40 inch 4 year old...what rides?

[mtemm]

I know several rides have a 40" requirement, which my 4 year old son just reaches in his bare feet. My question is, for those of you with young children, at what age were they comfortable on rides like splash mountain and thunder mountain?

I know every child is different, but I'm just curious as to what other people have experienced. my son is 40 inches, but he's fairly small and I think I am a bit worried he'll slip out or something. lol.

 

[ronniereb]

My son is small for his age, he absolutley love Splash Mountain, other rides he meets the height requirement for he has quiten got the nerve to go on yet though.

 

[epcotking]

I still to this day HATE (as in, I'm a chicken) to ride splash mountain! But others seem to love it. Just kinda guage what he rides at other parks and you'll do fine.

 

[debbi801]

My 4 yr old LOVED Splash Mountain and Kali River Rapids. He hated Haunted Mansion and Dinosaurs. He enjoyed Star Tours, too. He absolutely loved the muppets 3-d and Mickey's Philharmagic 3-d shows. He also really liked Soaring.

We didn't do Thunder Mountain, but I think he would have liked that, too. He enjoyed Goofy's Barnstormer in toontown a lot.

 

[1princessX2princes]

Last year my three 1/2 year old dd just made the height requirement. She had a blast on Splash & Thunder Mountains and again on BarnStormer. She was quite the adventure girl. I also worried about her being small and just kept an arm around her on the rides---just for my peace of mind. But we rode these rides several time and it really was fine. She also love Soarin and wanted to do test track but I thought the acceleration in tt might be too much to handle for her.

 

[horner5]

We just got back from WDW on 7/1 and my DD turned 4 on 6/29 and is just a little over 40 inches tall. She rode and loved: Tower of Terror, Test Track, Star Tours, Soarin', Splash Mountain, Stitch, and Big Thunder Mountain. She is a thrill seeker and enjoyed it all. We let her dictate what she wanted to do and she wanted to do everything. If she were to hesitate, we wouldn't force her to go, but we didn't have that problem.

 

[syzslak]

My son is now four, but went when he was just 40" but still 3. He was crushed that he couldn't get on Soarin (which is supposed to be 40") but did ride Star Tours and Splash Mountain. We're going in a couple of weeks and he really, really wants to do Tower of Terror (he turned 4 late May) and Soarin' and Test Track. We'll just let him decide. I won't be scared if he's not (well, maybe a little on ToT).

 

[Texa]

My DD made the height requirement just a few days shy of her 4th birthday. She rode Big Thunder, Splash, Barnstormer, Kali, Soarin, and Test Track. She loved them all and wanted to do them over and over. I avoided TOT, Dinosaur, and even Haunted Mansion because she loves the thrills and hills but probably would not have liked anything with a scary theme.

 

[BamaFan121s]

My child who was right at 40" in shoes, rode Splash Mt., Thunder Mt., ToT. She was a month shy of being 4 y.o. 6 mo later she added Dinosaur (she LOVES scary, loud stuff ), but we STILL have not let her on MIssion Space.

 

[Bev J]

For my own kids I would not let them ride TOT till they were about 6 even if they were taller than the 40" sooner than that. TOT is a scarry ride! The special effects I think are too much for a child that young.
There are plenty of rides that are less intense. We have had it backfire on us when they rode something they begged to go on. Once on they got scared and then did not even want to ride the tame rides!
It is up to the parent to go on rides that are age appropriate, just because they are tall enough and beg hard enough does not mean they should ride. Save them for special times when they are older, they can graduate up to the thrill rides.
Bev

 

[nlugo]

I know several rides have a 40" requirement, which my 4 year old son just reaches in his bare feet. My question is, for those of you with young children, at what age were they comfortable on rides like splash mountain and thunder mountain?

I know every child is different, but I'm just curious as to what other people have experienced. my son is 40 inches, but he's fairly small and I think I am a bit worried he'll slip out or something. lol.

I may get a few flames here but here I go. You need to go with what your child is ready for. My daughter is 3 and is 42 in. She rode many things that she is big enough for. She rode BTMR, ToT, Soarin',TT.....The list goes on and on. She didn't ride Dinosaur though. I didn't take her on it because it was dark and I didn't think she was ready for it. Seems odd though, but she wanted to do ToT more than once. Just go with what you think he would like and have a good time.