First coasters and big kid rides?

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Our 6-year-old wants to try some slightly bigger rides this trip and is “kind of” interested in doing a roller coaster. She grew a lot and is 45” so can do most of the rides now. We will be going to Animal Kingdom and Epcot and Hollywood studios first. She tried 7 dwarfs mine train 2 years ago and hated it. She still remembers it and is a little gun-shy this time around, although she’s much older and I think will love the rides if we try them in the right order! What are your suggestions for first rides & coasters in AK, HS and Epcot? Is Slinky Dog scarier than 7dwarfs? Maybe we would go on Mickey & Minnie’s railway and then slinky? I can’t think of much for coaster type rides in these parks... maybe Test Track in Epcot? Expedition Everest is likely too scary, right? Not even sure if she’s tall enough for Pandora FP but that one is probably intense for a young kid, right?

I think 7dmt is the tamest rollercoaster at Disney. Arguably I guess barnstormer is tamer but that one jerks you around a little more.

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

On my son's 4th birthday, he rode Barnstormer, claimed he hated it, and rode Slinky Dog 2 days later. He was sort of scared for a moment on Slinky Dog, but in hindsight forgot about and spent most of the next year while we were stuck at home pretending he was the "spring dog" coaster, sliding down the backyard playset's slide and running circles around the backyard. When he was 5, he chickened out of a carousel because he said the horses were too high, so he is not a daredevil by any means. Test Track's sound intimidated him. He rode Dinosaur with his teenage cousins and hated it so much that he was then a little skittish later in the trip. We left the Star Tours line because he was getting scared (maybe thinking back to Dinosaur). But the last day of the trip, he got on Big Thunder Mountain RR and loved it. That might be a good first one, or maybe Barnstormer.

 

[danceintherain]

The issue I found with Barnstormer is the shared lap bar. I'm a slender human. But, there was enough of a gap between my lap and my oldest's when he was 2 that he still refuses to ride the Barnstormer to this day. He rode just about everything else during our last trip, when he was 8. He did not like the Mine Train. Maybe because he didn't feel as secure swinging back and forth. But he enjoyed Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Slinky Dog Dash, and Expedition Everest. He LOVES Soarin, Test Track, and Flights of Passage, so he's decided that Epcot and Animal Kingdom are his favorite parks.
Slinky Dog is very smooth. It may feel a little faster, but it doesn't jerk you around.

Do not make my mistake and shift to Mission:SPACE if Test Track is closed. I did that with my daughter, when she was 4, and she wouldn't even get on. Then she wouldn't try anything that looked even remotely "scary" until our very last day at the Animal Kingdom, when she pointed to the distance and said, "I want to ride that mountain." So I took her on Expedition Everest as her first rollercoaster, and while she didn't want to go on it again, she wasn't traumatized.

So anyway....I would do Test Track first.....then Soarin and go from there.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

As a kid (really young because they apparently didn't enforce height requirements the same way), I went on Space Mountain with my parents and hated it. The dark, the speed, not being able to tell what was happening, only being able to see one parent and not both of them - no way. I refused any kind of coaster larger than the county fair dragons until I was 9 and my dad talked me into BTMRR. I still think it's one of the easier ones for a kid's first "big kid" coaster: not too fast, no giant drops, good sight lines to minimize surprise, nothing backwards or too "intense," and plenty of small giggle-maker type hills/turns.

 

[SandS_K]

Not sure how I lucked out. We did out first trip when dd was 4. Her first ride was Great Movie Ride, second ride Tower of Terror. She did every big ride but space mountain and rockin rollercoaster. She was scared on every one, but still wanted to try each one. The next year when she was 5 we went again. Before we went I got her really excited about trying the big rides again since she was a year older. She loved everyone of them. At the time she really loved tower of terror and we got lots of "looks" when we would be in line. She had to wait till she was tall enough to ride rocked rollercoaster and finally hit that milestone when she was 7.

 

[KrazeeK120]

My son rode 7DMT and SDD when he was 2. He hated both of them, even though he begged to ride. It was one of those parenting decisions where I was like...do I have a melting down kid because I won’t let him ride something, or do I have a melting down kid because he doesn’t like the ride? Fortunately, he was fine after he got off the rides. He’s 5.5 now and STILL talks about how he didn’t like them! We’re going back next year and I hope I can convince him to give them another shot.

7DMT is less intense than SDD, but I guess the point I was trying to make is be really really really really doubly sure she wants to ride before getting on!

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We warmed up the kids with pov youtube videos.
The kids were excited to try them because they had watched them so many times...
The kids favorite game is putting on pov videos and sitting in the desk chair while the other kid pushes back and forth on the chair.

Everest was the one they were the most scared of trying untill we pointed out.... on the " big hill" you can see as you walk up is only as big as one full train car the first car is at the bottom when the last car is at the top, more of that force perspective...... now he loves it.