DD Doesn't Want to go on Rides

[pddmom]

Anyone else ever experience this? My DD is 5 and we're heading to WDW in November. She's always loved amusement parks, even this summer, but our last two trips to an amusement park and a big carnival, I was met with a lot of NOs! Did not want anything to do with the rides...loved the super slides, moon bounces, water slides, etc...but anything..no way!

I did "force" her to go on one kiddie ride with me and she didn't put up much of a fight, but I just wanted to see if anyone else ever encountered this and what did you do for a touring plan at the parks?

I also have a DS 3.5 who wants to go on EVERYTHING so I think we'll probably be using child swap a lot.

 

[Marine Mom]

I have a son who will be 20 next month (he is a U.S.Marine) and until he was a teenager, would not go on rides at carnivals or amusement parks. I would try to get him to go on something that I knew he would like but to no avail. Now that he is grown, he loves rides! Matter of fact, he is stationed in Okinawa, Japan and is headed to Hong Kong next month and is going to go to Disneyland Hong Kong while he is there. He cannot wait to go on the rides!

Don't worry, some children are just afraid but overcome their fear as they get older. I have a daughter who is 18 and you could never keep her off the rides!

 

[HoosierDave]

Wow.
I'm not sure what to make of this. DD (now 9) went through a phase in the 5 - 6 range where we couldn't get her to do anything. And she's an only child; so there were no older siblings to emulate, nor younger sibs to shame her.
Perhaps that's your angle! "Little brother wants to go, you should go, too!" Or: "LB will need someone to hold his hand." or even "LB will need someone to show him how to be brave!"
Mind you, I'm no child psychologist. But I go with what works. Call me cruel, but there were times that I just grabbed DD's hand and dragged her aboard the scary rides!

I wish you the best of luck, I know from experience how exasperating it can be to do the child swap thing. Hang in there, it gets better!

(And remember, in just a few years you'll be saying, "STOP THAT!" Or, "If you fall and break your leg, don't come running to me!")

Dave aka HoosierDave

 

[Shelton123]

"Okay, but your little brother will miss you alot. But it's okay, he'll just be sad, you dont have to go."

Works every time. I volunteered at a camp with a bunch of 5 year olds, they have guilt buttons the size of Montenegro.

 

[jkthorstad]

I have the same problem with my DS5. I am concerned that his lack of going on any rides will dampen our whole experience. It will difficult to do rider swap on everything. Has anyone "forced" their child to go on something that they know won't be scary?

 

[5onadime]

Our rule on rides that I really think they will like is try it one time. If you don't like it you don't have to ride again. This obviously doesn't apply to Tower, Rockin' , Everest and "grown up" rides. I can not see any reason to try and force these on a young child. That could just lead to melt downs and a miserable time had by all.

 

[Darcy03231]

Our rule on rides that I really think they will like is try it one time. If you don't like it you don't have to ride again. This obviously doesn't apply to Tower, Rockin' , Everest and "grown up" rides. I can not see any reason to try and force these on a young child. That could just lead to melt downs and a miserable time had by all.

That's what we did when the kids were little. Now they ride everything!

 

[~Kik-Kik~]

I refused to go on any carival rides when I was a kids, and I still do today. I do everything at WDW/DL.

 

[catne]

one big difference between carnival rides & most of the Disney rides is that you don't see as much of the "ride guts", so to speak. LIke at a carnival, you see all the bare machinery, and to a lot of kids (and adults) that's scarier I think - it feels less safe somehow.

And really, a lot of the Disney rides are more like moving shows, instead of carnival type thrill rides (think Great Movie Ride, It's a Small World, Pirates, Spaceship Earth and so on.) You might not get her to go on the mountains (roller coasters) but there's sure a lot of fun can still be had by doing the non-thrill rides too.

My kids all seemed to really prefer Disney rides to carnivals, county fairs & Six Flags type rides.

 

[SGMCO]

I wouldn't worry to much about it, she may change her
mind once you are there.
I would never force a child to ride the more adult rides
unless they want to and I don't think that has a barring on
making them love the rides in the future.
This is the first year my DS 12 wanted
to ride more adult rides and he loved it.
Going to Disney is supposed to be fun for everyone
and being force to ride a ride you may be afraid of is
not going to make you have fun.

 

[schwoomp]

We have lots of problems along these lines with DD6 and while she has many wonderful qualities, she does dampen our family vacations. She gets nervous out of her elemant. Last summer, we went to Wisconsin Dells. She didn't want to do anything but sit in the hotel room and watch TV. She didn't want to go to the indoor water park, or even restaurants. It was a battle at every turn. This year, we went on a similar vacation, and same thing- she stuck to just kiddie water slides. Problem is, DH and her twin brother have a blast together, while I just sit around trying to convince her to try things. Guilt does not work at all. I keep trying to tell her for instance that if she doesn't learn to ride her bike, I can't ride my bike. She tells me to get a babysitter and DH, me and DS can go without her. She's convinced her training wheels are not going to keep the bike up. I have no idea what her first plane ride to Disney will be like. She went on a field trip to an air museum, so she seems open to it. And, she does like amusement parks, although she only rides kiddie rides. I did force her to go on a mild ride at Cedar Point this summer. I kept telling her to trust me, and she was nervous the whole time we were waiting, but she did end up liking it. I am crossing my fingers that this works at Disney without constant coaxing. Otherwise, DH will get irritated and I'll be standing around a lot (irritated too, but trying to be understanding). Truthfully, I don't really care for very tall roller coasters myself. Since I haven't been to Disney before, if anyone has suggestions of milder type roller coasters, that would be helpful.

