Smugglers Run age?

[Feberin]

My eighteen month old is off the charts for height and very close to 38" now. We're going to Disney when he's a little over two. Would you think he'd be okay going on it? I have three other kids and a husband so it would be the six of us not random people if that matters. Would theu still do a rider swap for us if he's just too young?

 

[monkyby87]

I don't know the age limit, but it is an interactive ride that "requires" the rider to hit buttons. I put require in quotation marks since you really don't have to hit buttons and the ride will still work. It's also a more glorified Star Tours type of ride. So as far as age goes, I wouldn't take him on it.

 

[Rach3975]

I haven't ridden it yet, but at just a little over 2 I wouldn't be surprised if he's scared or overwhelmed and refuses to sit in his seat separate from you. (I don't know if you've seen photos of the ride, but unlike many WDW rides your little one can't really ride pressed against your side or holding your hand.) I don't think any of mine would have done well with it at that age, especially given the lack of time to adjust to the situation, reassure him, etc. before he'd need to be sitting down and strapped in so the ride could start.

 

[siren0119]

You know your kiddo best - you won't have to do rider swap as long as he meets the minimum height requirement. BUT some kids may get freaked out by the simulation, others have no problem handling it. My older one would have had trouble at that age but my younger one....well he's been a bit of a daredevil since the day he was born and wouldn't have batted an eye on either SR or Star Tours.

The seating in the cockpit is not side-by-side the way that Star Tours is, so when you're making your decision, factor in how well he sits in a seat with straps when the nearest adult may not be able to reach over to him quickly. The pilot seats are the closest together, but that's also a tough position for littles.

 

[Feberin]

He's pretty fearless and has gone on kiddie rides alone. I am worried about him staying seated for a longer ride but we do have time so maybe he'd be ready.

 

[bookbabe626]

We went on SR over Labor Day week, as a party of 2 adults who shared a cockpit with a party of 4 - super keen mom and dad, very elderly gramps who didn’t seem to know SW at all, and a very upset and angry 4yo boy.

Mom & dad got the pilot spots, gramps and kiddo were gunners, DH and I got stuck as engineers. Kiddo screamed the whole time, angry that he had to sit alone and be strapped in, yelling “I don’t want to do this” the whole time. Gramps didn’t realize he needed to push buttons, so just watched the screen. Mom and dad focussed only on the ride, and not at all on the screaming/confused members of their party, but even with their concentration they crashed a lot. The CM unloading us joked that it wasn’t the worst flight he’d seen, but it was close. It wasn‘t the best ride that time, but luckily we had a chance to do it again later in the trip.

So yeah, OP, the size of your group makes all the difference in the world. if your party is six people, and you’ll fill up a whole cockpit, go for it. Your child’s ability and/or willingness to participate won’t impact anyone other than your group.

 

[sponica]

If you're filling the whole pod, I'd bring him on and make him engineer, just tell him to smash the buttons that light up.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

You can request to have the position be automated if you want to. The only thing I was thinking of was how he'll do strapped in with no one next to him with the jerkiness that can happen with the ride. Will that make him uncomfortable, scared, will he be wiggling the whole time to get out, etc.

It's not necessarily an age thing either I would agree with that but I do think really young kids may have a harder time being alone like that depending on their temperaments. You're not seated side by side in the sense that you touch. Have you looked up the seating of the ride vehicle itself to see if you feel comfortable with that and/or you think he'll be comfortable with that?

 

[EmJ]

You know your kid best! If it’s only your family in the pod, you think he can do it, and the rest of your family will be understanding if he’s having an off day and screams the whole time, go for it. My four year old KILLED it on a reasonably intense coaster this weekend, surprising both the ride attendant and photo seller guy. He just loves the thrills

 

[katherine52478]

We went on SR over Labor Day week, as a party of 2 adults who shared a cockpit with a party of 4 - super keen mom and dad, very elderly gramps who didn’t seem to know SW at all, and a very upset and angry 4yo boy.

