Barnstormer Seating Arrangement

[HopperFan]

7 years old and up can ride with a sibling as I understood it. So your 6 and 8 can go together and you 2 adults with the 3 year olds.

For attractions: Children under 7 must be accompanied by a person 14 years and older.

The rule has nothing to do with siblings.

Barnstormer is an unusual situation because each seat is it's own car/vehicle and different rules have been applied here.

 

[maltdizzy]

7 years old and up can ride with a sibling as I understood it. So your 6 and 8 can go together and you 2 adults with the 3 year olds.

No,...

• 7 years and older can ride by themselves, they do not need to be accompanied at all (they can use single rider lines as well)
  
• 6 and under must be seated with someone who is at least 14 years old

The 8yo can ride alone, but can not be the "chaperon" for the 6 yo.

 

[TEM1234]

My 6 (at the time) year old rode solo in front of us on 7 Dwarves. He had to ride with an adult on barnstormer. We became really familiar with the rider switch on barnstormer as my husband had to take each kid on individually (3 kids).

 

[WillowRain]

My 6 and 7 year old rode together on 7D, BTMRR, and EE as I recall. So....

 

[famy27]

My 6 and 7 year old rode together on 7D, BTMRR, and EE as I recall. So....

Yep. Those rides are fine because you're in the same car. Barnstormer is considered separate vehicles so the 6 and 7 year old cannot ride together. It's all about the configuration of the ride vehicle

 

[rexmism]

We became really familiar with the rider switch on barnstormer as my husband had to take each kid on individually (3 kids).

Did they give you 2 switch passes at once for this?
It sounds like within the same car may be the rule of thumb, but there still seems to be exceptions either way...

 

[TEM1234]

Did they give you 2 switch passes at once for this?
It sounds like within the same car may be the rule of thumb, but there still seems to be exceptions either way...

No- the CM just gave him one and then gave him the other when he went back through with 2nd kid. We've done that ride on three separate trips. Last time (When W was 7) he was allowed to ride in front of my husband and daughter and we only had to go through 1 more time. The CM asked him how old he was and let him through.

 

[rexmism]

No- the CM just gave him one and then gave him the other when he went back through with 2nd kid.

Okay... so you got a swap pass when using a swap pass...? Wishing for more wishes?

 

[MomOTwins]

I was at MK as the solo parent with my two 6 year olds, so rider swap was not an option. The CM for Barnstormer did insist that both twins had to be accompanied by a 14 year old, but said it did not have to be a fourteen year old in our own party, so we could try to see if someone else would be willing to "accompany" him. The family in front of me overheard and their teenage daughter kindly offered to sit with one my boys. I imagine a lot of other families would be similarly willing to pitch in, in the Disney spirit and all.

On Seven Dwarves Mine Train and Expedition Everest, they just pulled someone from the single rider pool to sit with one of mine. My kids are very social though and big thrill ride fans, so obviously none of this is good advice is yours are shy of strangers, or likely to be scared on the ride without a family member next to them. I sat the in the row behind the solo kid so that I could see him throughout the ride.

I also note (just in case it is of interest) that we were allowed to ride 3 to a car on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder, which I had always thought of as two-per-row rides, but if your kids are small enough it seems they let you squeeze in three.

 

[TEM1234]

Okay... so you got a swap pass when using a swap pass...? Wishing for more wishes?

We all 6 of us (me, baby, 3,5,6 and husband) went to ride and CM asked ages and then said that husband could only take on 1 kid because they had to sit together. We asked what we should do then and he said we would have to just do rider switch until each kid had ridden so just to keep coming through until everyone had their turn.

 

[Sleepy425]

That's really helpful, Sleepy. Can you offer any other details on this? Did you (or someone else) have to wait with the non-riding kids while your husband rode? Did your husband have to re-enter the ride through the fastpass line, or was he allowed to just get back on the next train each time?

I stayed with the other kids and he was allowed back in through the FP line each time.

 

[rexmism]

So now that I've had my trip, I wanted to report on this. Before you even get in the line, we had a cast member that went through a whole rigmarole about how old everyone was, and with our combination of 8/6/3/3 ages, they realized that we would have to ride 3 times to do everyone, as I had feared. They gave us one swap pass. They told us, when we use it, tell the CM that we have to keep it to use again for the last child. Kind of weird. You could just keep doing that if you really wanted to keep riding it. (But seriously, why would you?) It's a pretty annoying way to do it, because even using the FP line, it can take a little while, and it's a huge time suck. We ended up only doing it twice because it was taking too long. One of my kids just got jipped and did something else instead. If you're in a similar situation (but why would you be), my advise is to just try to avoid the ride. It's not worth it and both me and my wife regretted that we had wasted the time on it.
On a related note, we found throughout our whole trip, CMs tended to be really attentive about how old our kids were. My 6 year old wasn't allowed to ride with by 8 year old on 7D, or even Toy Story. Dumbo, Carpets, Triceratops, it came up all over the place, and our 6 year old had to ride right next to an adult every single time for anything. After that, it's hard to imagine this policy ever being ignored. It seems to be pushed hard everywhere.

