Hey y’all! We’re taking advantage of 90-day immunity after covid recovery and coming to Disney for spring break. We have a 5.5 yo DD and a 2.5 yo DS. DD is tall enough to ride Smuggler’s Run right now and may gain the inch necessary for ROTR. DH REALLY wants to do at least new SW ride. If DD refuses to ride Smuggler’s Run, will DH be able to ride it solo??
Also – are SR and ROTR generally okay for an almost-6 yo? She has not seen any SW films yet, but is familiar with the characters from picture books. She can usually make it through scary sequence in a Disney animated movie, but she hasn’t watched many live-action movies yet.
Yes you can ride solo. At this time, they will load you with another party. (They used to let single riders have their own 6-person capsule.) This means he likely will be an engineer. I think it’s still a fun ride as an engineer, but it would be better to have a second rider!
My kids are scaredy cats and they loved MFSR! They haven’t done RotR yet, and it seems mildly more scary due to the scope and scale, but the actual thrill factor is about the same.
I think they’ll let him go alone on Smuggler’s Run, but I don’t know that it would be very fun because you kind of need to fill all the seats, or at least most of them or you just crash all the time. My niece did SR at 5, and RotR at 6 with no trouble, but she’s not really fearful of things. If she’s done Star Tours then SR won’t be scary for your daughter at all. It’s a similar visual experience. RotR is a bit more intense, but the pre-show with real people who come up close and interact was the scariest part, I thought.
We didn’t do Smuggler’s Run but my daughter (4.5 at the time) loved ROTR! You probably know your kid best. Lots of older kids can’t handle TOT but my daughter loved it at 3 because she’s a daredevil.
I think it really depends on the child. My DD7 LOVED Smuggler’s Run, but got scared of ROTR before we even got through the line. It is really well themed and the cast members REALLY get into their roles, so it can be hard for a youngling to understand where the make believe is. We were able to get out of line and see a cast member for rider swap (which I assume you are already doing with the 2.5 yo.) They were very understanding. I saw some children younger than my daughter loving it, but for her it was too intense in the “I don’t know if this is real” sense.
My 6 year old was terrified through ROTR because he genuinely thought it was real and he was about to die, which I didn’t know until after when he refused to go back on with his dad, so maybe just remind the kids that it’s pretend.
My six year old (usually leans on the more fearful side of spectrum) did it last year and was pretty scared. Then on day 2, she opted not to, so we used rider swap (my son got to ride 3x due to that). However, we’re headed in April and she said she’s ready to do it again.
It’s really going to be so individual. My 5 year old rode both in December with no issues. But then again, he rode Haunted Mansion pre Covid with the stretching room the day he turned 4 and laughed at it, so…
Since each rider might handle rider swap a little differently, it is probably easiest just to go up to the CM at the beginning of the line and simply say, “How do we do rider swap for this ride?” They will give you specifics. But I suggest asking with your full party there or nearby.
In our case - last trip was me, DH, DD4, and DD1. We went up as an entire party and told them we wanted to do RS. They asked who will be riding second and then scanned the applicable band(s).
So - DH and DD4 rode by waiting through the normal line while I stayed with DD1. Then when they were done DD4 and I would ride while DH stayed with DD1 (by going through FPP line with bands loaded with RS pass).
I don’t think this is true. I was told that if a seatbelt isn’t buckled then the computer does that role.
Also it’s a great ride! Just realized this is an old thread But my advice would have been… You and your husband should do rider swap so you both can do it. And if your husband is a huge Star Wars fan, he should ask to be pilot (they usually make single riders engineers but I’ve heard of a CM making a single rider the pilot with no other crew!)
But my advice would have been… You and your husband should do rider swap so you both can do it. And if your husband is a huge Star Wars fan, he should ask to be pilot (they usually make single riders engineers but I’ve heard of a CM making a single rider the pilot with no other crew!)