OMG Will DSD 16 be bored with MK & MGM?

[SuperGurl]

I am taking my family on their first trip to WDW. You can see everyone's ages in my tag below. I am nervous though. I want everyone to have a great time and I am concerned that my DSD 15, who will be turning 16 on this trip may not enjoy it so much. I have a cousin who is the same age and she went on her first trip to WDW in February. I asked her how she liked each park and she thought MGM & MK were boring ! I know DSD is a thrill seeker but I was hoping she'd still enjoy this. Should I be worried?

 

[penguin087]

Its hard to believe anyone could be bored at Disneyworld but I know 16 year old girls can be cranky. If she allows herself to she will have fun. I remember going to DL at 17 with 5 adults all well into their 40s and only two spoke english. Long story. Anyway yes I had fun, wasn't bored, and still laugh at the pictures 22 years later!

 

[magicaldisney]

My oldest son, 15, enjoys everything about disney. None of the parks are packed with thrill rides. Each offers a few. We do hit those thrill rides first, middle and last to help with 15 year olds desires. It does help that we ALL enjoy those rides the most as well. If your DSD can see excitement through everyone else, it won't be as bad as you are dreading.

We also include doing water parks and Disney Quest on our trips.

Will you be celebrating her birthday while you are there? There are some special Disney ways you can do that to make it seem more special.

 

[traciedee]

My teens are 14, 15, almost 17 and they have been to Disneyland in CA a ton of times and never tire of it. We go to Orlando in a week and they are exicted about MK and MGM. We went to Universal in Ca (similar to MGM) last year and they enjoyed all the shows. Not as many thrill rides as they would like, but they had fun. What my girls really want to do is Disney Quest and the waterparks. Ask her what she wants to do and what she doesn't want to miss and make sure you hit her hi-lites. Have a blast!

 

[DebIreland]

There is so much to do for all ages!!! How about if you show her some of the rides on video and see if she likes them. Click here for a great link to some ride videos (just click on WDW on the first page). Amongst others are Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Haunted Mansion, all at MK. There's Rock 'n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror videos from MGM.

I bet "bored" will not be the first word to come to her mind when she watches those.

 

[pigletforever]

We are traveling to Disney in October with 3 17 year olds. 2 of the 3 can't wait. The one who is the problem is a girl. I dont know what it is but the boys can't wait to go. They have their days mapped to get the most use of fastpasses to ride the roller coasters as much as possible. MGM is not top of the list but MK is a big draw to them. They even helped pick the chracter meals we are doing. Get him involved it the planning and it will help.

 

[ugadog99]

My 15 year old daughter loves all things Disney. MK is her favorite. If your DSD remains open to all the magic, she should have a blast. Hey, I'm 42 and nothing at WDW bores me!

 

[Mickey&Donald]

My sister is 16, and she had a wonderful time when we all went to Disneyland last fall. She took off like a rocket when she saw Cinderella on our Extra Magic Hours morning, screaming at me, "COME TAKE A PICTURE!! IT'S CINDERELLAAAAAAAA!!" hehehe

But then again, we come from insane Disney freak stock, so it could be different for our family members..

 

[tiggermei]

I agree with Penguin here. If DSD is open to having fun, she will. My little bro went with my parents and baby sisters when he was 15, girls 5. Keep in mind that my parents HATE Disney (what weirdos). He had a terrific time. We have great pictures of him wearing his Goofy hat and he still talks about it to this day (20 years later). Just try to get her dad to talk it up about how much fun it is, and she'll be great. I think all of the parks will be great!

 

[DrTomorrow]

[...] If she allows herself to she will have fun. [...]

This is the key issue right here. When DS (now 25) was a teen, before a WDW he'd get a little snarky ("Oh, maybe I'll get to see Peter Pan!" ). But once he'd get there, he would get into the spirit of things have a great time (we just took him for early Christmas last year and we still had fun!).

IMHO, I'd let her decide how she wants to feel about it - sometimes too much pressure can make teens "too cool for school". But if you give her some space initially, she might just discover her 'inner Tinkerbell'....

 

[canda]

I used to take large groups of teens to WDW as a youth minister. I have seen the most "closed off" kid open up there. What helps is if they feel like they have some control. Let them help plan. And some freedom will do wonders. I know you don't want one teen wandering around by themselves, but what I mean is if they want to see something, let them go and meet back in a few minutes. etc.

