Ride height for lightweight kiddos

[Swimmergirl]

I know that WDW rides have height restrictions that are meant to keep kids safe. I seem to recall reading some where that it is really the weight of a child that is of more concern for the child's saftey than the height. The height scales were generated as an easy way of assessing the size of a child since they assume a kid a certain height would weigh a certain amount.

My son will be almost 4 when we take him to WDW for the first time. He was a micro-preemie (born a 1 pound, 4 oz), and is still very very skinny. He is a little taller than average, but underweight. When we travel he will be able to ride some of the "real" rides, but I'm nervous about his weight. Even if he meets the height requirement, are there some rides that he should skip?

 

[rt2dz]

This past summer we went to Sea World. DS6 wanted to ride a roller coaster (Steel Eel). He is very adventerous and very tall for his age, he was three inches over the minimum height requirement. No problem, he can go. Well, during the ride, he started to slip out the bottom. I had to grab him and pull him up and hang on to him for dear life!! He is also very skinny. He barely hits the 50th percentile for weight, but is over the 100th for height. He eats constantly too!!

At WDW I skipped Space Mountain and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster for him, which he did not argue after the Sea World thing. Scared us both to death! He does go on Big Mountain Thunder Railroad, Splash Mountain, Goofy's Barnstormer, Dinosaur, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Test Track, Stitch's Great Escape, Soarin', and I would have let him go on (after trying it first) Expedition Everest.

DS3 is also quite skinny (a whopping 26 lbs) and just 40". I let him go on Goofy's Barnstormer (only mentioning since it is a roller coaster), Dinosaur, Star Tours, Stitch's Great Escape, Soarin', Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We did not have any problems with the rides we let them go on.

 

[Swimmergirl]

Thank you so much for your reply rt2dz! That was exactly the type of information I was looking for. DS is 3 1/2 now and weighs in at almost 30 pounds. Sounds a bit like your son, so hopefully he'll be okay on Barnstormer (that's the one ride I think he'll really love). Thanks for sharing your expereince!

On a side note - I've done Steel Eel at Sea World too and it freaked me out. I'm fairly light (about 105 lbs), and it killed my back because every hill would send me out of my seat, and when we came back down I would slam back into the seat. Ouch!

 

[Fellowship9798]

In December, my son at 32 months had just hit 40" but is quite skinny too. We went on all the height restricted speedy/exciting rides he could go on such as Soarin, Test Track, Barnstormer, Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, Star Tours but we skipped Dinosaur and Tower of Terror as they are more intense and scary due to the special effects involved. None of them had me concerned for his safety, other than his head bouncing around a little on the seatback in Test Track during the turns and braking.

I might be more concerned in a looping coaster. Definitely no problem with the Barnstormer as far as I would see.

It turned out Test Track, Splash Mountain and Kali River Rapids were his favorite rides of the whole trip, and in general he loved all the height restricted rides we tried

 

[llmurphy17]

This past summer we went to Sea World. DS6 wanted to ride a roller coaster (Steel Eel). He is very adventerous and very tall for his age, he was three inches over the minimum height requirement. No problem, he can go. Well, during the ride, he started to slip out the bottom. I had to grab him and pull him up and hang on to him for dear life!! He is also very skinny. He barely hits the 50th percentile for weight, but is over the 100th for height. He eats constantly too!!

At WDW I skipped Space Mountain and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster for him, which he did not argue after the Sea World thing. Scared us both to death! He does go on Big Mountain Thunder Railroad, Splash Mountain, Goofy's Barnstormer, Dinosaur, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Test Track, Stitch's Great Escape, Soarin', and I would have let him go on (after trying it first) Expedition Everest.

DS3 is also quite skinny (a whopping 26 lbs) and just 40". I let him go on Goofy's Barnstormer (only mentioning since it is a roller coaster), Dinosaur, Star Tours, Stitch's Great Escape, Soarin', Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We did not have any problems with the rides we let them go on.

My DD that will turn 4 is similar to your DS3..I'm glad to hear that he was able to do Soarin, Splash Mountain, and Big Thurnder Mountain Railroad. I think my dd will enjoy those rides. I think I'll wait 10 years until I let her try tower of terror so she can be an adequater weight. lol She went on Goof's Barnstormer on our last trip and loved it.

 

[sl_underwood]

Our dd is also very small for her age. She was 8 when we took her on her first roller coaster and I had to hold her tight. It felt to both she and I like she would fall out without assistance. She now has a horrid fear of coasters because of it. She was also a preemie (born at 27 weeks) and even now at 11 she could easily pass for 8 or 9.

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

DD was about 27 pounds and just at the height restriction last year and LOVED Barnstormer. Her plan this year is to ride Splash Mountain - she was ticked that she couldn't ride it last year and has been talking about it for almost 11 months!

She's just shy of 40 inches (with shoes on)! So, now we've got her convinced to eat her dinner and get lots of sleep at bedtime in the hopes of gaining that bit of height!

 

[mickeylove2]

My DD that will turn 4 is similar to your DS3..I'm glad to hear that he was able to do Soarin, Splash Mountain, and Big Thurnder Mountain Railroad. I think my dd will enjoy those rides. I think I'll wait 10 years until I let her try tower of terror so she can be an adequater weight. lol She went on Goof's Barnstormer on our last trip and loved it.

My 4 year old LOVED ToT, we had to ride it a couple of times just for her!

