Rides YOU have avoided with a toddler

[Jynxed]

So I am a little overwhelmed on what rides are good with a 19 month old. I keep hearing conflicting information on what to avoid and what not to. So what rides for YOU were good? What ones were disasters?


For instance, tea cups? Is a spinning ride okay for a little one? Buzz lightyear?

I know all kids are different but if everyone's kid hated a particular ride, I would avoid it.

 

[skiingfast]

It depends on the mood of your child.

Some rides are jerky, some are dark, some are loud, some have flashing lights.

You can't plan on this, you will have to see how it goes once there.

 

[Dizneydaz]

OK,

Lets see....

The tea cups might actually be fine for your 19 month old. If you don't spin them with the wheel they are actually pretty mild. No worse than the Lady Bug Boogie (for kids) in DCA

It can be tricky. And of course all kids are different.

For example my DD11 liked HM one day but the next visit we had to exit after we had already boarded our Doom Buggie. She was around 4 then.

If you child is scared of the dark I would skip Haunted Mansion, Snow White & Mr. Toad. Peter Pan is pretty dark as well as is Pinnochio.

Many of the rides your child may not like will have height limits so that will make things easier.

Concentrate in Fantasyland on -Dumbo, Casey Jr. Train, Carousel, Walk thru Sleeping Beauty's Castle, Storybook Land Canal Boats, It's a Small World, and maybe Alice in Wonderland.

Tomorrowland-Finding Nemo Submarines, Buzz, and Monorail.

New Orleans-Pirates (maybe too dark?)

Adventureland-Tarzan's Treehouse, Jungle Boat Cruise, Tiki Room

Frontierland-Mark Twain Steamboat and/or Columbia, Pirate's Lair (formerly Tom Sawyer's Island)

Main Street-Railroad, Double Decker Bus, Trolley, and a few other Main Street vehicles.

Critter Country-The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

In DCA
Bugs land/Flik's Fun Fair-Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, Flik's Flyers, Francis' Ladybug Boogie, and if it's warm/hot play in Princess Dot's Puddle Park(bring water shoes and change of clothes-kid's must wear shoes at all times)

Hollywood Pictures Backlot-Monsters Inc, Playhouse Disney Live, Animation Academy (Turtle Talk and just running around inside.)

Paradise Pier-Triton's Carousel, Golden Zephyr, Mickey's Fun Wheel-non swinging car

Grizzly Peak-Redwood Creek Challenge Trail

We took my Nephew2.5 yesterday for a short visit. He did Tiki Room, Mark Twain, and Pirate's Lair very much.

 

[jlmarr]

Avoid Snow White's Scary Adventures. They gave it that name for a reason - scary for the little ones.

Also Tough To Be A Bug in DCA - while it's a great 3D movie experience, will likely be scary for a toddler.

 

[BELLEDOZER]

I second Snow Whites Scary Adventures....went on it on my solo trip just to see it, and it would scare most young children. Even I didn't get the ride, although it was worth it to do it just once, if nothing else to touch the golden apple at the enterance to the ride and scare silly the people behind me with the loud evil laugh that happens when you touch it. Other NO's are Space Mountain (dark with sudden drops), Mr. Toad's wild ride (heard screaming from younger kids when I went in Oct. There are some really scarey scenes that young ones will be terrified of). Other's are Haunted Mansion unless the Nighmare before Christmas overlay is there from Oct to end of Dec. It's very dark and scared the snot out of my 6 and 7 yrs old kids to the point where they wanted to avoid rides for the remainder of the day when we went to DL in Feb. He will LOVE Buzz Lightyears Astroblasters, and while he may not score many points, he will have a blast shooting those aliens and will want to ride it over and over again. Pirates Lair is alot of fun for younger kids, and is a must do for us. Hope that this helps you out.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

My sons were 3 and 5 the first time we took them to Disneyland. They literally ran away from Haunted Mansion after poking their heads around the first doorway (they didn't even make it to the elevator room). We avoided Snow White's Scary Adventures. We also avoided Tough to Be a Bug until the boys were older, but my younger DS would have loved it since he thinks bugs are great. My younger son was fine on Pirates when he was 3, but his 5 year old brother freaked out. Older son started liking that ride around age 7, and it remains one of his favorites now at age 11. They both loved Buzz. So we had mixed results. My brother and his wife took their daughter last September when she was 17 months old. She never fussed about any ride or any character interaction, and they took her on everything they could. She's pretty fearless though.

