Haunted Mansion too scary for 6-year-old?

[EsmeraldaX]

I am a big baby. I'm 27 and have never been able to handle haunted house rides that tiny young toddlers enjoy. (go on...laugh... ) Even ones that don't have anything in them per se, freak me out so bad I can't go on them.

That said...I like the HM but it does feature some things that may scare an easily scared person of any age.

1. It is dark

2. Some of the haunts do pop up suddenly (but not close to you)

3. There are skeletons, ghosts, and rotting bodies (again not up close)

4. Very creepy cast members. I don't know if they are any less creepy to the small kids, but some of them are downright eerie.

5. Ride vehichles may stop in one place for a while. This may scare a kid who doesn't understand why the vehichles have stopped (to let a person on or off who needs assistance usually)
6.Spiders & cobwebs

The HM only has one scary part that I recall (and please trust me when I say that I scare easier than most children....Snow White's ride scares me!) and that is the initial walk into the elevator when they show how the voice over died (DON'T look up if you scare easily... it's not graphic but it is somewhat scary).

The scenes in the graveyard do have a few ghosts and other creepies who pop up suddenly. This freaks me out and I usually shut my eyes but it's not that bad.

These sites go very in depth into what happens in the ride and might be good to check out if you have concerns. Do the virtual tour on Grim Ghosts. http://www.grimghosts.com/wdw/page2.html


http://www.doombuggies.com/
http://www.grimghosts.com/enter.html (take the virtual tour)
http://www.betterhaunts.com/

It's an amazing ride & very fun...but if your daughter is easily frightened, you may want to skip it. I would say most kids can handle it...but as you can see with me, even some adults who are terrified of haunted houses get a little ansty on it. My neice loved it when she was 4, and again when she was 11. Her 2 year old sister wasn't troubled by it at all and was quite fascinated by the "spinny's" as she called the dancing ghosts in the ballroom.

The virtual tours will give a pretty good impression of what to expect.

Good luck,
Sheri

 

[shellybaxter]

Dh and I took Dniece 3 on the HM in DL a couple of years ago. HM was fine, POC was fine, Snow White's Scarry Adventure scarred the yahoo out of her. It was the second ride we went on and she came out crying and screaming for her mom. After that any dark ride made her nervous, but the HM and POC became two of her favs, she even asked to ride them "again" a couple of times. My favorite thing was that she called the "ladies" in POC the Pirate Princesses.

Moral of my story : The rides that will scare little ones aren't always the ones we think.

 

[Earstou]

My daughter first rode HM at almost 3 and again at 5 with no problem.
Right before her 7th birthday, we went again and HM was her favorite that time. The CMs started kidding us because we rode it over and over and over again !
(JFYI, Splash Mountain was the ride that scared her then!)

 

[joshsmom]

My DS8 is a TOTAL fraidy cat. Will ride almost any roller coaster, but DARK scares him. He LOVES HM. His first ride was when he was 5 and he was SCARED. I told him to close his eyes and put his hands over his ears if he was scared. I watched him and although he had his hands over his ears, I saw him peeking now and then. I was surprised when he asked to go on it again. Gradually, he kept his eyes open the whole way and then he opened his ears. He now goes on it several times in a row every trip. He TOTALLY loves it!!!

I think reassurance that it "isn't real" and that "it's Disney, so it's supposed to be fun, not really scary" works. Since you're in the doombuggy, you can hold her hand, put your arm around her and tell her she doesn't have to look!! Good luck with whatever you decide, but remember to HAVE FUN!! Wish I was going too!!

 

[Kallison]

Oh what is a little psychological scarring! No seriously my dd went on at 4, 6 and 8. She handles it fine, she realizes it is make believe. They really love the ballroom scene and the ghosts in the cars. You can cuddle close and have her close her eyes if she doesn't like it. We actually got stuck at the wedding scene for about 10 min. We just sang - We got snacks and you don't -- to her Dad and two brothers one car ahead. Have fun on your trip.

 

[Kasmir]

I think it really depends on her personality and whether or not she is already easily spooked. I think that the HM is just corny enough to offer fun for smaller children, but it does have scarier aspects -- like the hanging body in the stretching room, etc...

