need a paper that the ride attendants will sign off on (similar to how the ADA passes work).
The first parent (who waits through the regular queue) will present this parent swap paper to the ride attendants on the ride platform, as they are getting on the ride. Depending on the ride, they will either keep the paper or they will initial it and hand it back to the first parent. Upon exiting the ride, the second parent will walk up the exit and either hand the paper back to the ride attendant to be initialed again, OR (if the ride attendant has kept the paper), tell the ride attendant manning the exit gate that you are utilizing the parent swap, at which point they will retrieve your paper, initial it, hand it back, and then put you on the ride.
Every ride is slightly different in this way.
Busch Gardens Tampa and Sea World Orlando
Again, at Busch Gardens Tampa and Sea World Orlando, the bones of the system remain the same, but instead of a paper you have to carry around, when you walk up to a ride and tell the ride attendant that you’ll be utilizing a parent swap, they hand you a card, which allows you to walk up the fast pass line, with a return time. But, let’s be honest: most of the time, they don’t fill in this return time, and it’s just open to return at ANY time. (They’re supposed to look at the posted wait time and write down that many minutes in the future for the second parent to use this card – of all the times we’ve been to Tampa and Sea World, I think we’ve only ever had one or two ride ops actually fill in this time.)
This system works really well because, like Disney, it gives the second, waiting-parent the freedom to get a snack, run kids to the bathroom, enjoy some of the animal attractions nearby, etc. The card allows them to return at any time (after the return time, if it’s written down), reducing the stress of needing to be close by to meet the first parent at the exit.
Most Other Parks
At parks like Kennywood, Carowinds, Canada’s Wonderland, and Kings Dominion – the process is as simple as I originally outlined. The first parent waits through the regular queue, rides the ride, they exit the ride, swap hands of who’s watching the kiddos, and the second parent then walks up the exit.
For most rides at parks without a formal parent swap system (meaning: no magic bands, family rooms, parent swap papers, or cards), it does work BEST if the second parent can walk up the exit and be present as the first parent is boarding the ride. That way, the ride op can connect the dots that as one parent is getting off, the second parent needs to be getting on within one or two trains (sometimes, they’ll even want the second parent to immediately enter the station and sit down in the first parent’s vacated seat).
This of course introduces a small level of stress to the process because this means the second, waiting parent has to be close by and ready to not only find the exit, but walk up it as soon as the first parent gives the green light to do so. Assuming that the first parent takes their phone through the line, they can text updates as they’re getting close – but it’s still a difficult thing to judge and orchestrate. (Again, I promise, a kid will need to use the bathroom at the worst time in this process.) So, as annoying as the papers or cards might be, I personally prefer the structure they give to the fluidity of the “fly by the seat of your pants” model.
THE DOWNSIDE
So, here’s the part that no one talks about:
No matter how you slice it, parent swapping does take TIME, and sometimes, a lot of time.
When Derrick and I visit a park without our kids (which rarely happens, but we do try to get away by ourselves at least once a year), we are always blown away at how quickly we can plow through riding rides when we can simply ride everything together.
Yes, parent swapping does save you from having to wait through the full queue twice, but it still tacks on a good bit of time (sometimes as little as 5 minutes, other times upwards of 30+ minutes, all depending on the attraction and the park’s policies. If you’re at Star Dust Racers at Epic Universe, from the time you split off, to the first parent riding, to the second parent riding, it can be almost 60 minutes, unless the line is very short.)
So, parent swapping does take time (and to assume that you can parent swap and both ride a ride and only add 5-10 minutes onto your total wait time is a bit presumptuous.) It does require some strategy. It takes a lot of coordination on the part of both parents. And it requires a lot of patience.
But the upside is: both parents get to experience big, thrill rides, without having to wait the full queue twice.
TIPS AND TRICKS
After years of parent swapping all over the country, here’s what we’ve learned.
Thankfully, parent swapping has become more and more common at every park we visit. Back in 2016 and 2017 – when we were first parent swapping for the first time – a lot of ride ops would look at us like we had 4 heads. And many times, we would have to explain their own parent swap policies to them. It was stressful and difficult.
Now, we rarely come across a ride op who doesn’t understand parent swapping and that alone makes the process much easier to navigate.
On top of being prepared for the process to take extra time, you can also be prepared that other guests around you will not understand what you’re doing and might (at the least) give you the stink eye, or (at the worst) drop some nasty comments about how you’re “skipping the line.”
We’ve had this happen (sadly) COUNTLESS times – because, let’s be honest: even families who have kids might not realize that parent swapping is a thing – so adults visiting a park without kids at all DEFINITELY have no idea that parent swapping is a legit, official policy at parks.
Many times I’ve had to give someone a short crash course on parent swapping and explain: I’m not skipping the line! My husband and I have already waited the length of the normal line – we’ve just waited in two separate places (one inside the queue and one out). And now I’m waiting longer in order to get on the ride from the exit side. Most of the time, I’m simply met with blank stares as the concept of coming to a park with small children is so foreign to them that they can’t even compute what I’m saying.
Every park does have their specific parent swap policy outlined on their website (as I hope I’ve clearly outlined: every park’s policy is slightly different). Sometimes, you have to dig through their FAQ in order to find it, but it’s always there. Finding this info and familiarizing yourself with it before stepping foot on park property is always the best way to go about things.
Never just assume you know and understand a park’s parent swap policy, especially if you’re going to a park you’ve never been to before – this is just a recipe for disaster (trust me, I speak from personal experience).
Doing your research ahead of time so you know whether you need to stop at Guest Services or another booth upon entering the park, whether you’re entire family will be walking through queues together, or whether you’ll be needing to keep track of additional papers or cards – simply sets your day up to run smoother and you can get to having more fun, more quickly.
If I can underline anything about parent swapping, it’s to be understanding. The process typically works well, but sometimes, it just doesn’t. I’ve been left standing on a ride platform, completely forgotten about by a ride attendant. I’ve been sneered at by guests who think I’m jumping the line. I’ve been glared at by ride attendants because I need to get their attention to initiate the parent swap process. When it works well, it’s smooth as butter, but as with just about everything, that’s just not always the case. Keep a level head, be patient with the ride ops (who are doing their best), and treat the other guests around you with common courtesy. Even if there is a snag in the process, it’s still not an excuse to be unkind.
Last but not least, sometimes parks do change their policies. So, while the information I’ve shared in this video is accurate (to my knowledge) today, it might change tomorrow. So, as with just about every amusement park policy, check the park’s website for the most up-to-date information or stop in at Guest Services on your way into the park in order for them to explain how their parent swap policies work.
At the end of the day, parent swapping sometimes adds a little extra chaos to your day at an amusement park, but it allows families with little kids, hesitant riders, babies, and toddlers to still fully experience the parks together. And honestly, some of our favorite amusement park memories have happened during this stage of life. So if you’re heading to a park soon with younger kids and feeling overwhelmed by the logistics of it all, hopefully this video helped make the process feel a little less intimidating – and a little more doable. I promise, you can do it!