 

[disneydreamer74]

My DD was 18 mos. old on her first trip! She loved it and as other Dis'ers have mentioned..you really have to play it by ear! But, my daughter really did not like Pirates of the Carribean...and STILL doesn't . But she enjoyed Fliks Flyers, most of Fantasyland (especially the Teacups if we did not spin it) and the Pooh's Adventures rides. There really is plenty to keep a toddler happy!

 

[jdmn2010]

My kids at that age were partial to anything involving a boat for some reason. Loved Small World but also the jungle cruise and even Pirates but they weren't scared of the dark at that age. My kids always wanted to sit on my lap on the tea cups which can be a problem depending on the CM so that wasn't the best ride for them until they got a little older and could sit comfortably on their own and see out of the tea cup. You may want to try something like Peter Pan and see how that goes and move on from there to try some of the darker rides. I took my kids on all the kids rides including Snow White, but I know that many children get scared on that.

 

[Brady's Mom]

We ended up doing things a little backwards our first trip. We took our little kids (2 and 4 at the time) on the Bug's Land rides first since they were so little and the rides were outside. They love Bug's Land, even now at almost 7 and 9. They also loved Muppets and Monsters and the Golden Zephyr.

In DL they liked Dumbo, Casey Jr., Small World, Alice, Teacups, Pooh, Monorail, Buzz, they eventually warmed up to Peter Pan (it was dark), Canal Boats, Tiki room, Tarzan's treehouse, Jungle Cruise. They mostly liked anything they could see - when you had to go in somewhere it was a little overwhelming to them. But, they caught onto how fun the rides were by the second day and were ready to try a few more that they wouldn't consider the day before.

There really are a lot of rides that your 19 month old will probably love. It just might take a little patience to find out which rides those are! Good luck!

 

[bnbheartdisney]

So I am a little overwhelmed on what rides are good with a 19 month old. I keep hearing conflicting information on what to avoid and what not to. So what rides for YOU were good? What ones were disasters?


For instance, tea cups? Is a spinning ride okay for a little one? Buzz lightyear?

I know all kids are different but if everyone's kid hated a particular ride, I would avoid it.

I have an almost 3 year old DD and have been taking her to the parks since she was 2 months old. That being said, I'll go ahead and do a quick breakdown of our experiences on rides that we've been on.

Fantasyland "Dislikes":
Snow White's Scary Adventures - She was literally climbing on me trying to get away from all of the characters! I felt HORRIBLE!
Alice in Wonderland
Pinocchio's Daring Journey

Going on the dark rides always made me nervous because I didn't want her to freak out! To try and avoid this, I've always had her watch Disney movies so she becomes familiar with the characters, then I can point them out to her during the rides.

Fantasyland "Likes":
All the other rides not mentioned above. She especially enjoys IASW, Dumbo, the King Arthur Carrousel and the Mad Tea Party. If you're worried about your lil' one getting sick, then just sit in the teacup and keep from spinning it yourself.

Tomorrowland "Likes":
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Astro Orbitor

Frontierland "Likes":
Not a ride, but she did enjoy running around Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island.

Critter Country "Likes":
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

New Orleans Square:
There were times on both the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion that she did get scared, but was okay as the rides went along.

Adventureland "Likes":
Jungle Cruise

At California Adventure, she enjoys all of the rides that she is able to go on.

Hope this helps and have fun!

 

[KTR]

I went when my son was 16 months. I was really surprised by what freaked him out and what didn't.

Avoid:
Dark Rides in FL except for Peter Pan (all of the others terrified him)
Finding Nemo Subs Voyage (hated the dark enclosed space and screamed at the top of his lungs for a very long ride in a very tight space)
Haunted Mansion (he actually did better on this than Alice in Wonderland or the other FL rides, but he was still crying through it).

