Question about rides for 4 year old

[Luna81]

I'm nervous about the rides in general. My daughter will be 6 when we go. She loves carnival rides and has begged to do big roller coasters (um...no..hah). But I have this fear she'll do one ride that freaks her out and not want to do anything else when we're there.

 

[scrapquitler]

My son LOVED TOT at 3 1/2 years old. At 12, he hated it! You just never know.

 

[bumbershoot]

Then we took her to Finding Dory last week and she buried her head in my shoulder the whole time and kept begging to leave! I'm hoping the whole "will she find her parents" plot was the reason and doesn't mean she'll be scared of more concrete experiences/rides.

When I was 4 they re-released Cinderella in the theaters and I begged to see it. The moment the stepsisters showed up I was DONE. I couldn't handle it. My mom, thank goodness, left with me. And that was in the days before theaters were kind and would give you your money back! It's not like now.

The *emotional* impact of a movie or a ride CAN effect a child more than other things. My son is gotten to, emotionally, by background music to a point where I really thought he was going to be a musician. (instead, he's a dancer! so it's all about reacting and responding to music emotionally with his body) The physicality of a ride rarely scares him, but the storyline really really can.

I will say the main thing with ToT isn't the haunted house element but the drop.

Not for all kids! DS was 4 when he hit TOT out at DCA the first time, and I can't remember if it's the same at DHS but at DCA you are looking at the mirror and you're hit by lightning, turn blue, and turn into a skeleton. My son HATED that. He absolutely loved the up and down of the ride, that was superfun to him. But I believe he was NINE when he finally stopped talking about how he hates that we died on the ride. "Uh, kid, we didn't die, we're right here"... Had no impact on him, that we didn't die. The emotions of it overrode being rational, and he just wouldn't deal with the ride for years.


There's NO way I'd take a 4 year old on Dino. It *might* work out just fine. Seems that there's a much higher chance of it NOT working out. I am not willing to take that risk with my trip. Oh, and my child's psyche, of course. On our first WDW trip DS was 6.5 and said he would go on it, then in line changed his mind. I went over a very irritated DH's wishes and took DS out of line. Ooh DH was annoyed with me. DS and I waited in the giftshop and saw kid after kid after kid come out, shaking and in tears. (and many perfectly happy kids, of course) DH came out and thanked me for being the cooler head, because he could tell that DS absolutely couldn't have handled it.

 

[HollyL]

Ha ha..great question. Yes....this "mother of the year" did. When my daughter was 4, she wanted to go. When the ride started to free fall, she started shaking, clung onto me, and her eyes became as big as dinner plates. When it was over, she just looked at me and said, "Mommy, I don't like that ride". The next day she tried The Matterhorn, and loved it. She also tried Space Mountain and wasn't sure about it (at DLR you sit side-by-side, not in a row like at WDW), however, my 7 year old son decided to freak out at the last minute and not ride it.

A few weeks ago (daughter is now 5), she decided to try Expedition Everest, but decided that was a little too crazy for her. She's brave- she'll try everything at least once. Dinosaur did not scare her at all, but it kind of freaked my son out, and the 6 year old girl sitting in front of us was screaming, and in tears. Each kid is different. At age 6, my son freaked out before getting on Toy Story (I think the big Mr. Potato Head freaked him out) and also freaked out at Winnie the Pooh. He rode Big Thunder Mountain at age 3, and he is now 8, and 2 weeks ago, I could not get him to go on it with me.

 

[No.1000]

I took my ds on Tot when he was 6. He hated it and even now, at 15, blames that ride for his fear of heights.

 

[Gillyrose779]

Both my kids did the tower of terror at 4 and loved it. They love dinosaur at AK too. They do not like scary stories though so I learned to distract them during the story to the drop at ToT. They love the feeling of the butts lifting from the seat. My kids are 5 and 6 now and have done each ride at least a dozen times.

You know what they hated at 4? It's a Bug's Life and the Muppets show- scared the crap out of my oldest when he was 4. Goes to show you never know.

 

[JPKnapp]

I have all daredevil kids (7d,5d,3s) - when youngest was 2, he rode 7DMT. At the time, oldest just turned 5 and liked ToT, but only rode it once. At 7 she rode SM about a dozen times and Expedition was her favorite. Dinosaur crossed the line for her. She had her head buried in my arm saying "it's not real, it's not real, it's not real". That ride is more of a back alley haunted house than a Disney "thrill" ride.