We visited MK when my son was six as well and he hated the HM. [Keep in mind, though, that this is a kid that begged and begged to see Godzilla (at age six) and we had to leave before the opening credits were over. He's full of bravado, but easily scared and actually just a big chicken.] He wanted to go on it, but spent much of the time with his head hidden in his dad's lap. And wouldn't you know it -- as soon as he started to feel brave after hearing his sister and I laughing, he lifted his head to find a "ghost" in their doom buggy.

Based on his personality, we should have known better and practiced better judgment in letting him go on this ride -- even though he wanted to go.

However, when I was six, I LOVED this ride.

You may want to let her look at the ride on the Disney website...

Whatever you decide, have fun!

 

[Mskanga]

My youngest went on it for the first time when she was 4 and she wasn't that thrilled in the beginning , but once she got passed the first time and the stretch room , she loved it. I kept telling her though that the ghosts are dolls and we kept calling them "ugly" the first time, now she LOVES that ride, she's almost 7 and everytime we go to the MK, haunted mansion is the most must do ride she has on her list!
Now this is the same kid who insisted on going on Space mountain last year ( and loves it too ) but who WILL NOT go on Snowhite because it's scary , LOL.

 

[Twigs]

You know what your child can tolerate, so use that as a guide, but here is what happened to us. When DS's were 4 we took them on HM, it was our first day and the 2nd thing we did. They were really looking forward to it. We had a Disney Halloween video at home and it has scenes from the HM ride in it, so they kept talking about going on the ride. We got in the stretching room and they were done! The dark, the hanging body, and the "evil" voice freaked them out, then because the rest of the ride is somewhat dark they never calmed down. DH and I felt like that ride lasted forever! I would do as other posters adviced, go later in the trip, after this we could not go on another dark attraction for the rest of the trip. I would also prep her and tell her exactly what happens in the stretching room. Also keep her from looking straight up! When we went back to Disney 2 years later it was one of their favorite rides.

 

[NMAmy]

My DD's first experience was at DL when she was 5. I remembered it from my childhood as not being frightening at all. I explained what it was and she was fine with it. Then, in the stretch room, right when the lights went out...some stupid teenage girl screamed her head off. My DD just about climbed right up me! I had to explain that it wasn't part of the ride, that the girl was just being silly. She's 13 now and STILL every time we get to the stretch room, she'll say, "Remember how that girl screamed? That was mean. I'd never do that because it might scare some little kid!"

The other part that kind of freaked her out was the hitchhiking ghost--she thought it was sitting on her lap since she was in the middle of the doom buggy. She still makes sure to sit on the side and put me in the middle. She always makes sure that the ghost will sit on Mom's lap!

 

[castlegazer]

I have abolsutely no experience in this but I was reading in anticipation of having to make the same decision of ride or not ride sometime in the future. But I wanted to say that that last point was a very good one and one that I would not have thought of -
It happens EVERY time I ride the Haunted Mansion - some stupid teenager screams bloody murder in the stretching room - it freaks the beegesus out of me every time and makes my heart race and I am old - relatively. man, thinking of my heart attacks every time that happens I can just imagine what a wee one will think.

 

[texas8891]

I have to believe that almost every WDW visitor taking their small children to the Magic Kingdom for the first time made the mistake of riding Snow White's Scary Adventures. Children, especially little girls, love the movie and almost every family heads directly for Fantasyland when they enter the park. Heed the warning sign at the entrance to the attraction. It simply terrifies little girls. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to get my younger daughter to ride anything after that experience. Also, she didn't trust my wife and I when we told her a subsequent ride wasn't scary. Afterall, we let her, in her eyes, board the mine car to hell.

 

[il-gander]

My DDs 6 & 10 were both scared on HM last summer. I would agree with previous posters, though, that a lot of it had to do with the bit in the beginning with the hanging body. I think this probably has a lot more to do with the individual child than their age. I doubt either of them will want to go on it when we go back even though they'll be 2 years older. Curiously, both of them saw (by choice) the HM movie and didn't think it was too bad. Go figure...

