Is it possible to just walk out?

[Brook1099]

When my 5 year year old if not thrilled with some of the shows especially Mickeys Phil I dont think he will go in again for a while but if he decides to and freaks out again can I just walk out its so dark and loud I dont know if anyone tries to stop or assist you never noticed CM's standing by the doors at the shows! TIA

 

[bzzymom]

I think you can, but I am not positive. I have never had to leave a show though and I have traveled many times with kids. DS is now almost 10. When he was younger, he often went to the 3D shows but didn't wear the glasses. It was a little fuzzy, but less intense for him.

 

[all4fun]

My advice is to try and position yourself so you're sitting on the other end of the theater when you walk in. The theaters "load" from one side and empty from the other. If you end up in the middle then you'll have to walk in front of 30-40 people to get out. This actually happened to us when our ds was 13mos old. He really freaked out more from the fans and the water than the noise I think. We were in the middle and did not feel comfortable w/packing up and leaving in the middle of the show so we just tried to comfort him the best we could and got thru it. Not fun and I'm sure others didn't appreciate it but we didn't see leaving at that point as an option. So lesson learned for us a little too late. If we had been sitting on the side near the exit doors we would have had no problems leaving the theater.

We skipped the shows pretty much for the next several trips. On our last trip (3.5yrs old) we tried again and he kept the glasses on and was really into it.


hth

 

[maxtomsmom]

My son freaked out during It's Tough to Be a Bug at AK. What made it sort of funny is he had already seen it the year before. He started screaming and nearly knocked me over as he reached for me the poor thing. I immediately picked him up and bolted to the exit. I wasn't sure exactly what was upsetting him. He is not the easily scared type. The CM heard him as I'm sure the whole audience and helped me to the exit. So in essence they do help out. You can always say he has to go to the bathroom, it's an emergency, but I don't think you will have too much trouble.

 

[brergnat]

You can exit during any show if you need to. The exits are clearly illuminated and the doors always open easily. They usually make some sort of announcement about what to do if you have to leave mid show.

I will say, if you don't think your child will like a dark, indoor, long stage show, DON'T watch the Finding Nemo musical! It is in a very huge bleacher seat auditorium, and it's DARK in there. The show is 30 min long and it is difficult and dangerous to try to leave mid-show. Save that show for when your child is older.

 

[2poohbears]

When my twins were 2 1/2 y/o we took them to WDW for the 1st time. One was afraid of almost all the indoor movies, the other was not. I would always go over to a CM (usually there is one near the exit area) and ask where is the best place to exit should I need to. This way they know to be on the lookout to help out if necessary...then I sat near that exit door just in case. They were always very helpful in leading us out quickly.

 

[mom23boys]

When my 5 year year old if not thrilled with some of the shows especially Mickeys Phil I dont think he will go in again for a while but if he decides to and freaks out again can I just walk out its so dark and loud I dont know if anyone tries to stop or assist you never noticed CM's standing by the doors at the shows! TIA

We had to leave after my youngest DS (3 at the time) freaked out. There was a CM at the door and she had a flashlight to lead the way on the floor so I did not trip holding him. She lead me out and she was so nice to him. She gave him stickers and a lollypop from the store next to Phil. We just waited outside for our group.

We tried again with Bug but as soon as he saw the glasses he freaked again. We just waited outside the exit. The CMs passing by were so nice to him.

Hope this helps.

Sharon

 

[pl'smama]

I have to share this funny story,although it was not so funny at the time. We took our DD, then 3.5, to see It's A Bug's Life and she was cool until about half way. She got very scared real quick and clung to me through the rest of the show. She tried to sit in my or DH's lap, but we did not want to block the view of those behind us so we just kept her in the seat and held on to her. After the show she calmed down, but for every show for the rest of the trip we had to reassure her it was not like Bug's Life.

