4 year old big enough for space mountain?

Aflyingbuttress · Oct 6, 2016

My 4 year old is begging to ride space mountain. She's a bit of a dare devil so I'm thinking about letting her towards the end of our trip depending on how she does on some other rides. But I have this (probably irrational) fear that she could fall out of it.

She's 45 inches tall so she meets the height requirement and she's a pretty solid kid at 70 lb. I'm assuming she will be safe on it but I'm hoping people here can assuage my fears. What do you think?

You can't really see her height, but here is a picture of her.

gmboy95 · Oct 6, 2016

she will be absolutely fine....if she is up to it...let er rip!!!.

Aflyingbuttress · Oct 6, 2016

gmboy95 said:
she will be absolutely fine....if she is up to it...let er rip!!!

Thank you! I know it's silly. But it was going to drive me crazy if I didn't just ask some people who knew better than me.

Alesia · Oct 6, 2016

Disney is not in the business of killing kids. She'll be fine.

emij · Oct 6, 2016

My two cents... she will be totally fine, but I would have her ride barnstormer, thunder mountain, mine train before space mountain. My 4 yo wanted to ride space and I made it the first ride of the trip. She was scared and would not ride it again all trip, even though she developed a love for the other coasters. Enjoy!!

Sargeant Tibbs · Oct 6, 2016

While I guess not impossible, it would be pretty hard for her to fall out. If she's already a daredevil she should love it.

Aflyingbuttress · Oct 6, 2016

emij said:
My two cents... she will be totally fine, but I would have her ride barnstormer, thunder mountain, mine train before space mountain. My 4 yo wanted to ride space and I made it the first ride of the trip. She was scared and would not ride it again all trip, even though she developed a love for the other coasters. Enjoy!!

I plan to do exactly that. Except thunder mountain, which will not be open. We have FPs for 7DMT our first day there and I just realized I didn't get a FP for Barnstormer so hopefully we can ride it during MNSSHP. Not a whole lot of other options to test out other than that though, unfortunately. I was thinking maybe Splash Mountain to see how she does with drops.

jtowntoflorida · Oct 6, 2016

IMO, this ride can be super scary for kids for two reasons: (1) it's in the pitch dark; and (2) it has single seats, so you can't sit by your child (you have to sit in front or behind her). The dark would have been OK for my daughter had I been there beside her. But since I wasn't, it was super traumatic and awful for her. It's the only ride that has brought her to tears. She loves BTMRR, 7DMT, Everest, and Escape from Gringotts at Universal. But she won't go near Space Mountain.

jtowntoflorida · Oct 6, 2016

Aflyingbuttress said:
I plan to do exactly that. Except thunder mountain, which will not be open. We have FPs for 7DMT our first day there and I just realized I didn't get a FP for Barnstormer so hopefully we can ride it during MNSSHP. Not a whole lot of other options to test out other than that though, unfortunately. I was thinking maybe Splash Mountain to see how she does with drops.

Well, there aren't any drops on Space Mountain. And 7DMT is a kiddie coaster and is nothing like Space Mountain, either. Everest is probably the closest thing to Space as far as darkness (at least for a few seconds) and intensity are concerned, I think.

Aflyingbuttress · Oct 6, 2016

jtowntoflorida said:
IMO, this ride can be super scary for kids for two reasons: (1) it's in the pitch dark; and (2) it has single seats, so you can't sit by your child (you have to sit in front or behind her). The dark would have been OK for my daughter had I been there beside her. But since I wasn't, it was super traumatic and awful for her. It's the only ride that has brought her to tears. She loves BTMRR, 7DMT, Everest, and Escape from Gringotts at Universal. But she won't go near Space Mountain.

I've definitely thought about all those things. My husband is 6'4 and we were thinking he could sit behind her and hold his hand on her shoulder. She's not generally scared of the dark and is constantly climbing up things and jumping off them. She goes down some really big slides and is pretty happy about it. I realize rides are different so I will just have to test some out. If she does well on all of them I am not sure I can do anything but find out how she does on it other than just not let her ride it. I just remembered we have fast passes for Everest on day 2, so that's another we can go on.

Aflyingbuttress · Oct 6, 2016

jtowntoflorida said:
Well, there aren't any drops on Space Mountain. And 7DMT is a kiddie coaster and is nothing like Space Mountain, either. Everest is probably the closest thing to Space as far as darkness (at least for a few seconds) and intensity are concerned, I think.

Good points. I haven't been on Space Mountain myself so I assumed there were drops.

WDWNerd · Oct 6, 2016

Your husband should be able to touch her shoulder, like you mentioned. Also, you could take her on TTA to "go inside" Space Mountain first so she can see how dark it is & hear the sounds.

stinkpickle · Oct 6, 2016

If she's begging to ride it, she'll be just fine.

Aflyingbuttress · Oct 6, 2016

WDWNerd said:
Your husband should be able to touch her shoulder, like you mentioned. Also, you could take her on TTA to "go inside" Space Mountain first so she can see how dark it is & hear the sounds.

What is TTA?

takumi · Oct 6, 2016

I took my 45", 45lb 6.5 year old on it last weekend and she didn't fall out. However, she was terrified because it was dark!

Mrs~Incredible · Oct 6, 2016

My 45 inch DD rode it 5 times in a row!!

Have a blast!!!

Mrs~Incredible · Oct 6, 2016

PS. I definitely recommend trying barnstormer or 7 dwarves first. riding through on people mover to see the inside is also a great way to prep her for what to expect.

siskaren · Oct 6, 2016

Aflyingbuttress said:
What is TTA?

Tomorrowland Transit Authority.

TXAKDisneyFan · Oct 6, 2016

DD8 rode Space maybe 5 or 6 times (also Splash and California Screamin) at DL this past March. At the time, she was ~47" or 48" tall and ~42 lbs.

She also rode Space, etc, at WDW in May 2005 when she was several inches shorter and not even 40 lbs yet. She's always been fine.

WDWNerd · Oct 6, 2016

Aflyingbuttress said:
What is TTA?

Also called PeopleMover. It's in Tomorrowland. Usually has low wait times & is a slow ride. But, we love it. It goes "inside" space mountain. When my kids were little, they thought they were riding space mountain

4 year old big enough for space mountain?

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