Kids alone in parks

[HTH Maintenance]

How old do kids have to be to go to the parks by themselves?

 

[tink1978]

I don't think there is a certain age. I think it depends on the parents. I definitely would not let any child under the age of 16 in the parks by themselves. Riding a ride without parents, I would say 13 or 14. Parents can sit close by and watch. I really think it is the parent's choice.

 

[BeckWhy]

Ok, the first time I can distinctly remember being by myself in the park (well I was with my lil sister) was in 97 or 98... so that would have made me.... 14 or 15. Hmm.. lemme think about it some more. I know it was the summer before my freshman year of high school.... Ok it was the summer of 97 and I was 14. My sister was 11. We were fine on our own.

 

[MsLeFever]

I would guess that cell phones make this much easier. I could see letting kids loose at 14 or so, as long as I was in the same park. I'd want them to be a couple of years older before I let them go to a park without me.

This restriction says more about me not wanting to miss any part of their fun than anything else!

 

[BeckWhy]

I would guess that cell phones make this much easier. I could see letting kids loose at 14 or so, as long as I was in the same park. I'd want them to be a couple of years older before I let them go to a park without me.

This restriction says more about me not wanting to miss any part of their fun than anything else!

I don't think we even considered leaving the park and if we did it was to go to the car to get a snack (we ran outta money?) or take a nap. There is just so much to do in one park that we didn't leave. Of course I'm a really good kid (and I'm not just talking my self up) and my sister did whatever I told her to do, so I don't think there was much of a problem.

Now I will say, I do think it depends on the parents and the kids. I know some 17 year olds who I wouldn't let outta my site for 5 minutes but know some 10 year olds I'd let them do whatever they wanted. But I don't think there is an issue with leaving the park. Unless you have a car or money (for a taxi) you can't get too far on Disney property. Cell phones would be good.

I will also add that once we were supposed to meet our parents and couldn't find them. We found a cast member and they sent us to City Hall (we were in MK) and we talked to them. They had told us that you can leave messages with them for other family members to get.

 

[Bev J]

I really think it depends on the child/teen. We have let our kids go ride in other areas of the park when they were 13/15 or so. They know the rules and they were with a sibling not alone. We gave them a radio to contact us, we were near the haunted mansion sitting on a bench with our younger son, resting and they were on Splash Mountian, it was a EE night and the park was rather empty. They rode SM 10 times in a row without ever getting off the log...they kept telling us when they would get to the end and start over again. They were having a ball and the picture they bought shows just how much fun they had with this little bit of freedom.
We moved to main street to watch the castle changing colors and they came to us there. Our then 3 yr old would have never made it on SM, when you have older/younger kids you need to give the older ones some latitude to enjoy themselves. They have not broke our trust so they have earned it.

Bev

 

[tjmw2727]

There isn't any "Disney imposed" rule and IMHO it realy depends on the kids involved. My SIL let my neices have some freedom in the same park when they were 13 and 14 and they did great. My older dd may not be ready for freedom until probably 14 but we shall see.

As far as riding alone, since a PP mentioned it. You may be surprised that Disney requires a child to be 7 to ride without an adult!!

TJ

 

[heatherfeather24]

The first time I was in the park by myself was probably in about 8th grade -- so 13 or 14 maybe? Also went to the Disney Village Marketplace (very small, and definitely not Downtown Disney at the time) with my sister (she was probably 11 or 12) that same trip.

Truthfully, it seems pretty naive now to let an 11 and a 13 year old wander around on their own, but it was almost 20 years ago. Times change.

 

[KathyRN137]

How old do kids have to be to go to the parks by themselves?

Well, anyone 10 and up is considered an adult at the ticket booth, but that doesn't mean I'd let my 10 yr old tour the park unsupervised!

At what age do you feel comfortable letting your child go to any crowded public place without you...the mall, the beach, a concert hall?? It's really up to you, the parent, to make a prudent decision.

 

[BeckWhy]

I just keep thinking of more stuff.

I know how uncool it is to be seen with your parents when you are a teen. So you can try it out. Let them go off on their own for the morning and meet for lunch wherever. Now you have to give them some time (and yourself time) to get to the meeting place. Like give em a half hour leeway or something. If you are meeting at Noon then give them to 12:30 to get to your meeting place. And if they are later then perhaps don't let them go on their own again or something.

 

[shawnaluvs2teach]

last time I was at DisneyLand they told me that kids need to be 10 to ride by themself.....and DS was 7 at the time and I was SOOOOOOOOOOO tired of going on Star Tours that I really wanted him to just go alone! But alas, we had to abide by the guy in the jumpsuit at the ride entrance..bummer. But this was about 15 months ago, and it was at DisneyLand, so maybe DW might be different.

