Good Starter Rides

[mabas9395]

We are going to DL the end of April and I have two sons ages 6 and 9 who talk big about going on the bigger, faster rides (space mountain, Tower of Terror, etc) but I'm worried that if those are the first rides they go on and they have a bad experience that they will be too scared to try anything else. They have never ridden roller-coaster type rides before.

So of the "thrill" type rides (not counting Dumbo, etc), what are some of the more mellow rides that would be good for them to get their feet wet on?

Last time I was there (which was a while ago) I thought I remembered Space Mountain and Indiana Jones being more on the wild side and the Matterhorn and Thunder Mountain Railroad being on the tamer side of the "thrill" type.

Any advice?

 

[1000th happy haunt]

How about Splash Mountain and Gadget's Go Coaster? And although it's not a "thrill" ride, Soarin' over California. They'll probably get a kick out of being so high up. After that the Orange Stinger. Then you can try and move them up to Grizzly River Run.

 

[nursemelis374]

I would have to say that Thunder Mountain sounds like a good starter ride. The rights of passage for DLR rides in my family go like this:

Thunder Mountain
Mulholland Madness
Splash Mountain
Indy
Space Mountain
California Screamin'
Tower of Terror- I think this is not that scary, but the drops really seem to freak out kids.

Most of the kids in our family accomplish all of these tasks by the age of 9 or 10.

 

[Rapunsel]

My DS4 would not even try gadget, but then hopped right on BTM. He aslo asked to go on Tower of Terror. I told him all about it and everything. But he still wanted to go. He did say it made his tummy feel silly.. Don't know if he will go again. We will see in June..

He also will not go on Splash or Matterhorn. But then again it took forever for him to be tall enough. We are going with a daredevil friend in June so he might want to try and catch up to her.

He does love Soarin..

 

[disneegrl4eva]

How about Splash Mountain and Gadget's Go Coaster? And although it's not a "thrill" ride, Soarin' over California. They'll probably get a kick out of being so high up. After that the Orange Stinger. Then you can try and move them up to Grizzly River Run.

I have to agree about the orange stinger...heck i dont even want to ride that...oh but hey you know what else? the sun wheel but get in the moving cars...that sucker made me scream thought i was gonna be slammed on the other side of the car...

 

[SA53]

We just got back and my son who is 9 and is a chicken loved many of the more "intense" rides. It depends on what your bunch likes or dislikes... Mine hates big drops so he loved Space Mountain, Big Thunder, Mulhulland Madness and Indie because those rides are about the turns not the drops. Each of them has a small drop but nothing really big--he was scared of Splash but did ride it and loved it once the drop was done but was beside himself until that was done. Quite frankly, I found Go Coaster a bit scarier than Big Thunder. My 5 year old went on Big Thunder 5 times in a row with her arms in the air. Another fav of theirs was Star Tours, not to bad at all and gives that feeling of riding a tame coaster. Astro Orbiter had me spinning but the kids loved it so who knows. We didn't do the Materhorn because the drop was big so I am not sure about that and definitely not Screamin!!!!! They also liked Soarin' (pretty tame) and Grizzly and really my kids are quite chicken although my 9 year old now thinks he is the coolest coaster kid ever and can't wait to go back. Have fun!!!

 

[jemilah]

I found with mine the fast rides they could not see went best.........Space moutain would have scared them to death if they saw it first , but they LOVED it! My 6 year old rode TOT for a $10.00 bribe , my 9 year old refused.
Our rule is ........if you hat it , you don't have to do it again , it seems to work well.