 

[mickeylove2]

The rides at WDW are NOT like amusement park thrill rides...we allowed our girls to ride everything they wanted, at 6.5 & 4.5, they are 40 lbs, and 35 lbs, and we NEVER had any concers about their weight or about them falling out of rides! They even rode in the front of Splash Mountain by themselves, we were 2 rows behind them, they also rode in the front car of BTMRR, Goody's Barnstormer, we were all in the front for Soarin', they rode in the front on Test Track, we rode in just about every row on ToT, they sat of the outside of DH and I on Dinosaur, my 6 year old was in the front on Space Mountain...TWICE...DD4 couldn't ride it that's all I can think of off the top of my head, but again, these aren't thrill rides, don't get worked up about any of the rides at WDW, as a disclaimer: this is just my personal opinion!

 

[sahm1000]

We went last April when DD4 was 33 months. The first day in the Magic Kingdom we had breakfast at CRT and after that the first thing out of her mouth was, "I want to ride a roller coaster." I was scared out of my mind (not at the safety issue, I was more afraid that she would get on one, hate it, and never ride one again). Even though she is tall for her age she is on the thin side and at that time probably right around 38-40 pounds.She was just tall enough for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Tower of Terror, and Test Track. She rode BTMRR first and loved it! I cannot tell you how many times she rode that ride! It was by far the favorite. Next was ToT which I was once again scared about b/c it's in the dark. In the picture we got you can see me looking at her saying, "It's okay, don't be scared" but I don't know what I was worried about! She laughed and giggled through the whole thing! Test Track was last and it was probably her least favorite. I don't think it was exciting enough for her!

We leave in a month and I think she will be tall enough for Space Mountain but once again I'm worried! The other rides I could sit next to her but with this one I'll have to be behind her and that scares me, especially since it's in the dark. I do worry that she is too slender and could go flying out but I'm sure that the rides are tested and tested again for that not to happen so I'll have to put my faith in that! Any advice on Space Mountain would be appreciated!

 

[all4fun]

Hi there, my ds was an IUGR preemie too. He was 1lb 5oz at birth. He is 4.75yrs now and just hit 40lbs, although I don't know how. I thought he would never be this heavy, since he also has struggled with oral aversion issues. Anyway, he's been to WDW 9 times since he was 13mos, and he's always been on the tall side, so he rode the Barnstormer before he was three (it has a 35" req). Off the top of my head, I'd say he was about 33lbs when he turned four. He's just had a couple of big growth spurts this year, so don't give up hope. Even our really tiny IUGR babies can gain weight eventually.

The only ride he hasn't been on yet w/a height requirement of 44" or less is Space Mtn and that was because the ride cars are single file and I was worried if he got upset I wouldn't be able to reach him! He really wants to ride it though so we have told him he can go on it on our next trip here in a couple of months. He is so excited.

He has only done ToT 2-3x (each time, dh's idea ) and all three times he's physically been fine - the restraints held him just fine. The thing was all the people screaming bloody murder really shook him up more than anything imo. He's a really sensitive kid - always notices the crying baby in the room and is concerned about it, that kind of thing.

On BTMRR, he was able to sit between dh and I. I just had to make sure I didn't slide too far over and squish him! We are both a little bit on the heavy side, but we all fit. (I guess ds being so skinny helped with that, lol).

DS also loved Splash Mtn and again, he was able to sit between us. He's been on it once with just dh and did fine then too.

So I hope that helps! I think you shouldn't worry too much, but if you're really ill at ease about something, you could always go alone to see how rough the ride is, how the restraints hold you etc, and make a judgement call from there. That is basically what dh and I did on our last trip with Space Mtn (we have been on it many times, but never with putting our slight child on board in mind before).

hth!

 

[deedeetoo]

My dd who is now 9.5 yo is also very thin and I had the same concerns when she was younger. She was quite the daredevil though and wanted to ride everything. So for the most part we let her go on rides as soon as she was tall enough but we did hold onto her tight. The only time I didn't let her ride something was this past summer when she was just at 48 inches (the height req for RnRRC), but she only weighed about 50 lbs and I was just afraid she would go flying out.

 

[Swimmergirl]

All4Fun - Thank you for your reply! My son sounds so much like yours! He also has oral aversion issues (threw up several times a day until just recently, won't chew ANYTHING, and still eats pretty soft foods). He's also very sensitive about other kids being upset. I'm happy to hear your son did well at Disney, hopefully we'll be as lucky. I'm and holding out hope for some serious weight gain in his future!

 

[mousebymarriage]

My son is 6 years old, he is 46 inches tall but only weighs 40 pounds. He wears a size 6 slim jeans but, I must buy adjustable waist pants for him and tighten both sides completely. Anyway, when we were there in April my DH rode the rides with him and always held the back of his shirt in just in case he started to slip. I wouldn't let him on anything major because I was just too afraid he would slip through but, my DH said he clung tightly to him while on Soarin' because it was just a seatbelt thing and you are dangling in the air.

 

[bear_mom]

my DH said he clung tightly to him while on Soarin' because it was just a seatbelt thing and you are dangling in the air.

There is a part you can pull up between their legs for smaller children on Soarin'.

My dd is tiny - she is 8 and just broke 50 pounds and 10 pounds of that has been in the last year. I didn't have any problems with her on any rides and we rode most of the bigger rides. We avoided Space Mountain and RnR because of the dark issue.

Emily

 

[Harlie]

My kids are on the small side too DD8 is barely 48" and 48#s DS7 is 49" and 45#s and DS3 is 36" and 32#s.

With the older two rides should not be a problem. I was disappointed that my little guy is not going to be able to ride on some of the 40" rides. He is really short. I know of many 2 year olds that tower over him! I wish he would just grow! He was also a premmie. It sucks that I have to purchase a childs ticket for him in the park when he is restricted on pretty much all of the rides when there are 18 month olds out there that are taller then him that can go on those rides and they get in free.