The days when relatives could dump kids off during Disneyland for a day, withdrawal it adult to Mickey and Goofy to watch over a youngsters, are over.

Walt Disney Co. has denounced a new acknowledgment process requiring that children entering any of a U.S.-based thesis parks be accompanied by a caller during slightest 14 years old.

In years past, relatives vital nearby thesis parks would mostly use them as day-care comforts during summer vacation and open break. Children would be forsaken off for a day, clutching passes and some spending money.

The change puts an central finish to that ritual.

The new policy, according to Disney officials, puts Disneyland’s age process in line with a company’s other entertainment parks. Industry experts contend a new order reflects a change in opinion about what age is protected for children to be left unparalleled in a thesis park.

“It’s usually a changing of multitude and a universe we live in,” pronounced Dennis Speigel, boss of International Theme Park Services Inc., an attention consultant. “Today, people are some-more reserve conscious.”

Indeed, it is now a opposite epoch compared with generations of Southern California kids who grew adult using around Disneyland during summer mangle — all though adult supervision. Some vital in Orange County suburbs would get forsaken off by relatives on their approach to work. Others used open travel for a day during a park.

Sarah Whittenberg, a author who grew adult in Irvine, recalls that in a early 1980s her relatives forsaken off her and several friends, all about 12 years old, during Disneyland. Their instructions were to accommodate during a park opening during a finish of a day.

Whittenberg pronounced she would not let her 4-year-old son Noah ramble unparalleled in a park even when he turns 12.

“I do see a universe as many some-more dangerous,” she said. “I can never trust a confidence during a place as large as Disneyland.”

Monica Garcia, who also grew adult in Irvine, pronounced she fondly remembers when she was 11 and her relatives let her revisit Disneyland unaccompanied.

“My relatives would fundamentally dump me off with my best friend, and we would spend a day together usually unresolved out,” she said. “In center propagandize we could navigate that park blindfolded.”

Garcia now has a 4-year-old daughter, Valentina, though would feel gentle vouchsafing her revisit a park though an adult accompany when she turns 11.

“It’s a flattering tranquil environment,” she pronounced of Disneyland. “It’s good for kids to get a clarity of independence.”

But relatives might be reduction expected to use thesis parks for day caring since of a high cost of admission, pronounced Robert Niles, author of Theme Park Insider, an online beam to a nation’s many renouned thesis parks. Daily passes for Disneyland are $87 for park-goers over 10 and as many as $649 for an annual pass.

“As baby-sitting goes, it can be flattering expensive,” he pronounced of dropping immature children off during thesis parks.

Many Southern California thesis parks and H2O parks do not have an age acknowledgment policy. Among them are Universal Studios Hollywood, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia.

Six Flags Magic Mountain mouthpiece Sue Carpenter pronounced a subject has been discussed among park officials for years, though a park has not had a problem with young, unparalleled visitors.

At Raging Waters in San Dimas, a park recommends that an adult accompany visitors younger than 12. But in many cases, park officials say, they usually doubt immature visitors about their age if they are misbehaving.

“Industrywide, this does happen,” Raging Waters mouthpiece Mary Papadopoulos said. “Everybody does a best they can to military it.”

At Legoland in Carlsbad, children younger than 12 contingency be accompanied by an adult to enter a park

Disney officials contend a new acknowledgment order was dictated to adopt a process that is unchanging during all U.S. parks. Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., has prolonged had a process that children be accompanied by a park caller during slightest 14 years old.

Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in Anaheim had no age requirement for acknowledgment until now.

“We frequently examination all of a policies and identified an event to yield a unchanging age of acknowledgment and residence a doubt we spasmodic get from parents,” Disneyland mouthpiece Suzi Brown said. The new process takes outcome Saturday.

Disney chose age 14 for several reasons, she said. For example, children younger than 7 contingency now be accompanied by a guest during slightest 14 years aged to float a attractions during Disneyland and California Adventure Park.

Also, a Red Cross has endorsed that a smallest age of a baby sitter should be 14, she said.

Disney officials contend they can endorse a age of a park caller who binds an annual pass, and will doubt park-goers with daily passes about their age to make a new policy.

hugo.martin@latimes.com