Appropriate rides for young children

[salmon731]

I have a 3.5 year old and 2 year old girls I am taking to Disney in a few weeks. Any advice on rides which may be too scary....like Peter Pan or the Mermaid show at Hollywood Studios? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[tchrrx]

I would skip the Snow White ride. It's pretty dark and the witch is kind of creepy.

My daughter was scared of the Great Movie Ride when she was 5. She'll do roller coasters & ToT, but don't make her go on the GMR! She was also afraid of DeVine.

 

[natnelliesmom]

You never know what is going to freak a kid out! My DDs 3 and 5 are not afraid of anything! They love them all.
I have seen kids freak out in Haunted Mansion- and the usual culprits- but usually they sail through those and freak out for silly things... like Peter Pan, Hall of Presidents or even the Ferry to Tom Sawyers Island!! It's bizarre! I think it's just whenever they get tired and hungry and it doesn't matter where they are!
My advice is to prepare them well- make sure they know what to expect. If you visit YouTube you can view all of the rides in the park. That witch in Snow White isn't so scary when you've already seen her! Especially if you yell something silly at her- like "you have an ugly nose!" My girls feel better when they have control over the situation.
Keep them well rested and well fed and they will be more in control and less likely to lose control.
-Sarah

 

[bartleby1]

Unfortunately, every kid seems to have different "triggers" when it comes to something being scary. Some kids don't like loud noise, some don't like the dark, some don't like the villians, one of mine was petrified at the age of 3.5 of anything in disney that used fake smoke (even the fake smoke that came out of the oven on carousel of progress almost did her in!).

My suggestion is to start out with small world and work your way up. If you start with a dark ride that gets either one of your kids even remotely scared, you may not get them on anything else afterwards!

Do either of your kids have any fears that you know of? That might give a better picture of which rides they will enjoy or not enjoy. I didn't have any problems with any of my kids at age 2, but by age 3 I began seeing more fears. My oldest was 3.5 on one trip and was afraid of EVERYTHING, my middle child was only afraid of the obvious ones at age 3 (like the HM) and my youngest is currently 3.5 and we just got back and she went on everything without a problem including Tower of Terror!

 

[tzolkin]

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll know before you get there.

We lived near Disney when I was younger and I only had one sister that was ever scared of anything. But, she was scared of different things at different times. One time a she would be terrified approaching a ride and not even get in line, but the next time we were there she would want to ride it over and over. The two I most remember were Pirates and the ride in Norway. I think it was the drops. But then she rode Splash Mtn and enjoyed it We often rode things with my mom while dad waited with my sister if she got too scared to ride.

My kids were really not scared by anything, but we didnt do too much at AK & DHS. They enjoyed Haunted Mansion and Snow White. The only one that was a problem was Tower of Terror. My DD4 talked about this ride for months before we went and she desperately wanted to ride, so I reluctantly agreed. She rode with DH while I waited with DS2. When she came off she was okay, but she just said it she didn't want to ride it again. DH said all of the stuff before the elevator part were too intense for her.

 

[Kaler131]

Dinosaur! My kids are VERY brave, and Dinosaur was (and still is a bit) much for them. They love it now, but I think my DS5 & DS8 are still a little unsure about it! LOL!!