Kids reaction to Rides

[WanderlustNZ]

Hi everyone,

I will be visiting these parks during Sept next year with a son who will be just a few weeks away from his 6th birthday. My original hope was to start our holiday at Disney, get a feel for how he copes with the rides, and then move onto some of the slightly scarier ones at Universal. However, due to timetabling difficulties, the Universal parks will now be the first ones we visit. The last thing I want is to take him on a ride that scares him so much he refuses to go on anymore for the rest of our trip.

So, I was wondering if anyone has taken younger children on Universal and IOA rides and would be keen to share their experiences with me. I know all kids cope differently, but it would still be very interesting to hear what scares kids and what doesn't.

We have no wish to go on any of the big roller coasters (even I would be terrified) and we will probably avoid some of the extra dark rides (Mummy, Jurrasic Park etc). However, I'm really keen to hear about your experiences with what I perceive (perhaps incorrectly) to be medium scare level rides such as Spiderman, Simpsons, the water rides, the Harry Potter ride etc.

Thanks so much everyone!

 

[RMulieri]

We took our 8 yr old in Jan..She is a small, easily firghtened kid and she had a blast.She did not ride Forbidden Journey because she didn't meet the height requirement for it, but she did like the Flight of the Hippogrif coaster and Ollivanders wand shop.She loved Spiderman, Storm Force Acceletron,Meeting the Superheros ,Jurassic park discovery center,Pterenaodon flyers, All of Seussland.We didn't do the water rides since it was cool out, but she would have went on them.She did like the Me ship the Olive ( you get to shoot water cannons and guns on the people on the popeye ride)She really liked seeing the shows though..Over at IOA she loved the 8th Voyage of Sindbad, Frog Choir in Harry Potter,Triwizard Pep rally in Harry Potter.On the Studios Side- Shrek, Minion Madness wasn't open yet( but would be appropriate),Disaster, Terminator, ET ,Simpsons, Men in Black,Woody Woodpeckers Coaster( kiddie coaster) Fievals play area,.She loved the Beetlejuice show and Blues Brothers.She loved the character meet and greets with the Simpsons, Scooby Doo, Curious George( the playground is a hoot too, very very wet though),Spongebob Squarepants.All in all she really had fun despite being too short for many things and a timid child

 

[RN_Mom]

My 6 year old who is seriously afraid of traditional coasters loves everything at both parks( she won't touch RRR or hulk but is too short anyways) except the Mummy. She loves JP...only the end is " dark". Mummy she is willing to do again but not too excited. Spiderman and FJ she loves!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Thank you both for your feedback! It's great to hear of young children enjoying so many rides and to also hear just how many ride and show options are available.

My son is REALLY tall for his age and people are shocked when we say he's five. I think he'll meet the height requirements for the majority of rides, but I'm just not sure if he'll be brave enough for them.

It's interesting to hear about children enjoying the Jurassic Park ride and the Terminator ride, as those are two I'm quite unsure of. Perhaps I can leave them for the end and gauge his interest on some of the others first.

If anyone else has experiences with young kids on rides, I'd love to hear about them

 

[RMulieri]

Thank you both for your feedback! It's great to hear of young children enjoying so many rides and to also hear just how many ride and show options are available.

My son is REALLY tall for his age and people are shocked when we say he's five. I think he'll meet the height requirements for the majority of rides, but I'm just not sure if he'll be brave enough for them.

It's interesting to hear about children enjoying the Jurassic Park ride and the Terminator ride, as those are two I'm quite unsure of. Perhaps I can leave them for the end and gauge his interest on some of the others first.

If anyone else has experiences with young kids on rides, I'd love to hear about them

The ONLY reason my DD didn't do Jurassic was that it was down for rehab when we went( she was disappointed )

 

[2BigKIdz]

My son was 18 months on our trip last year so too young for a comparison. Just wanted to add that Jurassic Park is outside for the majority of the ride, you are only in the dark going up the lift hill, it does have a large drop. The Mummy is an indoor roller coaster not just a dark ride and does have a "launch" portion, if you do not like roller coasters I would not recommend it. Terminator is not a ride it's a show, you are sitting in movie theater type seats with live actors performing amidst the audience at times, it does have simulated gunfire in case your son does not like loud noises. Hope this helps!

I would recommend starting with Spiderman or Flight of the Hippogriff at IOA or Woody's nuthouse coaster at US and go from there.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

My son was 18 months on our trip last year so too young for a comparison. Just wanted to add that Jurassic Park is outside for the majority of the ride, you are only in the dark going up the lift hill, it does have a large drop. The Mummy is an indoor roller coaster not just a dark ride and does have a "launch" portion, if you do not like roller coasters I would not recommend it. Terminator is not a ride it's a show, you are sitting in movie theater type seats with live actors performing amidst the audience at times, it does have simulated gunfire in case your son does not like loud noises. Hope this helps!

