TOT and Dinosaur for a 5 year old

[KTR]

Last trip my youngest was 3 and 40 inches. He loved all of the thrill rides, especially Tower of Terror. He cried during Dinosaur, but when we got off proclaimed he loved it and wanted to go again.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Thanks, everyone!

I think I’ll let her know she’s tall enough and let her decide - if she wants to go on, we’ll do it! If she bails, that’s ok too. Showing her the videos is a great idea.

 

[sjberg79]

Huh. My son has always been in the 100% for height (he turned 5 in December) but he was tall enough for ToT and Dinosaur at 3 and he liked them both then and still likes them now. The only concern is he finds them both to be "loud" so he wears special headphones on them to make the sounds softer (he has high functioning autism). But he's never complained about them being scary. He thinks the dinosaurs are cool. Can you show her YouTube Point of View videos? I always show my son the point of view videos of the rides before we go on them so he knows what to expect.

 

[jenPSU]

My daughter was 5 when we tried both of those rides. It didn’t go well. Not the thrill aspect, but the story. She found both to be very scary. She fully believed the story in TOT and it took us a long time to convince her it wasn’t real. I don’t ride that one because the drop is too scary for me, but that to her was no big deal at all.
When we got off dinosaur, she was sobbing so hard that other kids were scared to get on because they saw her reaction.
I agree on showing the YouTube video first.

 

[tinkerjo]

DH and I don’t like drop rides like ToT so they had to wait until they were big enough to go together. As for dinosaur, my kids all loved it, even when very little. I have precious pictures of them hiding their face in DH arm as the dinosaur came out. It was scary but not traumatic to them but that being said I would have had nightmares if I were to have rode it at 5

 

[Sjm9911]

Show the videos and dont force it. If they want to go let them, if not let it go.

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

We took my son on when he was about 4. None of us had ever ridden it and didn’t know it was so scary. He hated it and my husband and I both held our hands over his eyes and ears. He is 15 now and will still not go back on it

 

[PlainJane]

Thanks, everyone!

I think I’ll let her know she’s tall enough and let her decide - if she wants to go on, we’ll do it! If she bails, that’s ok too. Showing her the videos is a great idea.

I was a super tall child. I still didn’t ride a lot of “scary” rides until I was about 10. Dinosaur and TOT are now two of my favorite rides. Preparing her as much as possible for what happens through videos and talking about the rides, and then letting her decide is what I would encourage.

I rode my first serious coaster at 6 (way more intense than any of them at WDW), but I was in no way ready to ride something with a scary plot, as someone up thread warned about.

 

[vetrik]

Definitely depends on the kid!

My daughter has been at 5, 8 and 9 and still hasn't ridden Dinosaur or TOT. Big Thunder was one of the first rides on her first trip when she was 5, but it scared her so we never pushed anything further on that trip (she had ridden similar roller coasters at local parks tons of times, so we were surprised by the reaction). She had started to like rides with drops by the time of her 8 year old trip and she insisted she wanted to ride TOT, but she got to the loading area and had a breakdown and had to get out of line. She just mentally freaked herself out. I think she might have ridden it this most recent trip at 9, but we didn't even try. We knew Dinosaur would be bad for her, so we've never even tried it. She does love Seven Dwarves, Splash Mountain, Everest, etc.

 

[KenHutch]

When my now 18 year old was 5 we went on ToT. When is was over she looked at me and said dad your fired. She did not rehire me as dad until the next day after Haunted Mansion I bought her a HS top hat with bat ears. She rehired me as dad. We still have that hat.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

Totally depends on the kid. My 5 year old wants to do both this June, and I can’t imagine either will scare him. He’s been going to Disney since he was a year old and has never batted an eyelash at anything. My 2 year old, however, was afraid of the frozen ride last summer when she was 18 months old and still talks about how she doesn’t want to ride it this summer bc of the “scary snow monster.” She was even a little nervous on the jungle cruise. She was also afraid of the log flume at Hershey park last weekend. So...all kids are different. Unless a lot changes in the next few years, she probably won’t be doing dinosaur or TOT when she hits 40 inches. But I’ve never thought twice about bringing my son on anything. Unfortunately nothing makes him nervous. Lol.

 

[maxiesmom]

My youngest niece, who was around 5 at the time, rode ToT with no problem. Went on Dinosaur and came off white. She was not a fan. I felt awful.

You have to know your kids.

 

[Smrtalec33]

My 6-year-old did Dinosaur yesterday morning and afterwards laughed at me for having suggested she might be scared by it.

She is a total daredevil though - we did Everest 3 times in a row right before Dinosaur.

 

[Kelly014]

My son loved Dinosaur last year, he was 3. He is ready to ride it again this year! We have not put him on ToT yet. DD rode it at age 4 and still won't get on it at age 9. RnR is her favorite ride but she hates the drops on ToT. I don't think we will attempt ToT with DS who is now 4 just based on DDs experience...and the fact that I am scared of ToT

 

[mjkacmom]

I tried to talk my almost 5 year old ds out of dinosaur but he begged. He is fearless, and loved roller coasters at a very young age. He hated it and was hesitant to ride other things. I’m the parent who tries to get her kids on rides, I even bribe if I know they will love it, but we didn’t even try TOT with him.