41 inches baby!

[Debbie6221]

We have gone to Disney with Grandma, Bappa, Mom, Dad, Daughter and Uncle every year since my daughter was born in 2002 and NOW she is tall enough for more rides! She is 3 (turning 4 in November)and is 41 inches tall. Any rides to avoid even though she is tall enough (besides the obvious like Tower of Terror)? Any other advice?
Unfortunately, someone will still have to sit out with the baby (who joins our gang for the first time)but I love the magic through his age too.
We go to WDW October 11th for an EIGHT night stay at the Grand Floridian and I CAN NOT WAIT!!!! My son will turn ONE there on the 12th and my parents will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary there on the 15th. I am new to the boards and new to chat rooms so I will have to keep learning as I go. Thanks for listening to me ramble on!

 

[dbarker]

I would stay away from the big roller coasters. Goofy's Barnstormer should be OK. Some kids do not like to spin. Others do not like to go up and down. You know your child best. You be the judge.

My main advice is to watch for the intensity of the ride. At this age, when in doubt, don't. Find something else. There is so much to do that is not intense and still so much fun.

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

Unless your DD will be totally freaked out by a ride, I would let her do what she can. Last year, my DD2 was in the same position as your DD; she turned 4 less than a month after the trip and was 41" on the trip. She did everything she could and was quite ticked that she couldn't do certain rides due to her height. Some of our favorite memories are actually from ToT. She LOVED that ride and rode it 6 times in a 1-week period (2 trips to MGM). She loved Dinosaur. We had to get her off Splash with a crowbar. As long as she was tall enough, she wanted to ride it!

Of course, you know your DD better than anyone; do what works for her. Watching all the rides in the planning video is what made the difference for my DD. Anything she saw on the video, she wanted to ride!

 

[deedeetoo]

Every kid is different. Let her know that she is tall enough for a ride and ask her if she wants to do it. My oldest child was so eager that as soon as she hit 40" she was on every 40" ride every chance she got. On the other hand, my ds5 still won't go on most of the 40" rides. He is just a very cautious kid. He loves Soarin (nothing scary about that). We did get him to go on Splash Mountain once this summer but that was about it. Couldn't get him to do it twice. He did Test Track and hated every minute of it. We didnt' even try most of the other 40" rides. Maybe next year when he's 6 he will be ready.

 

[Debbie6221]

Jessica,
I would love for my daughter to be like yours! That would make my trip!

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

Jessica,
I would love for my daughter to be like yours! That would make my trip!

I guess I should mention that my older daughter would not try any of those rides until my younger daughter (3 yrs apart) "guilted" her into them. My older daughter loves the rides, but she would not have tried several if her little sister hadn't been so gung ho!

 

[dis4angie]

Hey she can ride TOT (if she wants to) just read on the disneyworld website that the height requirement is only 40 inches tall.
Have Fun!!!

 

[TJ's Mom]

I would start on the easy rides at first and then let her decide. On the other side - my son is almost 6 and we are hoping he will be 44 in in March so he can ride EE. Keep you fingers crossed!

 

[maddiemom]

It's so great when they can finally go on the bigger rides. Our DD was so sad one year when she wasn't tall enough. The next year we made a great big deal of the fact she was just tall enough (in her shoes mind you) to go on. Now she is almost 9 and rides EVERYTHING. She loves the fast, big rides. This past year she did TOT for the 1st time and couldn't get enough of it.

Have a great time experiencing the rides with your DD!

 

[ReneeA]

My DS is super, super tall for his age and rode everything he could at 3 - including ToT, Dinosaur, and everything else (like Jessica's DD). I've gotten plenty of flames for it around here, but he didn't have a problem and wanted to ride them over and over.

All children are different, and you know your DD better than anyone. Just work her up to the really big ones and she'll let you know. BTW, have you watched the specials on the Travel Channel that spotlight WDW? They show you pretty detailed video of the rides...my kids LOVE those shows and before we ever went had lists made of the rides they wanted to do.

 

[LaraK]

My DD is a daredevil and tall for her age. She hit 40" when she was almost 3. Our next trip we let her ride what she wanted. The only think she didn't like was Test Track....not because of the speed, she didn't like the truck blowing it's horn.

 

[wtpntigger2]

My dd turned 4 on our trip last week and was tall enough to go on the 40" rides. She loves roller coasters so BTMRR was one of her favorite new rides. In fact, she was pretty upset she couldn't ride EE even after seeing the drop.

She LOVED TT and we rode that three times in a row and at least two other times. Soarin she loved also.

She refused to go on Splash & Kali, and I didn't think she could handle Dinosaur. I also wasn't going to have her go on ToT, however, she wanted to go on it, but ended up hating it. I was proud of her for trying it out.

You just have to know the temperment of your child and what you think she can handle.

 

[traviesojmt]

Our DD was 3 yr 2 months on our trip to Disney in Aug. We were actually surprised (pleasantly) when we got to Disney and found out that she was 40" tall. We really had expected her to be just shy of 40". Anyway, my DD was so excited. She rode Soarin' twice and loved it. She rode Test Track (loved it), Big Thunder Mountain (my 3 year old kept her hands up the whole time), Splash Mountain and Kali River Rapids. She rode all of these rides multiple times and loved them all. I did not even consider letting her ride Dinosaur and Tower of Terror. I think that these rides would have been way to scary for her. I can only tell you what worked for us. Every child is different, so there is no way for anyone but you to know what your child can handle. I really think that you probably can just follow your child's lead. My DD was excited to ride these rides. We did not push her to ride anything. She also knew about TOT and did not want to ride it. We told her that Dinosaur can be scary and she said that she would wait until she was bigger.