Splash Mountain Ride Question

[fischer]

My girls are 4 and they are tall enough to ride ( I think) but I would like to know some opinions on this. Also, what is the height restriction? Thank everyone in advance.

[snuggs30]

My son was 3 when he first rode this! He loves it! I am sure she is tall enough ( I think its 36in) There are a few hills that will tickle the belly inside as well but if they show no fear I think she will love it!

[BigRedDad]

Height restriction is 40". I think they will be fine if they are OK with the final drop. Let them see it from the outside and decide. Once you are on, there is no going back.

[sdewan]

The nice thing about the WDW ride is that two people sit side by side in the boat. So if your child feels a little scared you can put your arm around her.

Unlike DL where the seats in the boat are single-file.

Then the opposite is true of Space Mountain: in WDW they are single-file, in DL they are side by side.

[MaxPower]

We took my 4 year old niece to Splash Mountain for the first time this year. We, however, did something that many would probably disagree with.

She is generally fearless, but I knew that if she saw the drop from out in front of the attraction, she would be intimidated by its size and probably refuse to ride it.

So we tricked her.

We made sure that we went to Frontierland via the Walt Disney World Railroad. The train travels through the back of Splash Mountain through a tunnel and then past a large overhead window where you look down through glass at the "finale" of Splah Mountain with all of the characters singing. She LOVED seeing this and it made her want to ride "those logs."

Then the train lets off at the Frontierland station which is conveniently located right next to the entrance of Splash Mountain. We exited the train and entered the line for Splash Mountain WITHOUT ever having to see the big drop out front. She had no idea there was a drop at all . And the two small drops within the ride itself are very fun and worked in our favor when we got to the final big drop. We just told her that it was another fun drop like we had just experienced.

I will interject here- for anyone who has never ridden Splash Mountain - the final drop which is visible to guests standing on the bridge in front of the ride looks 1000 times worse than experiencing the drop itself. For this reason, I disagree with those who say they should show the child the drop and let them decide. There are many ADULTS who see the drop and refuse to ride because it's scary-looking. And this is a shame, because as I am sure many Intercotters will agree, it looks way worse than it is. And the attraction inside the mountain is so wonderful, it's a shame that people skip the ride because of the deceptive drop out front.

Just to finish my story - my niece LOVED Splash Mountain. She thought it was hilarious that people in our log got wet. ( She didn't herself, which of course was a huge plus.) And maybe that is a good way to wrap up this post. I think the real possibility of getting wet would be a bigger problem than anything having to do with the final plunge.

[jrkcr]

From my DD8:
I think that they might like it. You can let them hold on to your arm, like I usually do. If you do close your eyes on the drop, it feels kinda weird, but it's over quickly cause it goes kinda fast. If they don't like high places than they should close their eyes, cause they might get freaked out by how high it is. Thats just my opinion.



Show your kids the other kids coming off the ride. Hopefully the kids coming off will be happy!!

[mdhiggin]

My just turned 4 year old rode it this trip for the first time. She saw it from the front and said she wanted to ride it. They measured her and let her own, but all the other 40" rides measured her and said she was too short. Go figure. Maybe she was on her tiptoes for that one. Anyway, she was a little nervous with the drops and so squished between DH and me she didn't get a drop of water on her. After that one, she caught the ride bug and said she wanted to ride the other stuff, but she somehow didn't measure up for those. The baby swap started really annoying her this trip. We were travelling with another family, and she felt left out. She's never really cared about having to miss rides before. She also rode Kali. That one is only 38". I don't think she really liked that one, though. She was all upset about having to miss ToT. That's my girl.

[Tinkerbella16]

I was 8 years old when I first rode Splash, and I loved it!! Last trip we took a four year old on it and he loved it so much. The height requirement is 40" I believe.

[Mickey'sGirl]

The height requirement for Splash is 40". If your kids want to ride, I'm sure they will love it. Our youngest has been riding since he was 2, and even then, he thought the last drop was the best part! DS10 is not as crazy for Splash due to the WET factor. He got absolutely soaked on our last ride.

[Mackflava99]

i have twin girls- they rode for the first time at 4- we ended up going 4 times in a row- they LOVED it
its still their favorite ride-

My wife and i each sat next to one and held them during the drop- everything was fine.

[Belster]

I also handle the situation like Maxpower. This will be my DS3 first time to wdw. He is tall enough, so my DH and I decided we will not show him the drop, just experience it.

Maxpower I was one of those people that would not ride because of how it looks and once I did I was so sorry that I missed it all of those years.

So I guess how you handle it depends on your child. I know my DS loves thrill rides so for him this is the best way. Now with my DD11 we had to show her the drop her first time on.

[Stitchahula]

My son went on it for the 1st time last year when he was 4. He loves it, it is one of his favorite rides. He will still say"no the birds" when we are driving and it's a big hill then when we get to the bottom he'll say "splash." He likes to pretend the big hills are splash mountain. He's kind of strange though he didn't wanted to go on any of the "kiddie" rides he said they would make him sick. He also thought big thunder was boring "what no splash". He's my little dare devil. If they aren't a big fan of getting wet like my son was let them wear their rain slicker it will make it easier for them to enjoy without them thinking they will get soaked. Have fun.

[TheWizofDiz]

I agree with NOT showing her the drop...she will love the attraction. My DD was 4 when she rode, but we also took the train there and so she did not see the drop. It worked great and it is one of her favs...she is now 15 going on 30! Have fun and sit either in the 3 or 4 seat in your boat...less chance of getting wet.

[Belster]

Yes, my Burnbaum books says to sit on the right side of you you would like to get soaked. Just thought that I would share.

Enjoy!

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I have a lot of the Disney planning videos and my (then) 4 yo nephew has watched them since about birth. So he pretty much was familiar with all the rides. He sat between my sister and I on his first ride, sort of on our knees so that he could see. He loved it!

[Goes4FastPass]

I'm surprised that I agree with NOT showing a little one the drop from the front of the ride.

I think it's important to DESCRIBE what's going to happen.

The drop is made to look big big from the street. The water cannons add to the effect - but they're over a tunnel so riders go under them.

I've been on SMtn with several under 7s and the ALL (1) feared the drop and (2) had a great time and wanted to ride again after that first "Is it time to drop yet??" "Is it time to drop yet??" "Is it time to drop yet??" ride.

[DrivingSideways]

I'm with most of the other posters here. Don't look at the drop, just describe it. My friend and I went in 2006 and she was so excited about Splash Mountain, until we walked by the drop on our way to something else (I think Big Thunder Mountain Railroad). She flipped out.

I finally convinced her (5 days later) that it wasn't as bad as it looks and we rode. She loved it. We rode it 3 more times that day. It was pretty much all we did. lol

[Ian]

I agree with not showing the drop first, but one word of caution ...

The first time our DD rode she was just 40 inches tall and that placed her face about dead even with the front padding of the log.

When we hit the bottom of the big drop she was leaning forward a little too far and smacked her nose hard on the padded bar.

If you can somehow try and hold your DD's faces back or something that would probably make things a lot more enjoyable for them!

[dixielandings]

Our little 5-yo buddy just rode it this week - he also rode it last year - and LOVED it!! The scenery is so great and fun to look at, I doubt they would have time to worry about drops.