Roller Coaster Age Restriction Clarification

[dwbrewster]

I only discovered yesterday that Disney has an age restriction on roller coasters and have gone through the threads trying to get some clarification, but am only more confused now. I know that they have to be accompanied up until age 7, with that said:

I have a DD 9 and DS's 6 and 4. I was planning on riding SDD and 7DMT with DS4 and have DD9 and DS6 directly in front of me. If they are in the same car, but a different row is that considered me accompanying him?

Alternative is to RS with my wife and let DD9 ride alone both times and have DS6 and 4 swap out, but I don't like the idea of some random person sitting with DD if possible. Thanks for any clarification.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

There is no special age restriction for roller coasters. Outside of height restrictions, the only policy is that to board an attraction, children under age 7 years must be accompanied by a person age 14 years or older. Yes it will be considered accompanying them.

 

[Timmy Boy]

Yes, it's considered accompanying them. It's just there so you don't send the 6 and 4 year old on their own.

 

[MooseBucks]

Yes, you can ride one adult and one child in the back of a car and two children under 14 yo in the front car. This only works in 4 person cars+ (BTM, SDMT, SDD etc not barnstormer or say the last car on SDD or SM with only 3 to a car). On something like sorin or TOT you would need to be between the younger two

 

[SantaDuffy]

The CM will help you configure your family when they ask how many in your party. Over the years we have noticed they make an effort to put solo children with moms/female single riders. If you have a shy child this doesn’t help but our daughter was more comfortable

 

[Tallis]

The CM will help you configure your family when they ask how many in your party. Over the years we have noticed they make an effort to put solo children with moms/female single riders. If you have a shy child this doesn’t help but our daughter was more comfortable

Yep! I'm a grandma, but I've had a child seated next to me on EE, when I was in single rider line. They intentionally skipped the male rider and put the little girl with me. They were extremely discreet about it, taking the male in front of me down to the end of the "runway" to wait, but I caught it.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I can personally confirm that they let me accompany 5 year olds from behind on SDD and 7DMT. On SDD one of the CMs did start to question my daughter-in-front's age and the other CM said "she's ok, Mom is accompanying from behind".

I had read conflicting reports about 7DMT in particular in advance of my trip, but we rode that way twice without a problem.

We did have to triple swap Barnstormer as it's a strict 1:1 ratio on kids under 7 to accompaniers over 14. You would have to do it twice to get your younger ones through assuming your wife can't/won't ride.

 

[Jacq7414]

The CM will help you configure your family when they ask how many in your party. Over the years we have noticed they make an effort to put solo children with moms/female single riders. If you have a shy child this doesn’t help but our daughter was more comfortable

This is true. My daughter is attached to my husband so I was the one who always rode alone. The majority of the time I was put with a single child in while their mom/dad rode with a younger sibling

 

[puffkin]

We actually had an issue on SDD, so YMMV. It was myself, DH, DS6 and DS12. Usually we just ride one adult with each kid. And our kids NEVER want to ride together. For whatever reason, the boys wanted to ride together on that one, but when they did the seatbelt check they asked DS12 how old he was and then made them get out and switch to 1 adult, 1 child. My DS6 was actually very upset and didn't enjoy the ride at all as he was so excited to ride with his brother.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

We actually had an issue on SDD, so YMMV. It was myself, DH, DS6 and DS12. Usually we just ride one adult with each kid. And our kids NEVER want to ride together. For whatever reason, the boys wanted to ride together on that one, but when they did the seatbelt check they asked DS12 how old he was and then made them get out and switch to 1 adult, 1 child. My DS6 was actually very upset and didn't enjoy the ride at all as he was so excited to ride with his brother.

They would prefer that you accompany next to a child under 7 and will make you do so when possible, as in your case. However, if there aren't enough adults, they will allow an adult to accompany from behind in lieu of forcing a multiple RS situation. They essentially don't let you choose to accompany from behind as a preference but will do so out of necessity.