Repeating Rides?

[Delilah1310]

This will be our first trip and our son will be 4.5, and during my park planning, it has just occurred to me that he might like to ride things more than once. duh.

So if all you veterans can remember back to your preschoolers very first visits, did they usually want to ride things more than once or were they more interested in seeing what else DW had to offer?

I could see him wanting to explore it all, but I could also see him really liking something and getting caught up in doing it again and again.

We've got 2 days at MK, one day at each of the others, and a 3/4-day at whatever park he wants on the last day. I thought that might be a good way to let him do repeats.

Thanks in advance for any advice on how to find the balance between experiencing as much as we can and experiencing his repeated enjoyment.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Use baby swap or fastpasses. One of you ride with him, then the other adult can ride with him again. Or grab a fastpass before you ride, then you can ride it again later.

We do that for Soarin. One ride is never enough. We actually ride, then grab the fastpasses on the way out. The line is usually shorter to ride than the fastpass lines!

And remember...you can never see or do it all. We have gone 6 times now and there are still attractions we haven't done yet.

 

[bellemeeko1]

Mine loved:

Dumbo

Cinderellas Carrousel

Peter Pan

Small World

Tomrrowland Speedway

Jungle Cruise

but that was yrs ago I bet yours will want to ride more than once @ MK:

Dumbo
Peter Pan
Small World
Speedway
Winnie the Pooh
Aladdins Magic Carpet
Barnstormer
Jungle Cruise
Carousel
Mickeys Philarmagic (3D movie)

 

[Galls]

This will be our first trip and our son will be 4.5, and during my park planning, it has just occurred to me that he might like to ride things more than once. duh.

So if all you veterans can remember back to your preschoolers very first visits, did they usually want to ride things more than once or were they more interested in seeing what else DW had to offer?

I could see him wanting to explore it all, but I could also see him really liking something and getting caught up in doing it again and again.

We've got 2 days at MK, one day at each of the others, and a 3/4-day at whatever park he wants on the last day. I thought that might be a good way to let him do repeats.

Thanks in advance for any advice on how to find the balance between experiencing as much as we can and experiencing his repeated enjoyment.

My 3 year old really enjoyed Splash Mountain, Test Track and Space Ship Earth.

We really went out of our way on the last day so he could ride Test Track again.

 

[RMulieri]

My 4 yr old last year wanted to ride over and over
Carousel
Dumbo
Magic carpets of Aladdin

 

[ccudmore]

On our last trip we had 2 days planned for the MK. In our plan we saw and did pretty much everything once by noon on the second day. Then we let each of our 3 kids choose 2 rides they wanted to go on again and we spend the afternoon going on those. We wanted to leave some time for some spontaneity and to let them make their choices after they had seen all of their options.

 

[dizzneebabe]

All three of our kids did this. I think it's natural for kids if they like something to want to keep doing it! To avoid getting "stuck" on one thing, we would get him (or in our present case, HER) excited about the next ride. Being so easily distracted by new and cool things, it never seemed to be a big problem for us. That way, we at least covered our must-do's and kept everyone in the group happy! If we had more time that day and the lines weren't long we would repeat something we knew would be fun.

Just don't overthink it. There's so much to see and do, your little one won't feel like he's missing out if you keep on moving!

 

[jb01]

Ours liked to ride certain rides more than once over exploring. So we used to compromise. Ride the rides, do a little exploring, then go back and do seconds on certain rides.

 

[MinniesYooHoo]

Our daughter, who was not quite 4, absolutely LOVED Splash Mountain, Goofy's Barnstormer, Big Thunder Mountain, Soarin,Toy Story Mania, and Test track. Therefore we rode them over and over and over..... Suggestion: FASTPASS as much as you can!!! Don't stress about the possibility of missing any shows you might want to see. If your son is having a blast riding something until he gets sick, let him!! It's part of the fun.

 

[madalex]

Use baby swap or fastpasses. One of you ride with him, then the other adult can ride with him again. Or grab a fastpass before you ride, then you can ride it again later.

That's not baby swap works. When you do baby swap, the child does not ride at all. It is intended to let one parent ride while the other parent stays with the child and then to let the parents switch. If you can take the child on the ride, then all three people just ride at once.

Using fast passes is a much better idea for this purpose.

 

[btwitkin]

Kids almost always want to ride their favorites again and again.

