43 inches tall - what rides can he, for sure, NOT ride?

[SmallWorld71]

I know Space Mountain is currently on the probably not list, due to the 44" requirement, but are the flashing lights on it strobe lights? If so, then OP's DS may want to avoid it even if he is tall enough to ride.

 

[southern_redhead]

As far as non-thrill rides with effects that might be problematic, this is by no means a complete list, but my GF has some motion/sensory issues and was bothered by the following things that are far from "thrilling" in the purely movement sense. We expected problems on rides that are supposed to move, so I am not including those, but these are the ones that surprised us:

Buzz Lightyear (MK): there is one section with a Planetarium-sized moving starfield that surrounds you. If you close your eyes though, its over quickly. BUT, the lights throughout this ride flash and can be disorienting.

Seas with Nemo Clam ride (Epcot): as with Buzz, there is one section with a surrounding moving bubble field. Its not strobbing, but it makes you feel like you are spinning even when you aren't. Again, 30 seconds of closing your eyes though and this is easily avoidable, since the rest of this ride was fine.

Any/all of the 360 or 3D movies. They don't strobe, but they are designed to give you a sense of motion, so can be queasy inducing. The 3D projections are also hard on the eyes in forcing a different type of focusing. I know that this isn't exactly what you asked about, but since odd things can trigger migraines, I figured it wouldn't hurt either to be prepared. The good thing about all the movies is that, since there is no actual motion, closing your eyes through them is easy. It takes away a lot of the fun, of course, so if, after the first one, you find that these aren't a big hit, it might be worth splitting up for others (or they could all be totally harmless for you guys).

Hope that helps somewhat. Good luck and have a great time!

That was a big help! I hadn't even thought of either Buzz or (especially Nemo) having any effects like that. I know we were planning to do Nemo so I will keep that in mind. Is it at a specific section of the ride?

And, for anyone who might have similar problems with 3D...we've watched several 3D movies and he always just takes the glasses off at some point in the movie. It doesn't seem to bother him to watch without the glasses, he doesn't always say the effects bother him but his face/head are small to go with the rest of him, so many times the glasses are ill fitting and I think he just gets sick of adjusting them. Has anyone done that with these movies? I'm assuming it would be the same type thing.

I know Space Mountain is currently on the probably not list, due to the 44" requirement, but are the flashing lights on it strobe lights? If so, then OP's DS may want to avoid it even if he is tall enough to ride.

Thanks. If they flash quickly that might be enough. If he's having a good day it probably wouldn't bother him, if he's already mentioned a headache or acts tired then we will find something else to do if other's are doing something like that. Actually, I don't have any interest in SM myself, so he'd have a ready made buddy

 

[SmallWorld71]

I also wanted to mention that we went to Blizzard Beach when DD was age 5 and 42" tall. She was able to do everything she wanted. She had no interest in Summit Plummett and the Downhill Double Dipper was not a high interest item for anyone. I will say that although she is a strong swimmer, it was summer and the park was packed so I had her wear a life-jacket on most things. This was especially helpful in the Ski Patrol Training Camp which she loved, but I didn't want her getting overrun by overzealous bigger kids. I know your DS is older than she is, but based on his size, I just wanted to throw out that a life jacket is an option for him.

 

[mjallemand]

As others have noted, Big Thunder Mountain is probably the best beginner's thrill ride because it's mostly large banking turns with few drops, whereas Splash Mountain has (obviously) quite a few drops and Space Mountain in general can be a bit rough.

 

[southern_redhead]

Thank you, thank you All of these answers have been really helpful in fine tuning our idea of what we'll try to do there. Oddly, I'm not worried about him being scared on thrill rides - he's an adrenaline junky, which has actually caused him some nasty accidents in the past But it does help me to know which rides are smooth, easy ones and which are more rough. While he'd love any of them, I think, if I already know he's feeling puny I can avoid something that might make it worse. Thankfully, it's summer and his migraines tend to be better in the summer months when we are out of school. I'm hoping that if I make sure he eats well and gets plenty of rest we'll be okay on that front.

I also wanted to mention that we went to Blizzard Beach when DD was age 5 and 42" tall. She was able to do everything she wanted. She had no interest in Summit Plummett and the Downhill Double Dipper was not a high interest item for anyone. I will say that although she is a strong swimmer, it was summer and the park was packed so I had her wear a life-jacket on most things. This was especially helpful in the Ski Patrol Training Camp which she loved, but I didn't want her getting overrun by overzealous bigger kids. I know your DS is older than she is, but based on his size, I just wanted to throw out that a life jacket is an option for him.

Thanks. We have our own floaty type thing that he uses in our pool. It is one of those learn to swim type things. It is two of the floatation foam pieces, one in front and one in back on his torso, held together by the bungee cords on the sides so you can tighten it down. It has a strap that goes between the legs like a life jacket. He's using it for the second year, he's a good swimmer but since we have an 11 foot deep end and he's only 43.5 inches...... Anyway, I'd planned to bring it for the resort pool. Should we bring it to use at the waterparks or do they only want you to use their life jackets?