Test track or soarin and splash for almost 5 year old?

[Jen4400]

My DS4 is thoroughly obsessed with TT. I think we rode it at least six times on our last trip. He plays make believe TT here at home and tells pretty much everyone about the ride. My DS6 also really likes it, but was hesitant to ride it at first. They also love Splash Mountain and BTMRR. I'm pretty sure my DS4 would ride Space Mountain if he was tall enough, where my DS6 doesn't want to ride it. I would just see how he does and gauge his reaction while you are there. Something he is nervous about now may look fun while you're there, or just the opposite. Have fun!

 

[dkdaisy]

On our last trip, my oldest was a month shy of 5. He had done Barnstormer when he was 3 and liked it and he did it again on the almost-5 trip and thought it was a little slow. After that, he did 7DMT, Splash, BTMRR, Soarin', Test Track, Mission: Space and he loved all of them. So, I wouldn't say no to any of them automatically, but I would go slow. Try Barnstormer again (maybe its not "too fast" now that he's a little older) and then gauge if he could do the rest.

 

[smiths02]

My son would not ride Test Track or Splash Mountain at 5. Be mindful that those are very visible and they look scary from the outside (you can see/hear people screaming on that drop or around that bend). My son rode Soarin at 5 and took a little convincing but it was his absolute favorite!
This is the same son who did ride Splash, Space, Thunder, and Mine Train at age 9 but would not do them again at 10 (once was enough). He did also enjoy Test Track at age 10 once he realized it's pretty much like a fast car.

(On the other hand, my younger son, who is 5 now, was not tall enough for any of that on our last trip but he wanted to do the mine train and barnstormer over and over again...he will probably do all of them as soon as he is tall enough!)

 

[elle21]

I am very hesitant to put my kids on rides that will terrify them. I try to think through each one, and the child's personality, and how they might respond. We always give them the choice too, and then encourage them if they want to try. One other tip I heard was that when you stop at the end to smile and say "That was fun!" it helps shape the kids opinion.
That said, I was really hoping my 3.5 yr. old would try Mine train because she just made the height requirement and we had decided to do EMM so we were going on it multiple times in a row. She loved it! Our whole family was able to ride and enjoy it. I thought it was more pleasant than barnstormer. She didn't want to do that one and we didn't force her to.
My 4.5 year old was really hesitant about Splash, but decided he wanted to try. He has a very quiet and shy personality...not very daring. I looked over as we climbed up the big hill and he looked like he was about to cry and he was completely silent. I reached over and held his hand and told him it would all be over in a minute. We came down and he smiled and he said he loved it. He still talks about it being one of his favorite rides (along with Mine train). He liked Test track too, but was disappointed in how short it was. Soarin' isn't intense at all. Unless your child is terrified of heights. I still don't understand the conservative height restriction since they have those straps for between the legs. I guess they don't trust younger kids to not climb out from the restraints. But I would have loved to take my 3.5 year old on it, and I would have been sitting right next to her, watching her.
We did not take either one of them on Big Thunder. Our older kids enjoyed it, but I think it would have been too much for the little ones.

 

[Thing 1]

At that age our DS loved Soaring but not TT. It is pretty fast during the outside laps. He also was not a fan of Splash Mountain. The indoor story part is fantastic but that's a pretty big drop. What also does not help is to walk by and hear all the people screaming on the big drop. That was a also the year he was terrified of Haunted Mansion but liked BTMR. He also refused to even walk by TOT. He LOVED Star Tours that year. He chickened out (after waiting in line) on Mission Space. He was not scared of any shows that year.

 

[jvz82]

My 4 year old LOVED Soarin, I think he could've ridden that all day. He was grinning ear to ear.

He also loved Thunder Mountain on day 1 of MK. He begged to go on it again and said it was the best part of the day. On day 2 of MK, he tried Space Mountain (just barely tall enough) and he was super excited at first, but ended up not loving it. He said he didn't want to go on it again, lol. Unfortunately that was our first ride of the day and it soured him for roller coasters the rest of the day. He did NOT want to go on 7DMT and did not seem to enjoy it at all. He refused to go on Thunder Mountain with the rest of us, despite how much he had loved it the day before. And then refused to do Splash Mountain too.

 

[Ava]

Every child is different. My older (now 8) has been a thrill ride junkie since she was about 3 & would always ride anything she was tall enough for. At almost 5 & 1/2, she was over 44" and rode Space Mountain and Everest in addition to all the 40" & below rides and loved every single one. My younger, who is 4 & 1/2, is the complete opposite. Very hesitant when it comes to all but the most tame rides. She was over 40" on our trip this summer, and tried most of the rides she was tall enough for, but didn't like some of them at all. We found that she loved simulator rides, but did not like roller coasters or anything fast-moving. Soarin' and Star Tours were her two favorites out of the "big" rides she tried; she loved them so much she rode each one twice. She HATED 7DMT, and didn't try Barnstormer or BTMRR. She was okay on Test Track but didn't like the fast parts. We pretty much left it up to her to decide which rides she wanted to go on. We encouraged her to try most everything she was tall enough for, but if she was adamant that she didn't want to ride something we didn't push it.

 

[morrik5]

I agree every child is different. Our dgs comes from a family of speed demons (car racing hobbyists) so totally LOVED tt at the age of 4. I'm sure his little sister will be just as thrilled in April when we go back - she'll be that age when we go and she is more of a need for speed kind of kid than her brother.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

My 5 year old wanted to ride Splash so much. She thought it looked fun. She had liked Barnstormer, and kids we knew her age did fine with Splash, so I took her. Big mistake. She was terrified. She was afraid after the first few drops and wanted off. The ride is 7 long minutes. I could not distract her by the scenery to look at. That scared her so much that any new ride is now difficult to get her on. She wouldn't repeat barnstormer until age 9, and won't try 7 dwarves, thunder mtn, etc. She also scared her younger brother talking about how scary it was, so now he won't try things either. If barnstormer is too scary, I would stay away from Splash.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

We took our 6 and 3 year old this year during Irma (best vacation ever!) and my 3 year old was excited to ride everything she had to sit out last year. We are a tall family and my 6 year old is 52" and my 3 year old is 43. She rode Tower of Terror for the first time and loved it! My 6 year old rode RnR coaster for the first time this year and cried for the first 30 seconds then started laughing so loud you couldn't hear the music! We then rode it again and again. 7 times in a row lol. they both could ride 7DMT last year so of course they both loved it this year! Mommy sat this one out. Us 3 on the right

 

[Jetta8300]

This will be our first trip with our son who turned four in June. He’s tall and would be able to ride just about anything, but i know ahead of time he’s scared of anything super dark, or steep, and he doesn’t even like animatronics if they’re in the dark. I’m pretty confident he’ll be ok on Big thunder mountain since there aren’t any big drops, and probably even be ok on test track. He’s ok with fast, and has ridden lots of child type roller coasters locally similar to Barnstormer. but there’s no way he would be ok on splash mountain with a drop like that, and soarin is even questionable, due to being raised high up in the air at the beginning. It should be interesting! I plan on starting out slow so he doesn’t get traumatized early on. Good luck to you!