Teens on buses

[newzandile]

We will be traveling in late May with our two teens and one almost teen. Our oldest will be only a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday. Our middle child will be 15 at time of travel and our youngest will be a few weeks shy of his 13th birthday.

We will be staying at AKL. If the kids want to do some of their own things and if they want to, for example, pop back to AKL at some point on their own, would that be an issue? I have no worries about our 17 year old and our 15 year old is incredibly smart and responsible so no worries about her either (we are sending her on a study abroad tour of Europe just a couple of weeks after this trip so goodness knows I HOPE she can handle navigating the buses alone if she has to!) I probably wouldn't encourage my 12 year old to strike out alone but I doubt he'd want to.

Just checking in, is there a minimum age for our kids to navigate WDW transport on their own? I just don't want them to try to board a bus and get turned away.

To be clear, we plan on spending most of the time together and all meals together but especially with the 15 year old her tolerance for crowds and noise is lower than the rest of us and I imagine she might like the freedom to retreat from time to time without dragging the rest of us with her.

Thanks!!!

 

[Alesia]

To enter the parks, anyone under 14 must be accompanied by someone 14 or older. I'm not aware of a specific age to ride WDW transportation without an adult, but it certainly wouldn't be younger than that.

 

[MiramarQE]

Both ours are past the teens (YAAHOOOOO!!!!!! we survived!!!!!!) - but we trusted the WDW transportation system at LEAST as much as we trusted the public school transportation system they used all through their school years - and we let them take the bus since they were in 1st grade.

They're old enough to figure out what bus to use and how to get home.

We just regulated their CHARGING privileges with the KTTW cards very closely.

 

[newzandile]

Thanks, that makes sense and would work for us.

But, in a way it seems a little crazy that a 13 year old and a 14 year old would be a better combination than a 13 year old alone! That's an age range where traveling in packs is more likely to create problems sometimes!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Quoted from https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/parks/minimum-age/

Q. What is the minimum age requirement for unaccompanied children to enter Walt Disney World theme parks, water parks and other locations?

A. Children under age 14 must be accompanied by a Guest age 14 or older to enter the following Walt Disney World parks and locations:

• Magic Kingdom Park
• Epcot
• Disney's Hollywood Studios
• Disney's Animal Kingdom Park
• Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
• Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park
• DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park

Although it doesn't say anything about bus transportation, it seems reasonable that teens who meet the park rules would also meet the bus rules.