How scary is Haunted Mansion?

[NicholeB630]

My daughter will be almost 6 when we go and my son will be 2.5, do you think this ride is too scary for them? I dont want to waste time on a ride they wont enjoy. I def want to do Pirates of the Caribbean even though that may be a little scary too but I dont want to miss it and I think I can talk to my kids about it being pirates where the Haunted Mansion may just be to scary?!

 

[Lyncha]

My daughter has been through HM as young as 4 and my son as young as 2. It is one of their favorite rides. You should not have a problem.

 

[Crystal824]

My daughter will be almost 6 when we go and my son will be 2.5, do you think this ride is too scary for them? I dont want to waste time on a ride they wont enjoy. I def want to do Pirates of the Caribbean even though that may be a little scary too but I dont want to miss it and I think I can talk to my kids about it being pirates where the Haunted Mansion may just be to scary?!

Haunted Mansion is not scary at all. It is dark in some parts, and that may scare your 2.5. My daughter went on it at 2.5, and the dark made her a bit uncomfortable, but she didn't cry or anything like that. She just said when it was over that she didn't want to ride it again. 6 year old will be fine.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

It depends on the kids. Mine are 5 and 7 and are still a bit scared of it. Hey...it's an improvement since they used to be terrified of it.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

It depends on the kids. I took my son on it when he was 5. He loved the ride part, the only thing that scared him was the beginning with that creepy talking portrait thing and then the walls closing in and then the black out. That was the only freaky part of the ride. The ride itself was cool and my son loved it.

 

[wallskm]

My kids don't find it scary, though we did prep the oldest for the little room you go in before you go to the final line (stretching room?). We told him the lights would go off and people would silly scream. We just talk about how silly it all is!

 

[msmama]

My almost 6 year old is scared of about every ride in WDW, EXCEPT haunted mansion. He's been riding it with no problems since he was an infant.

 

[Help Please!]

I think it would terrify my 2 1/2 year old...but he might love it. But honestly, I would probably avoid it, in case it freaked him out so much that he didn't want to go on any other rides.

 

[DVCmom4]

My dd7 is a scared cat! So I sit with her and watch ride videos in YouTube together this way she can see what is going on in the rides. I think it has turned in to her favorite thing to do even if we aren't heading to WDW anytime soon!

 

[GrtWtNorth]

DD wasn't scared to ride it at 1, 2, 3. She started to get scared at age 4 -- she doesn't like the graveyard scene where ghosts pop up behind tombstones. I couldn't convince her to ride it at age 5...

 

[StirlingSilver83]

My dd7 is a scared cat! So I sit with her and watch ride videos in YouTube together this way she can see what is going on in the rides. I think it has turned in to her favorite thing to do even if we aren't heading to WDW anytime soon!

I did this with my ds7 this time around bc he's finally hit the height to go on practically everything so I wanted to make sure he knew what rides did what. It was also helpful to me bc I wanted to go on dinosaur in ak but after watching the video he was terrified so we scratched that off our FP+ list lol

 

[3Gsandme]

It depends on the kids. Mine are 5 and 7 and are still a bit scared of it. Hey...it's an improvement since they used to be terrified of it.

Absolutely. My fearless 4 year old was terrified and cried the whole time and my 7 year old didn't like it very much. Actually, I should have known better as I had a pretty good suspicion the 4 year old didn't like the dark rides.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

My kids have been the last 4 years and we go on it every time. No fears. They are 2, 5, and 9. Kids vary in what they are scared of, my 9 year old rode Goofys barnstormer once and will not go again. He stood with his grandma and watched us as we went in March 2013. Still a no go on the Great Goofini.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[MouseOfGold]

Depends on your kids I think. My 2.5 ds asked me to hold him in the beginning with the walls closing in before the buggy ride, then he seemed ok but he did yell he wanted his "daddy" during the ride part. He didn't cry but it did slightly freak him out. Pirates of Caribbean didn't scare him at all though.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Scared my then 5 year old to death and he still says he will never ride it again as long as he lives. Rides everything else without issue. You just never know.

 

[skitt]

We've always carefully told our kids about it before going on it, and make the distinction between scary (frightening) and spooky (fun, like Halloween). We talk about how spooky and silly it is. It's always been okay (as long as you warn them about the lights going out and screaming in the stretching room).

 

[mom2cgj]

Definitely prepare them for the stretching room. YouTube is a good way to do that, but make sure they know it will get pitch black. My DD6 was terrified of that part, but the rest of the ride was fine. My DS4 made it threw that part just fine, but the ride got stuck in the part with the creaking doors and he got scared just sitting there for 10 minutes. I think he would have been fine if the ride hadn't stopped, but it does happen. We'll go again on our next trip, and I think now that they know what it's like they will be fine.

 

[smiths02]

My son's problem at age 5 was the dark.

I let him watch pretty scary TV and movies, but at 7 now he still will talk about not liking HM.

A glow in the dark necklace from dollar store did help for HM, POTC and Sci Fi

 

[mom2cgj]

My son's problem at age 5 was the dark.

I let him watch pretty scary TV and movies, but at 7 now he still will talk about not liking HM.

A glow in the dark necklace from dollar store did help for HM, POTC and Sci Fi

I forgot to mention that! We got glow bracelets from the dollar store and the kids got to wear them on dark rides (HM, POTC, Dinosaur). They could concentrate on them when they got scared, and it made it so much better for them. Definitely worth the couple of dollars we spent on them!

 

[kiramay]

It depends on the child. My ds7b and ds2 were fine, but ds7a and I had to leave by emergency exit after he had a panic attack. I'm not sure we'll go on it again.