Water Mice/Sprite Boats (now they are called Sea Raycer's)

[TravelGal]

Just got back from WDW and wanted to share this info. In the past, when renting the little speed boats at Contemporary, children 12 & older could ride alone.

NOT ANY MORE All boat drivers must show a valid drivers license
They are serious about it; DD age 20 didn't have license with her & she was only allowed to be a passenger.


prices ranged from $23/half hour, $28/45 minutes & $32/hour.

 

[phanomouse]

It has actually been this way for quite a while... atleast 3 yrs or so. If they have allowed it in the past three years then that person was going against the new policy. I wasn't to happy to hear about it the year this was put into place because I had hyped up my niece about driving them and she was so disappointed when she had to ride with me.

 

[CatLady]

This came into effect with the oncoming of the SeaRaycers. SeaRaycers are considerably faster than the previous Water Mice (mostly due to their being made of fiberglas rather than the heavier plastic of the Water Mice).

SeaRaycers came to Bay Lake (Contemporary & Grand Floridian) earlier this spring, and they just came to Yacht & Beach at the end of May. I haven't yet heard whether the drivers' license restriction will be put in place at Y&B or not. Y&B water mice were much slower than the Bay Lake water mice due to the smaller lake, so it's possible that they may be easier on the driver restrictions there... but you don't get as much open water!

 

[Beaker74]

We were in the World May 10 - May 20 staying at CR. We were on the Gold Plan so we went on the sea raycers five times. They had notices posted at the Marina that the new age policy went into effect this year, the day after Easter. The employee at the marina told us that there were 3 accidents on Easter, one being somewhat serious, therefore the new age policy was born.

 

[skiwee1]

Originally posted by phanomouse
It has actually been this way for quite a while... atleast 3 yrs or so. If they have allowed it in the past three years then that person was going against the new policy. I wasn't to happy to hear about it the year this was put into place because I had hyped up my niece about driving them and she was so disappointed when she had to ride with me.

That can't be true. This change has just happened recently. We have ridden the watermice many times in the last 3 years at all different resorts and never had to have a liscensed driver. Even the Disney info page has stated that it was 12 and over.