I would recommend starting with Spiderman or Flight of the Hippogriff at IOA or Woody's nuthouse coaster at US and go from there.

Thanks so much. Very helpful.

We were originally going to go to L.A. instead, so I have been researching the rides and attractions at Universal Hollywood alongside the ones at Universal Orlando. It seems I may have confused Terminator as I thought it was a 3-D attraction with moving seats. A bit like Spiderman one, but with more menacing characters. So just to be clear, is it a live show, not a 3-D movie?

As for the mummy and Jurrasic Park, I was mainly worried about the scare factor of the monsters/dinosaurs. Now that I know the Mummy is also a roller coaster, I'll definitely be scratching that off the list. Good to know. Thanks.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

Thanks so much. Very helpful.

We were originally going to go to L.A. instead, so I have been researching the rides and attractions at Universal Hollywood alongside the ones at Universal Orlando. It seems I may have confused Terminator as I thought it was a 3-D attraction with moving seats. A bit like Spiderman one, but with more menacing characters. So just to be clear, is it a live show, not a 3-D movie?

As for the mummy and Jurrasic Park, I was mainly worried about the scare factor of the monsters/dinosaurs. Now that I know the Mummy is also a roller coaster, I'll definitely be scratching that off the list. Good to know. Thanks.

Terminator is a show that has live actors, 3-D screens and some robot animatronics. One of my most vivid memories of Universal from my childhood was seeing that show and crying because at one point the robots demonstrate their artillery by "shooting" at targets across the room.. I was convinced they were going to shoot my parents! I think if your child can grasp the difference between reality and rides/shows it can be fun, but if not, I wouldn't recommend it.

For Jurassic Park, the scariest dinosaurs are in the dark part leading up to the drop. Raptors that pop out and spit water at you and a very large T-Rex that greets you at the peak. It's also very loud during that section. The rest of the ride is a leisurely boat tour past the friendlier herbivores.

 

[JessB320]

We just took our 5 and 6 year olds in sept. they loved US and IOA!! Jurassic park was my sons favorite, but he loves Dino's!!! Check out you tube they have lots of videos people have taken while on rides, might give you a better idea of if they would scare your child or not. If you don't go on the Jurassic park ride, make sure you at least go into the discovery center, it's all feared towards younger kids. They will have "hatching " Dino eggs every 1/2 hour or so that is a fun little interactive thing for kids

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Terminator is a show that has live actors, 3-D screens and some robot animatronics. One of my most vivid memories of Universal from my childhood was seeing that show and crying because at one point the robots demonstrate their artillery by "shooting" at targets across the room.. I was convinced they were going to shoot my parents! I think if your child can grasp the difference between reality and rides/shows it can be fun, but if not, I wouldn't recommend it.

For Jurassic Park, the scariest dinosaurs are in the dark part leading up to the drop. Raptors that pop out and spit water at you and a very large T-Rex that greets you at the peak. It's also very loud during that section. The rest of the ride is a leisurely boat tour past the friendlier herbivores.

Thanks heaps. That is very useful. The Terminator show sounds interesting, yet intense. Will keep what you have said in mind,

 

[WanderlustNZ]

We just took our 5 and 6 year olds in sept. they loved US and IOA!! Jurassic park was my sons favorite, but he loves Dino's!!! Check out you tube they have lots of videos people have taken while on rides, might give you a better idea of if they would scare your child or not. If you don't go on the Jurassic park ride, make sure you at least go into the discovery center, it's all feared towards younger kids. They will have "hatching " Dino eggs every 1/2 hour or so that is a fun little interactive thing for kids

The discovery centre sounds great. From the comments I've read so far, it seems as though Jurrasic Park might not be so bad. I'll have to show my son some You Tube clips.

JessB30, out of interest, were there any rides your kids found scary?

 

[JessB320]

We were using child swap for the mummy and the kids didn't like walking through the ride line, too dark and creepy. the next time an awesome employee walked us through the back hall . The very end of Jurassic might be a bit intense for a few seconds, but my kids still begged to go on it again even though they got a little scared Twister of all things is what the 5 year old got scared on lol. It's not a ride but more an interactive show. Your in the middle of a " twister" that touches down . I told the kids a head of time it was like a movie set and they would see a flying cow and a tornado. Half way through I had to pick up my 5 year old. He was yelling at me " this is not pretend !!!" he still is convinced there is a real tornado in that building.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

We were using child swap for the mummy and the kids didn't like walking through the ride line, too dark and creepy. the next time an awesome employee walked us through the back hall . The very end of Jurassic might be a bit intense for a few seconds, but my kids still begged to go on it again even though they got a little scared Twister of all things is what the 5 year old got scared on lol. It's not a ride but more an interactive show. Your in the middle of a " twister" that touches down . I told the kids a head of time it was like a movie set and they would see a flying cow and a tornado. Half way through I had to pick up my 5 year old. He was yelling at me " this is not pretend !!!" he still is convinced there is a real tornado in that building.