Loved:
Monsters Inc (surprised since he hated the other dark rides)
BLAB (he loved this one and it was dark)
Mickey's Fun Wheel (swinging car) He absolutely loved this, his favorite ride. The wild crazy swinging delighted him, not scared him.
Pirates of the Caribbean (surprisingly he did great on this and wasn't scared)

We went again last month when he was 2 1/2. I just avoided the dark FL rides except for Peter Pan this time. I didn't want to take any chances of freaking him out. We also skipped Nemo just because I will never go on that ride again after my last experience. He loved every ride we did this time, including Roger Rabbit and Matterhorn, both of which I thought might be too intense for him, but weren't.

 

[KatiezMom]

SNOW WHITE!! Scared the living bajeezuz out of my 4 year, so much that she didn't want to do any other indoor ride for the rest of our trip. We are going again this year after our cruise (she is 7 now) and first thing she said is NO Snow White. There was no line for it when we went by, and there is a reason for that

 

[Brewmeister]

We just got back from DLR with our 16 month old, and the only ride that we really avoided was Snow White (not counting height limit rides, of course).

It really depends on your chilld. Ours loved everything, and the faster and higher it went the better (Heimlichs's Chew Chew train was a little too tame for him even).

He liked all of the dark rides, and especially liked Pirates, but his most favorites were the spinners (Tea Cups, Ladybug Boogy) and the high ones (Dumbo, Astro Orbiter, Ferris Wheel, Zephlin, etc).

He also loved the run and play time at the Redwood Trail and Goofy's Playhouse. That was a great way to burn off energy.

He also really loved the Dot's splash area, up until the point that he got a nose full of water (and then got hit in the head by the stream when it came back down to where he backed up to). We knew to bring a change of clothes and shoes for that one. Didn't faze him from wanting to go back the next day.

 

[McQueenofHrts]

Going to chime in here.. I put my toddler on Mr Toad's Wild ride to get out of the 100 degree weather and it traumatized him! He was fine with being in dark until he went on that ride. (To my defense, I hadn't been on the ride for over 10 years and forgot what it could be like.) I have a picture of my son that was taken right after the ride where he is still dazed and hadn't communicated to me yet that the ride had scared the dickens out of him. After that, he wouldn't go on any ride that was not well lit. I later told my pediatrician about how I unknowingly created a phobia and felt bad. He replied, "He will get over it." Umm.. 4 years later and I am still waiting..

Guess years from now, I will know what my son will be telling his therapist. "My Mom..."

 

[nemofans]

We made the mistake of going on Pirates & dreaded our decision of taking DS on it. We asked the CM at the front of the ride & she said it's fine b/c it's a family ride. Well, he cried the whole SLOW ride b/c of the dark, thunder sounds, & skeletons.
So after that, when we weren't sure of a ride, either DH or I would go on it to check it out 1st.

 

[quiltymom]

I agree with what has been said - especially the dark rides in FL. The only dark ride my kids loved was Peter Pan. Even Alice scared them (the leaves at the end of the ride).

And It's Tough to be a Bug? My kids (teen & pre-teen) won't go close to it - and they haven't even been on it! They had enough of "Honey I Shrunk" with the mice that when I said bugs...

 

[candygirlIRE]

Our son was 3 yrs last year when we went and he was particularly frightened of SNOW WHITE and he didn't care for the CASTLE much as he didn't like the "banging on the door" bit as you walk through the Castle. He still talks about that, asks what it was, etc....
He was really good on all rides that were in the dark considering he is very scared of the dark and still sleeps with his light on at night.

I think he will be better this year (will be 5yrs when we go in Oct) with SNOW WHITE and the CASTLE...

Should be interesting this year as he doesn't care for the scary aspect of Halloween very much!! Hoping a fun trip to Disneyland will "CURE" all that hahaha

 

[kstand]

My 18 month old boy hated HM (during HMH--extra loud), Pirates and Mr. Toad. Avoided dark rides with him after these disasters.

Loved Pooh, Small World, Carousel, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Train ride around park, canal boats, casey's train, jungle cruise except gunshots and pirhana parts

Was ok with monsters inc, Alice