Tips for 5 yr old scared of rides?

[serendipityaey]

Our family is traveling to Disneyland in November - we have an almost 5 year old daughter and we've been many times, but she's very cautious and careful and scared of many of the rides, even though she's been on many of them already - she's afraid of Pirates (my favorite!) Peter Pan, all the fantasy land dark rides, Radiator Springs, Star Tours, Pooh, and hasn't tried any of the roller coasters (not planning on trying those though I'd love to take her on BTMR) She's also very tall for her age, around 47 inches right now.

We are traveling with extended family, and her 5 year old second cousin, who is not afraid of anything and will ride everything she can. We think this might encourage her to try more, and we give her little rewards for trying things as well.

She's quiet and well behaved for the most part and has said she wants to at least wait in the lines with us and her cousin to spend time with her. Does anyone have any tips regarding this? Would we be able to do a 'baby' trade this way on any of the rides? Can we easily do 'baby' trades even though she's almost tall enough to ride everything and looks much older then she is?

Any thoughts or tips would be much welcomed!

 

[Misskitty3]

I would watch Youtube videos of the rides with her....while watching the videos, I would really be emphasizing how much fun it would be to actually go on them.

 

[LucasandMickey]

After she tries the ride, does she like them? I have a 5 year old who is very cautious and sensitive. Pirates used to be one of his favorites and how the "fighting" scares him. He used to love the Buzz Lightyear ride and now Zurg scares him.

I think it's important to find the root of what she is scared of. Because I know that it's all the fighting/shooting that is scaring my kiddo, I can better explain it all to him, know what I mean?

I push him to go on rides that I am certain he will love. But if it's something that I think he will still hate after, I don't make him go. I don't want to scar him from trying the ride in the future.

I second you-tubing ride videos. We watched TONS of them with my little guy and I think it helped prepare him for them.

 

[serendipityaey]

I will definitely try the videos to drum up enthusiasm, and we have a lot of videos of our own.

The problem is not a fear of the unknown, she's been on all the non roller coaster rides and she *knows* she doesn't like them, lol. I will see if I can address what the root of the fear is and work through it with her. She's fine while she's on the ride btw, and fine after - not scarred, she's just decided she doesn't like them because they're too scary, whatever that means to her

A big part of my question is tips on how to manage all the time she might lose with her cousin if cousin goes on all the rides and she doesn't - i.e. waiting in the lines together and then doing a rider swap, and getting the rider swap, etc. Of course getting her to enjoy the rides would be the ideal option.

 

[LucasandMickey]

I will definitely try the videos to drum up enthusiasm, and we have a lot of videos of our own.

The problem is not a fear of the unknown, she's been on all the non roller coaster rides and she *knows* she doesn't like them, lol. I will see if I can address what the root of the fear is and work through it with her. She's fine while she's on the ride btw, and fine after - not scarred, she's just decided she doesn't like them because they're too scary, whatever that means to her

A big part of my question is tips on how to manage all the time she might lose with her cousin if cousin goes on all the rides and she doesn't - i.e. waiting in the lines together and then doing a rider swap, and getting the rider swap, etc. Of course getting her to enjoy the rides would be the ideal option.

I totally didn't mean to imply that you were scarring her. I hope it didn't sound that way. I just know for my little guy, if I force him to go on something that I know he is going to hate, he remembers EVERYTHING and will never go again.

If she is fine on it and fine after, I'd just push her to go. Kids our kids' age love to hang on to something simply to exert their own opinion.

I have no idea how the rider swap thing works but I've wondered that as well.

 

[serendipityaey]

I totally didn't mean to imply that you were scarring her. I hope it didn't sound that way. I just know for my little guy, if I force him to go on something that I know he is going to hate, he remembers EVERYTHING and will never go again.

If she is fine on it and fine after, I'd just push her to go. Kids our kids' age love to hang on to something simply to exert their own opinion.

I have no idea how the rider swap thing works but I've wondered that as well.

No it didn't sound that way! I'm definitely not pushing her to go on Space Mountain or Tower of Terror anytime soon, if ever! Even though she's been tall enough for them since she was about three.

The problem with pushing her is even if she is well behaved 99% of the time she can be quite the drama queen if she's in the mood, and she'll cry and people look at us as if we are torturing her even tho I know she's really fine, lol. She also astoundingly quickly learned the I have to go potty trick right when you get to the front of a line

We used the baby trade a lot when she was actually a baby - but I kind of don't want to deal with the "she looks 8 years old, why do you need a baby trade pass" looks if it's going to be a problem. (Yes we had to fight to get her into the park when she was 2 on occasion for free as well. I guess I'm scarred from that!) I see they call it a "rider swap" so maybe it won't be a problem?

I think it's a lot more of her developing her independence then actually being scared - which is a delicate balance to nurture. Perhaps peer pressure will kick in with her cousin.

 

[Misskitty3]

I think there are only about 8 rides at DL that offer child swap. Splash, Space, Indy, Star Tours, Autopia, BTMRR and a couple others????

Will her cousin be tall enough to go on all of these?

The dark rides are somewhat scary and VERY loud so I could see how a 4 yr old would be scared.


Eta: Matterhorn and Gadgets Go Coaster offer child swap too.

**** as far as managing the time while her cousin goes on rides....I would take your daughter to character meet and greets or a different ride that she actually wants to go on.

 

[ClosetDisneyJunkie]

my niece had similar issues when we took her. She was 5 at the time but very tall for her age so she could ride essentially anything in the parks, technically. But she made it clear very early she didn't want to go on anything that was "high, fast or dark" Which ruled out quite a bit.

We did get her to ride a few darkish rides like Peter Pan (which she ended up loving) and Pirates (which she sorta tolerated with her eyes closed some of the time). Beyond that we didn't push too much, so we had some of the same issues. Two fantastic time takers for my niece were Tom Sawyer's Island in DLP and the Redwood Trail in DCA. For not liking the dark, she had no qualms at all about the caves, to the extent that my brother had to eventually wedge himself into the caves to flush her out. She loved exploring those. Same with Tarzan's treehouse actually, she spent more time in there than I thought possible.

My brother, my folks and I were all there so if a couple of us wanted to sneak away and hit Space, HM, etc., we could do it pretty easily. We mixed it up between spending time altogether and splitting up from time to time.

 

[serendipityaey]

Take all sounds good! We've done similar things in the past. Did you use the rider swap at all?

My concern right now is that she actually wants to wait in the lines so she can spend time with her cousin but then not ride...

 

[Cholula]

Someone with more information can chime in or correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe rider swap is an option if the person is technically tall enough to ride but just chooses not to.

 

[figment_jii]

My concern right now is that she actually wants to wait in the lines so she can spend time with her cousin but then not ride...

As far as I know, most of the thrill rides have exits pretty far into the queue so that folks that don't want to ride can skip it. So she can spend at least some of the line time with her cousin and then skip the ride at the last minute (for the ones that she is tall enough to ride). You could also try to get FPs for those rides that have it to minimize the time the cousin (and others) spend in line.