How scary are these rides?

[Picabo]

I know that many will say "it depends on the kid" but I'm curious to find out how other 3-4 yr olds handled some of the rides.

Growing up, I recall LOVING Pirates of the Caribbean.....DD loves watching Peter Pan....yet when I show her Youtube and pix of POTC ride, she says it's way too scary and she doesn't want to go on it. I suppose the voices, cannonballs, etc are scary?

How about Pooh's Adventures, Peter Pan ride, Haunted Mansion? (Oddly, when i showed her youtube videos of HM, she didn't think it seemed scary! ) Oh and how about (in Epcot) the ride in Norway?

Is there anything that we, as adults, don't think is scary and may not even occur to us that lil ones would find them scary - and therefore maybe we should avoid??

THANKS!

 

[Mrincredible1980]

I tried viewing the rides on youtube with my dd before our first trip. She was four at the time and it had the same effect. But when we were actually there and she could see things better she was willing to try almost all the rides. She even went on the ToT and loved it. One thing to remember is that the vidoes on youtube look darker than the actual rides really are. Another thing to remember is that all the rides have a last second ditch option.

 

[tzolkin]

We've gone the past two years in May. My DD had just turned 4 and 5. My DS was turing 2 and turning 3. They enjoyed all of the rides and were not scared of anything. Haunted Mansion and POTC are two of their favorites that they asked to ride every time we were in the MK. The only thing that bothered them at all was It's Tough to be a Bug in AK. Which is odd because DD rode Dinosaur twice the same day and I thought that one was scary. (That one has a height requirement.)

I do find a few things "scary". They didn't really bother the kids, but I thought they were a bit startling. In the graveyard scene of HM, there are these ghoul heads that pop up from behind the grave stones. We are not big fans of those, but my kids and I love the rest of the ride. One you may not expect is the blast of air and lights at the end of the Imagination ride in Epcot.

I know everyone says it, but it really does depend on the kid. We lived in the Orlando area and had season tickets when I was young and my little sister went through phases of being terrified of just about every ride. One month she couldn't ride POTC, but the next time we went she'd ask to ride it several times. The ones that most bothered her were: POTC, HM, Snow White, Splash Mtn, and Maelstrom.

 

[Macduffy]

I'm taking my 3 (turing 4) son on both the HM and PoftheC. He seems to follow our lead so if we "act" likes it's silly he'll laugh along with us. If he is scared it doesn't take him long to reset so I'm not worried.

I'm wondering about Goofy's Brainstormer. Not sure how he'll take to a rollercoaster type attraction but preschoolers apparently LOVE it.

I think my DS will freak out on Soarin' though - I can see him asking to get off LOL! Not sure if we'll take him or not. He meets the height requirements but I guess that doesn't mean he should go. Same with Star Wars.

 

[LoveLoveNash]

Our 4 yr old and 2 yr old loved HM and POTC!

 

[nrod]

We took our then 4 year old and turning 3 year old last September. I too showed them videos on YouTube and they were sure they weren't going to go on PotC or Haunted Mansion. But I read a great tip...take a few glow sticks with you and crack them before the ride. My 4 year old was really afraid of the dark at the time of our trip and he felt safe with his "light saber". The sticks do not bother other riders like a flashlight, but make the kids feel safe. My boys love Pirates and Haunted Mansion and by the end of the week they didn't even need their glow sticks.

I also did as previous poster said, I tried to prepare them and make a joke out of the scary stuff. It seemed to help.

p.s. I bought a ton of glow sticks and we only needed one each for the week. We'd keep it in our "cooler" lunch bag and put it in the freezer each night and it stayed glowing all week.

 

[abouley]

Well, my now 5 year old is a ride chicken...doesn't like dark, doesn't like drops, etc. He really doesn't like POTC or HM but has been on both and always says "That wasn't so bad at the end" but then refuses to go again. Glow stick definitely helps him as well! Before 3 they didn't scare him but at 3 the scared thing kicked in. He loved barnstormer and soarin from 3 on though. Doesn't like BTMRR or Splash or those type though because of the drop! Norway ride was fine for my kids. I don't think we went on all the fantasy land rides at the MK but at Disneyland those are pretty scary for the kids....My kids both love Peter Pan though!

 

[kathyell]

Well, I know that there might be varying opinions on this thing I decided to do, but it worked for us to explain to her that all the rides are in good fun. My daughter is three and a half, for age reference. We watched a few on YouTube (which got her excited for stuff like Barnstormer and BTMRR) but some aren't easy to see and aren't good representations of what it's actually like to be there.

So here's what we said, and yes, it's a tiny stretch of the truth. We told her that we were going to some parks that Mickey made and he built some rides for us to ride. I told her that everything is pretend and that anything scary is just a little joke or trick from Mickey and his friends and really, he just wants us to laugh and enjoy ourselves. We stressed over and over that everything was just make-believe and it was supposed to be fun like when we play pretend at home. She actually asked me in the middle of HM if it was real and I told her no, then she said, "Yeah, just pretend." And then she was okay.

I mean, you have to know your own kid. Mine usually does just fine as long as we talk to her ahead of time when we think she might be a little iffy on something, and she's pretty adventurous in general. I'd also start with the rides you think are more non-threatening and work your way down the list from there and you'll get a good idea of what's in and what's out.

 

[Kae]

When DS was 4 we used ear plugs on everything it helped alot. Tough to be a bug just plain freaked him out. He also had a little key chain penlight on his Lanyard, which he would light in his hand, maybe once or twice.

Kae

 

[ilandrazdsw]

I've found the key to any ride is to emphasize (sp) the fun aspects of the ride. DD3 and DS5 loved HM because the dancing and singing ghosts were so funny, Pooh and Snow White because it was the whole story not just individual scenes, and PoTC because we sang the song the whole way through, laughed as the silly things the pirates did, and ducked from the cannon balls.

 

[ChristusG]

My DD is now 5 and she's been going on all of those rides since she was a baby. She loves them and has never had any issues. The ride in Norway was her absolute favorite when we went when she was three years old.

 

[susykt4]

At 2, DS wasn't afraid of any ride. At 3, he was freaked out by the part of POTC with the cannonballs exploding in the water because of the loud booms. He still (now 6) gets nervous about Pirates but will go on it. HM was never a problem. Probably the unexpected worst ride we went on when the kids were 3 and 5 was The Great Movie Ride at HS. Both kids hated that one because of our really loud guide and the loud gunshots. Because of their hatred of loud bangs, we skipped the Indiana Jones show until our last trip when they were 6 and 8.

 

[WantToGoNow]

My dd rode all of those at 2.5 years and loved them. It really all depends on the child - what scares one may not scare others. Now my ds was 5.5 and was frighted by the stretching room on HM but was fine on the ride - he loved POC.

 

[Ashlander]

My kids all went on those rides and were not scared at all. The one ride that did scare them - Dinosaur at AK. Geesh - I had no idea and my two older kids were 3 & 4 at the time and came out crying.

I think the Haunted Mansion can be scary if it is presented that way. I try not to let my kids get freaked out. I say thing like - look at that ghost over there...isn't he silly! Then my kids relax and enjoy the ride.