But to the OP, I feel your "pain". DD puts a spin on the term "vacation".

 

[msmayor]

We never forced either of our kids to ride any ride...and never said "Just try it once and if you don't like it, don't go again". These trips are EVERYONE'S vacation, and no one should be forced to do anything they really don't want to.

When our son was a toddler, he was happy just walking around. When it rained, he just wanted to stomp in puddles. So we let him. He may have gone on 3 or 4 rides...but he LOVED the TTA monorail. We'd go on that 5-6 times a day.

When we had our kids and started 'doing' Disney, we knew our touring would be geared to them. OUR wants and needs would take a back seat because to us, it was more important for our kids to be completely happy and satisfied than for us to make it on ever ride we wanted to go on. Heck, one trip I think we spent a grand total of two hours at Epcot because the kids were bored. It was okay...we knew that someday when they were older they'd want to spend more time there. And my DH and I knew that we'd get back as well to do what WE wanted to do.

It took me three trips to finally see Fantasmic. No one else wanted to see it; I wasn't going to make them all go. Finally, this trip, they wanted to see it...and loved it. Had I forced them to go before maybe they wouldn't have liked it.

 

[FallingStar]

Have you tried youtube? They have a ton of ride videos, a lot of them aren't worth watching but if you can find some good ones for your daughter to watch between now and your vacation it may calm some of her fears and actually give her something to look forward to.

 

[KathylovesPooh]

Never been much of a fan of the guilt routine (do you like being guilted into doing anything) and really tried not to push my daughter into things she wasn't comfortable doing (I too had a DD who I knew would love certain things but was unwilling to try).

I'd take a different angle and try to see as many shows and other things WDW offers - isn't that why it offers so much! I realize that means the rest of you go on a few less rides or it may mean having to split up for a couple of hours. But it is her vacation as well. And who knows once she sees sees/hears her brother talk about Dumbo and Peter Pan - she may change her mind.

 

[pddmom]

Thanks to all of you. Honestly, when I booked this trip back in February, she wasn't into rides, but I figured Disney has so much stuff that they'll be plenty for her to do. I think something she went on this summer really scared her and she just intimated now. I should add she has a mild form of autism, so it's difficult for her to express her fears.

I know guilt won't work on DD, but do plan to "coax" her onto things like Small World and Peter Pan (she loves the movie). If she freaks, that's it and I won't try anything else.

I just want everyone to have a great vacation...rides or no rides

Here's hoping for some Disney magic in November

 

[ReneeA]

Our rule on rides that I really think they will like is try it one time. If you don't like it you don't have to ride again. This obviously doesn't apply to Tower, Rockin' , Everest and "grown up" rides. I can not see any reason to try and force these on a young child. That could just lead to melt downs and a miserable time had by all.

This is our rule as well.

We never had any problems with DD5 riding rides until this year (ironically, she just turned 5 as well).

The child that rode Splash Mountain, BTMMR, and Test Track over and over when she was 3 & 4? Suddenly "scared" and didn't want to try them once. Our rule was you gotta do them once and then you can tell me no. Worked like a charm - she loved everything and wanted to go again and again.

ToT was the only one she said she's not doing again. That one was her choice - I hate that ride, and I told her that I'd follow my own rule and do it with her once. I can't for the life of me figure out that was one of the only ones she *wanted* to ride.

 

[ms*mountaineer]

I would not try to talk her into it before you get there. Just don't worry about it and don't talk about it. Things could be completely different when you're there and she sees the attractions. As someone said - you don't see the "guts" of the ride like you do at fairs and carnivals, so she may not have the same hesitation.

 

[All American]

Have you tried youtube? They have a ton of ride videos, a lot of them aren't worth watching but if you can find some good ones for your daughter to watch between now and your vacation it may calm some of her fears and actually give her something to look forward to.

I think this is a great idea. I did this something similar for my daughter. I showed her a video of the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom and pointed out a girl who was her age going on the ride and said, "Look, she's your age and you could make a new friend". My little girl LOVES the idea of making new friends, and now she can't wait to go to DisneyWorld where (as I say) they'll be lots of her new friends there.

I definately think that this, the video, is a GREAT route.

 

[jenseib]

First off Disney is NOT an amusement park ,but a theme park, and is so different than amusement parks. I would tell her you are going to a show, as that is what most are, a show and some have wheels. Alot of these rides do nothing but take you through scenery. No ups and downs. And alot of them you don't even know what it is till you get in, like Pirates. So things like winnie the pooh, peter pan, small world should be easy. The Haunted Mansion and pirates might be a bit to oscary, depending on your child. My DD loved HM when she was 2, but at 3 it spooked her a bit more. We have not done any of the mountains at MK with DD with us, and though they are fun, I'm not missing too much as our days are still full. Dh and I both rode Everest, but did it at different times alone while the other was with DD.
Though with your DD being autistic, you may have a harder time with everything. My nephew is very autistic and can't speak, and he jsut spazzes about stuff al lthe time and squacks. But then I think SIL lets him get away with stuff when I know he understands her and what no means.

But there are shows too, and lots of stuff to keep you amused.

 

[kmaclou]

You mentioned that she loves the movie Peter Pan. Maybe if you sat down together and watched Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Winnie the Pooh, etc it would help when you get there. That way when you get to the teacups, or a ride with the characters from the respective movie you can encourage her - it gives her something to identify the ride with.

Good luck!