Any experience with taking little ones on family slides?

[Zomp]

My son will be 2 in May when we're heading to Typhoon Lagoon. The family raft slides indicate no height requirement is necessary and he would have a life jacket on. Has anyone had any experience with taking their 2 year old on the family slides? How did they fare?

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

My son will be 2 in May when we're heading to Typhoon Lagoon. The family raft slides indicate no height requirement is necessary and he would have a life jacket on. Has anyone had any experience with taking their 2 year old on the family slides? How did they fare?

We took my son just before he turned 2 on the family slides at TL and BB. He did great on them. Most of the CMs did insist that he was holding on to the handles before they'd push us off, so we mostly just had him hold on with our hand over his on the handle in the beginning since he wasn't good about keeping holding on. Since we had to be holding on too, they generally wouldn't allow us to go with an arm around him unless that hand was also holding a handle (which means you're not really supporting your kid), and a couple of the tubes (can't remember which slides) didn't have handles he could reach if he was sitting between our legs. So honestly, we'd get going, then just wrap an arm around him so if he did let go of the handle, he wouldn't be sliding all over on the tube.

We never felt that he was in danger of coming out of the tube or anything like that and he absolutely loved the slides. He was maybe 25 pounds and 35" at the time, so really small weight-wise, but it was never an issue. Just make sure everyone's holding on when you take off, then wrap an arm around him if it makes you feel better once you get going and he will be fine.

 

[Zomp]

We took my son just before he turned 2 on the family slides at TL and BB. He did great on them. Most of the CMs did insist that he was holding on to the handles before they'd push us off, so we mostly just had him hold on with our hand over his on the handle in the beginning since he wasn't good about keeping holding on. Since we had to be holding on too, they generally wouldn't allow us to go with an arm around him unless that hand was also holding a handle (which means you're not really supporting your kid), and a couple of the tubes (can't remember which slides) didn't have handles he could reach if he was sitting between our legs. So honestly, we'd get going, then just wrap an arm around him so if he did let go of the handle, he wouldn't be sliding all over on the tube.

We never felt that he was in danger of coming out of the tube or anything like that and he absolutely loved the slides. He was maybe 25 pounds and 35" at the time, so really small weight-wise, but it was never an issue. Just make sure everyone's holding on when you take off, then wrap an arm around him if it makes you feel better once you get going and he will be fine.

Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for!

How did the life jacket fit? My son is very similar in size.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for!

How did the life jacket fit? My son is very similar in size.

We used the smallest they had and it wasn't bad length-wise, but was still a bit large going around. You can sort of adjust the buckles to make it tighter, but the whole life jacket is made of some foam type material, so it can't really get much smaller. It worked fine for going on the slides, but we personally didn't bother with it anywhere else. We attempted it once in the wave pool, but because we couldn't tighten it up enough, it kept going up over his ears when he was in the water. After that, in the wave pool and lazy river, we just held him or had him share a tube with us while we held onto him. They did also have some smaller tubes with a built in bottom for the lazy rivers (but not the wave pools), and he sometimes sat in one of those with us holding onto the handle. In the kiddie areas, there really wasn't a need for a life jacket.

 

[Beth33]

Not exactly what you're looking for, but we took DD on one during our last trip. She was three at the time. She did just fine, but didn't enjoy it and declined to go again. (DS5 loved it and kept going back for more.)

 

[NYCgrrl]

I tried to drown myself in 3 or 4 feet coming off a water slide sooooo I'm not the one to ask.......

 

[westie55]

When my son was 2 last year (almost 3), he went down the King Triton slide at POFQ again and again and loved it. He wore the small kiddie life jacket. Assuming your child wants to go on the family slide, I don't see any issues. You don't even fall out of the raft into the water.