Runoff Rapids at BB: Really No Height requirement?

[MidnTPK]

I just noticed that Disney lists Runoff Rapids (the tube slides at the back of BB) as having no height requirement. Anybody have first hand experience bringing a small one on this? Are the kids allowed/required to wear life jackets if they are quite young?

Last month I was at Atlantis with my pre-schooler...an she loved the somewhat thrilling tube rides she could do with me there. I'd love to do the BB tube slides with her, but if the lifeguards do one thing and the websites says another, I'd like to avoid having her get turned away at the top of the slide (and the resulting emotional episode).

[BrerGnat]

There are two slides at Runoff Rapids that utilize the "double tube" (the open slides). There truly is no height requirement, but little ones should ride with you in a double tube, so you can hold onto them. DH and I did that with our sons (4 and 5) when we were at BB. The little one (the 4 year old), I had to REALLY hold onto, because he would have fallen straight through the hole in the tube if he had not been supported by my knees and my hands under his armpits.

The mat slides in FRONT of the mountain are also good for kids, I'd say, 5 and up.

The family raft ride is also very fun, and you just sit inside a huge raft altogether.

You can get a life jacket for free at the park, but we didn't see the need for it.

[MidnTPK]

Thanks.

I am very familiar with supporting a small child in a double tube....I did that about six hours a day in Atlantis (last month) with my little girl....I still have the backache to prove it!

Regarding the lifejacket: it provided me a stable thing to hold onto while in the more thrilling parts of Atlantis' tube ride-river.