What rides / Attractions to avoid for a 5 yr old?

[rainboots]

I made FPs for everything we want to ride. If DD5 decides to opt out, one of us will stay with her. The biggest flaw w/my plan is that we start our trip at AK, so there is no warm up.

DD8 LOVED rollercoasters when we went 2 yrs ago at 6. She shocked me and rode all but RnR (only because she was too short).

They did not love Haunted Mansion. At all. And on ToT DD6 at the time had her face buried in my shoulder grumbling very madly "Not fun. Not fun. Not fun." Until the ride was over...

 

[DisneyOma]

We told our kids that the 'scary stuff' at WDW is pretend scary - that Mickey Mouse would never allow things to be really scary and that it was all for fun. They went on everything, and didn't freak out about a thing, including It's Tough to be a Bug.

 

[think-like-tink]

My kids did everything we did. We watched tons of videos before the trip.

We also did some warm up rides, big thunder a few times, splash a few times. My son rode Tot and hated at 5, my DD at 5 loved it.

 

[srauseo]

I also had a five year old niece completely breakdown in Tough to be a Bug. After that, she would start screaming in any theater the minute it got dark. It really depends. I remember being really scared on Haunted Mansion and Pirates (just the first part) as a kid. But I made it through and still had fun. My niece was a mess though.

 

[WDWRook]

Hmm, we are still debating when to tell the kids about the trip. Wife wants to wait until the morning we leave. I didn't think about showing videos of some of the rides, but I think I would limit it to just the scary rides to ease the situation. I don't want to give away too much of the magic of WDW by having them watch it all on youtube. Thanks for the comments and incite. I really don't know how the 5 year old will handle it, she is pretty tough but probably too sheltered.

 

[nilla]

The one attraction i see a lot of crying kids come out of is It's Tought to be a Bug in AK.

Then you've never been in "Stitch's Great Escape"

 

[ktlm]

Then you've never been in "Stitch's Great Escape"

For some reason my DD actually likes that one. She is probably the only person I know that does! It's Tough to be a Bug is another thing though- no crying, but she is not a fan!

DD begged to see It's Tough to Be a Bug when she was 4 or 5. This is the kid who screams when a gnat gets near her so I knew it wouldn't go well, but she likes the A Bug's Life Movie. I knew she wouldn't like it and warned her, but said "Fine, if you really want to see it we will do it, but just remember I didn't ask you do this one so don't complain to me." (That comment was directly related to the fact that I bribed her onto Splash Mountain and she hated it and I heard about it for days). She happily bounced into the theatre. As we exited she looked at us and said "Well, I'm NEVER doing that again". We go every year and she relented last October at age 9 and said she wanted to try it again. Yep- still hated it.

OP, I would let her do whatever she wants. I have also bribed DD onto things she was scared of, but that I thought she would like. Tough to be a Bug and Stitch are not rides, but they can be scary. I would proceed with caution on those two. As far as rides, TOT is one that can be pretty scary, but, our last trip we met a 4 year old girl who loved it and who had made her family ride it over and over so you never know. It's just hard to say what she will like or not like until she actually tries them. Dinosaur at AK can be pretty scary for the younger set. I personally don't care much for it myself. My DD likes Space Mountain, which completely surprised me as she hated Big Thunder, but she hates Splash which I thought she would love. Even stranger, turns out she likes Splash at Disneyland, but not Disneyworld. She says it is because of the different configurations of the logs, and on the big drop she doesn't feel secure and feels like she is going to fall out of the one at WDW. I think it is just kind of a trial and error thing. At age 5, one of my DD's absolute favorite rides was Star Tours. Since she was not real big on thrill rides, I had told her ahead of time that it would feel like she was going places, but she really was in a room that was bouncing around. That made her feel really secure and she loved it. DH encouraged her to try the easy side of Mission Space at that age since she loved Star Tours and she loved it. I had totally avoided that one for years thinking it would make me sick, and she is the one who begged me to ride it with her. To my surprise, I really liked it too. The easy side to me very much feels like Star Tours, which I love. I would not push your DD to ride TOT, EE, Dinosaur or to see Bug or Stitch, unless she wants to do those. If she wants to try them, then I would let her. As far as everything else, I would encourage her to give it a try. You never know what she might love!

Have a great trip!!!

