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For those of you who have motion simulator rides or have used them in the
past....
 
Do any of you have data - numerical is better but anecdotal is fine - about
how these rides have been used by children UNDER 7?  In the next few years,
we will be converting our museum to a children's museum (still a science
focus).  In surveys of educators and parents, including those of pre-school
aged children, motion simulators were highly rated exhibits.  From doing
planetarium programs I know that many very young children are frightened if
they think their seats might move or rumble or shoot water (I think A Bugs
Life at Disney has scared a few).
 
Are very young children allowed on simulators?  Do you have an age or height
cut-off?  Do particular manufacturers have age recommendations?  Would these
vary with the type of simualtor - for example, the ten-seat stand-alone
simulator versus the thirty-seat one that's built into a room?  Is this left
to the parents' discretion?  If so, what do you do if a child does try to
get up during a program?
 
I think of the four-year-old who sat next to me during the 3D IMAX film at
the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas.  She the 3D-ness of the experience, but the
haunted house theme was getting to her after a while.  If she had needed to
get up, they would have had to raise the lap bar on all of us, interrupting
our view of the film.  She told her father she could be "very brave" and
stay.
 
You can reply off-line, unless you think this is a wide-ranging
issue...Thanks.

Kristie M. Mazzoni

Assistant Planetarium Director

Science Center of Connecticut

 

 

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