Favorite rides for 11 year olds

[risajs]

This will be my daughter's first trip (at least since she has been cognizant). She'll have just turned 11 when we go in October. She's pretty adventurous, so I think she'll be good with roller coasters and such.

Can you all please share what rides were your kids favorites when they are were around that age?

THANKS!!

 

[JessseJ]

My daughter is 10 and is a roller coaster girl! Her favorites, not in order, are typical for a thrill seeker:

Expedition Everest
Dinosaur
Space Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Tower of Terror
Rockin Roller Coaster
Test Track

She does enjoy ALL the rides and attractions though, they don't have to be "thrill" rides!

 

[Justin1882]

Expedition Everest
Dinosaur
Space Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Tower of Terror
Rockin Roller Coaster
Test Track
Mine coaster
Splash mountain

 

[lala3291]

I am in a very similar situation! I am taking a close family friend's daughter for her first WDW trip next month. She is also 11, and is also pretty adventurous. We are looking to do some of the thrill rides, but we are going to try some of the "more tame" rides before the big thrills to make sure she will be ok. Here are some rides that we are going to do for sure:

MK
Splash Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Space Mountain (depending on how BTM goes)
Seven Dwarf's Mine Train
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Tomorrowland Speedway (she has looked at the guidebooks, and really wants to be able to "drive" the car!)
Under the Sea
Peter Pan's Flight
I am sure we will also be doing the majority of the other Fantasyland attractions as well.

Epcot
Soarin'
Test Track
Under the Sea with Nemo
Spaceship Earth
**I am pretty positive that Mission: Space is going to be too intense for her**
World Showcase shows and shops -- my friend's daughter is interested in culture and history, so we plan to take a full afternoon exploring all of the different countries and shops.

DHS
Toy Story Mania
Tower of Terror (she is dying to do this ride! I am a little worried about it being to crazy for her, but she is insistent on riding it!)
Rockin' Roller Coaster (we will see how she does on ToT first)
Beauty and the Beast show
Journey of the Little Mermaid show
**She loves live shows, so we are going to make sure we see the two above shows, plus more if possible**

AK
Kilimanjaro Safaris (she loves animals!)
Expedition Everest ? (we will see how she does with coasters at the beginning of the week, but I think she should be fine on this)
Kali River Rapids (fun, but very wet!)
Walking trails (the ones in Africa and Asia) -- we can take our time exploring and looking at the different animals here
**I think Dinosaur may be too much for her, she is a little timid sometimes**

Of course, we plan to do more than what I listed, but those are the "Must Do's". Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope this helped!

 

[Laineysmom]

We just got back from dd9's first trip. She will be ten this October so she is only slightly younger and rather adventurous. Here are her top favorites:

Epcot:
Soarin
Test Track
Mission to Space (we went on two different days and road the less intense the first time and she thought it was lame so when we went back we did the more intense which she loved)

Hollywood Studios
Star Tours( was her favorite and with the short wait times that evening we were able to ride 6 times )
Rockin Rollercoaster
Tower of Terror (really freaked her out and she swore never again but then two hours later she said she wanted to do it again but wait time was too long)
Toy story mania - she did not want to ride this but I dragged her on it and she ended up loving it!

Animal Kingdom
Exposition Everest
Dinosaur (this one freaked me out but she jumped at the chance to go again with my sister and bil for the baby swap while I stayed with my nephew (1)
Storms ended up closing The Rapids before she got there but I road it that morning and I know she would have loved it

Magic Kingdom
Loved all 3 Mountains and the mine train. Only ride she did not lift was Haunted Mansion which they've upped the scare factor on since the last time I was on it. She got so freaked out she couldn't even look at the building when we walked by it the rest of the day.

Have fun!

 

[risajs]

Thank you all for such detailed and thought prompt responses. Greatly appreciated!!

 

[skysmom99]

On our first trip my daughter was 11, also. She absolutely fell in love with all things Disney World. This is what she says were her favorites from that first trip, not just rides. However, we did not do EE, RnR, Space Mountain or Splash Mountain that trip for some reason or another.

AK
Safari
Dinosaur
Festival of the Lion King
Wandering around Tree of Life

DHS
Great Movie Ride
Tower of Terror
Toy Story
Lights Motor Action

EPCOT
Soarin'
Spaceship Earth

MK
BTMR
Pirates
Haunted Mansion
Hall of Presidents

Meeting characters in all parks.

 

[mcconnellfam96]

Our almost 11 year old is a boy, but his favorites are:

Expedition Everest (TOP 4)
Dinosaur
Space Mountain (TOP 4)
Big Thunder Mountain (TOP 4)
Tower of Terror (TOP 4)
Rockin Roller Coaster
Test Track
7DMT
Splash Mountain
Mission Space
Star Tours

Obviously, he loves the thrill rides! I have indicated his top 4 choices. But, with that being said, the kid will ride ANYTHING that moves. LOL

 

[clsteve]

What the others have listed, but I had to add 2 my 11 year old (boy) loved:

ITTBAB (not technically a ride)
Star Tours

Not sure if your Daughter is a Star Wars fan (and she doesn't need to be to enjoy it), but the multiple scenarios and endings for Star Tours had both kids loving it and wanting many re-rides. For ITTBAB, he really "got" the humor and was old enough to appreciate the effects without any bug issues - good stuff

