One Adult, Two Young Kids... how to fit on rides?

[notrub98]

I've been to DW quite a few times, but I've never had to pay attention to how many people fit into one seat on a ride so I have a bit of an issue. My husband can't come on this next trip and I don't want my kids to miss out so I am going to take them alone.... they will be 7 and 5. Which rides in MK will be an issue for us? My older child is timid and will be hesitant to ride alone. I can think of 7DMT, Antique Cars off the top of my head.... any other thoughts? We would not do Space or Thunder anyway. What about Splash? Is that a 2 seater? I forget...

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You wont be able to ride 7DMT unless the 7 year old sits apart from you, and they fill in the seats, so your kid will probably have someone else sitting with them.

 

[JB212]

I would just put the 7 year old in the seat in front of me if possible on each ride. We ran into a bit of a problem at Disneyland a couple years ago with more kids than adults. My 11 year old tried to ride with a 5 year old and the CM asked her if she was 14 and she just stood there and then nodded. Then she cried because she lied to someone. (It was the Drive em buggies slow bumper cars.) But then we put 3 girls (11, 5, and 8) together on the Little Mermaid ride and no one said anything at all.

 

[laceyinwonderland]

Ive taken my 2 daughters alone before, and on 7DMT and Barnstormer, your 7 year old will need to ride in front or behind you. We were able to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway all 3 together, but my youngest was quite small! We didnt do splash, but I would imagine 3 (1 adult and 2 kids) would fit in one row! But im not 100% about that one!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

If the kids are small you will fit in one row on Splash.

 

[SmallWorld71]

The only 2 definite issues at MK are 7dmt and Barnstormer. Splash and Big Thunder fit 3 easily. Pooh, Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid, Peter Pan all fit 3 easily. Buzz fits 3 but only two laser guns. Dumbo, Astro Orbiter and Speedway can fit 3, but it can depend on the size of the people riding.

 

[DisLee]

I would probably just try to ride the rides and attractions where we could all fit. COP, WedWAY, Buzz, Tomorrowland speedway, Mermaid, small world, philharmagic, haunted mansion, country bears, pirates, alladin, jungle cruise, tiki room, etc.

 

[mdoc]

When my kids were that age, on any ride that only seated 2, I had them ride together and I rode alone, as close to them as possible. They were fine.

 

[tabrizia]

The only rides we found where you could really only do 2 were 7 dwarves and barnstomer. We easily did 3 in a row on splash and I saw a number of people doing 3 on Big Thunder Mountain. My 8 year old loved the fact he was old enough to ride alone, so the fact we had 3 kids and 2 adults didn't end up being an issue for us if we needed the 3rd car, in fact my 8 year old insisted on it for some of the rides.

 

[jim o'reilly]

We had 2 adults and one child (4 years old) on Peter pan, under the sea but not 7DMT. You would be able to fit on Dumbo and speedway too. The best attraction (Toy story mania) would allow you to fit 3 but there's only 2 guns to shoot those targets

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

You wont be able to ride 7DMT unless the 7 year old sits apart from you, and they fill in the seats, so your kid will probably have someone else sitting with them.

This hasn't been my experience at all.

On 7DMT they will most likely have your kids sit in front of you -- at least that's how they had me and my 7 & 4 y/o kids sit -- and it was every time over 4 trips this year (so at least 10 rides on the Mine Train) so it wasn't just 1 or 2 CM using discretion. I think because you're all in 1 "car" they put the littles in front of the parents.

Barnstormer will only seat 2, so your 7 y/o will sit in front of or behind you and the younger child. We were told that the older rider had to be 14 to ride alone with my 4 year old (again, 7DMT excluded).

I think the rest you can squeeze in 3.

 

[AngiTN]

We were told that the older rider had to be 14 to ride alone with my 4 year old (again, 7DMT excluded).

Yes, this is the park policy.
6 and under must be with someone 14 or older
7 and up can ride alone

 

[BrianL]

The trick is that the kids under 7 have to be in the same "vehicle" meaning single ride unit. In a roller coaster, the train is made up of multiple vehicles, but a parent can sit behind the child if there is not a break between them (train coupling). The grouper will take care of this.

