We might be in trouble

[la79al]

We discovered on Black Friday that DD does not like costumed characters. Pairing this with her dislike of rides (which we discovered in July) and we might be in trouble. We're going to have a long 5 day rideless, character avoiding trip . I have my fingers crossed that the pixie dust will help convert her, or that we will at least be able to bribe her....

 

[Keri]

Hopefully you'll be surprised about the characters. My DD who is the same age loved the soft characters -- pooh, mickey, etc. but we were shocked to find out she was not to fond of the "face" characters like Cinderella, even though she clearly identified who they were. Something about them triggered her stranger anxiety in a way that the ones with huge heads didn't!

Hopefully she'll enjoy the rides, too. Good thing about little ones is that they can change quickly so between July & now she might like things more. And, so many of the rides at Disney are calm & fun. Start with Small World & go from there. That was my toddler's favorite, and she also LOVED the flying rides, the carousel, the teacups, etc.

 

[ms_missy66]

I think you'll be fine! I have kids who are less-than-thrilled about characters and love to see them from afar and wave, but not get autographs and hugs. Plus, between all of the shows and parades, you'll have a great time if your little one isn't excited about rides. Mark my word, though, get her on Small World once, and she'll be hooked! I'm also thinking about Kilamanjaro Safari...it's more of a drive in a Jeep rather than a ride. I wonder if she'll change her tune once you hit a few really tame ones.

Have fun!

 

[MommytoaSweetie]

Hopefully you'll be surprised about the characters. My DD who is the same age loved the soft characters -- pooh, mickey, etc. but we were shocked to find out she was not to fond of the "face" characters like Cinderella, even though she clearly identified who they were. Something about them triggered her stranger anxiety in a way that the ones with huge heads didn't!

Hopefully she'll enjoy the rides, too. Good thing about little ones is that they can change quickly so between July & now she might like things more. And, so many of the rides at Disney are calm & fun. Start with Small World & go from there. That was my toddler's favorite, and she also LOVED the flying rides, the carousel, the teacups, etc.

Ditto!! Our DD also hates the soft characters... our ChickFilA has the cow come out often enough to have the FREAK death-grip on us and know that the fear isn't gone yet. But she DOES love the princesses! And it's not a big deal normally - even if we do want pictures taken with the Disney characters, we let them know as we're walking up that she's concerned and they handle it really well. We noticed on our last trip that they'd come up behind us to get a picture, we'd distract her, and we have all these cute photos (especially from dining) where she's smiling at the camera and Piglet/Eeyore/whoever is right behind us. When she looked at them, she was a bit confused I think, but we now show them and see how much fun she had with them. OH, and on our last day (last year - she was 22 months), it was our 3rd character dining and we got to see the characters each twice... the first time around she just sat very very still in her seat, but the second time around she actually started interacting a bit with them! She was holding her Daisy Duck stuffed animal, and that helped as the characters would interact with Daisy. We also have some super cute photos of our poor little freaked out girl (I LOVE one a photopass photographer took of DD burying her face in my shoulder while peeking over at Minnie & Daisy), and hopefully she'll outgrow it one day! It's not looking like we'll be there for our January trip, but we're not losing hope yet.

As for the rides, hopefully the small, slow rides will be fun and ease her into the big stuff!

 

[Mandychelle79]

Its been about 5 months since July, so she may be more willing to try out the rides. I have 1 kiddo who is an adrenaline junkie and hopes shes tall enough for the rocking roller coaster and 1 kiddo who will only ride things he thinks are "safe". How he determines what is "safe" is anyones guess. But every time we go places with rides he gets a little braver, in fact hes estatic that he can ride splash mountain this year.