42" three year old - what's appropriate?

[Makayna]

While I grew up in Southern California, and grew up going to Disneyland all the time, I've been to Disneyland exactly once in the last 20 years. I've looked at height requirements, but they're useless to me, since I have a 42" three year old. I usually go off of age recommendations, but I didn't see any on the Disneyland website. At our theme park near our home, I know what she can and cannot do, but I'm not sure about Disneyland.

My daughter is tall enough to ride virtually everything (except California Screaming and Indiana Jones), but that doesn't mean everything else is appropriate. Some may jar her more than what I'm comfortable with, and others may be too scary. So, what rides would you NOT take a tall four year old on?

 

[travelgirl06]

Our DD was newly-4 and just 40" on our last trip. DH and I decided to leave it up to her. We watched some videos of rides before hand and talked about what ties were "good for four-year-olds" (in her eyes). Once we got there we started small and worked our way up. We were at WDW but did Barnstomer, then 7DMT, then BTMRR then splash. She loved all of these and is excited to meet height requirement for more rides when we go to DL this summer

She was however terrified of Haunted Mansion, so we didn't ride and DH and I determined we thought Tower of Terror was too intense. There are probably kids that age that love it, but we didn't think she would enjoy it at this point. It really depends on the kid.

 

[vratiana]

My boys are both tall and hit 40" at age 3. The rides we did not do were Tower of Terror and Space Mountain. They loved Soarin, Grizzly River Run, Splash, Radiator Springs Racers (except the very fast part scared my 3 year old a tiny bit). They also love haunted Mansion, Pirates, Buzz, all the Fantasyland dark rides, but they have never been scared of much. My niece on the other hand, was terrified on Pinnochio at age 6 and it made the entire day difficult because she was nervous and worried the rest of the day.

 

[agamble]

You might get more answers if you posted in the Disneyland Forum http://www.disboards.com/forums/disneyland-california.26/

We happened to take our oldest DD to Disneyland a few weeks before turning three. She was already 40". She rode all of the 40" rides that were open, including Space and TOT. The only one she didn't like was the TOT. At four she was past the 42" mark and rode the additional rides. Last May she was not yet 5 and finally made it to ride Indy. Again she loved it all. But she's not afraid of much and has been to Disneyland a dozen or so times. Nothing is unsafe for your child (3 or 4?), but what will she be comfortable with?

 

[Malcon10t]

My granddaughter was 40" at 2.5 years. She just turned 5 and can ride everything except Screamin'. She asked me last week if when we go in July could we check to see if she was tall enough to ride the upside down ride....

The only thing we found she was not willing to ride is TOT. She did ride it once and said no more. She loved Indy, she loved Star Tours and Space at 2.5. (I wouldn't take her but her dad said "Let's see if she likes!" and she did....) We had to tell the Grizzly CMs not to listen to the 3yo when she said "Send us again!" (This was after 3 loops of the ride.) It really is going to be what will your tall 4yo like? Dare devil? Timid?