 

[KimberlyC]

I was in 8th grade, still 13 years old. I went to Florida during spring break with my softball team ages 13-18. I was the youngest. There were 3 chaperones for the team. In the parks (then only MK and EP) we were allowed to do our own thing and meet the chaperones at a specified time and place. My dad was very nervous as he had been overprotective always but mom convinced him to let me go and I had a great time. I think he would have felt better if I was just in the park without him rather than in the state of Florida without him.

I earned their trust. At 16, for spring break I headed out of state (with friends and 2 chaperones) to help build a Habitat for Humanity house. At 17 for spring break, I was sailing the Caribbean (with just friends, no parents, no chaperones).

We leave in 2 weeks and I'm taking my 12 yo niece. I won't let her out of my sight because 1) she's not my kid, 2) she's alone (without friends/siblings) and 3) I'm not convinced that she has reached the requisite maturity level. I think it depends on the kid.

 

[vicb]

We were there in March this year, originally DH and I planned to do the segway tour and have the kids sleep in and meet us or hang out in FW of Epcot(this was our 4th trip to WDW so they are pretty comfortable there). My kids were 13 and 10 on the trip (DD is now 14), anyway in talking to the kids they decided they didn't really feel comfortable with that. So we didn't push it. But what the kids propsed instead was DH and I go out for dinner and they hang in the resort and watch American Idol. We were staying at BC and went to France for dinner so very close by and had cell phones. DH got the kids take out from Hurricane Hannas and brought it up to the room before we left. They did go out once to the marketplace to buy dessert, they stayed together. It worked fine.

Just do what everyone (including the kids) are comfortable with.

 

[tjmw2727]

last time I was at DisneyLand they told me that kids need to be 10 to ride by themself.....and DS was 7 at the time and I was SOOOOOOOOOOO tired of going on Star Tours that I really wanted him to just go alone! But alas, we had to abide by the guy in the jumpsuit at the ride entrance..bummer. But this was about 15 months ago, and it was at DisneyLand, so maybe DW might be different.

WDW is definately 7 - I know because my oldest was able to ride barnstormer alone but I had to ride with my then 6yo. The next year they wanted to ride together with me behind them and the CM asked if my youngest was 7, she was.

I have an e-mail from guest relations in my files somewhere, but you can take my word, its 7!

TJ

 

[tjmw2727]

Well, anyone 10 and up is considered an adult at the ticket booth, but that doesn't mean I'd let my 10 yr old tour the park unsupervised!

At what age do you feel comfortable letting your child go to any crowded public place without you...the mall, the beach, a concert hall?? It's really up to you, the parent, to make a prudent decision.

Just FYI the OP is a teen.......

TJ

 

[Schmeck]

Disney does have set age rules for being in the parks without adult supervision - it's somewhere on their website, or at least, it used to be. I'll try to find it later, and post a link.

 

[Linzybrooke]

It is also important to keep in mind that just because the child is trustworthy and responsible it doesn't mean that the general public will be. There are many instances where children are let to walk around alone in malls, theme parks, movie theatres, etc and either molested or kidnapped. While Disney had great security there is always a risk. Just a couple of weeks ago on the news here there was an instance in our mall where a man walked up to a child in a store, saw that there were no parents around and gropped her...it was all caught on tape. While a child/teen may no what to do in that instance it will always be a memory they will have, of something that was taken away from them.

 

[tink1978]

My parents let me take my brothers around the parks (my parents were in the same park) when I was 16. My brothers were 13 and 10. We were fine. It is up to the parent to make the decision for themselves. Make sure that your kids are well behaved though....I have seen some extremely poorly behaved teenagers in WDW and wonder how their parents could have let them go by themselves!!

 

[jann1033]

our kids never were on their own in the parks but could go to the pool by themselves as teens and once they were mid- late teens they could go to illuminations without us if they wanted to go and we didn't...it had nothing to do with how responsible they were, as they always were, but we figured it was a family vacation so we went to the parks as a family too...we usually took two of their friends with us ( or sometimes went with the whole friend's family) but we all stuck together.

 

[BeckWhy]

It is also important to keep in mind that just because the child is trustworthy and responsible it doesn't mean that the general public will be. There are many instances where children are let to walk around alone in malls, theme parks, movie theatres, etc and either molested or kidnapped. While Disney had great security there is always a risk. Just a couple of weeks ago on the news here there was an instance in our mall where a man walked up to a child in a store, saw that there were no parents around and gropped her...it was all caught on tape. While a child/teen may no what to do in that instance it will always be a memory they will have, of something that was taken away from them.

The malls in our area you have to be 18 or over to be by yourself. Otherwise you have to be accompanied by an adult (I think they have to be 25+). The reason for this is because of how distructive they can be, theft, and loitering problems.

My concern is not kidnappers or child molesters. I don't know the statistics, but I think that the amount of kids kidnapped/molested is low. I am more scared now as an adult female of being raped. And I'm sure more women are raped than children are kidnapped or molested (I'm not sure about it, I could be wrong). So I guess me being a female I should just never leave my house. Because I could be raped. Or better yet, no one should leave their house cuz the terrorists are coming!