We went to see the Lion King show later the same day and she was fine until it started to get dark. We were on the far side from where you go in, middle of the bleachers and about half way up. All of a sudden our DD hopped off the seat and crawled under the bleacher seat in front of us!! I kid you not. We could not pry her out of there no matter what we tried. The show had started and she was wedged in there. I was a bit worried as the man sitting above her was quite large and I was afraid she would get stuck. It took a good ten minutes of prodding her, ignoring her, trying to tug on her, tickling her, anything to get her out before she would. When DH finally got her out she was ready to cry. As soon as she saw the show she lit up!! Not scared any more. I tell you it was unreal to go through as everyone around us was pointing and what not, but there was no room to get her out. The man in front of me even left his back pack on so I had no space in front of me to manouver. Alls well that ends well, but we learned our lesson to. We will fully explain a show, as best we can, before we go into one.

Suz

 

[bennythepug]

The only show or ride we desperatly wanted to exit was carrosel of progress. Our ds2 screamed throught the whole thing. I'm sure no one else there enjoyed it. Luckily there only about 8 other people.

If we could have left we would have
my dh kept saying that because it was rotaing we could'nt leave
and we could'nt see any cm's.
we were very frustrated, sweaty, ebarrassed

 

[NotUrsula]

In the "moving theatre" shows like COP or Ellen's Energy Adventure, attempting to get up to leave means that the CM's have to stop and recycle the ride mechanism. Most of the time it is not worth it for anything less than a medical emergency, because there are a lot of safeties that lock the doors and things, and overriding them sometimes takes longer than just waiting for the ride to end naturally. A claustrophobic man panicked on our car at the Jimmy Neutron show at US once, with less than one minute left to go in the show. He tried to climb out from under the car's safety bar and a worker hit the emergency stop, which just froze everything -- including that safety bar he was so desperate to get out of. It took 25 minutes to do the mechanical checks and then recycle the ride to the point where the bar could be released, so he really ended up much worse off.

One of the things I always recommend doing if you have a fearful child is to ask CM's as you enter just exactly what the duration of the show/ride is. If you note the time that it starts, you will know exactly how much you still need to sit through when making the decision to get up and leave or not. It can be good to know that you only have to survive through 2 minutes and 12 seconds.

 

[Juliet25]

I'm embarrassed to say -- despite the warnings that it was intense and my DD's protestations that she didnt want to go -- we left It's Tough to be a Bug in the middle of the show. As soon as we got up (smack in the middle of the theatre) a CM met us with a small flashlight.

Very embarrassing, but the CM's are definetely used to it!

 

[Stephres]

When DD was 2 and unpredictable I asked to be seated by the exits when we went to shows. We had to leave the Lion King show and the CMs were very helpful.

 

[SueM in MN]

My advice is to try and position yourself so you're sitting on the other end of the theater when you walk in. The theaters "load" from one side and empty from the other.

All the theaters are arranged like that (with the exception of outdoor ones like Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones and Lights, Motors, Action, etc.).
So when you go in, if you go all the way down a row (any row) toward the side opposite where you came in, you will be as close as possible to the exit doors. The exit doors are well marked (with lighted signs) and there is usually a CM on the exit side to make sure you can find it if needed. That's especially true for things like It's Tough to Be a Bug. I don't think I have ever seen that without at least one child being carried out. So don't worry, you won't be the first to have done it.

 

[lorli]

I have walked out of It's a Bug's Life at Animal Kingdom. DD (4) hated it and cried very loudly and in hysterics. She was frightened of the bugs, the puffs of air, the spray, and anything 3d ish. I felt it was better to walk out than the subject the other guests to her screams. Let them enjoy the show and let dd get away from what was scaring her, seemed like a win, win situation to me.

 

[TheDizMom]

Been there done that . Yes you can! I try to sit all the way across the row at the opposite side we came in at (which is usually where they have you exit) so I can sneak out without disrupting everyone. I have been able to then leave easily. The only time I ran into a problem was at the Ariel show because we sat in the middle of the row and it had big cement poles at either end of the aisle, so I was stuck. Who knew Ursula would scare the s--t out of my DD ! I will tell you that when we went back earlier this month (1 1/2 years after our last trip) my DD sat through Philhamagic, but was still scared and wanted out. I just made her sit through it and told her to just close her eyes. When she was still scared the second time I just avoided any other 3-d shows and didn't even attempt Little Mermaid again.