New Rules, Water Mice WLV

[lsyorke]

Just to warn anyone else looking to do the water mice at WLV. the new rule(because of new boats)is 16 years old WITH a valid Drivers License. DS was very teed off since in N.J. you don't get a license until your 17 so even though he's 16 he couldn't take the boat out alone. He could take out the boats at Y&BC, but they governor them down so low that they barely move. He wasn't a happy camper!!!

Now the good news is the Segway tour is GREAT!!(yes he could take out a $6000.00 Segway, but not a boat!) We had a great time and will do it again next time. Well worth the Money!!

 

[jimmytammy]

We have never done the mouseboats before. We will be home at VWL in Oct. Will they let anyone under 16 drive them if a parent is in the boat with them?

 

[TCARON]

Yes, parents can ride. I believe that a young child, about 12 was seriously hurt this year and may have died on one of the mouse boats which prompted the driver's license requirement.

 

[lsyorke]

Yes, they can drive with a parent. There is a 350lb weight limit for two people.(My son is 6'2" 210 lbs and I would have put him over the limit) It's a shame that someone got hurt, but to put that restriction on everyone is sad. In N.J. we have a graduated drivers license program that requires that they have their permits for a year(16-17) and then get their license. Lets face it a 16 year old is a 16 year old and driving a boat is nothing like driving a car! Heck in N.J. you can drive a "real" boat at 14!!

We discovered on this trip that there is a real lack of stuff for the 14-17 set after 10pm. Other than Disney Quest(open till 11) there's not much for teens to do and I know mine is up later than 10pm!!

 

[DIZNYFAN]

In Ontario you can get your liscence at 16 but that is your G1 then after 3 months you can get your G2 and with that you can't drive on majour highways over 80Kph. You can also hacve other restrictions placed on you and you have to go 2 years like that then you are eligable for your full G.

 

[Pig Pen]

Ever been out on Bay Lake at peak season? You will be thankful they are not allowing 12 year olds alone out there, IMHO.

 

[timC]

Well... DS13 isn't too happy about this news. I was thinking about letting he rent one next summer, after he turns 14.

Oh well... it's the pontoon boat cruising for us again next year.

 

[rbuzzotta]

We ran across this problem at VWL back in April. There had been 4 serious accidents involving teens during Easter week. One had to be med flighted out.

Now, we just returned from 2 weeks at OKW and my daughter, who couldn't drive one alone at VWL just a few months back,, was able to drive one at OKW.

I believe it is due to the different body of water!!!!

 

[dis-happy]

Agree that there are new restrictions--we were just there.

There is one thing to note though: a parent can take out the boat and ride with the child. If the child is 12 or over, he/she can still drive the boat. I did this with my dd--we just switched seats out in the water.

HTH


PS. Bring your driver's license with you down to the boat dock--we had to run back to the room for it.

 

[mmmcq]

We drove the mice at the Yacht Club in April and were told the rules would be changing at the other venues sooner than the YC, but that ultimately all would have the same boats and rules. They told us that they were pruchasing the marinas with newer faster boats, thus the new age limit.

 

[tjkraz]

There was a report posted today at MousePlanet.com with some clarification on the age limits currently in place for WDW watercraft:

We reported back in April that the requirements for renting recreational boats had changed. Apparently, the changes are only for the new Sea Raycer boats, due to the increased performance level of the boats. The locations that continue to use the Water Mouse boats (Downtown Disney, Disney's Old Key West, Disney's Caribbean Beach, Disney's Port Orleans, Disney's Yacht and Beach Club and Disney's Coronado Springs Resorts) will continue to apply the old policy, which permits guests at least 12 years old and 5 feet tall to operate independently as long as the parent/legal guardian signs for the child.

Sounds like the new age restriction has less to do with any recent accidents and more to do with more powerful watercraft. WL appears to be the only DVC venue impacted.

 

[lsyorke]

They all have the new boats, but the locations that allow 12 year olds have powered down the boats to limit the speed. WLV boats were always faster that the other locations which is why we went there to rent. Like I said before I can understand the safety issue, but if maturity is the issue for safe operation a drivers license shouldn't be required.This restriction only affects certain states!!!

 

[SSRex]

While at WDW this past July, we rented boats at both DD & Y&BC:

Yes, they do still have the old Mercury Mouseboats at DD and yes 12 years olds (even our one daughter that would be 12 in a few days) could rent and drive them alone. They move very slowly.

Y&BC does have the new SeaRaycer Boats, but also allows rental by 12 year olds and allows them to drive them alone due to the maximum speed being very limited on the new boat located there.

We did not try it ourselves, but my understanding is that it is not based on which boat, but only the MK resort on Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon that have the new 16 year age restrictions.

The new rules were fine for our 12 year daughter since she had never done this before, but it was a major disappointment for our two 14 year old boys that had drive the faster mouse boats just two years a go when they were 12 themselves. Now they have to wait another 2 years to do what they did when they were 12.

In fact, this alone may make me choose to go to HHI this coming summer instead of going to a WDW DVC resort and wait to go back until they are 16. WDW will lose a lot of our money based on this. You don't need passes at HHI & will eat outside Disney.

FYI: All four of our kids also have rode Segways prior to being 14 years old, so that's another age restriction that I question the need for. We have good kids that we supervise well. Too bad a few bad apples spoil the fun for all. Sorry, this issue irritates me.

 

[Snowgod]

Segway rentals are restricted because of the design limits of the Human Transporters. 100-250lbs is the design and thus Disney follows the recommendation of Segway. Younger humans cannot control the HT in an emergency due to low weight and shorter arms and legs (they are controlled by weight shift). The HTs rented by WDW are sold for $4500.

 

[lsyorke]

"Sorry, this issue irritates me."

Me too!!! Like I said in an earlier post the availability of activities for the 14-16 age group(especially boys)outside of the parks,is limited to begin with. Now this has taken one more thing away! We would have rented the WLV boats at least 3 times on this trip, but ended up trying the yacht club boats once and returned them 10 minutes early because they were so slow!! Now add on to that the arcades at the hotels are a mess!! (OK, now I'm officially on a rant ) Whoever is supposed to supervise the arcades isn't doing a great job. At least half of the games didn't work, and their VERY outdated! Even Disney Quest had alot of games not working correctly. Very dissappointing!!