Rider question for small kids

For the rides that are 2 across, can anyone provide insight for how it will work with 3 kids (6, 3, 3–almost 7, 4, 4) and only 2 adults. 46", 38" and 38"

Will one of them need to sit by themselves? Is there some kind of rider swap solution? Will they let you squeeze 3 across in most cases? I don’t think my oldest would mind riding alone or with one of her sisters for something like Dumbo, but for something like Slinky Dog or anything in the dark she will definitely need someone sitting with her and she is not ok with strangers.

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The 7 year old is allowed to ride alone

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Ive seen plenty of 1 adult 2 smaller kids in a traditional 2 seat ride, like Pooh and PP type.

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On these type of rides, my suggestion is to let 7 yr old swap riding with one of the parents (every other ride) while the other takes the two 4yr olds. For space reasons obviously but it will also let the 7 yr old get a tiny bit of independence from the littles and feel important that she gets the swap (yes the 4 yr oldsdo as well but you can word this as it’s 7 yr old privilege :grin:)

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It’s all about the sell with this age for sure. You could say the same thing 10 different ways and get 10 different reactions :joy:

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Yes, I’ve made it through 3 myself. Youngest is 21 and just gave us a DGS. The sell makes ALL the difference :rofl:

Some rides that truly only allow two riders together (7D and Slinky come to mind) will be an issue. If your oldest needs to ride with a parent, you are probably looking at a three-ride swap where each child rides with one parent while the other parent waits with the other two. They will not let a 6-year-old ride alone. If your child becomes more comfortable and is willing to ride alone, honestly I’d just say she is 7 so you can all ride at once. However on these high-demand rides they will almost definitely put a stranger with her.
On a trip alone with my DD4 and DD8, my DD8 rode alone but I insisted that she be seated ahead of me so I could see her. CM almost got apoplectic once because I was messing up his assignments (they want two in front and the single behind with another single) but I stood my ground. The other single just had to ride ahead of me too :laughing:.
Last trip I rode RNRC alone (LL) and overheard this situation occurring with a parent and two kids behind me; the older kid was 8. I chatted him up a bit in line and his dad called us a party of 4 at the front of the line. It was the his first ride and he did great!

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These were the 2 rides we watched a YouTube video of today that made me think of this. The rider swap situation will probably be how we’ll have to go. Which is fine. There’s even a small chance that my little ones could be easily distracted by a snack and forget all about the ride.

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What I’ve done before is at least be in the same car at the kid who is having to “ride alone” That way I can still kind of stretch and touch their shoulder or whatever and they are reassured they aren’t alone alone.

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My 2nd is 7 and keeps asking if she can ride alone on our next trip, so sometimes they like to ride alone. When we had 3 riders on SDD and SDMT, sometimes the two children (7 and 5) would ride in front of me and I would ride alone or with a single rider. IIRC, that was also allowed on SDMT when they were 6 and 4.

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