Must be 16 to Tour...???

[Bringonthemouse!]

Hello all!

I have a question regarding the "Behind the Scenes" tours.
I am wondering why you need to be a certain age to tour. My DD is a little bummed that we can't go on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour because she will be 1 month shy of 16 when we are there in Dec. (you must be 16 to tour). I am not debating the rule, just wondering what the reasoning is behind it.
Thanx!
:mickey:

[peemagg]

I believe that part of it is that they give away some of their secrets to the "Magic". They want only those who should be old enough and mature enough to keep those secrets safe from the little ones. It would not be good for them to ruin the "Magic" for them.

There could also be the problem of insurance at the parks, because of where they do take you.

It is a great tour and you will love it when you do get to go.

Just for the record I might check and see if that little difference between the two ages might not be waved. It can't hurt to ask.

[Carol]

The tour is also very long. I'm sure they only want mature interested goers. :)

[Nick Mc]

The main reasone behind being 16 is because you get got go down in the Main Street part of the tunnel of the MK and you see the Parade Building.. and depending on the time of day, you might see some things you might now want to see.. but most of the time you dont see anything like that.. I'm sure i t also has to do a lot with insurence, if something happend backstage, because backstage isnt as safe as onstage is... there is a lot of junk back there!

[Kristi Kay]

I am curious why the picked 16....It seems to me that 13ish year olds wouldn't be "shocked" by anything they see....

[allie_to_you]

I am curious why the picked 16....It seems to me that 13ish year olds wouldn't be "shocked" by anything they see....

I don't know that it's so much that they will be shocked as the maturity level. Yes, there are some 13 year olds that are more mature than 16 year olds for sure, but typically, 16 year olds are going to be better behaved and have more of an attention span than a 13 year old who's main focus is the rides and having fun.

Like others have said, this is a long, information based tour, with a lot of "secret" information given and I know that as an adult, I certainly wouldn't want to take this tour with a bunch of bratty kids running around. Quite frankly, in some cases, I don't even know if 16 is mature enough.

However, like someone else pointed out, if my teenager was mature enough for this, and was that close to being 16, I would definitely check to see if they could possibly waive that just a bit.

[2Epcot]

On our behind the scenes tours we ran into several characters out of, or only partially in costume before they went onto stage. I'm sure the main reason for the age restriction is to not ruin the magic for the younger guests.

[dolphinmickey9170]

I took my 13 and 15 year old daughters on the tour last year. They never even asked their ages. So she can go on the tour. They will tell you when you call to book it that if youd don't want to "ruin the magic" then you shouldn't attend. It was great and I recommend it to anyone. Our "magic" was not ruined. Have a great time.

[wendy*darling]

My 16 yr old son WAS quizzed about his age when we took the Keys to the Kingdom tour a while back.

There will always be people who think their children are mature enough to ignore the rules. And they may well be mature enough, but they are the rules anyway.

They have to set an age limit for a variety of issues- magic, liability, etc. They chose 16 for several of the tours. That's the rule.

There are several tours you can do younger than 16.
Family Magic, Magic Behind the Steam Trains both in the MK,
Wild by Design in AK,
Behind the Seeds, Epcot Seas Aqua Tour, Dolphins in Depth all Epcot.

Maybe you can choose one of these instead?

[Funcruiser56]

We have been on several tours both in Epcot and MK, they have the age restrictions because they don't want the magic ruined for guests, plus the tours are alot of walking and talking and kids would probably be a bit bored and restless.
The DO check ages and you must bring a picture ID or you will not be able to go on the tour, we have seen this happen where even one person in a family forgot their ID, they did not go and there is no leeway on the age, you are either 16 or older or you don't go. The tours that are 'family' ones have different age levels check the tour descriptions they will tell you the age that can go for that tour.

Bev

[dolphinmickey9170]

I didn't mean to upset anyone. I just simply stated that they did not ask the ages of my daughters. Far be it from me to "ruin" anyone's magic. I didn't mean to be a rule breaker. The hostile insinuation was hurtful.

[Belle619]

I recommend calling and explaining your situation. If it is merely an issue of maturity, I doubt that your child will be significantly more mature in one month's time - they may make an exception. However, if it is a liability and insurance issue, then this may make a difference. Either way, I'd say to check it out with WDW before purchasing tour tickets because it would really be disappointing to show up and be turned away.

[wendy*darling]

I didn't mean to upset anyone. The hostile insinuation was hurtful.
I'm sorry, I did not mean to hurt your feelings.
You are fortunate that your daughters were able to go, but in most cases you would have been asked about their ages before you purchased tickets and again when you signed in on tour day. If you were never asked and didn't know about the age limit, then I am glad it worked out for you.

I do not suggest that anyone knowingly bring their underage children on the tours.

[disneygeek18]

I also think you should call and check. One month really does not make that much of a difference. And dolphinmickey don't feel bad, unless its for insurance(which I still don't understand how 16 is so much different than 15, they're not driving a car, lol) than I dont see any difference in a 15 or 16 year old seeing a character "undressed"

[wendy*darling]

I dont see any difference in a 15 or 16 year old seeing a character "undressed"
There may not be any difference between 15 and 16, but Disney has decided upon 16 as its age limit.

Please remember that INTERCOT does not allowing the promotion of bending the rules or side-stepping the system in any way.

[caryrae]

Maybe there is no big reason and they just had to pick an age and 16 sounded good to everyone. I don't think maturity has much to do it with cause Lord knows there are plenty of adults who are less mature than most kids.

[future_imagineer]

From what I have read, when Walt Disney proposed and designed the MK utildor system, he made a rule that no one under sixteen would go into them.