You might remember last month when we shared the news about Unaccompanied Park Entry Changes. Well according to Theme Park Insider, Disney is changing their policy on accompanying children under seven on rides. The rules for children to visit an attraction or ride a ride are continuously changing to become more strict to insure the safety of these children. The newest change to the policy though may make vacations more difficult for families with multiple children.
Disney’s previous policy was that children under the age of seven were required to have someone at least fourteen years of age or older to accompany them on rides; if there were not enough adults, children were permitted to ride in adjacent vehicles. The new policy though states that if a child is under seven years of age, an accompanying person who is at least fourteen years old must ride in the same row or the row behind the child in the same vehicle.
There are some attractions that this should not pose a problem such as The Mad Tea Party. However, there are rides that this new policy will make it more challenging for some families to ride. Before, on the Barnstormer/ Gadget’s Go Coaster, if there were one adult and two kids together, the children could sit together while the parent rode in an adjacent vehicle. However, with the new policy, this will no longer be acceptable since each seat on Barnstormer/ Gadget’s Go Coaster are in their own vehicle.
Now, families with not enough parents and too many children to fit in a row simply will be unable to ride some rides anymore.
What do you think of Disney’s new policy? Do you think this will make it more difficult for families? Do you think this will be safest for families?
When Siera isn’t helping plan Disney vacations, you can find her spreading magic on Facebook and Twitter.
Related articles
- Walt Disney World Resort Refurbishments Update for May 2013 (chipandco.com)
- Changes Coming to Disney Parks for Unaccompanied Park Entry (chipandco.com)
Let our friends at Destinations to Travel help you book your next Disney Vacation. They are the preferred Travel Agency of Chip and Company and Disney Addicts, and who we use ourselves.
Get started below for your FREE No Obligation Quote.
Book With our friends at Destinations to Travel
For the BEST in Disney, Universal, Dollywood, and SeaWorld Theme Park News, Entertainment, Merchandise & More follow us on, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. Don't forget to check out the Chip and Company Radio Network too!
That is no bueno. What about a single mom with motion sensitivity issues so mom can’t ride? Does this mean my little one can’t either anymore? I have to let my children ride unattended since I can not ride. But what about a parent with mobility issues and can’t board the ride, or any other variety of legit reasons an adult may not be able to accompany a small child on a attraction?
yuck, this targets parents with higher order multiples most DEFINATELY…which will cause a mess…I know we faced having to go with 2 adults & our triplets this summer & this would really blow the trip for us-one of the trio has autism & its hard enough when one of us has to sit back with him should the crowd anxiety kick in at the end of the line (where things often get very crowded waiting for assignment to car/seat) we will be changing our dates so our 18yr old can go now (our original dates coincided with his being in a musical & he was going to stay home for rehearsal while we took the babies with us) I can see this becoming a HUGE mess for parents easily-not everyone has the luxury of an older child or extra adult who can ride-the entire point of the park originally was so families could experience everything together, at the same time
Luckily when we visit next year my oldest will be 14 and can ride with his youngest sister, who will just have turned 5!
Whatever the insurance company requires them to do in order to get coverage.
I think it is a good idea and I am a parent of 5 kids, 3 of them under 7. One major reason is if something does happen Disney is liable and they have seen a lot of lawsuits lately. Another reason is if something happened I would never be able to live with mys self. My children are my life and safety is priority
If Disney feels this is necessary for the safety of their patrons, I’m all for it, even if it would be an inconvenience. But even the rider swap won’t solve this problem if only one adult is accompanying two children. No way would I leave my under child alone while I rode with a sibling. We just wouldn’t be able to ride as disappointing as that may be.
My husband (currently 6 ft 4 and 145 lbs) tells me the story of ridding space mountain (I think) at Disneyland when he was about 7 years old. His brother was a year younger so his dad rode with his brother and he was in a row by himself. The story goes he was a skinny kid back then too and he remembers feeling like he was going to fly out of the ride, and never got on another roller coaster until he was 14 or 15. So, I think this policy is in the best interest of the children and that is how is should be. Disney offers rider swap so the parents may just have to ride twice, once with each child (or more if needed).
It sounds like it will be a problem for single parents that have multiple children under 7 and only on rides where there is a single seat (or seat for 2) per car.
They enforced this (actually, worse) with our family on Splash at DL last fall. Even though we were all in the same log, my 11 year old could not ride with my 4 year old at the back. An adult had to. I get the safety issues, but it seems like the old policy was fine.