Appropriate age for RSR

[AndreAggie]

What age did you take your child on RSR? Our son will be 2 months shy of turning 5 and loves all things Lightning and Mater. I just watched a youtube of the ride and I'm only slightly concerned now...haha! The only part that worries me is the dark part. Do I show him the video ahead of time, or pretend I didn't know?? Not sure if that makes me a bad parents.

 

[Blue32]

What age did you take your child on RSR? Our son will be 2 months shy of turning 5 and loves all things Lightning and Mater. I just watched a youtube of the ride and I'm only slightly concerned now...haha! The only part that worries me is the dark part. Do I show him the video ahead of time, or pretend I didn't know?? Not sure if that makes me a bad parents.

Depends on the kid. But a 5 year old should be fine. What about the dark ride portion are you worried about? It really is a great ride and the dark ride part is like riding through Radiator Springs at night. It's really pretty neat. I don't see much about this ride that is scary at all. Also, I would not show him the video. I know people do this a lot, but I think it takes something away from your first experience on the ride itself. Just my 2 pennies.

 

[GatorChris]

My two oldest were doing Splash Mt and Tower of Terror at the age of 3 (when they hit 40 inches), so I'd say there's NOTHING wrong with a nearly 5yo riding RSR. It's fast and has some non-scary dark areas, but nothing that a little one would ever be frightened about.

 

[YukonMommy]

My family motto is if there tall enough, they ride! The ride is very much like the movie and none of my kids ever found it scary. The thing is with any ride you never know until you take them on it.

Have a magical time!

 

[jina]

DD rode Splash, Space & RSR when she was 3 (40") - the only ride she didn't care for was Space.

DD is now 4 1/2 and last week rode Splash, BTMR and RSR and liked them all but when we went to do RSR again the last day she didn't want to go - she said it was too fast so we did a parent swap.

So I think it all depends on your child and how they are feeling at that moment. We don't sweat it - we get the fastpasses and when in line if she decides she does not want to go we just do a parent swap. It's her choice. Same thing happened for Matterhorn- we had never ridden it and while in line DD decided she didn't want to go so when we got to the front of the line we told a CM and were able to do a parent swap.

 

[jina]

oops - forgot to mention. We showed DD the videos for pretty much all the rides she was tall enough for before our trip. Then when we asked her if she wanted to go and she said no I'd remind her how she said she wanted to go when she saw the video (and in one case whipped out my iPhone to show it to her again) then she changed her mind and said she wanted to go. (except as mentioned in my last post).

 

[AndreAggie]

My family motto is if there tall enough, they ride! The ride is very much like the movie and none of my kids ever found it scary. The thing is with any ride you never know until you take them on it.

Have a magical time!

My husband would love this motto, but that's a no-go for me! I don't do big roller coasters anyway. It works out well because before our son, he would do the single rider line and wouldn't have to wait very long. I have back problems, but more importantly, they terrify me! We're going for 4 days in January, and as much of a Type A personality that I am, I know for a fact we have to take it easy and just go with the flow. We will definitely let him make the call. He's tall enough to ride a lot of things I'm not so sure I want him to ride. I watched the youtube but didn't have the sound on so I couldn't tell if the music made it feel scary or if it was more like riding around RS at night.

We just watched Planes: Fire & Rescue and he did NOT like the part where the fire was intense and we weren't sure if Dusty would make it. I know the whole experience (dark theatre, loud intense music, dramatic) didn't help, but he was scared. His grandma took him to see Frozen and they had to leave because he was scared of the wolves. I don't know what it was like because I'm probably the only person on the planet who hasn't seen Frozen! He got upset when Lightning rolled off of Mack in the middle of the night ad couldn't find him. I guess you could say his TV/Movie viewing has been sheltered, but he's only 4!

Thanks for your input...I think he'll want to go, I just don't want him to be scared!

 

[crystal1313]

My youngest rode at 3. He loves it except the part with Frank (the big mad combine tractor). Frank scares him in the movie too. He just asks me to cover his eyes during that part, lol. He's now 4 and when first entering the dark ride part, Mack the truck scared him a bit too. He still enjoys it. My 6 year old cannot get enough!

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

My son rode this for the first time at 3.5 and loved, but he also loved all the 40 in rides that trip! DD is 3.5 and will be tall enough on our upcoming trip and we plan on having her try them all. But they admittedly aren't scared of much.

 

[quikah]

My 4.5 yr old rode it twice, loved it. He does the tame roller coasters also (Sky School, Gadget's, BTMRR).

The only other real warning I would give is that the music is EXTREMELY loud, of course I might just be the right height to have the speakers right in my ear.

 

[MsAlimar]

My youngest daughter was 5 1/2 when we took her to Disneyland. She loved the ride! She is easily frightened so we showed her a bunch of rides on youtube before we went to help her decide which ones she wanted to skip.

 

[adykate]

My DD was just past 2 when she first visited DL, and not a fan of anything dark. We did pirates and Peter Pan and she was scarred for every ride the rest of our trip . We went again when she was just past 3. She now loved most rides when we were at amusement parks, but still hated ANYTHING that involved the dark. She was 40in, so I prepped her with youtube videos on a lot of the rides she could now go on, knowing she would likely not do anything that involved long, dark portions. She did go on RSR, and came off grinning saying it was the best ride ever. But when I tried to get her to go on again with me (I stayed off with our younger daughter the first time), she refused saying the big guy in the dark (combine) was too scary. From your description of what frightens your son regarding movie things, I don't think he would have an issue with RSR. I would show him the youtube video and tell him about the combine part, as that really is the only "scary" part if he is okay with going fast. It is such a quick moment, and not drawn out like the movie scenes that seem to bother him. Whatever you decide I hope you have a great trip!