Good to know. I will show my son Twister videos as well, just incase. Thanks for your help

 

[JessB320]

Another thing I'll warn you about is the curious George play area. Not scary at all of course but your kiddo will get SOAKING wet. I'm talking went swimming in their clothes soaking wet. It doesn't look bad at first but trust me , there are giant wave of water that fall from the building and other water features in the back you dont see at first. My kids loved it but they were in very wet jean shorts the rest of the day.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Another thing I'll warn you about is the curious George play area. Not scary at all of course but your kiddo will get SOAKING wet. I'm talking went swimming in their clothes soaking wet. It doesn't look bad at first but trust me , there are giant wave of water that fall from the building and other water features in the back you dont see at first. My kids loved it but they were in very wet jean shorts the rest of the day.

Thank you. Another great tip. We will be there in the second half of Sep, so he'll probably be grateful for the 'swim'. But we'll make sure we carry a small backpack with some swimwear or change of clothes in it.

 

[JessB320]

Thank you. Another great tip. We will be there in the second half of Sep, so he'll probably be grateful for the 'swim'. But we'll make sure we carry a small backpack with some swimwear or change of clothes in it.

We were there sept 11-25 so the kids enjoyed the "shower" for sure. A fun little thing to do; in the lost continent there is a "magic" fountain named casaba. Our kids loved this thing. Casbah talks to the kids and will squirt them. Our kids couldn't get enough and we got some really funny video. Right next to casbah is a coke free style stand. They have machines with like 100 plus combinations of soda. Again a silly little thing the kids loved. We got many many cup refills of some crazy flavors there. Cherry Fanta was their favorite I think. I liked that it was a quiet part of the park. A good spot if your getting over loaded on crowds

 

[WanderlustNZ]

We were there sept 11-25 so the kids enjoyed the "shower" for sure. A fun little thing to do; in the lost continent there is a "magic" fountain named casaba. Our kids loved this thing. Casbah talks to the kids and will squirt them. Our kids couldn't get enough and we got some really funny video. Right next to casbah is a coke free style stand. They have machines with like 100 plus combinations of soda. Again a silly little thing the kids loved. We got many many cup refills of some crazy flavors there. Cherry Fanta was their favorite I think. I liked that it was a quiet part of the park. A good spot if your getting over loaded on crowds

JessB320, you're awesome. Thanks for all your great tips. It's wonderful to hear about little places like this as they sometimes create better memories than the multi-million big budget rides. Yet, without a heads-up beforehand, it's easy to walk right past them.

 

[JessB320]

JessB320, you're awesome. Thanks for all your great tips. It's wonderful to hear about little places like this as they sometimes create better memories than the multi-million big budget rides. Yet, without a heads-up beforehand, it's easy to walk right past them.

Glad I can help!! We were a little nervous taking the younger kids, but they had so much fun I can't believe now that we ever worried. The 5 year old still talks daily about the trip, almost two months later. I'm sure you will have a great time !

 

[Seeker615]

My 5 year old nephew loved everything at IOA. He especially loved The Forbidden Journey Ride. My sister explained everything to him beforehand and he did great. They rode it multiple times. Same with the Jurassic Park ride.

Now way back in the day when my daughter was 4 she was terrified by Snow White's adventures. We had a stressful day with her at the Magic Kingdom after that. We went to Universal a few days later and she loved everything over there right down to King Kong and Jaws. (sadly they are gone now). The one thing that frightened her....ET! She hated walking through the forest area. The ride itself she liked.

To each his (or her) own.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

My 5 year old nephew loved everything at IOA. He especially loved The Forbidden Journey Ride. My sister explained everything to him beforehand and he did great. They rode it multiple times. Same with the Jurassic Park ride.

Now way back in the day when my daughter was 4 she was terrified by Snow White's adventures. We had a stressful day with her at the Magic Kingdom after that. We went to Universal a few days later and she loved everything over there right down to King Kong and Jaws. (sadly they are gone now). The one thing that frightened her....ET! She hated walking through the forest area. The ride itself she liked.

To each his (or her) own.

Lol, ET, who would have thought?
I remember ET as being my second favourite ride (Back to the Future was my first) when I visited many many moons ago. It was such a gentle ride, it never occurred to me that it might scare some kids. A perfect example of how what affects one child might not necessarily affect another. Thanks for sharing.