Ride Seating

[maranara]

Is there a place to look at the seating configurations for rides? We'll have 2 adults and 1 kiddo (she'll be 7 when we travel). I know there are some rides where all 3 of us can ride together, but others where one of us will take my daughter and one of us will have to ride alone. I'm sure Disney has a system for this - have to imagine lots of small families visit - but I just want to wrap my brain around which ones we'll have to plan for in advance!

 

[disBEAST]

You won't have to do any planning in advance. When you arrive at the front of any queue the CMs will instruct each person on where to stand. Occasionally one of you may be alone right behind or in front of the other two. If you can all share a ride vehicle the CM will let you know.

If you do want to see the ride vehicles and seating configurations though, you can look here. It's a couple years old, but should be relevant.

http://blog.touringplans.com/2014/0...-vehicles-seating-faq-part-one-magic-kingdom/

http://blog.touringplans.com/2014/10/14/guide-walt-disney-world-attraction-vehicles-seating-epcot/

http://blog.touringplans.com/2014/1...n-vehicles-seating-disneys-hollywood-studios/

http://blog.touringplans.com/2014/1...tion-vehicles-seating-disneys-animal-kingdom/

 

[maranara]

That is exactly what I needed! It's actually preparing my kiddo for rides that she may need to sit with just mommy/daddy vs. all 3 of us together. This is perfect - I love that there are pictures so she can see exactly what everything looks like! THANK YOU!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Let us know if you have any ?s about certain rides. Some that appear to only fit 2 (Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain are good examples) can really fit 3 fine. While others (for example, Barnstormer) are straight across seating but only 2 are allowed no matter what.

Overall, you will do a lot less splitting up than you think. That's one thing I love about Disney as we are a family of 5.

When they ask you how many in your party, if you say 3, they generally put you together when they can. If you know you want to split up for whatever reason, you can say 2, then the other adult says 1. Occasionally, they will ask us if we want to sit as 2,3 or 2,2,1. It really depends on the ride and the CM working that day.

 

[maranara]

Thanks! The less splitting the better. It looks like most of the rides we can easily fit all 3 of us across. The only place where we know we'll split are the rides where there are clearly 2 seats or the few rides where they want to ride but I can't because of motion sickness! (when DH and I went in 2003 I was about 2 seconds away from needing the air sickness bag on Mission Space!)

 

[disBEAST]

You can all opt for the Green version of Mission: Space which is considerably less intense. That version didn't exist in 2003.

 

[maranara]

You can all opt for the Green version of Mission: Space which is considerably less intense. That version didn't exist in 2003.

What is that like? I honestly think it's not worth it for me to ride - I'm happy to just wander around, get some coffee, and maybe do a little shopping while they ride. That's my plan, actually, for a few of the rides that I know I just can't do (or I'm just too scared to do!). And some of them, like the carousel & Dumbo, I'll be just as happy to watch them ride. Things that spin are not my friend!

 

[disBEAST]

They remove the centrifuge element so there's no spinning, just the tilting of the ride vehicle and everything else is the same. I rode it once after a little trip around the world and didn't feel any centrifugal forces, whereas the original Orange version you top out at 2.5G. If you want to be totally safe though you can just skip for sure.

One advantage of Green team is there's never a wait for it, although Orange is pretty quick too.

 

[maranara]

Thanks! If there's not a huge wait for the green team, I might wait and make a decision when we get there. I'm trying to balance planning so we can get FPs with just enjoying being in the park and riding what looks good to us in the moment.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Can you do star tours? It's kind of similar. Also, have you ever tried motion sickness pills? I know they don't work for everyone, but I started using bonine a few trips ago and it is a tremendous help. Just a thought.

 

[maranara]

I'll be taking the Bonine on the flight down - they usually knock me out (DH always jokes about how he's basically flying with our daughter by himself) but maybe they won't. I use air sick bands, which help a little. Another mom recently told me about ginger gum, which I think I'll give a try as well. Star Tours was fine last time - things like that are usually ok because, worst case scenario, I close my eyes and I'm just sitting in a chair that rocks a bit. The spinning is what really gets me. I can go on a roller coaster with no issues but I'm likely to lose my lunch after a ride on the carousel.

 

[DisneyOma]

The more 'intense' rides, with restraints, are the ones where you want to sit two across - I wouldn't try to fit 3 on BTMRR if two were full sized adults. Also, 3 in the first row of Splash is very uncomfortable.