Have your kids ever gotten too scared during a ride?

[MsYumiBr]

Thanks all. Now I know why my daughter is so afraid of bugs. I remember her freaking out in Bugs Life.

 

[disneedee]

took my youngest on splash mt when he was little (he's 17 now). he was so scared he wet his pants(must have been about 5 then), gram bought him some sweat pants at that handy store next door. his teenage brothers made fun of him. still have the picture, should see his face. probably wasn't one of my better parenting moments.
he still doesn't like splash.

 

[mAlien13]

This thread cracks me up! The first time we took our boys to WDW they were 5 and 2 1/2. Our experience prooves that there is no way to predict a childs response to the rides. We began with the "friendly" rides in Fantasyland. The shortest line was SW....Scary Adverntures was true enough for the oldest! He buried his face and tried to climb out of the ride. That was pretty much it for him...he refused to go on another dark ride for the rest of the trip. The Mad Tea Party and Dumbo were it after that. Our youngest, on the other hand, was a little mad man dashing through the park seeking the next thrill! After leaving the Pirates on day two, he ran through the line of people waiting shrieking "again!" He also had a major meltdown in front of BTM when he realized they weren't going to let him on because of his height. (He literally broke down crying) Trip #2 (when they were 10 and 7 1/2) was more successful for the oldest...he is still timid, tho, and will never let us live down the fact that we convinced him to try Splash. (He tried to calmy leave the log and join Brer Bear on the side before the big drop) The youngest finally rode BTM..over and over...and added ToT to his list of Disney thirlls.
My advice? Tell your child everything you know about the ride before you board...do your best to describe feeling, smell and sight. The more prepared the better. Leave the surprises for the roller coasters of the teenage years, imo.

 

[lostinyonkers]

I have to agree with you, mAlien...this thread is cracking me up too. The stories are great. I am still laughing about the 5-year-old peeing his pants. Poor thing!!!

Sounds like really good advice to prep your kids as much as possible before putting them on a ride. I plan on hyping Soarin' as much as possible, and really telling my daughter exactly what's going to happen (wearing a seatbelt, feet dangling, feeling like flying, etc) to make sure she's not surprised. I'm thinking it's going to work out and she'll love it. It's such a neat ride.

Thanks for all the input everyone

 

[SunshineOR]

Everyone's really covered it, but just to add my two cents... I took a three-year-old who was barely 40 inches on everything our first trip, and she loved it all. However, she has one of those fearless personalities. My older dd, who was five at the time, was much more skittish. She went on everything, but needed encouragement and hand-holding to get through it. Even on our last trip when they were seven and five, my younger went on everything with her hands in the air, including ToT and Space Mnt. while my older was holding on for dear life!

Also, I don't think Screamin and Haunted Mansion are really comparable. Haunted Mansion is visually intimidating with scary stuff, while Soarin is a sweet, simple ride with no scary stuff. I'd say Screamin will not be a problem at all.

 

[rafiki77]

When my nephew was 2 we went to Knott's Berry Farm. He has always been really tall. At five he is 48", anyhow, he was tall enough to go on the "Log Ride" there. He cried, at the end of the ride, because he was getting off and didn't want to. At four years old (last year) he went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. He cried and screamed the whole time because of being afraid. We had to carry him off of the ride when it was over. Of course about 2 hours later he wanted to go back on the ride.

 

[dopeyfanatic]

Here's my stories...lol...

Last year my sons were two and 4. My 2 year old was 40" and could go on practically everything and LOVED it. Not a single ride scared him. My older son got scared of the dark tunnel in BTMR, and the monster in MH. My younger son LOVED ToT, but the older one wouldn't even try it.

Last week we went and again my now 3 year old was fearless. My older son did try all the ones he wouldn't last time and loved them also. He's 48" at 5 years old and was able to do CA Screamin'. We did that one 9 times with him, and my 3 year old did ToT 6 times. Those were their favorites. They like Soarin' and Mullholland also. We don't even take them on Mr. Toad's since you go to Hell and that's scary. We don't do Snow White either as I'm afraid it would scare them. Actually most of those rides are a little scary. They're ok with Peter Pan and Pinoccio. Alice isn't scary at all. Explain the rides and let your child decide what they want. My son was scared to go on some of the rides still but we convinced him to try it at least once, and he never had a problem afterwards. We also did Splash several times which last year was too intimidating. My 2 year old loves the rides also. Ya never know what you're going to get, so prepare yourself for everything. There may be a ride you think it's easy that they don't like, or one you might think is scary that they love...I can't wait to hear how it goes!!!!