Usually each vehicle has 2 sets of seats. Space Mountain has 3 per car, single file. I think the thing with Barnstormer is that each vehicle has only one set of seats, so that's an issue.

I learned this from another thread here a while back. I don't have kids and have no experience in the parks with it.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

When my kids were that age, on any ride that only seated 2, I had them ride together and I rode alone, as close to them as possible. They were fine.

That doesn't work anymore. Under 7 must be with someone 14 or older.

 

[DebbieB]

When my kids were that age, on any ride that only seated 2, I had them ride together and I rode alone, as close to them as possible. They were fine.

I was at Toy Story Mania and the group ahead of me was a mom and 2 boys, 9 and 6 I believe. The boys wanted to ride together and the mom alone. They said no, the 6 year old had to ride with mom.

 

[ktlm]

We are a family of 3, and many of the rides at WDW, we comfortably fit all 3 in a row- even with 2 average sized adults. Splash, you definitely can all 3 fit in a row. My DD was thrilled to be "big" enough to ride some by herself at age 3, and occasionally begged to do that, so it would be easy to let the 7 year old be in the car/row in front or behind you if you wanted to do so and if your 7 year old is comfortable with that. For 7DMT, my experience is with the younger children who are old enough to ride by themselves, they will put them in the row in front of or behind the parent, and then they will pull someone older from an uneven party to sit with them- which might be a kid or might be an adult. If they do try to move your DD away from you and that is an issue, then I would ask the attendant to let you wait for the next cycle and place you in rows next to each other- they should not have any problem doing that. If you think your DD will be uncomfortable with a strange adult sitting next to her, you could ask if they could be sure to stick a child next to her, but I think that might be a little harder to do.

 

[deanimal]

I went last January for a quick trip with my four and six year old. There were actually very few issues with seating, even with two under seven. As someone said before, as long as they are in the same "car" without a coupling between them, the kids can be in a separate row. So kids in front with adult behind would work although my older child is very bold while my younger one is a nervous rider so I put the older one ahead of us. We rode the Mine Train twice and they never put anyone else in our car with us.

The only thing we absolutely couldn't ride was the Barnstormer because each set of two seats is considered a separate car.

As someone else said, the "shooter" rides have only two guns, but my younger one needed a bit of help to aim and shoot and I was fine without having my own.

We skipped the speedway, so I'm not sure if they'd let you squeeze two kids in with you. I figured that since only one could drive at a time it wasn't really worth waiting twice for it.

I didn't have any issues with rides at the other parks. I did regret going on Spaceship Earth though. Even though the seat is wide enough for an adult and two kids, it's hard plastic and shaped into two seats and I ended up sitting on that hard plastic ridge between the two seats for the entire ride! If you do go on that one I'd recommend trying to get the two kids to share one seat since it's a long ride and it was actually quite painful.

Hope this helps!

 

[BillyBoy1304]

Just to echo some of the comments, we've got three kids (8, 6 & 5). Last weekend they would not allow the 8 & 6 year old to sit next to each other on 7DMT or the Barnstormer. The 5 & 6-year-olds were required to be with someone over 14. Hope that helps.

 

[HopperFan]

Just to echo some of the comments, we've got three kids (8, 6 & 5). Last weekend they would not allow the 8 & 6 year old to sit next to each other on 7DMT or the Barnstormer. The 5 & 6-year-olds were required to be with someone over 14. Hope that helps.

That is the park policy. Under 7 is supposed to ride with someone 14 or over, on all attractions.

I've seen the train at 7DMT pull out without the guests when the adults refused to split up to ride with the kids. One was old enough to ride alone but not 14 so could not sit with the younger one. For the OP expect to let the 7 year old ride alone on 7DMT but note the lines are set up odd and even so they can fill every seat. It has happened when they run out of time to match groups of right sizes up at the end of the train for someone to sit alone but that is not their goal.

 

[BillyBoy1304]

We've turned it into a game for our 8-year-old and play up the fact that he gets to make a new friend anytime he rides 7DMT. It's Disney, and we've yet to have him have a problem with a seat partner yet.