Would you let your 15 and 13 year old...

[patty57]

Yes.

 

[Disneylover99]

I just thought about something.
Isn't the age to enter a park without an adult 14? Would the 13 year old be allowed to enter with the 15 year old?

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Yes, we did starting at age 13 & 10. They just had to stay together at all times. If they are ready, then it is probably time.

 

[Sleepy425]

Unless my child has special needs, then yes. My 17 year old foster son I wouldn't allow to go off by himself. But if we end up bringing him with us in September, I would let him go if my son, who will be 7, is with him (I know that sounds backwards, but my 7 year old is a hard core rule follower and has been to Disney many times. He would be the responsible part of the pair).
We used to stay offsite, and my parents let my friend and I take the bus back to the resort alone. It was before cell phones and we missed the bus because I decided I wanted something to eat. And the key card for the hotel we were staying at just had an advertisement for a local business. The park was closing so we took the monorail to the Poly, used the calling card I carried around with me to call the hotel whose name we thankfully remembered, and left a message for my parents that we were hanging out at the Poly. My parents, while obviously not thrilled we missed the bus, were happy with us because we got ourselves to a safe place, called to let them know where we were, and waited there until they found us. These days thanks to cell phones I would have even less hesitation with trusting responsible kids to go off alone.

 

[mjkacmom]

If you asked me this 20 years ago I would say yes...today, no way, Jose!
My answer does not stem from the maturity of my daughter, but instead the world we live in today.


Having said that, you know your kids better than anybody, so if you feel they are ready and you feel confident in letting them go, the choice is your mom.

It's statistically much safer to day than pretty much any point in history. Plus with cell phones, you are always attached. It's not rocket science to get on a bus, get off a bus, and enter a theme park. My 13 and 15 year olds have walked around NYC without adults.

 

[North of Mouse]

.

 

[North of Mouse]

travel from your resort on a Disney bus and explore a park for a period of time without you? We know families who allow their children to do this and have had positive experiences. It has been quite some time since we've been to Disney, so we haven't been in this position before. We have travelled to other parks together and allowed our teens to go off together knowing they had their phones and scheduled times to check in with us, but we've always been in the park with them. I'd appreciate any insight or advice!

When mine were those ages - yes! Only you know how responsible your children are!

 

[mousefan73]

travel from your resort on a Disney bus and explore a park for a period of time without you? We know families who allow their children to do this and have had positive experiences. It has been quite some time since we've been to Disney, so we haven't been in this position before. We have travelled to other parks together and allowed our teens to go off together knowing they had their phones and scheduled times to check in with us, but we've always been in the park with them. I'd appreciate any insight or advice!

My son is 12 and takes the bus to the city center and has to walk to his school 10 minutes away.. We live in Europe where kids are more independent. We are stayng at BC and I would allow him and his sister 11 to walk over to EP and spend the morning alone riding TT single rider line.. they have been to Disne many times and know the place inside out.. but this is not allowed.... A 13 and 15 year old definately no problem. Disney is the safest place to be.. It's contained and if they need help ( which they won't) CM's are there to give directions etc...

Maybe go first together so they get a feel of where buses are, etc.... but I see it like them taking a school bus and getting dropped off directly at school.

 

[mousefan73]

If you asked me this 20 years ago I would say yes...today, no way, Jose!
My answer does not stem from the maturity of my daughter, but instead the world we live in today.


Having said that, you know your kids better than anybody, so if you feel they are ready and you feel confident in letting them go, the choice is your mom.

The world is just as safe as it was back then.. Just everything today is posted, commented, posted, blogged in the news... I believe crime stats are actually down compared to past decades.. ( correct me if wrong, but I read somewhere this stat in some article on how instilling fear to the public is used as a political weapon)

 

[disneyvoice]

Yep! Our DS has gone off entirely on his own at WDW since he was 12, including using the buses from the resort. He did know his way all over WDW really well though and for at least a year or so he had been doing attractions on his own while we were in the same park and then would meet up with us at certain times during the day and for meals. Right after he turned 13 we took him and two of his best friends to WDW for the weekend and got them a resort room connected to ours at CSR and they were entirely on their own the whole weekend. The rule has always been that he needs to let us know where he is going - for example if he is at MK and wants to go to Epcot he needs to tell us he is heading to Epcot.

