Man, I missed like 12 pages of this thread...I may be throwing some lighter fluid on a few things, but I feel like I need to mention a few things...forgive the old Jedi for spending too long in the twin suns and being late to the party again...
First, for those stating that you absolutely cannot get a Rider Switch pass at a ride without a height restriction, or for a rider who is too tall...this is very incorrect. Not meeting a height requirement is certainly a guaranteed way. But there are other reasons, and up to the discretion of the CM in most cases. And they have definitely had Rider Switch passes at non-restricted attractions. They are sometimes given out for convenience reasons, if handling a situation through other means (such as a swap at the platform) would be difficult. I've seen Rider Switch passes for Toy Story Mania...
As for splitting FPs, yes, you really could get an advantage in certain situations. This is the example I wrote, oh, 8 years ago...
Take this example: 2 Adults, 9 year old and 3 year old. Standby wait is 50 minutes, FP wait is 10 at both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Next Fastpass times are at least two hours away.
If the 3 year old is tall enough to ride both attractions, you could either ride both standby (total wait time: 100 minutes), or get FPs for one and ride standby on the other (total wait time: 60 minutes). So at best you can get through in 60 minutes. Everyone gets 1 ride on each attraction.
Now, if the 3 year old was not eligible to ride and there was no form of rider swap available, the wait time now goes up to 200 minutes for each adult to get through the standby lines! But the 9yo gets a couple extra rides.
Now, if the 3 year old is not eligible in either case and Rider Switch is used...
First case, Standby only: You approach and get RS pass. One adult and 9yo ride SplM standby, then other adult uses the RS pass and enters FP line with 9yo riding again: total wait time 60 minutes. Repeat at BTM, another 60 minutes - total wait time: 120 minutes. The group gets a 20 minute "munchkin penalty", but its still 80 minutes less than if there wasn't an option.
Now add FP...if the waiting adult is required to have a FP as well, then you need to get 3 FPs for one attraction - you can get a 4th for something else but its only one so its a minor perk. Trade one FP for the RS pass, and use the other two. When they return, use the RS pass. Wait time so far: 20 minutes. Then ride the other attraction via standby and RS. Wait time: 60 minutes, for a total of 80 minutes. 40 minutes saved, and the 9yo gets an extra ride.
Now, if the waiting adult is NOT required to get a FP...
Take two tickets and get two FPs for SplM, and take the other two and get two FPs for BTM. Assume they have roughly the same return time.
Do the FP/RS wait games on both attractions. Total wait time: 40 minutes!!!! That is a HECK of an advantage, using a single FP cycle when others would have to wait two cycles to collect them to get the same wait times.
Of course things changed a bit with FP+ and booking specific times, but the idea remains the same.
You mentioned that FP is only available on the height restricted rides. So no FP on most of the rides little kids do. But without FP the line moves much faster. It's easier to find a shorter line on something at DLR than it is at WDW because almost everything at WDW has FP feeding in.
Pirates at DLR is getting Fastpass, so the "no height restriction" rule at DLR no longer applies
Aside, I did try out MaxPass. I liked it. If I was going for several days I probably wouldn't get it for every day, but it was super convenient. I do wish the Wi-Fi was better. It was like before WDW made the major improvements to accommodate MDX use in the parks.
And since I'm on the subject of DLR at the moment - I wouldn't ascribe anything about how things work at DLR to intent or future at WDW. DLR was forced kicking and screaming into Fastpass in the first place...what works there does not easily apply to WDW.
Just wanted to report our FOP experience this morning. They started the digital RS today and we had a FP for two of us and needed a RS for the adult staying with the littles. They never asked him for a FP, they scanned us and then asked who was going back. We told her just him and she said we were entitled to 3 guests. So we scanned our ODD and myself as well. They then said we had a return window of 10:57-11:57. It was 10:20 at the time. So I assume that is an hour plus the time it will take to wait and ride. So the rule about needed a FP for everyone doesn’t seem to be in effect, but there is an hour time window for return. Just wanted to share our experience this morning!
Thanks for the report. I would be interested in knowing whether that "fudge factor" time seems to correspond to an expected "entrance to exit" time, or whether it might be related to the standby time? I wonder if it is different if the first group is using standby...
The fastpass/double dip issue aside, I wonder why they are changing it to an hour window? It used to be one day (ie, you had to return that same day) and then for some reason they changed it all the way to the end of the month. Now instead of going back to same day they're limiting it to just an hour. I wonder if they were seeing a bunch-up of RS returns towards the end of the day or something and are trying to spread that out.
It was actually the end of the month for a quite a while before. This was a matter of convenience for printing the Rider Switch passes. The Rider Switch passes were printed in bulk backstage. Rather than be wasteful and printing too many for a given day, or risk not printing enough, they printed them so they expired in the future, and the end of the month was convenient. Then they changed the FP kiosks to allow the CMs to print Rider Switch passes as needed at the kiosk, so they could print a smaller batch and if they needed more just walk over and print some more. This cut down on the "selling" of the passes online. But when they removed the kiosks, the CMs couldn't do that anymore so they were printed backstage again - and expired in the future once again.
As for the hour, I still think that might be an occasional issue unless it is more dynamic on the standby times and if there are any sudden increases they inflate (or ignore) the window. But as for why, the only explanation I can think of is to avoid the "end of day" hoarding. I expect that this wasn't a huge problem in general, but with FP+ and more recent developments I bet the dwell times are more easily disturbed now than they used to be, so they want to keep the intended use as close to when it was obtained as possible to let any anomalies to smooth out over a longer time.
I still don't know about whether there is intent to require FP+ or not. I've only seen the above report so far, and if they did indeed only have two out of three Fastpasses, then there seems to be no electronic enforcement. I have yet to hear from a CM that can say what THEIR rules are - I know what WDW Communications says the rule is, but these are the same people that maintain the Rider Switch web page which has been wrong for a decade...