In my case, I took around 120 kids and 30 adults. they could wander the 1 park (no hop) without an adult. We had 3 times a day they would check in with me. No kid ever missed check in and what I found was at each check in, the group hanging out with me would get larger.
Even when a teens parents would be the chaparone, the teen and their friends would end up hanging out with their parents the whole trip.

Teens just have a better attitude when they think they are not forced and feel they have some freedom.

(oh yeah, and do not wear a fanny pack, CROCS or look like a dork or they will FREAK OUT!!!!)its funny because it is true.

 

[singingpixie]

I agree with the freedom suggestion. Only you know how responsible she is, but if you trust her, maybe giving her a little bit of time to wander by herself would be helpful. Then she can be free to get into the spirit without having to keep up the "cool" show. there are many degrees of freedom. Maybe she can go ride Space mountain a second time while the younger ones go see stich. Or if she is really responsible, maybe she can stay at the park while you go back and take a break. Cell phones are helpful in this, as are meeting spots. And if she misses a meeting without calling (things happen, calling if you're going to be 10 mins late saves a lot of worry) then she looses the privalege.
Other than freedom, let her see some of the more thrilling rides before you go- some great ones for teens are tower of terror, rockin roller coaster at MGM (Lights Motors Action and Indiana Jones are fun shows) at MGM, and the mountains at MK. Treat her like an adult (ok not really, but at least give her some choice in rides instead of telling her where she's going) and don't force things on her. Teens like to rebel, so if you are practically begging her to have fun she'll have a reason to be grumpy.

 

[SuperGurl]

Thank you all so much for your advice . This will help me alot. I feel alot better now. I guess I'm just paranoid because I really want everyone to have a great time.

 

[Tinkerbell10403]

OMG...I am 20 and I am OBSESSED with everything WDW!!! HaHa...don't worry so much, and let her explore to find the things she loves the most.

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

the first time i went to Disney World was when i was 16 and MK was my FAVORITE! it has some of those "thrill seeker" rides. Splash Mountain and Space Mountain are great thrill rides. i'm 22 and i still love MK it's still my favorite park.

MGM was more fun when i was younger, if anything. it used to be my second favorite park, but now Epcot has taken over that spot.

 

[OnceUponAStar*]

I'm 16 and I love Disney and will never get tired of it. There is so much to do there, Thrill seeker? well Tower of Terror, Test Track, Mission Space, Soarin', Rockin Roller Coaster, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Dinosaur...I could go on and on and on. So much to do and you can never get tired of it.

 

[mickeymom629]

Our last trip, spring break, we took my neighbor's 14 year old daughter on her first trip to WDW. She was excited and loves Disney movies and didn't think she was a thrill ride person. Well, we started with MGM and she loved RnRC - the first ride of the trip. From that moment, she thought all other non-thrill attractions were somewhat boring. The second day was EPCOT and she enjoyed TT and SOARIN, but was unimpressed by everything else. AK was the 3rd day, and EE was a big hit! Our final day was MK, and she loved Space Mountain, Splash M, BTMR, of course, but she was bored by all else. My kids, especially my DD14, who have grown up going to WDW were surprised by the fact that she clearly "didn't get it". She said that AK and MGM were her favorite parks, and that was only because of the thrill rides. She absolutely loved Illuminations and Wishes. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Fantasmic! that trip. She did enjoy Spectromagic.

I would have tried to do MK the first day, had I known how she was going to feel about the attractions, but I was following what I had read about the best days/best park for our itinerary. Maybe she would have appreciated the Fantasyland attractions had she not started off with a thrill ride (I would have put the "mountains" in our itinerary a little later in the a.m.).

 

[kkevcamsmom]

I have a 15 yr old, 6 yr old and 4 yr old and the 15 yr old is so excited to go. She's already picked out several 'Must Do" things and we are willing to let her go on her own too, got to love cell phones!!!

We also plan to split up (DH with the boys, me with DD or the other way around) several times. We have done it whenever we have gone to Six Flags.

My DH worries about being bored in 'down times' but, if he gets bored, it's his own fault... :

 

[CleveRocks]

IMHO, I'd let her decide how she wants to feel about it - sometimes too much pressure can make teens "too cool for school". But if you give her some space initially, she might just discover her 'inner Tinkerbell'....

I just wanted you to know how much I enjoy reading your posts!

 

[Eeyore2003]

I agree with the "little space" thing too. We went when my younger son was 13 and 16 and at 16 we let him go to Epcot by himself for a few hours while we were at the pool. He of course knew his way around and we were at the CR so it was just monorail to monorail. You know her better than others, and if she's OK with a little "space" at the parks, that might help.