We took the kids to he Rainforest Cafe

[kevschickee]

at a mall here in Mass. and my oldest (she is 3) flipped out. As we were walking to our table the lights went low and the monkeys went nut plus there was thunder. So now I know where not to go for dinner durring our Disney trip lol. This does scare me a little though I wounderif we will have a hard time on rides because of this.

 

[emcreative]

at a mall here in Mass. and my oldest (she is 3) flipped out. As we were walking to our table the lights went low and the monkeys went nut plus there was thunder. So now I know where not to go for dinner durring our Disney trip lol. This does scare me a little though I wounderif we will have a hard time on rides because of this.

We took our sensory kid to Disney a few years ago. One WONDERFUL thing was that we noticed there were signs at the start of each ride line that warned of loud noises and flashing lights, etc! So be on the lookout for the signs if your child starts having difficulties with overstimulation.

 

[sohappy]

My youngest child was scared of EVERYTHING on our last trip. He worried in a few rides. We talked about it before getting on and my kids repeated the mantra "mickey always wins" whenever they were scared!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We did T-Rex in DTD on our last trip, which a similarly themed restaurant by the same company that does Rainforest Cafes and he was scared there too for most of our lunch.

However, he did okay once we were in the parks. He did great with the characters and the attractions. I would avoid Honey I Shrunk the Audience and It's Tough to Be a Bug... you may be in over your head there!

Immerse your kiddo in as much Disney as possible, it may help ease some of her fears. If you have high speed internet, you could try showing her some of the attractions BEFORE you go. That way you can see what she thinks about certain ones. I REALLY wanted to take the family on Haunted Mansion was desperately afraid DS would flip out. I showed him the YouTube videos and convinced him that the 999 Grinning Ghosts were funny, not scary. He took the bait and we had a great experience on the ride.

Best of luck.

 

[Bektasmic]

awwww... I feel for you. We used to live near RFC and I would always have to request a table "NOT by the monkeys" for our then little one. As a result, for a couple years, he was terrified of the "monteys" at the zoo as well. Just back from Disney trip where we visited RFC and reminded our now 6 year-old son of this and he specifically requested sitting by the monkeys this time

He can still be sensitive and get freaked by some strange things, though. For example, he LOVED Big Thunder RR EXCEPT for these dinky little possum things that hang from the ceiling.

In addition to looking at the ride guides, I would ask the CM (usually stationed at outside the ride or by the FP machines) what could possibly scare a child on whatever ride and then make your decision from there.

And if you do want to eat at T-Rex or Rainforest, you can ask to use the bathroom and do a quick walkthrough of the restaurant and identify what might be scary. From our recent visit, I'm thinking the screeching monkeys are the worst of it, but there is a "meteor shower" at T-Rex (which is just that the lights get dark and thunder-y sounds) and rainforest shower (like a thunderstorm where the monkeys freak out)

 

[jarendt]

This is hilarious!! DH and I just took dd 6 and dd 3 to Rain Forest Cafe last weekend!! We live in Milwaukee, so we drove down to Chicago for a special lunch. We specifically picked Rain Forest as a test to see how the 3 year old would do, in preparation of our upcoming Disney trip.

The monkey started doing his thing first... dd 3 was not amused and started to freak a little. Then the thunderstorm started up. She thought the monkey was causing the storm! In fact she blamed the monkey for any noise for the entire time we were there.

We had to walk past that darn monkey on the way out. DD was so busy glaring at him, she walked into the back of a chair!

Jennifer

 

[bumbershoot]

Our first experience at RFC went about the same. We had to get the food to go, before it even got to our table! DS nearly went running out to the play area at the mall; he wouldn't wait.

But then less than 6 months later we went to the one at Disneyland Resort, and it was fine. The set-ups at the different restaurants is different from one to the other. I don't know about the one at WDW, of course. We sat closer to the door (not deep inside the restaurant) and not right near any moving things.

And on his recent b'day trip, he didn't just sort of like it, he LOVED it!

 

[surfergirl602]

rainforest cafe scared our kids, too. We were in the gorilla room and the thunder was so loud.

 

[mom2aredhead]

My sister had the same problem with my niece when they went a few months ago. They were only there a few days, and only went to MK. BUt if it was the dark or loud, it scared her. She's kind of extreme though.
Based on her experience, you may have a problem on a few rides...

Mickey's Philharmagic (dark and loud)
Peter Pan (dark)
Buzz Lightyear (parts were dark and loud)
Tomorrowland Transit Authority (goes into Space Mountain)
Monsters Inc. (She was scared of Roz)
Pirates of the Caribbean (dark)
Jungle Cruise (cave)
Tiki Birds (dark)

Needless to say she wasn't a huge fan of the fireworks either.

My sister came home and said she spent a few thousand dollars to meet princesses, and ride only Small World, Tea Cups, Pooh, and the Tomorrowland Speedway cars over and over. I'm sure she's exaggerating, but not by much.

 

[la79al]

On our first trip, DSD was TERRIFIED at Rainforest Cafe but did everything in the parks (Tough to be a bug, ToT, Honey I shrunk the audience, etc) with no problems.

 

[NatMomto2]

That was us at DTD a few months ago. DS was completely freaked out by the monkeys and we were right beside them. The only way to calm him down was for all of us to start acting like monkeys when they started up. So there we were (along with the grandparents) scratching our armpits and howling (is that what they do?) along with the monkeys. We were quite a scene I'm sure but at least the crying and scrambling to get out of high chair subsided!

 

[bookgirl]

We took my nephews to Rain Forrest for the first time when they were a little over 2. We were in the booth with the apes around it. Well the monkeys started up and they were wrapped around us like spandex. They freaked out! We had them put our food (not even on the table yet) in to go boxes and left immediatly. They kept on about the "bad monkeys" for months. In fact they would ask anytime they saw any kind of primate if they were bad monkeys or good monkeys.

I took them again three years later and they loved it. They claim to remember the bad monkeys...but I think they just remember us talking about it.

If it's any consolation they did not seem to transfer that experience in a bad way they just wanted to know ahead of time if anything was going to be loud or surprising.