Maelstrom minimum age?

[maddiesmommie]

I have read descriptions of the Maelstrom and it seems like a fairly mild ride compared to others. Why the age limit? I have a two year old dare devil daughter and feel confident that she could handle this ride, but I have never been to WDW either. Any experience with toddlers and this ride?

 

[melk]

I think it's probably for the scare factor. The ride itself is not wild, you are just in a boat. But there are some pretty ugly trolls that you encounter that could be frightening to a little one.

 

[mareed]

I wasn't aware it had an age limit. My youngest went on it at 2 yrs & 8 months with no problem. If I remember correctly, I might compare it to Pirates of the Caribbean in that it's a boat ride and there was a small hill.

 

[maddiesmommie]

I think I read somewhere that the age limit is three. They probably don't check I guess. Thanks for the info, I guess we'll play it by ear.

 

[cinmell]

I had no idea there was an age limit for this ride. I just looked at Deb's page and the age limit is 3. Here is the link http://www.wdwig.com/rr.htm

I was planning on taking my daughter who will be 2 1/2 on this ride in May. She did fine in September on Pirates and Haunted Mansion so I figured she would be okay on this. Oh well.

 

[noodles]

We just did this ride in November with my 18 month old DS. They didnt say anything when we were boarding about his age. I had seen the 3 year old age limit on Debs page and thought it was strange because we had riden in 2000 with my 12 month old DD and no one said anything then either.

 

[pajamommy]

We rode this with our 2 yo and 4 yo a couple of years ago, and no one said anything about the 2 yo going on then. But, as someone mentioned, there are some scary looking trolls at one point, and my 4 yo was afraid of them and cried.

 

[LMHB]

My son, who first rode it at 18 months, loved it! If you see a particularly scary troll or sight pull his hat over his eyes (while hugging him) for a moment! He is now five, and still talks about the trolls who say "Disappear! disappear! disappear!" (only now he says it to his brother)

 

[disneyag]

I think it's a fright factor age limit. A few years ago we took our 6 month old on the ride.

 

[kilee]

The weird thing is that most rides have height restrictions not age ones. Maybe the site was just recommending that the ride is best for children over 3 due to a possible fright factor.

 

[lacool]

I didn't know about the trolls before riding. Afterwards my 4 year old didn't want to ride "It's a smaill world" because she was afraid trolls would pop out at any moment.