 

[abinormal]

I did a ton of research beforehand and I think we did well anticipating what my kids could handle. I took a chance with the Mine Train but turns out it was too intense for my 2.5 year old. He wanted to do it and everything I'd heard indicated it wasn't terribly intense. My bad.

Somehow in all my research I missed that Great Movie Ride had the Alien xenomorph. I knew about the gunfire and the explosions and I figured I could explain those. I was very grateful that I'm an Alien fan and recognized the ship interior right away so we could cover their faces. No way would either of them be able to handle that. And my five year old was still pretty shaken up by the whole thing.

 

[scrapquitler]

Let her ride anything she is tall enough for. If you think some things might be scary, consider watching a ride video on You Tube with her to prep her ahead of time and let her decide.

My kids always rode everything they were tall enough for.

My son rode (and loved) TOT when he was 4. We went again this year at 12, and he HATED it, so you never know.

And with HM, we emphasized to our kids not that it was scary, but how SILLY it is. Look at the funny ghost with the hat on riding in the doom buggy with the people...oh look, the ghosts are having a party and dancing in their fancy clothes, etc. And my kids always loved it, even as toddler and pre-schoolers.

We have a park music CD. We used to play it in the car a lot, especially when the kides were small and before we went on our first trip....I think that having the kids know the music/backstory to some of the things in the park that weren't movie related helped a lot, too.

 

[disnut8]

We have a 9 yr old boy and 5 year old girl. Girl is fairly adventurous, should just be 44 inches when we get to WDW, but has never been on any adventurous rides. What should we certainly avoid? I'm thinking Space Mt; Everest (maybe); ToT; Aerosmith; Mission Space. Anything else?

I'm going out on a limb here but based on your screen name and the number of posts, I think you haven't been to Disney World yet. You've received a lot of opinions here and most are quite good but, opinions are like *er hem* and everyone has one. The only people who know your daughter are herself and you and your family.

Take the advice to go through the youtube videos. I would suggest you first do them on your own so not to ruin a surprise for the youngsters. Then think about things.

I also want you to know that once you enter the queue line, you can leave at any time before boarding. So, you can have a situation that we did with our then five year old granddaughter who was with us and her parents at Dinosaur (yes, I agree it's loud). Granddaughter LOVED dinosaurs, thanks to our son. She just wanted to go on it, she HAD to go on it! We were excited because she freaked out over Pirates of the Caribbean (because of the singing) so we sat that one out. So, all five of us went into the queue and she was talking and laughing and saying stuff about dinosaurs (and my son taught her well, she knew the names and stuff) and then, she stopped talking and was quiet. Nothing was going on, we had no idea what the problem was. But, she continued on until the preshow room where she loudly, and I mean LOUDLY exclaimed that there were DEAD DINOSAURS in there!!!!!!!!!!!!! People were amused and I tried to calm her down during the preshow and said there were plenty of moving dinosaurs but she kept crying while we had to force her out the preshow room. She kept saying she didn't want to see dead dinosaurs so when we got to the seater person, it was three to ride, two to leave. My husband and granddaughter left and the other three went on it. We found out (my husband did after they exited) that the granddaughter saw a dinosaur skull somewhere and it clicked that dinosaurs were dead now and not make believe.

So, she wasn't scared of the ride because of the dinosaurs, it was truth hitting her in the face at the ripe old age of five.

 

[cdnjason]

I agree with those who recommend letting your DD5 decide. I have two DD, ages 5 and 3. They pretty much love all the rides of which they meet the height requirements. Well, except last summer, my DD5 wouldn't ride ToT, but my DD3 loved it!

 

[maloned]

We travelled to Disney with another couple who had little girls our daughter's age. Their girls are very adventurous and were very encouraging to my oldest daughter. She was able to convince her to get on the big rides and she loved it. She's hasn't looked back since. Maybe something like that can help get over any anxiety.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

My fondest Disney memory is chasing my then 3 year old daughter back to the entrance of Space Mountain moments before midnight with her screaming "one more time Daddy" all the way.

I think a 5 year old would be fine on just about anything. I say if they're tall enough let them ride.

 

[Kathryn777]

My 5 year old looooooooved space mountain and liked Everest. Only one she didn't like was tower of terror.

 

[DisneyCAL]

We didn't do DHS so I can't tell you there. They passed on Everest, it was a first for us adults. And we didn't have them do Space Mountain cause you can't sit next to them or Mission Space (I won't go on it nor DH). They did everything else and loved it.