5-year-old on Space Mountain? Dinosaur? Mission Space?

[StirlingSilver83]

never did mission space bc i read reviews that it could make u dizzy. I took my son on splash mountain for his first time when he was 7 and he was scared to death of the last drop. Fast forward to this year when hes 8 and he was all about the thrill rides, We went on 7DMT 3 times, Splash Mountain 2 times, BTMRR 2 times, and Space Mountain 3 times. Space Mountain was his fav ride. I will have to say though it was a very rough ride but the seats were actually the most comfortable of them all. Also on space mountain they ride single file on the space ships so you would either be in front or behind him. I know with my son that would of freaked him out alone when he was 5. This year he was all about the independence lol. I think if I were you I would stick with barnstormer, 7DMT, BTMRR, and Splash Mountain. EE isnt that bad bc its mostly on the ground except when it takes you through the caverns and then you go backwards. Going backwards might be scary for a 5 yr old. You also definitely have to do test track! my kid loved test track. It was his fav ride until he rode Space Mountain, lol

 

[TulipMom]

Thanks all! This really has been helpful! We've shown him videos of the big rides and I do think that the advice to just leave it up to him is the right game-plan for us. I just got a little nervous after reading a "Disney Mistakes" list that included letting 5 & 6-year-olds on big rides just because they were big enough. I don't want DS to get in over his head with a ride he thought was fun and then leave him too hesitant to try other rides. But, I do think the right thing is to make sure that he's well-informed and then let him decide for himself.

Thanks again for all of the experiences and advice!

 

[aidansmom]

While I'm totally opposed to even encouraging a child to ride when they're unsure, some kids are just up for it. DS (5 at time of our last trip), rode all the mountains, EE, and ToT and LOVED them. He was crestfallen when he wasn't tall enough for RnR and his older siblings were able to ride. I think if a child is enthusiastic about doing a ride, they may find that they don't enjoy it, but you won't be traumatizing them. Have fun and enjoy your adventurous kids - the apple usually doesn't fall far from the tree!

 

[danny1649]

Sorry I don't want to be mean but their are no well informed 5yo's I read about well informed kids drowning,run over kidnapped,molested, all parents tell them what they should do but they don't. Is this as serious . anything I mentioned , no it is not. When I had a 5 yo son I made final decisions on he could do or not do. He is now a teacher of the children not blessed with the skills to do well in regular school classes. So what i'm saying is I didn't let 5 yo make his decisions I did. He can be well informed and still wet or dirty his self. You are the best judge of what your 5 yo can do or not do , so don't let him make decision, you make it.

 

[rlthomas7]

We took our DS on Space Mountain when he was 4 (he's tall and adventurous). I was more freaked out since I wasn't beside him with an arm around him. I sat behind him with my hand on his head for the whole ride to make sure he was still there! Oh, and most importantly, he loved it. Didn't try the others you mentioned though. I'm still not sure he can handle Dinosaur, and he's 7 now.

 

[safroim]

Depends on the child. My DS loved all of those when he was 5.

 

[SkyChaser]

I think it depends on the child. When our DS was 5, Dino scared the hell out of him. But then when he got off he wanted to ride it again. Same with Tower of Terror, and everything else he was tall enough to ride at the time.

Your child might react the same or totally different. My only advice would be to let them decide.

 

[bach63]

If he wants to try it even after watching the ride videos, & he's tall enough, I'd let him. Space Mtn is such a cool ride! Like riding through the stars! You can tell him to pretend he is Miles From Tomorrowland lol

Now Dinosaur idk... My son at 8 refused after the ride video. Lol so I've never been. It seems a bit scary for 5yo but you know him best.

Good for him for trying new things! I wish my son was so adventurous! Ha!

I'll second this response. Our daughter at five wouldn't ride any of these, yet when we finally convinced her to try Space Mountain at 7, her response was "why didn't you talk me into this before!" If your son is willing to try it, odds are he will be fine.

 

[kelmcg]

My boys would ride the rides as soon as they were tall enough! Our whole family loves Roller Coasters! My boys are tall for their age so the oldest actually rode ToT a week before he turned 3 (he's now 15).
Make sure to take advantage of the Child Swap, because if he really likes the ride then he'll have a pass to go back on it again with the other parent.
And since he is the one wanting to ride he will probably have fun........

 

[mousehappync]

We took both our boys on everything when they were 5. They don't like ToT at all, and we skip Mission Space because the adults hate it, but they LOVE Space Mtn. Every single ride photo of us on Dinosaur is me covering their eyes while they try and push my hands away We started out with Barnstormer, then tried Splash and BTMRR to make sure they would be ok with it before trying Space.

 

[BrokeMack]

My 4 year old is really excited to try SM and EE this trip, not sure about MS. He's done well with BTMRR and ToT (well, he didn't like the scary thematic stuff, but he loved the drop). I definitely agree that watching videos is good for the potentially scary rides.

 

[lizard1]

We try everything they want to try that they are tall enough for. On our last trip, my 5 year old rode everything except Primevil Whirl and RNR (only because she didn't meet the height requirements, she was upset that she couldn't ride!). She LOVED everything! We rode Mission Space Orange several times, she begged to ride in the front on Space Mountain, and TOT was her favorite ride. My 8 year old, on the other hand, rode TOT once and decided she still didn't like it, refused Mission Space because she hated the last time she rode it, and took the chicken exit multiple times on RNR after she insisted she wanted to try it and then changed her mind when it came time to board.

