Smuggler’s Run w/38” child *SPOILERS*

MickeyWaffles

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 28, 2010
When we were at HS in February, my youngest (3) ended up being tall enough for SR. He was so excited! He has not seen Star Wars yet but is familiar with the characters. He loves rides so didn’t have any concerns about that. We were excited to not have to rider swap!

Here’s the bummer - he was a gunner and he was way too short to reach his button! The guy behind us kept leaning forward to reach it for him (I felt so bad!) and my husband who was pilot was also reaching back.

It’s interesting because while he was tall enough to ride, he wasn’t actually tall enough to reach the button as gunner. Not even close to reaching it.

Would engineer have been a better spot? Or is the positioning similar to gunner? Obviously we wouldn’t want him to pilot :)

He loved it even though he was bummed he couldn’t “help.” All smiles the whole time. I just didn’t expect the button to be so hard for him to reach since he was technically tall enough.
 
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My daughter is just 44" and she had issues reaching some buttons too - even for engineer she could hit some but then some were too far (my older daughter was gunner in front of her and reached back at times to help

We also rode where my youngest was left pilot and I was right pilot and she could reach the steering but for some buttons I reached over to help (but that might have been she got confused more than couldn't reach) - actually think from a "reach everything" perspective pilot was easiest for her
 
My daughter is just 44" and she had issues reaching some buttons too - even for engineer she could hit some but then some were too far (my older daughter was gunner in front of her and reached back at times to help

We also rode where my youngest was left pilot and I was right pilot and she could reach the steering but for some buttons I reached over to help (but that might have been she got confused more than couldn't reach) - actually think from a "reach everything" perspective pilot was easiest for her

Thanks! My 44” daughter was left pilot and did great steering but my husband had to reach for something for her too. I had just assumed my little guy would be able to reach the gunner buttons since he was tall enough for the ride, but he was nowhere close! I was the other gunner so I couldn’t reach over to help him.
 
Definitely a design flaw, the height requirement is for safety while you're sitting, not falling off the seat, it has nothing to do with reaching the controls although they obviously should've taken that into account
 


I just rode with two of the worst (adult) pilots ever, but it didn't take away my enjoyment of the ride! I actually wanted to be engineer so I could take everything in better! As long as the littles have fun, that is ALL that matters!
 
To date, I've only ever been engineer and have enjoyed the ride much more when I don't even bother with my "job" and just enjoy the experience.


That said, I totally understand a 3-year-old's desire to "be a part of it", but you can always just pretend that he's "helping" somehow. When we were kids, we convinced my four year old brother he was "driving" our car at Mr. Toad's and he had a blast.

IMHO, trying to press the buttons for him is the worst solution.
 
At the very start of the ride, it goes through each of the positions and tells you to do a sample task - it's portrayed as a quick tutorial basically, but it also tells the system if someone is in that seat or not. If no one pushes the button at that point, Hondo takes over that position and does it automatically (he doesn't do a super great job, but it's better than nothing). So for any rider who can't reach the buttons or would rather just watch the screen and not touch anything, don't push the button at the very beginning either and the system should do that task for you.
 


Oh, wow, I never thought of it so directly, but that would be an issue for the smallest riders! My DD was 46" back in January, and she definitely had to reeeeeaaach for some things and I'm pretty sure DH helped her a couple of times. It's probably closer to a 48" "requirement" to be able to do everything on the ride.
 
I just rode with two of the worst (adult) pilots ever, but it didn't take away my enjoyment of the ride! I actually wanted to be engineer so I could take everything in better! As long as the littles have fun, that is ALL that matters!
Both times I rode, the pilots were terrible (I was one of those terrible pilots on the first go, so I should know). Still had an absolute blast. My attitude is that if people want to "optimize" the game and actually do well at the mission, they should get together their own group of six and fill the entire ship with their own people. If you're flying with strangers, it should simply be expected that at least half the crew will be clueless and/or made up of small children.

All of that is to say that you should feel free to put your kid in the pilot seat. It's a video game at an amusement park, not rocket surgery.
 
My 3.5 year old was right at 40" last trip (he got measured multiple times at every ride).

He could not reach any of the gunner buttons. kind of a bummer. He probably would have liked it better if I wasn't screaming at him to hit buttons he couldn't reach.
 

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