Tall enough to ride..... with an adult? or just someone bigger?

[JB212]

My friend and I are planning a trip to Disneyland/California Adventure in October with our children.
My children are 11, 7, and 4.
Her children are 5 and 4.
Both of the 4 year olds are around 43 inches tall, so for the greater majority of the rides all the children are tall enough. We plan to complete each ride as a group, everyone riding, no swapping out or splitting up. (Minor exceptions for stuff like TOT if the littlest ones are scared.)

The question I have, but havent been able to find a clear answer to is:
Can the 7 and 5 year olds sit together on rides? (Most importantly rides like Space Mountain or Splash Mountain?)
Potential seating arrangements like:
Myself and my 4 year old
My friend and her 4 year old
My 11 year old sitting alone. (Shes fine with this, Im fine with this.)
The 7 year old and 5 year old together?! I know at 7 youre old enough to ride alone, but are you old enough to accompany a 5 year old?

I have seen one ride that I know for sure is out, the swing ride where under 48 inches you have to ride a tandem swing with an adult, thats not going to work for us. Which is fine we can skip that, but I wanted to know what Im looking at in terms of some of the bigger rides like BTMRR or SM etc. I just hate to take 5 kids through a huge line, get ready to board the ride and find out we dont have enough adults.

 

[Malcon10t]

It is really going to depend on the ride and the CM. For the most part, the 5yo is supposed to ride with a parent. For example, on Dumbo, the 7 and 5 yo will NOT be allowed to ride together. On Tea Cups, they will. Space Mountain won't be a problem as they will seat you right behind them. Splash is single seats so it will be fine.

The rules have previously read that a child under the age of 7 needs to ride with someone 14 or older. But as long as you are in the same ride vehicle, they will allow it.

From Disneyland's website: "Guest Policies

Supervise children at all times.
Children under age 7 years must be accompanied by a person age 14 years or older."


ETA - Rockets will be another one. Some of the rides will be able to seat 3 across. For example, BTMRR will be able to seat you, and the 4 and 5yo, leaving the 7yo to ride with the 11yo.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Had a post written but Malcon10t beat me to it, so my points would be redundant.

You should know though that BTMRR will probably still be closed for refurb during your October visit, so get that disappointment out of the way for everyone before you go.

 

[Rubygoose]

I saw a group of kids (no adults) going on jumping jelly fish. The CM asked the age of the smallest child, the older one answered for him, saying 7. I had a feeling he was 5, because I'm a kindergarten teacher. The CM let them ride.

 

[Krissy Marissy]

You've already gotten great info. Rides like dumbo where the ride vehicles are separate will be an issue, however even the two four year olds can sit together in a row of the vehicle at snow white, Winnie the pooh, or IASW. Don't skip a ride because the seating situation seems complicated, use the child swap. Enjoy your visit!

 

[JB212]

Im not sure that child swap would work here, because that would leave a small child unattended. If I was riding with my 4 year old, and my friend was riding with her 4 year old, her 5 year old would be left alone still. Unfortunately there is no "adult swap" option.

We'll probably just skip rides like Dumbo where its going to be an issue. All the kids except my youngest have been to Disney before and this is sort of a laid back trip so we'll just ride what we can and not sweat the rest. I just wanted to be prepared before we went on what to expect for ride seating.

 

[Malcon10t]

We'll probably just skip rides like Dumbo where its going to be an issue. All the kids except my youngest have been to Disney before and this is sort of a laid back trip so we'll just ride what we can and not sweat the rest. I just wanted to be prepared before we went on what to expect for ride seating.

Dumbo can fit 3. My sister and I rode together with my 4yo nephew.

 

[cel_disney]

Dumbo can fit 3. My sister and I rode together with my 4yo nephew.

I agree - dumbo fits 2 adults and a child, so you will have no problem with 1 adult and 2 kids fitting!

If you don't all fit somewhere on a singe ride, the CMs will work with you to make sure that everyone gets a chance to ride properly accompanied!!!

 

[jeaneg]

In our experience, Peter Pan is another one where you would need to (and easily could) ride with the younger 2 in one ship. For Jumping Jellyfish, they let my 2 boys sit together (ages 8 and 3) as long as I was on the ride at the same time. I specifically asked if it was okay. They could also ride alone in the same vehicle on Mater and Little Mermaid but not on Peter Pan. I just had to be on the ride at the same time. I think it partially depends on whether the ride goes in the air and what the types of restraints are.

 

[ahsquared]

Parent swap scenario

Mom a rides with 4 year old and 11 year old: gets parent swap for mom b
Mom b rides with 4 year old: gets parent swap for mom a
Mom a rides with 5 year old

I'm sure if you explained your scenario the cms would be helpful.

 

[starshine514]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Once we were there with friends and the dads had the kids alone for a few rides. They rode Dumbo. Both my DH and the other dad were big guys (so I guess riding 3 per car wasn't an option, because that wasn't what they had them do). They rode - DH & DD4, DD7 & DF4, other dad & DF3. They sandwiched the kids between the adults, giving them 3 elephants in a row. I would get in line and the CM will tell you how to ride when you get to the front. We've also ridden Jumping Jellyfish with little ones without an adult next to them.

Space won't be an issue, they let my girls (cuurently 6 & 8) sit in front of me.

 

[luulu1999]

A lot of rides all 3 of you can ride together....on our trip it was basically just me and my 4&5 yr old there dad stayed for an hr or so each day but that was it and we all rode together now of course we didnt ride the bigger rides and spent most of our time in dca