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

We just got back a few days ago with DD11 and DD15. DD11's favorite rides this trip (some are a bit different than our last trip when she was 9):

Top two by a lot (same as last trip):

Test Track
Rock'n Roller Coaster (did single rider for the first time ever so she could ride this repeatedly after we used our FP+)

Others:

Expedition Everest
Kali River Rapids
Splash Mountain
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Mission Space Orange
Spaceship Earth
Tomorrowland Speedway
Barnstormer
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor (because her dad was the guy who offered to buy churros for everyone )
Haunted Mansion

Likes but is ok skipping:

Soarin'
Toy Story Mania
Buzz
Star Tours (liked that dad was the rebel spy)

Does not like:

Space Mountain (too jerky)
Big Thunder Mountain (too jerky)
Tower of Terror (never has liked it)
It's Tough to Be a Bug (too loud)
It's a Small World (too annoying)
Great Movie Ride (too boring)

Tolerates:

Kilimanjaro Safaris
"Kiddie" rides (which she liked a lot last trip - Pooh, Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, etc)

 

[lam0037]

This was 10 years ago, but when I was 11 I liked:

Space
Splash
BTMRR
Star Tours
Rock n Roller Coaster (favorite due to my love of Aerosmith)
Test Track
Kilimanjaro Safari
Dinosaur
Primeval Whirl
Buzz

Adding: TSMM, Everest, Soarin (would have loved them if they were open, loved them as a 12/13 yr old and older)

Did not like: Mission Space and ToT (too much for me)

 

[PEC]

All the PP ride lists are accurate and can I add everything. Outside of the things specifically for very young children (Playhouse Disney and the playgrounds) they will enjoy pretty much everything. At EPCOT the Country films may not be interesting to them (try one and get a feel). More good news at this age is they can pretty much keep up with you at the parks. You can almost RD to closing, though I would still recommend some downtime in there.

 

[SmallWorld71]

DD11 likes pretty much everything at WDW. The only ride she doesn't care for is Dinosaur (it's a volume thing).

While the thrill rides are great (and DD loves them!), if this is a first trip, be sure and include the other WDW experiences as well. A lot of people have the misconception that meeting the characters is for kids but we have found that the character experience is actually enhanced as kids get older and the characters can have more fun with them without scaring them/ hurting feelings. We had especially good interaction with Gaston, Dug & Russell, Goofy, Minnie, Merida, Fairies (it's just Tink now), Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and Aladdin on our last trip.

In addition to character meets, DD's must do's are:
MK: All the mountains, Haunted Mansion, Mickey's Philharmagic, Winnie the Pooh, Small World

Epcot: Test Track, Soarin, Mission Space, Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth, Nemo ride, eating around World Showcase

Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, the Safari and Maharajah Jungle Trek

DHS: Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania

She also loves the night time shows/ parades, though we don't fit them all in each trip.

 

[tink20]

Our first trip DD was 13 of course she loved all the rides mentioned above, but she also loved the character meets and pictures (she still does LOL) Now DS, has not wanted to do characters since he was 7.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My oldest daughter was 11 when we went. Her favs included:

Crushin Gusher
Shark Reef
Teamboat Springs
Kilimanjaro Safari
Bugs Life
Kali River Rapids
Dinosaur
Monsters inc Laugh Floor
Mickeys Philharmagic
Splash Mtn
Living with the land
Soarin
walking through World Showcase
(Test Track was closed, but she wanted to do it)

 

[gtpoohbear]

My almost-11yo DD loves the thrill rides most of all, but there isn't really anything that she doesn't enjoy. Her favorites by park:

DHS (her favorite park overall): ToT, RnRC
MK: Space Mountain, IASW
Epcot: Soarin', Figment
AK: EE, Dinosaur

And she still likes meeting the characters too

 

[LoveSplashMountain]

My 2 DDs were 9 and 11 the last time we went. They love all the thrill rides but also the 5D shows. We go during low crowd times so we wear them out on a coaster (they once rode expedition Everest 9 times in 1 day) then go for calmer rides to rest. My kids are thrill ride junkies - they rode every coaster at Cedar Point in Cleveland, OH in 1 day. But we love Disney for different reasons.

Have not been back since 7 Dwarfs Mine Train - did ride the Barnstormer and they weren't thrilled.

Magic Kingdom:

Can't miss:
Splash Mountain
Space Mountain

Really like:
Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean
Laugh Floor
Mickeys Philharmagic

Epcot:

Can't Miss
Mission Space (they ride orange - I chickened out and poor DH went with them. Definitely a no for even mild motion sickness)
Soarin'
Test Track

Spaceship Earth is fun too - they get to input information into a touch screen. Not their favorite but we always go.

Hollywood Studios:

Can't miss
Rockin' Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania

My kids like American Idol. I don't know how much longer it will be open (rumor is they are closing it), but if your kids like American Idol they will probably enjoy it. The bonus - it is air conditioned!

Animal Kingdom:

Can't miss
Expedition Everest
Dinosaur
Kali River Rapids

Really like
Tough to be a Bug
Safari

And I also recommend catching all of the fireworks at least 1 time.

Have a great time!! 11 is a fantastic age for Disney!