My 5 y.o. DS wanted to ride BTMRR, Splash Mtn and Barnstormer over and over again at MK

At Epcot it was Soarin, Spaceship Earth and Turtle Talk With Crush...we did those 3 so many times I couldn't keep track

 

[LilGMom]

My four yr. old and I rode Buzz Lightyear about five times in a row while waiting for my 8 yr. old and DH to get through SM. Buzz, TSM, POTC, and SE are the ones that our kids want to ride over and over. The oldest has a few others that he loves but those are the ones that the little guy really loves.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

When my kids were preschoolers they'd love to ride the same thing many times. I remember when DS was 4 he became infatuated with Snow White. We/he rode SWSA eleven times in the course of 2.5 days at MK during that vacation.

 

[Delilah1310]

thanks for everyone's thoughts.

So it sounds like maybe I should count on repeat rides happening at least for some.

I think what I might do is scale back my plan from what I *thought* we would be able to do each day, leaving more time for these likely repeat visits and other sponteneity.

thanks again for your thoughts.

 

[aurorae]

And with a 4 yo, don't plan on being a park commando and doing everything.

It will be much more enjoyable to align your visit with the child's stamina and interest.

Plan on getting side tracked at one of the playgrounds, or waiting for the next Castle show, or whatever. Have a good time, and don't worry about trying to see it all.

 

[pixiefairy]

Kids love repetition, lol. Probably why It's a Small World is so popular with the preschool set, lol. We took our kids last year when they were 13, 7, 4, 3 and 1. Winnie the Pooh and Cinderella's Golden Carousel were big hits with the younger kids..as well as the teacups. Goofy's Barnstormer, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribean were also multiple rides. They had a blast. Just like a pp said, you can't see everything in one trip. There are still things that I'm trying to see with every new trip! Have a great time!

 

[ktlm]

We took DD last year at 2 yrs 10 months and again this year at 3. Yes- you can definitely bet a little one is going to want to ride certain things more than once. The thing to remember is that you are taking this trip in large part for him, so if riding something again is going to make him happy and not riding is going to bring tears- I say ride it again (within reason depending on the wait time and the amount of times he wants to ride). I also say with a little one, let them enjoy themselves and don't force them to rush from place to place constantly. If he wants to stop and look at something, let him. (unless you are going to miss the start of a show or an ADR).

When were were there, we were lucky enough that a lot of the ride lines were 10 minutes or less. At MK we rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin 2 times in a row her 1st trip and 3 times in a row her second trip (get off then right back in line). Small World at least 2 times in a row on both trips. Rode the carousel about every time we walked by it. Got another fast pass for Peter Pan (her favorite) about every time we got off of it, so that she could ride it again later. Her 2nd trip, we rode Snow White 3 times in a row, then she wanted to go back and ride it one more time later. Buzz-twice in a row both trips. Pirates twice in a row, 2nd trip. On our 2nd trip, she became infatuated with the boat ride in Mexico at Epcot. She would have stayed there and rode the boat over and over again all day. When we tried to move on after twice, she got tears, so we let her do it one more time. We also rode it again on a different day. She also rode Nemo a couple of times, but at different times during the day.

 

[DisMN]

Actually one of our all time favorite memories is when little grandson (3) got off the Safari ride at AK and immediately said "AGAIN!!" It was well worth it to see the look on his face when you said "OK!" and when his face lit with joy from the second/third/fourth time around. LOL

Yes, I'd plan for re-riding rides if long lines/waits don't prohibit you from doing so.

 

[Delilah1310]

We definately we not planning on a "commando" trip, but I was just making lists of things we could get done each day and was thinking it could be up to 10 different rides/shows.

But now I'm thinking if adjust my expectations to maybe just 5 things we'd like to do in each park, we probably could - at the very least - get all of those done (expecting some repeats).

The is the first trip for DH and me, too, so I'm just not sure what to expect as far as what we all might like, not like and what kind of behaviors to exepct.

I think if I set my expectations low regarding how much we can get done, then I will be pleasantly surprised if we get to do more.

thanks again everyone!
Boy, the DIS never fails to help a newbie really get her mind wrapped around this whole WDW expereince - thanks!

 

[donac]

We went when ds was 3 and he hated his first ride on POC. SO we thought we would skip it the rest of the trip. A couple of days later we were walking by and he starts telling us he wanted to go on POC. We were a little skeptical since he cried for the entire time during his first visit. He loved it and has since then

You never know how they are going to react.