 

[BrianL]

So now that I've had my trip, I wanted to report on this. Before you even get in the line, we had a cast member that went through a whole rigmarole about how old everyone was, and with our combination of 8/6/3/3 ages, they realized that we would have to ride 3 times to do everyone, as I had feared. They gave us one swap pass. They told us, when we use it, tell the CM that we have to keep it to use again for the last child. Kind of weird. You could just keep doing that if you really wanted to keep riding it. (But seriously, why would you?) It's a pretty annoying way to do it, because even using the FP line, it can take a little while, and it's a huge time suck. We ended up only doing it twice because it was taking too long. One of my kids just got jipped and did something else instead. If you're in a similar situation (but why would you be), my advise is to just try to avoid the ride. It's not worth it and both me and my wife regretted that we had wasted the time on it.
On a related note, we found throughout our whole trip, CMs tended to be really attentive about how old our kids were. My 6 year old wasn't allowed to ride with by 8 year old on 7D, or even Toy Story. Dumbo, Carpets, Triceratops, it came up all over the place, and our 6 year old had to ride right next to an adult every single time for anything. After that, it's hard to imagine this policy ever being ignored. It seems to be pushed hard everywhere.

That is how the policy works. I'm sure it was difficult with your party configuration, but it is considered a safety rule so it is good that they were enforcing it. Some reports here do seem to indicate varying results with different CMs. 7DMT is the one with the weird issue because they don't allow a parent to sit in the row behind a child under seven years old even in the same car, where on other rides they can do that. I think it has to do with the distance between the rows on that one, though it seems arbitrary to me. I guess if the point is to supervise the child, though really, once the restraints are closed, what are they going to do? If there's an e-stop and evacuation, then the parent is still right there.

Barnstormer has always had the problem because each car only has one row. You are right in that it's not even a great ride so not much worth the time.

 

[rexmism]

I'm not arguing with the policy, I'm just surprised about the stories I heard on this thread (of not enforcing the policy) when I experienced it so strongly enforced everywhere. As I saw it, it didn't matter whether it was the same car or not. Triceratops is as close as you can get to your child if they're sitting in front of you, but my 6 year old still had to ride right next to me. I don't think cars factors in, at least with the official policy which I saw being enforced. If a kid is 6 or under, someone 14 or older has to be sitting immediately next to them.

 

[BrianL]

I'm not arguing with the policy, I'm just surprised about the stories I heard on this thread (of not enforcing the policy) when I experienced it so strongly enforced everywhere. As I saw it, it didn't matter whether it was the same car or not. Triceratops is as close as you can get to your child if they're sitting in front of you, but my 6 year old still had to ride right next to me. I don't think cars factors in, at least with the official policy which I saw being enforced. If a kid is 6 or under, someone 14 or older has to be sitting immediately next to them.

Hmm, I didn't even realize that Triceratop Spin had two rows. I assumed it was like Dumbo. As far as I know the the official policy is still that an adult can ride in the row behind the under seven child in the same ride vehicle (meaning one unit with no coupling between rows). They may have quietly changed this, but that's how it was for a long time.

I was not trying to imply you were arguing with the policy.

 

[rexmism]

Okay, good.
I don't know firsthand how things worked before, but I can definitely tell you I was yelled at for having my 6 year old by himself in front of me, and he had to move back with me! It was a pain, because I had a 3 year old with me, and all those rides have a stupid control for up and down or whatever. It's all fun and games until you have two kids in the same seat fighting and screaming over who gets to push the buttons. :-(

 

[MomOTwins]

I get it for Dumbo, because I was told by a CM I had to switch with my kid so that my under-6 kid was on the "inside" of the dumbo and not the "outside" next to the open door, which I guess makes sense because a small kid could maybe slip out of the seatbelt and slide out if they were right by the opening. Same logic would apply to a child on their own in a row.

I do wonder a bit if they are harder on parents if they see you are with another adult than if you are alone with the kids. If there is another parent, you can wait and take turns riding with the kid, but if you are a solo adult, you basically would not be allowed to ride ANYTHING because one of of your children would always be "unaccompanied." So it's possible I got some slack for being on my own with 6-year old twins, but as I mentioned, in the rides where they had no discretion and had to require another adult, they were good about allowing guests from odd-numbered families (who would otherwise be sitting alone) to sit with one of my kids.

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

Wow! When I go to Six Flags I'm allowed to have my 3 year old sit in front of me while I sit in the row behind with the 1 year old the kiddie rides (similar to Dumbo). Disney seems very strict.

 

[Alicenwonderment]

It is better to be strict than sorry later. Safety is one of Disney's 4 keys and I feel it should be number 1.

 

[gatormom2tots]

Last summer I was there with my then 3 and 6 year old. We were not able to ride because the 6 year old was not allowed to ride alone and they would not allow us 3 in a seat (and I am 110 pounds so of smaller size). This situation plagued us at many rides. Thankfully we have a 7year old now so she can ride in the seats by herself.