TOT and Dinosaur for a 5 year old

[MickeyWaffles]

My daughter will be turning 5 a few weeks before our next trip.

I don’t have concerns about any of the 40” rides for her except Dinosaur and TOT.

She loves high speeds and drops, but I’m a little concerned about the fear factor of these two. More psychologically scary. Heck, I’m in my 30s and Dinosaur still scares me!

But ... I’ve always been in the camp that if a kid wants to ride a ride, they should. But I also don’t want to scar her for life and make her fearful of rides.

Would you do Dinosaur and TOT if she wants to, or just skip them until the next time?

ETA: She doesn’t know she’s tall enough for these two rides yet, so it would be easy for us to save them for the next trip. But ... I also am dying to ride them with her!

 

[JHermz]

My son was 5 on our first trip to WDW several years ago, and one of the first rides we did was Dinosaur. Even after reading guide books that basically said little kids should NOT go on that ride, we all went. That was a major mistake. He screamed bloody murder the whole time. For the rest of that day we basically had to carry him on to other things. He gradually came around but I don't think he ever fully trusted us again for the entire week. The first ride he seemed to really enjoy was a day or two later at It's a Small World. We were so relieved we rode it 2-3 times straight. One thing that may be a little different in our case - this was his first time at WDW or anything like it, so he didn't really have experience with rides like that of any type. I would add that even his older brother, almost 8 at the time, seemed a bit rattled though he wouldn't say so. But he did decline the opportunity to ride it again.

 

[gharter]

iwould be more concerned with Dinosaur than ToT. As long as he knows what to expect on ToT, he should be fine.
Dinosaur is loud and can be scaary for younger kids. I've seen many at the end of the ride in tears.
You know how your son would handle this better than anyone else.

 

[jpeterson]

My daughter first went on Dinosaur when she was 3 or 4. She swore she would never ride it again. She worked up the courage to ride it again at 5 with her grandmother. She once again said never ever again. Your results may vary

 

[Sara_H]

My 7 year old hated both of those rides. For ToT I think it was more of the theme leading up to the ride but by the time she got to the ride she was freaked...she rode but cried and hated it. She tried to go on again later in the week because we had Fastpasses but she made it to the elevator door and backed out.

 

[twinmom13]

My 5 year old twins did not enjoy Dinosaur and were firmly against riding it again, but were not in any way scarred or put off other rides. In fact, that was just a few months ago, but they have already decided they want to ride it twice next time, now that they know what to expect. It think it totally depends on the individual child. Watching a POV video on YouTube ahead of time might help give her an idea whether she would want to try, and also prepare her for what to expect if she does want to give it a shot.

 

[WVU Disney Fan]

My youngest daughter turned 5 while we were at wdw a few years back. She loved both rides.

 

[fairestoneofall]

Both of my boys LOVED it at that age (and still do at 14 and 7). When my older son was little, he'd beg to ride and then bury his face in my arm! Then, we'd get off and he'd want to immediately ride again. I finally had to convince him that he needed to at least watch the nice dinosaurs.

But both of them also loved dinosaurs.

I'd say you know your child and whether or not she's sensitive to that type of thing. Do YOU think she can handle it?

 

[cinderaimee]

My 4 and 6 year old boys hated both of those rides. Dinosaur was the first ride of our trip (because boys love dinosaurs of course) and for at least the next few days, they were pretty sure a dinosaur was going to come busting through the wall on any ride we were on. That's my experience, so I would say just give it a shot. I told my boys if they were scared to just close their eyes and that seemed to help.

 

[Klayfish]

Heck yeah! If she wants to do it, no reason at all not to. I pushed my kids to experience all the rides at least once and then decide what they thought of them.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

Dinosaur is my youngest sons favorite ride. In December 2015 we rode 4 or 5 times in a row at the close of an AK day. He just kept running back to get in line. He was about to turn 5 at the time.

 

[DISNEYWITHCHILDREN]

My daughter who is now 11 at 8 was going multiple times on Everest, had watched jurassic Park (I know different brand but still dinosaurs)-HATED DNOSAUR. I mean screaming to get off. I am so traumatized by her reaction that even though she tells me she'd go in it I am reluctant.

She didn't love TOT at 8, but it had to do more with the flying up in the air.

I would show her the rides on You Tube to at least get a feel.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I agree with PP. I would show her a ride-through video in YouTube and see if she’d like to try them. If the answer is no, I wouldn’t push it. Even if it’s yes and then she becomes reluctant once there, I wouldn’t push it. DS didn’t ride Dinosaur until he was about 8 and he was fine at that point. He’s never ridden ToT and has no interest so it’s not happening. We’ve been on Dinosaur twice when other families in our vehicle made reluctant children ride (one was crying and kept trying to get away before he was even on the ride). It was awful.

 

[jormom1030]

My daughters loved them both at that age. Dinosaur is her favorite ride. We did sit next to her and hold her hand. I reminded her that they were not real.

 

[eva]

I can’t say this enough......Be sure to gradually work your way up to these rides. We took all our family to WDW years ago when my DGD was only 3. She couldn’t ride a lot of the bigger rides. So we said we would take her back just the three of us when she was 5. When we went back we made a huge mistake and rode Test Track first thing. She was fine until we went zooming around outside. She screamed her head off and from that time on we had to coax her on every ride. All she wanted to do was ride the Little Mermaid ride over and over. She cried on most every ride, even Peter Pan. Which of course she had ridden just fine 18 months prior.

 

[bdiddy]

My daughter was 4.5 on her first ride on Dinosaur and she was completely fine. She was really good about knowing what was fake etc...and believed us when we told her. She didn’t scare easily either and never had nightmares. I honestly think it depends on the child.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

My daughter will be turning 5 a few weeks before our next trip.

I don’t have concerns about any of the 40” rides for her except Dinosaur and TOT.

She loves high speeds and drops, but I’m a little concerned about the fear factor of these two. More psychologically scary. Heck, I’m in my 30s and Dinosaur still scares me!

But ... I’ve always been in the camp that if a kid wants to ride a ride, they should. But I also don’t want to scar her for life and make her fearful of rides.

Would you do Dinosaur and TOT if she wants to, or just skip them until the next time?

ETA: She doesn’t know she’s tall enough for these two rides yet, so it would be easy for us to save them for the next trip. But ... I also am dying to ride them with her!

on this grandson's WISH trip his favorite 2 rides were TOT and Dinosaur in that order. he was 4.5 at the time. he loved the small drop ride at our local park. he called TOT an indoor "Frog Hopper". didn't care for story line but would put ip with that so he ride the drops. so you never know how a kid is going to react. Ps he hated Haunted Mansion as it was too boring

 

[kiramay]

My youngest was almost 5 the first time he rode ToT, which of course was our first ride on our first day. He hated it. Took hours to get him on anything else. Definitely work your way up to the scarier rides. lol I’m not a fan either so I don’t mind not riding. (And I love thrill rides usually).

As for Dinosaur, we all ride and we usually end up with eyes closed by the end. Lol

 

[SarahC97]

My now 7-year-old did both when she was 5 and still loves them to this day. My 10 year old hates dinosaur, so I guess it really depends on the kid. Sounds like yours would enjoy them, though!

 

[CarolynFH]

ToT was DGD’s favorite ride at age 5 (her first visit). I don’t remember her reaction to Dinosaur, so it must not have been extreme.

In other words, as others have said, it depends on the child!