 

[lalasmama]

My two oldest were doing Splash Mt and Tower of Terror at the age of 3 (when they hit 40 inches), so I'd say there's NOTHING wrong with a nearly 5yo riding RSR. It's fast and has some non-scary dark areas, but nothing that a little one would ever be frightened about.

Bolding mine. I'll argue this point. Frank is HUGE and coming at the car with his blades a-goin'., and Mack coming at you could be startling as well. Frank frightened me at a 30-something-year-old!

 

[LisaT91403]

DS rode it when he was 4 years old. I showed him YouTube video ahead of time, and even with that, Frank was scary. He wasn't thrilled with Mack honking his loud horn at us right when we got inside either! Overall, he loved the ride, but decided to cover his ears in the Mack and Frank sections on subsequent rides.

 

[Malcon10t]

What age did you take your child on RSR? Our son will be 2 months shy of turning 5 and loves all things Lightning and Mater. I just watched a youtube of the ride and I'm only slightly concerned now...haha! The only part that worries me is the dark part. Do I show him the video ahead of time, or pretend I didn't know?? Not sure if that makes me a bad parents.

My granddaughter rode at 2.5 years old and loved it.

 

[kitayama]

My husband would love this motto, but that's a no-go for me! I don't do big roller coasters anyway. It works out well because before our son, he would do the single rider line and wouldn't have to wait very long. I have back problems, but more importantly, they terrify me! We're going for 4 days in January, and as much of a Type A personality that I am, I know for a fact we have to take it easy and just go with the flow. We will definitely let him make the call. He's tall enough to ride a lot of things I'm not so sure I want him to ride. I watched the youtube but didn't have the sound on so I couldn't tell if the music made it feel scary or if it was more like riding around RS at night.

We just watched Planes: Fire & Rescue and he did NOT like the part where the fire was intense and we weren't sure if Dusty would make it. I know the whole experience (dark theatre, loud intense music, dramatic) didn't help, but he was scared. His grandma took him to see Frozen and they had to leave because he was scared of the wolves. I don't know what it was like because I'm probably the only person on the planet who hasn't seen Frozen! He got upset when Lightning rolled off of Mack in the middle of the night ad couldn't find him. I guess you could say his TV/Movie viewing has been sheltered, but he's only 4!

Thanks for your input...I think he'll want to go, I just don't want him to be scared!

My daughter gets scared quite easily, and she loved this ride. As soon as she was tall enough, we went on this ride without prepping her at all, and she happily went on the ride a second time with me (my son, the daredevil, is still too small so I used rider swap.)

 

[AndreAggie]

We're trying to keep the trip a secret...not going until January so this is going to be tough!

DS rode it when he was 4 years old. I showed him YouTube video ahead of time, and even with that, Frank was scary. He wasn't thrilled with Mack honking his loud horn at us right when we got inside either! Overall, he loved the ride, but decided to cover his ears in the Mack and Frank sections on subsequent rides.

This sounds a lot like our son! He covers his ears when something is loud or if he doesn't like it. We're going to visit family in San Diego the weekend before we go, so we might tell him that weekend and let him watch some youtube videos. I really wanted to keep the whole plan a surprise until we got to the hotel!

 

[Rubygoose]

Last summer when DS was 3 and a half he rode all of the rides that he was tall enough for (he was 41" at the time.) He LOVED RSR and the only ride that he didn't like that he was tall enough for was space.

 

[bumbershoot]

My husband would love this motto, but that's a no-go for me! I don't do big roller coasters anyway. It works out well because before our son, he would do the single rider line and wouldn't have to wait very long. I have back problems, but more importantly, they terrify me! We're going for 4 days in January, and as much of a Type A personality that I am, I know for a fact we have to take it easy and just go with the flow. We will definitely let him make the call. He's tall enough to ride a lot of things I'm not so sure I want him to ride. I watched the youtube but didn't have the sound on so I couldn't tell if the music made it feel scary or if it was more like riding around RS at night. We just watched Planes: Fire & Rescue and he did NOT like the part where the fire was intense and we weren't sure if Dusty would make it. I know the whole experience (dark theatre, loud intense music, dramatic) didn't help, but he was scared. His grandma took him to see Frozen and they had to leave because he was scared of the wolves. I don't know what it was like because I'm probably the only person on the planet who hasn't seen Frozen! He got upset when Lightning rolled off of Mack in the middle of the night ad couldn't find him. I guess you could say his TV/Movie viewing has been sheltered, but he's only 4! Thanks for your input...I think he'll want to go, I just don't want him to be scared!

Sound a like your guy is sensitive to the emotional parts of movies. I totally understand. It was because of that that we rarely took DS to the theater. Too overwhelming with it up on the big screen. And we needed to be able this too the movie to talk about it. "Do you think that this is the end, that Lightning won't be found and it's all over? The movie is however many minutes long and we have just barely started it. This might tell us that it will be ok. " might be a conversation we would have had with the concern mentioned.

Meanwhile he could watch (most of) Pirates at 3 years old. But strong emotion? Forget it.

If you think the horns and stuff inside won't be worth it compared to the fun part of riding in a convertible, don't do it. On the other hand, earplugs are a fabulous invention and we carry them to Disney parks every visit. Just never know when one of your party will get overwhelmed, and it's amazing how just turning down the volume can help things.

 

[AndreAggie]

Yup, we have noise-cancelling headphones that go over his ears. We take them to college football games (college in the south, we have a cannon). It might be a good idea to go over the video with him and take the headphones just in case.