So, if he thinks he wants to try it, let him. There isn't really a way to predict whether he'll like them or not. If he thinks he'll like them, and is informed about them (we didn't watch videos on the rides FWIW), then I don't see any harm in actually letting him try them.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

My sons both rode all the rides in question at 4 years old. Some they decided not to ride again and some they ride over and over. Let him experience it and decide himself.

 

[Hezzy04]

I actually think EE is less "scary" because it's lit and you can sit next to your child. I think the most intimidating thing about Space for some children is that it's in the dark and you sit by yourself.

This is exactly what I was just thinking. I would be most worried about Space Mountain, but ONLY because your child can't glance over and see you to feel reassured. You are right there behind (or in front of) them, but they can't see you. For my kids at least, that probably wouldn't be a good idea!

 

[Kathryn777]

I absolutely agree with letting them decide. Unless they're super tall or scared of rides (or have other issues), they're usually ready to handle the ride when they're tall enough. I would never force them, but I'd never say no if they wanted to ride. That said my kids are all thrill seekers. The only one my 4 year old didn't care for was tower of terror.

I would say though, to start with a big ride you think they'll love. We started my oldest on tower of terror, and that was a mistake, he thought everything would be that scary. He loved them all by the end of the trip though

 

[StirlingSilver83]

I have to say this year when we went my son was 8. Space Mountain wasn't even on my radar bc I didn't want to go on it, lol. I didn't even mention it to my son bc I knew neither my hubby or me would want to go on it, lol. But when we were waiting to board Splash Mountain for the 2nd time this 1 disney cast member was talking with my son and my son was telling him all the rides hes been on and the cast member told him about Space Mountain and told him it was the best Disney roller coaster on the property pretty much, lol. From that point on all my son wanted to was ride Space Mountain. My hubby and I rock, paper, scissored it and I lost twice, lol. So I got to ride the ride I seriously thought it was the end of the world, lol. My son thought it was super funny to see mommy scared out of her mind lol. The disney Cast Members were laughing at me. I was the biggest chicken ever! Anyways I rode the ride and it wasn't that bad and then it instantly became my sons favorite ride and we rode it 2 more times in our vacation. So sometimes its not cool to have the adventurous kids, lol, at least from my point of view anyways, lol

 

[jenrose66]

We are 3 weeks away from my kids' first trip to WDW! DS just turned 5 and DD is 3. We've spent a lot of time watching ride videos and DS is convinced that he's up for riding every big ride except for ToT & RnR.

Any thoughts about a 5-year-old riding big rides like Space Mtn, Dinosaur, Mission Space, Expedition Everest? I'm thinking of veto-ing EE for him, even though he thinks he'd like it. We'll be at MK on our first park day and I'm confident that he'll like Splash Mtn and BMTR, so Space Mtn will be our first real "test." I don't want to ruin the rest of the trip for him by doing a ride that's too big for him on the first day. Anyone have experiences with 5-year-olds on the biggest rides?

If it helps to know... my DH and I love any and all kinds of rollercoasters. We've previously been on EE, ToT, RnR, SM, MS, etc. and had tons of fun.

Also, DD (3) will just be 40" and would LOVE the theming on Splash Mtn. Should we give it a try and hope she doesn't mind the big drop? (I do think she'd be bothered by the jerking on BMTR, so we'll probably skip that with her.)

When my DS was 5 he rode space mountain at his request. He did ok, but didn't want to ride it again. He also asked to do ToT but changed his mind at the last minute and we took the chicken exit, which was no biggie...except my 3 year old really wanted to do ToT and I was alone in line with both of them so he had to leave the line too and cried! Both my 5 and 3 year old loved Splash and rode it multiple times that trip. However, we just went to IoA and I brought them both on Jurassic Park River Adventure (they were 8 and 6...and my 4 year old DD as well)...all three kids screamed like we were killing them once the mean dinosaurs appeared. I really miscalculated that...it took them an hour to recover...

 

[WriterGina]

I've found that my kids are pretty good judges of what rides they can handle and what rides they can't (assuming that they meet the height requirement, of course). My 7-year-old and 5-year-old are actually much more adventurous about thrill rides than my 9-year-old. Last summer at Six Flags Great Adventure, they went with me on this crazy bungee jumping/skydiving mashup ride called the DareDevil Dive--a 155-foot drop and then you swing out over the park on a massive rubber band. My then 8-year-old was having none of it but the younger two, 6 and not quite 4 at the time, loved it!

All of my 3 loved pretty much all the "thrill" rides at DW this past spring. The youngest was too short for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, but we all did ToT and they loved it. They insisted on riding Space Mountain multiple times. The only one any of us had a problem with was Mission Space. If you do it, I would recommend doing the "green" level and not the orange, because holy cow did the orange leave us all nauseous. I'm a huge roller coaster fan and don't usually get sick or scared on rides, but the simulated G-forces really did a number on me. Our younger two crazy kids were fairly okay, but my husband, older daughter and I all felt like crap after that ride and swore never to do orange again.

 

[LuvDaisy&Minnie]

Both my kids have ridden all the roller coasters as soon as they were tall enough. And they now as teenagers love roller coasters. If he wants to try them, I personally would let him. But then again, you certainly would know best! Have a great time!

 

[Jess_S]

I agree with letting your son try if he's interested. I went on Space Mountain as a 5-year-old and loved it. (That's my only first-hand experience. None of the other rides you mentioned were around way back in the day when I was 5 and my DS is not at the height requirement for anything except Barnstormer currently).