ASD and Star Tours, Mission Space, Haunted Mansion

[ericandliz]

We are bringing my ASD son, age 7, to Disney 9/24-9/28. It's his third time in a year, and he gets more and more brave each time we go, and is one of those who benefits grealty from trips there. On his first trip he absolutely loved Big Thunder Mountain but was terrified of Small World. He is still freaked from the Small World ride- not sure what caused that. Second trip he was brave enough to try Space and Splash Mountain after a lot of thought, and we did those a lot! He also loved Test Track and Soarin'. Third trip is around the corner and I am worried we are going to get too "stuck in a rut" as we say at our house (you know, when you go on BTMR 8 times in a row, then do Splash Mountain 6 times, then over to Space Mountain for 4 times.....), and we are looking to try a few new rides and wonder if anyone has any ASD experience with Star Tours or Mission Space (less intense version) or even the Haunted Mansion.

 

[blondietink]

My son with Atusim, age 16, loves Haunted Mansion and Star Tours. I think it would be helpful if your son could watch some of the old Disney Cartoons about Halloween and ghosts as it is pretty dark in the ride. Also if he was familiar with Star Wars movies for the Star Tours ride. We have not done Mission Space because my other son has a heart condition so we have avoided that one. Perhaps if you look on YouTube, they might have movies of those rides. I know they have several rides on YouTube, but have not checked it out for those particular rides. Good luck!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

My 13 year old son w/Asperger's still hasn't been on the Haunted Mansion. The word "haunted" always scares him away. He went on vitually everything else at WDW and loves the thrill rides as long as they don't go upside down. He did not ride Rock'n Roller Coaster. He did Tower of Terror once in California and didn't like it. He's been watching the YouTube video of Haunted Mansion and said he will try it next year at Disneyland. He finally tried Indiana Jones at DL last year and loved it.

 

[pilgrimr]

My son (now age six) had the opposite reaction. He loves small work and not BTMR. But he will go on Star Tours and Haunted Mansion without complaint. He enjoyed Star Tours last time, because he had watched Star Wars. He did not really care for splash mountain. However, this year we had season pass to our local six flag park. We have been taking him on similar rides so, I think he will go on BTMR and Splash Mountain. We have not done mission space, because I don't know how he would react in the enclosed space. But he does love Soarin. I would have him look at the youtube videos of the different rides. I would also try and take him back to all of the other rides and see what his reaction is. One thing that we did with our son, was we would take him twice in a row for his favorite ride and we were done. Once he understood that he was able to move on.

 

[LarryBoy]

My autistic seven year old loves all of those. He actually became a fan of the Star Wars movies after he rode Star Tours when he was 3.5. That was his first rip, so he's become quite the veteran and it seems he's willing to try something new each trip. We find WDW to be very therapeutic. As for the HM, we never made a big deal about it and he just fell in love with the ghosts. It's one of his favorites now. He would ride it 20 times in a row if we let him. If your child likes to spin like our son does, you may even want to try the more intense version of Mission Space. Our son can spin at a bar stool for 20 minutes and not get dizzy. I think the spinning of MS actually is calming to him. Every child is different though so you have to decide what's best for yours.

 

[ireland_nicole]

DD w/ ASD loved the "light" green version of mission space (but the orange one made her sick, so maybe start w/ the green). She doesn't like star tours (but then she's not into star wars, so ...) She finally went on HM this year, but only b/c we challenged her to count the ghosts; and whoever counted the most won a prize (yes, I admit, we're pretty big on bribery in our family when necessary... ) but she was so occupied, she loved it and insisted on going twice. Don't ask me why, but the TTA is still a total fave of both my kids, too. And they like music a lot, so they loved philharmagic and tiki room. My DD loves the carousel, that's her absolute fave.

 

[tavettava]

My dd (13) at first didn't want to try Star Tours and we somehow got her on it. She was scared at first, and kept grabbing my arm. When we got off she said she loved it. For Mission Space she was the commander and loved it too. She giggled the whole the whole time.

 

[kaffinito]

My youngest DS 8/ASD tried Mission Space green and orange and loved them both. He hasn't sone Star Tours yet, but has tried Haunted Mansion. When he was 6 he hated it, and didn't want to go back. This trip he tried it again and loved it! It helped that we got stuck for 10 minutes on the ride in the seance scene, so he figured out that the ghosts weren't real.

Small World has become his park "goodbye" ride, he loves it - (argh!) and we both love TTA and Carousel of Progress.

We go slowly and I try to introduce one or two new rides every year. We agree on the rides and ride order ahead of time, and that cuts down on the repetition. So we do POTC once, then Tiki Room, then POTC, then AMC, and so on. This way he gets to repeat rides and we get to ride different ones.

Good luck, and I hope your son continues to benefit from WDW - mine do too!

 

[toodycat]

Sounds like your son enjoys the vestibular aspect of the those attractions. Does he have sensitive hearing? Maybe the pitch of the small world dolls was more than he could bear?

My son did Star Tours and liked it. We haven't tried Mission Space because I don't think I am up to it

 

[scottsod]

my ds 9 love star wars so star tours is a fav. he asked me to tell the cm on the dining line that micky should make a star wars restaraunt

he wants to try mission space and we will try green he has cp as well as aspergers so orange is to much

he likes splash and btmm but everest was to much he said it hurt his brain

he is deathly scared of dinasaur and crys when we ask him to do it

he did do tot once and didnt realy like it we told him it was an elevator to a show

 

[mikkiwikki]

My son - ASD 8 yo...when he was 5 wanted to go on Haunted mansion.

He kinda had no reaction to the ride at 5yo.
BUT when we went back a year later at 6yo..he asked to go on the ride...then within 5 mins of ride became COMPLETELY petrified and burried his head in my chest....kept his eyes closed the entire time...and covered his ears.

Needless to say... I felt horrible...because clearly when he was 5 he must have been scared, BUT he absolutely never "showed it" or indicated he was frightened in any way on that ride (and I was closely monitoring). It was like he was mesmerized by all the special effects..and it wasnt until a year later it connected or something. I could never figure this one out.

Mission Space Son is a HUGE solar system fanatic...so he wanted to try this last trip BUT...he just got through the starting videos and when he saw he was going to be in a claustrophobic space 'container' - he quickly said - Mom - I dont want to go on Mission Space anymore...which I was so thankful he spoke up before we got all strapped in. A very nice CM showed us a back door out of the ride.

Never did Star Tours...I heard it causes motion sickness.. .might pass.

 

[BeckyScott]

My 8 y/o went on the "lite" Mission: Space and Haunted Mansion.

He did fine on both of them. His opinion of Mission: Space was it was like a crazy video game. Because there's a screen in front of you and controllers, so it is a lot like a video game. The seats move, which surprised him, but he didn't get freaked out, I think maybe because the rest of us were sitting right there? It also helped him, on rides where he was really strapped down, sensory, he felt safe and cozy. Some kids wouldn't like that a bit, depends on your child.

Haunted Mansion was our last day, so at that point he got the "pretend" part of Disney. He started to get a bit scared, but he was sitting with DH and DH just started talking about how silly all the pretend stuff is and explaining how it all works. I found that idea worked on anything he wasn't sure about, if we once again explained the "pretend" aspect and how it worked, he would do okay.

 

[toodycat]

A child who likes the attractions you mention will probably also enjoy "Soaring" at Epcot. My son went on it something like 6 times on our last visit.

 

[bookwormde]

It is a very individualized thing. My DS9 Aspergers was getting more and more adventuresome until we did Dinosaur, we could not get him on another ride for 2 days (we did get a good picture of him and mom with there heads buried flat against the seat though).

bookwormde