Carla

 

[mariessas_mom]

My daughter was 4 and 1/2 last trip and she was a little anxious and would periodically cover her eyes. I kept explaining to her that it was all Mickey Mouse pretend magic, and Mickey would never let anything scary or bad happen to the kids that were visiting him. This completely calmed her down. We also used the same logic on Pirates of the Caribbean and other dark rides.

 

[Karibeth19]

It's so funny to read all these posts and see how children can be so different! My 6 yr old DD loves HM and on our last trip we had to go on it 6 times! Once, we got off and she and her dad proceeded to get right back in line to go again! (I had to go to the bathroom too badly to join them.) She also loves Snow White, and we went on that one 4 times. Doesn't scare her a bit. However, Test Track, Tower of Terror, and Space Mtn. scared her, even though she loves thrill rides. We made her go on TT, because she had been on it a year before without any problems, and once she was on it she was fine. We also made her go on ToT, because it's not any scarier than HM and we figured she would love the drops. Well, we were wrong about that; she didn't mind the pre-show or the start of the ride, but the drops did her in! We did buy her an "I Survived" t-shirt and told her we were proud of her for trying it. And, at SM, she and her Nana had to take the bail out door when she saw she would have to sit in a seat by herself and not next to someone. So, you never know. Our rule was, unless she just acted absolutely freaked out about riding something(like she did with SM), she had to try everything once, and if she hated it, she never had to ride it again. It worked well, and even though she didn't like ToT at all, she still talks about how proud she is that she tried it and wears her t-shirt like a badge of honor!

 

[wannabebelle]

I'd just like to reiterate what other posters have said--do not do any rides that you're not sure about early in your trip. This was our single greatest mistake on our trip about two weeks ago. My husband and I do not have children, but we took our niece. Durign our trip, she was one week shy of being 5-years-old. Since we don't have our own kids, we're probably a little more "hardcore" than parents. We spoil her, but we expect a lot of her too.

I had already decided to "make" her ride most everything that she was tall enough for. I talked it up so much ahead of time that she wanted to ride "scary" rides.

I did WDW college program in '96, so I'm pretty familiar with the parks. I had planned on having her do HM, but knew she may not love it. That would've been fine. I wouldn't have made her ride it twice, but I wanted her to at least try everything.

Well, even though I'm familiar with the parks, neither DH or I had ever been to AK. It wasn't open when I worked there, and other circumstances have kept us from going during other trips. We went there our first day since they had EE that day. I figured Dinosaur may be a little loud, so I told her before the ride that the dinosaurs were pretend and nothing bad would happen. Turns out she thought that meant the dinosaurs would be statues. Once they started moving, she thought something had gone horribly wrong. I think the ride was pretty intense for a 4/5 year old girl. The ride photo was of DH trying to cover her eyes and of me trying to cover her ears. She was in tears by the end. I would not have had her ride that if I had been on it before.

We kind of paid for that all week. Dark rides really bothered her, even when there was nothing to be afraid of. Once she got through them and realized it was ok, she'd do some again (Pooh), but not all of them.

I really think we would've had a different experience if we hadn't traumatized her the first day (or as she would say, "dramatized her"). Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, but I think the rides would've gone more smoothly if we had made different decisions. We had her ride Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain, but not Space Mountain just because of the darkness.

 

[jeankeri]

If you go, make sure it is daytime. My DS8 was dying to go to HM, but would not go near it in the dark. (Also very creepy CM at the gate ). In the daytime he ran right up and read all the tombstones. My DH had him laughing so hard by the time they entered- it got him in the right state to get the joke of it. My DS6 would not even go through Liberty Square to Fantasyland- he remembered the creppy CM and stayed far away! My DS6 is also easily scared, and images stay with him at bedtime- I know to avoid some things for him. My DS8 can see the humor in it and have fun.

 

[oogieboogie]

My 2 and 5 year olds went on it and were fine. My 5 year old is scared of everything. He cried on the bugs life 3d show, the kids rides in AK, the star tours, ect. He was fine with the haunted mansion. Perhaps it was a bad idea taking him on the dinosaur ride. That really scared him. He did love test track though. Kids are strange.