Skipper Adam
Skipper Adam

Disney policy change on accompanying children under seven on rides

April 15, 2013, 9:13 PM · The rules for allowing children to ride a ride or visit an attraction alone are constantly changing to be more strict. However, the policy has changed so that it now may be a bigger burden on some families.

Gadget's Go Coaster at Disneyland
Gadget's Go Coaster at Disneyland

Before the policy was that a child under seven must have some one fourteen or older to go with them. That part is still the same. Before, if there were not enough "adults," children could sit in adjacent vehicles.

The NEW policy is that if a child is UNDER SEVEN, someone FOURTEEN OR OLDER be in the SAME ROW or in the row behind them in the SAME VEHICLE.

This honestly makes sense for about 99.5% of the rides. Rides like The Mad Tea Party, and more importantly the Barnstormer/ Gadget's Go Coaster becomes a challenge.

Previously on the Barnstormer/ Gadget's Go Coaster, if there were one adult and two children, often the kids would sit together and the parent in an adjacent vehicle. Since each seat on Barnstormer/ Gadget's Go Coaster are in their own vehicle, this is no longer allowed.

Long story short, some rides, families with too few parents and too many kids to fit in a row simply cannot ride some rides anymore.

Previously:

Replies (7)

anonymous
98.17.116.176
April 15, 2013 at 10:38 PM · I think kids under 7 need an adult on the ride with them close enough to be able to comfort a child who may freak out anyway. What use is it of you to be on the ride with your child if you are so far away that you can't comfort the child and make them stay seated for their safety until the ride is over if they freak out.
anonymous
74.194.213.1
April 16, 2013 at 8:22 AM · As a mom I think it is smart to have an adult close to a child under seven on a ride. Yes it can be an inconvenience to some but in my eyes safety is more important than convenience.
anonymous
67.83.198.136
April 16, 2013 at 10:46 AM · making it that kids can't ride in a car alone with the parent behind them is absurd. what are single parents with more than one child supposed to do? they can't ride with both kids at the same time and they can't take them on individually.
disney is just creating more reasons not to visit.
anonymous
174.58.193.162
April 16, 2013 at 4:03 PM · This is a smart move, though it will only encourage people to (continue to) lie more and more. The Teacups made little sense to me (I never knew the restrictions on Barnstormer). Parents not wanting to ride, either in the same cup, or at all, are imbecilic. When your child begins to cry or even get sick, at least you won't worry about a headache or being dizzy. No need to A) tell your child "no" or B) be a loving parent and make a small sacrifice. The lengths parents go to in order to sneak around the rules proves how much they care about their children. Teach them that it's okay to lie, as long as you're getting what it is you desire. Haha. If you can't tell, I've had more than a little experience with this, and am disgusted by most. Obviously, more often than not families are wonderful, but more often than you'd think, there are parents who know they are above the rules.
rcdude
AJ Hummel
April 16, 2013 at 6:39 PM · I don't see why this wouldn't be a good thing. Kids need all the supervision they can get. I've seen some pretty disturbing things happen when kids aren't supervised, and at least a couple times I was surprised there wasn't an accident (for example, I was once on Pirates of the Caribbean and there was a kid standing up on the seat and reaching over the side to touch every rock we passed, and he could have easily fallen overboard. Of course, in this situation the parents were oblivious as one was on their iPhone the whole ride and the other was taking flash pictures of the sets on the opposite side of the boat...maybe Disney should reconsider allowing electronics on their rides as well). In addition, if a kid gets scared while a ride is in motion they are much more likely to attempt to escape the ride vehicle if there isn't a parent next to them.

On most Disney attractions, the ride vehicles are able to accomodate at least one adult and two small children per row, so all but a huge family should be fine on a vast majority of attractions. However, when this is not possible, child swap or allowing one kid to wait off to the side while everyone else rides, then letting one parent ride again with the kid (probably only a good idea for cycle rides) would be a sufficient solution. If neither of the parents are able to ride, then that's just too bad for the kid.

anonymous
98.67.97.232
April 17, 2013 at 11:21 AM · I guess I can understand this, however, this past Fall I took two of my children, ages 10 and 6, on the barnstormer. They wanted to ride together, and I sat immediately behind them. Now, I knew the six year old would do great, and all of my four children know how to behave. I wouldn't have done this with a younger child, though, so I guess the age cut off has to be somewhere.
Anonymous878
Anon Mouse
April 18, 2013 at 9:20 AM · I think they will make exceptions to the rule for certain rides like the Barnstormer. Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense to tell the kids they can't ride.

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