Overcoming ride fears

[Buzzandthemermaid]

Hi Everyone,

Me, my DW, DD (4.5), and DS (6 Months) will be going to WDW for a week in early December. We are staying at AKV. This will be the 5th trip for DD as we're DVC members and my wife and I have been a few times before she was born. We're pretty good on all the ins and outs of WDW with toddlers and infants, but this will be the first trip where DD is 40+ inches, she's about 42 barefoot now. We are very excited to take her on Soarin', Star Tours, Mine Train, Splash, whatever she's tall enough for and we can get her on.

As is common, the 4.5 year old is very emotional when it comes to being scared of things. One day she's fearless, next day scaredy cat. We went to a local fair a few weeks ago and she went on some pretty scary stuff for her age with willingness and no fear. I told her the rides at WDW aren't as fast as those, which is true. Then she'll say sometimes she doesn't want to go on the big rides. I'd like to hear about what I can do to ensure we don't have a scaredy cat day that costs us precious FP+. If it happens it happens, we'll go with the flow but I'd like to avoid it. Feel free to point me to links or other threads, I'm sure this has been asked before. Some strategies I have considered and used since I found out we're going:

1. General "Tall Enough Now for Big Kid Rides" conversations.

2. Show youtube ride videos so she sees it is not that bad. I've only done this with Mine Train I don't want to ruin the rides for her. I don't watch those for the same reason.

3. Play up the fact that she can go on these rides and little brother can't. She's really into things she can do that brother can't so that may be a good strategy.

4. Little reverse psychology "Honey we don't know if you're tall enough to go on Star Tours. Let's go and measure you. Oh look! You are! What a miracle! Let's go!"

Other tips? Thanks for reading!

 

[roseaster]

Show her the videos. It won't ruin the ride.

Bribery. If she is into pin trading or any type of collectible or even toys promise her a special ride themed one after she gets off the ride.

 

[mjmgsssp]

Several years ago I had a 6 year old drama queen who had a meltdown on star tours; her 4 year old sister loved it. Later in the week, miss drama and I were on a "big girls night out" (just the 2 of us) when she asked to go on tower of terror...much to my surprise. After verifying she was serious, I laid down some ground rules that magically worked beautifully:

1. You can hang onto me as tight as you want
2. You can scream as loud as you want
3. If you cry, we're done for night and will go straight back to the resort.

Lo and behold, she LOVED the ride and we went back on it 3 more times that night! It's now 8 years later, we're going back to WDW in November, and she STILL remembers the rules and grins every time.

 

[Honeybee83]

Definitely watch the ride videos on YouTube. This helps my 4 year old tremendously. There's nothing like experiencing it in person so I don't think it will spoil things for her. My DH is the same as you and won't even watch the trailer to a movie he wants to see so the 'surprise' is not ruined. My DD, however, is exactly like me and wants to know what she's getting into. I've found reverse psychology and making sure she feels like she is in control and it's her idea work wonders when used in combination. Letting her know she doesn't have to ride the ride, but explaining all of the things she'll miss out on if she doesn't go. If she's feeling forced onto the ride she panics, and honestly I would too. That being said, when she was three and a half, she didn't want to go on seven dwarfs mine train. We tried our tactics but she wasn't ready so we rider swapped. Another one that works sometimes is, oh poor daddy/mommy will have no one to ride with now. She is very sensitive and compassionate so she wants to solve the problem. As long as it's not truly terrifying her I don't see the harm. We also have had a lot of luck with the hand squeezing thing. Good luck!

 

[kohlby]

Agree to make her feel like she's in control. Also, note why she doesn't want to do a ride. None of my kids have ever done Splash - they're too scared of being splashed! All of them had a trip at 3 years old (And two of them before that). They're now 13, 10, and 7 and STILL won't do Splash. And it's okay. Not feeling pressured helped. We go to a ride and tell them we're doing it and they can do it or wait. It shouldn't mess up your fastpasses too much - you can still use rider swap since you have a baby anyway. It just means she's stuck waiting. I'd give her the option of waiting or riding. (And make it sound like waiting is boring). It also depends on your kid. I have two that if they didn't like a ride, it was hard to get them to do much more. Another one recovered quickly and was ready for more. If I talked one of my boys into a ride and they hated it, things were ruined for quite a while. That wasn't the case with my daughter. Actually, I found my eldest was MORE willing to try a ride if no one talked him into it. We had to casually ask if he wanted to ride. If he knew we really wanted him to do it, then he didn't want to.

 

[ElenaRN]

We are in the middle of this right now with ODD (5 1/5). She was tall enough last years visit to ride most but we didn't really push it. Now she watches all the vids on Youtube and loves them but still says she's too scared to ride.

We'll see what happens when we get there. Vacation is supposed to be fun and if she starts stressing out about the bigger rides and is scared, it's not worth it.

 

[henry72]

I agree with the watching YouTube videos. If possible compare a ride to something else she has already ridden. Also start out with the less intense rides. We made the mistake of taking DS on a ride (no longer there) and it scared him. After that, he didn't want to do almost any ride. So if ghosts might scare her, don't start off with Haunted Mansion.

Oh and speaking of the video watching...both kids last time (ages 6 and 9) watched the video of Dinosaur. We went over that it was not real but a dinosaur jumps out at the end. They assured me they were fine with it. Nope. They both ended up in tears on the ride and declared they never wanted to ride it again. (Going in November and not even considering it for them.)

 

[iheartdisney44]

I think you have some great strategies already. I also have a 4.5y/o DD and am starting to prepare her for our trip in January. I think the best strategy you can do is to talk and prepare her in advance, but when you are actually there, go with the flow and let her be the one to decide. I've taken my kids on rides that they ended up hating and it's just not worth it IMO. Disney is always going to be there, and as DVC members, we know there is always the next trip! Good luck! Early December is my absolute favorite time to go to Disney!

 

[Pesky]

I have a little notebook for DS already with a pen which I'll carry in a ziplock. It's small so not a lot of weight. I figure after each ride, I'll ask them for their rating or let them write it down along with simple thoughts like "fun," "horrible," and so on so they can remember for future reference (each has a journal they can fill out each day too of pages I printed out with "favorite moment" and "least favorite"). I figured I will describe the ride a bit in advance if they ask and see what happens. I already know some of his hot button issues -- at 4, he didn't like getting wet in his clothes, he wanted his swim suit on. Now this is the kid who just fell in the little creek at the park and got his bum all wet and continued to play so who knows. Figured I'd play that by ear. But DS is definitely someone who likes to know in advance plus he has some motion sickness and I think helping him realize he has the power to decide if he ever goes on it again will be helpful. I'm also pre-screening some rides like no TT or Space Mountain, as I'm about 80-90% confident he won't like it.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

Our daughter is 11 years old and we're still trying to figure this out. She has always disliked fast rides, especially rollercoasters. And to my husband's heartache, does not like Splash Mountain. To this day, we can only get her to go on Splash Mountain once and that's if we bribe her.

 

[TWK]

My girls have been too scared! It's a great start that she went on the fair rides! I bribed my oldest to do on the 7dmt last time we went and she had her head in her knees the whole time... We love coasters so this is all new for us!