When are kids old enough to be unchaperoned?

LSK

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
My kids will be 16 and 13 when we next go to Disney. Do you let your kids have some time on their own at this age? We will visit Epcot for Food & Wine and I know my kids would rather wait in line for TT and am thinking it is acceptable to let them. They are well behaved, responsible kids...there is no reason not to, right? And at what age can they go to the pool without an adult with them?
 
At 16 they are probably driving so I can’t see why a 16 year old wouldn’t be allowed to have some time alone in a theme park. The park rules state someone under 14 must be accompanied by someone 14 or older to enter the park. So long as they both go to the same park that should be fine :)
 
Disney policy is that children under 14 must be with someone over 14 to enter the parks.
"Children under age 14 must be accompanied by a Guest age 14 or older to enter the following Walt Disney World parks and locations"

So your 16 and 13 year old can definitely go off together (or the 16 year old alone).

However, if you are in the same park, a child can ride an attraction alone at age 7.
 


Per Disney's policy you must be 14+ or with someone 14+ to enter the parks without an adult so your kids should be good to go.
 
Yes, that was already clearly stated earlier in the thread. It is helpful to read threads to avoid posting redundant information (you do this all the time).

Does it really hurt to have more answers confirming?
Its not like you brought anything new to the table with your post.
We are all allowed to post on here. If mods want to close a thread due to the question being answered they will. Until then people should feel free to post.
If you don't care for what I post then feel free to hit the ignore button.
 
Per Disney's policy you must be 14+ or with someone 14+ to enter the parks without an adult so your kids should be good to go.
That’s not enforced. At all. Trust me. Not like they ID. I’d say anyone over 10 would be fine. Tons of kids less than 14 having a ball with another kid or kids that’s under 14.
 
This reminds me of when my second week of vacation was initially turned down (and we have a 2 week stay this summer). My 15 yr old daughter said she could stay by herself for the second week and fly home. I laughed and said while I knew she totally would be capable of staying alone for a week and making it back home without issues there was zero chance I would actually allow her to do that. (Aside from the fact that Disney wouldn’t let a 15 yr old stay alone in the hotel). Nice try kid. Nice try
 
My kids will be 16 and 13 when we next go to Disney. Do you let your kids have some time on their own at this age? We will visit Epcot for Food & Wine and I know my kids would rather wait in line for TT and am thinking it is acceptable to let them. They are well behaved, responsible kids...there is no reason not to, right? And at what age can they go to the pool without an adult with them?

I personally would absolutely let them go off on their own at those ages given everything you said about their personalities and behavior. :) (In fact we plan to let our boys go off on their own some times when we go on our next trip, and while my oldest will be similar in age to yours, my youngest will actually be a few years younger. But we still think they will be just fine. :) ) Hope you all have fun!
 
Depends on the kid. Our oldest was ready at 13 but our second is a different story. She's our most loving BUT she trusts everyone and everything. She can't believe there is anyone bad in the entire world. She would leave with anyone if the story was good enough. Were working on it but wow is she gullible!!!
 
Depends on kids imho. Last trip my kids were 12, 12, and 7, and we let them do the Agent P missions in the countries alone while we sat at the entrances (of the country they were in). That was their 4th trip.

This trip the twins will be 14, almost 15, and the youngest 9. The twins will definitely get the freedom to go off in the same park. I’m hoping they’ll take the 9 yo in HS and Epcot for a couple of hours so my husband and I can get some adult time. I’m not comfortable with them leaving the park though.

However, my disclaimer: I can track their phones with GPS so I’ll always know where they’re at.
 
At 16 your oldest will be able to handle any problems....just reiterate to STAY TOGETHER. I realize it is Disney, everyone wants to believe it's a ' magical bubble' . The reality is.....there are creepy people everywhere in the world.....even at Disney! They will be fine as long as they don't get separated. Have a great trip
 
My 14, almost 15 yr old just went down with the marching band and was pretty much alone with her friends all day, every day for 6 days. And at Universal too. After this trip I would totally let her and her brother who is 2 yrs younger go around together. They are both pretty familiar with the parks too so that makes me feel better. Not sure I would want them leaving the park just yet though.
 
Back in the 90s my parents would drop us off at Disneyland or Knott's Berry Farm (me and my friends) at age 12 for the day and it was never a problem. Depending on the kid, I would think any high schooler is fine and some junior high kids as well.
 
Last trip we let our 14 year old son make his way from BLT to MK. He discovered the independence wasn’t as much fun as he thought it would be <a bit boring> so was actually quite pleased when we coincidentally <really, not “coincidentally”> ran into him in the queue for SM and hung with us for the rest of the day. :D

He’ll be 17 this trip and our daughter will be 14. Both say they are going to spend lots of time on their own. We’ll see...
 

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