 

[Bullseye]

Yes, definitely as long as they have cell phones and are responsible kids in general.

This! As long as they are reliable responsible kids and they have a phone. I'd have no problem at all.

 

[Kriii]

I would let them go. Kids who don't learn to be independent really struggle when they are young adults. This would be a fairly safe way to give them some practice. We have travelled with kids many times and always let them go to whatever park they wanted without us since middle school. Sometimes the adults were in the same park and sometimes not. Of course, these were mature kids. Make your decisions based on the kids' personalities not your fears. My child was so confident about navigating around the parks that when she was on a school trip in Orlando with only one afternoon of free time at MK she led her group of friends quickly from one ride to the next! I remember getting a text while at work from her saying "Mom I am riding Splash Mt. right now just for you!"

 

[LilyWDW]

Depends on the kids. My niece and nephew who are that age? Heck no. I wouldn't be able to trust them. But I have known other kids that age that could be trusted to do it. So I can't really answer the question as it 100% changes based off of the kids.

 

[FrancoFun]

You know your children best, but I would definitely say yes, especially since there are two of them. If my son had an older sibling, I would feel comfortable with him going now at 10, because he is a respectful, mature, rule-follower. I wouldn't be worried about safety, so much as making sure that he was being respectful of other guests at all times.

 

[Allison]

Would the 13 year old be allowed to enter with the 15 year old?

Yes.

 

[RachaelA]

Absolutely!

 

[GenGen22]

As long as you know that they will stick together I think it is ok to do. I mean they let kids here for 8th grade go to an amusement park as part of their 8th grade graduation trip. Yes there are chaperones in the park but not with them at all times. And me & my friends we're going to the local amusement park without parents in 7th grade and we were fine. You know your kids. You set the rules and if they follow them they will know that there will be more times when they will be allowed to do stuff like going without the parents to the parks. I'm sure they will be fine.

 

[mrzrich]

If you asked me this 20 years ago I would say yes...today, no way, Jose!
My answer does not stem from the maturity of my daughter, but instead the world we live in today.

I hear ya.. but...Sadly, there are just many more issues now than when we were kids.. it's a different world out there now.

NO! NO! NO! This is simply NOT TRUE! When we were kids, we didn't have cell phones and I can honestly say that during the summer, my parents didn't know where I was from after breakfast until I heard them yelling my name calling me to dinner!

What is different today? 24 hour news channels with air time that must be filled. Facebook, where a story of a child that was missing for 2 hours is still being forwarded 2 years later. Seriously. There were just as many pedophiles and serial killers in the 1960's and 1970's, if not more.

Also shows like Happy Days and Love Boat have been replaced by shows like Criminal Minds and Law& Order SVU. There are now entire TV stations like ID which plays Snapped and other true crime shows all day. The sickos were out there, we just didn't hear about them because the subject was considered too unseemly for TV.

If anything, our kids are safer today, because they are more aware of stranger danger and by 15, they have certainly seen some of the programs that I mentioned above. They are aware that there are some really twisted people in the world. When I was a kid, we were more sheltered from the danger, no one ever tried to kidnap Joanie or Chachi.

 

[Dakota731]

We would and have.

If you asked me this 20 years ago I would say yes...today, no way, Jose!
My answer does not stem from the maturity of my daughter, but instead the world we live in today.

Actually our kids are safer now than when we were kids yet we tend to be much more over protective than our parents were, and I don't think it helps our children at all. Working at a university, you would be surprised to see how many freshman have never been allowed to do anything on their own and can't function without a call to mom or dad or having them rush to campus to help them out.
"The National Crime Index, which draws upon official data from sources like the US Department of Justice, the Census Bureau, the US Department of Education, the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Center for Health Statistics, shows the likelihood of a teenager becoming the victim of violent crime is now lower than in 1994 and considerably lower than in 1975.
The level of "violent crime victimisation" up to the age of 19 climbed through the 1980s, peaked in the mid-1990s and then fell sharply, reaching its lowest point in 2010. It has risen again since, but remains below the average for the four decades.
The death rate among young people up to the age of 19 has fallen to about a third of mid-1970s levels"

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I just thought about something.
Isn't the age to enter a park without an adult 14? Would the 13 year old be allowed to enter with the 15 year old?

Yes.

Here's is their official age policy: