Attractions to avoid with easily scared child...

[shoney]

The first time we went to Disney ds was 4. He wasn't scared of much at all but Tough to Be a Bug was awful for him. We scampered right out of there in the first five minutes. He's almost 8 now and still refuses to go back to it.

Dinosaur is way too intense for many kids as well.

ETA) Also things that my son loved when he was 4.. like Splash Mountain, are absolute NO! now. I can't figure it out. We must have ridden Splash Mountain 20 times on our first trip. He won't even try it in the 3 trips since then.

Tough to be a bug was the only ride that scared the daylights out of my kids...everything else was fine!

we were there 2 weeks ago...kids now 10 and 12 and when we went into that movie I told them how scared they were....within minutes of the babies started crying and my kids gave me the "smile"

 

[audrey2580]

#1 - YouTube: My 5 year old scares easily, but we have been going to WDW every year since she was born. Each year brought different fears and we really didn't want to adjust our vacation to that if we didn't have to (stranger danger, spiders, bugs, characters, etc.) We went to YouTube instead and in the comfort of our home showed her shows, rides, character interactions to deal with the fear before we went.

This approach turned out to be successful. She would see happy and non-scary interactions and ask questions (here she will have the chance to do this with her parents versus her Aunt/Uncle a little more comfortable and approachable for her).

.

I SWEAR by this for my son. As long as he knows what he is going into he is sooooo much better about it. I like this site for videos. http://www.**************.net/videos/
I don't like my son on youtube - its always 1 click away from turning bad lol

One more thing - start her off with Its a small world and some easy happy ones.

 

[linzbear]

I'd also plan a certain order of attractions. Every trip (because who knows what has changed in our kids' imaginations since last trip) we start like this:
1. Dumbo (totally benign)
2. Small World (benign, but on a boat inside a building)
3. TTA (no story at all, has a pitch black section in Space Mountain)

If those 3 can be handled well, we try Peter Pan (grab a Fast Pass before Small World). Then Pooh, Buzz.

If all of those are handled well, we'll try POTC and Haunted Mansion.

 

[pigletto]

Do not go into Stitch !! It was way to intense for my grandson, who hated being strapped in !Also, every ride had an escape door for the kids, or adults, that get too scared at the last minute !!

I had to use that escape door
The issue was that I am claustrophobic and once I saw how we were strapped in I was out of there

 

[christie_megansmom]

I have a 4 year old scaredy kid. She's afraid of EVERYTHING. Not just non-face characters, but any MALE characters. She will literally only meet the princesses and Alice. She told me that when we go back in August, she doesn't want to meet Alice if the white rabbit will be there.

She powered through it last time, but do you see her apprehension?? She was terrified of him. She refuses to do CRT because Prince Charming will be there.

She's scared about rides, too. The things she doesn't like/won't do are:

MK Rides
- Snow White
- Peter Pan (She's done it without incident, but told us later that she doesn't want to do it anymore.)
- Philharmagic (the 3D effect and the water splashing scared her)
- Haunted Mansion (won't even get near the queue)
- Splash Mtn (she rode it because she didn't know what it was, but has asked that we don't go again until, her words, "she's 9".)
- Astro Orbiter
- Didn't even try: Space Mtn, BTMRR, Stitch

Epcot
She'll only ride Nemo and Living w/ the Land.

HS
Won't do:
- Any big rides (RNR, ToT, etc)
- MuppetVision (She HATED this. She had to take off her glasses and bury her head in my chest. The little thing that flies around completely freaked her out. I honestly thought we were going to have to escape.)
- We didn't try the movie ride.

AK
- You couldn't pay me to try Dinosaur or Tough to Be a Bug. I've heard horror stories about both.
- I've shown her Kali and she says 'no'.


There are tons of people on my facebook who post pics of their little ones on ToT and meeting all sorts of characters, and I get a little jealous. But it's just in my daughter's personality to be cautious and timid. There's plenty of stuff to do that doesn't freak her out, so we just focus on those.

 

[I M Grumpy]

I'm not a kid but when the "mice" run under your chair and the snake comes at you I still jump.

 

[Nana2Callie]

Thanks for asking the question - took some notes.