Mom & dad got the pilot spots, gramps and kiddo were gunners, DH and I got stuck as engineers. Kiddo screamed the whole time, angry that he had to sit alone and be strapped in, yelling “I don’t want to do this” the whole time. Gramps didn’t realize he needed to push buttons, so just watched the screen. Mom and dad focussed only on the ride, and not at all on the screaming/confused members of their party, but even with their concentration they crashed a lot. The CM unloading us joked that it wasn’t the worst flight he’d seen, but it was close. It wasn‘t the best ride that time, but luckily we had a chance to do it again later in the trip.

So yeah, OP, the size of your group makes all the difference in the world. if your party is six people, and you’ll fill up a whole cockpit, go for it. Your child’s ability and/or willingness to participate won’t impact anyone other than your group.

Haha, I think they say that to all of the riders... we were also not the “worst flight he’d seen, but close”.

 

[Feberin]

You can request to have the position be automated if you want to. The only thing I was thinking of was how he'll do strapped in with no one next to him with the jerkiness that can happen with the ride. Will that make him uncomfortable, scared, will he be wiggling the whole time to get out, etc.

It's not necessarily an age thing either I would agree with that but I do think really young kids may have a harder time being alone like that depending on their temperaments. You're not seated side by side in the sense that you touch. Have you looked up the seating of the ride vehicle itself to see if you feel comfortable with that and/or you think he'll be comfortable with that?

The more movement the more likely he's going to stay seated. How close is the gunner to the engineer on the same side? Being able to automate it might make quite a difference. I did not know that was an option.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The more movement the more likely he's going to stay seated. How close is the gunner to the engineer on the same side? Being able to automate it might make quite a difference. I did not know that was an option.

On the same side right in front of each other so def. possible IMO to comfort if need be.

Without trying to give too much information away (in case you didn't want that) about the ride here's a quick stock photo from online which I don't think gives much away in terms of the actual ride to show the distance: I put a spoiler tag just in case.

Spoiler

The person in the very back is the engineer followed by the gunner followed by the pilot


Our last ride we did out at DLR was late at night and they didn't have 2 additional people in our group selected to be Engineers so they just automated that. I think the Gunner, which we were, had an extra button due to that I'm trying to remember correctly, but in either case we didn't even realize they could do that. At first we were concerned it would affect us but no they just automated the position. I know others on one of the other Star Wars threads mentioned automation as well as for one reason or another in terms of the traveling party's needs.

 

[Jennasis]

We went on SR over Labor Day week, as a party of 2 adults who shared a cockpit with a party of 4 - super keen mom and dad, very elderly gramps who didn’t seem to know SW at all, and a very upset and angry 4yo boy.

Mom & dad got the pilot spots, gramps and kiddo were gunners, DH and I got stuck as engineers. Kiddo screamed the whole time, angry that he had to sit alone and be strapped in, yelling “I don’t want to do this” the whole time. Gramps didn’t realize he needed to push buttons, so just watched the screen. Mom and dad focussed only on the ride, and not at all on the screaming/confused members of their party, but even with their concentration they crashed a lot. The CM unloading us joked that it wasn’t the worst flight he’d seen, but it was close. It wasn‘t the best ride that time, but luckily we had a chance to do it again later in the trip.

So yeah, OP, the size of your group makes all the difference in the world. if your party is six people, and you’ll fill up a whole cockpit, go for it. Your child’s ability and/or willingness to participate won’t impact anyone other than your group.

They say that to everyone LOL. At least they did to us on our three trips.

 

[siren0119]

The more movement the more likely he's going to stay seated. How close is the gunner to the engineer on the same side? Being able to automate it might make quite a difference. I did not know that was an option.

Engineer sits behind the gunner. But the seat backs are pretty high, I wouldn't bank on being able to reach around to the seat in front of you if you needed to get to the young'un.

 

[Kbosch]

We had 6 in our party so I knew I wouldn't be messing up anyone else's ride by letting my just-turned-3 year old ride with us. I thought he would be scared but I don't think he even looked up at the screen - he was excited just to be riding a "big kid ride" and had fun pushing all the buttons and flashing lights!