What rides for a 2.5 year old?

[lilmape]

Help please! We are planning our "first" family trip to Disney in nov or dec of this year. Our little one will be 2.5 years old. She is currently 33" tall and I've seen some height requirements for rides and I'm worried she won't be able to ride much. I know my DH and I will probably take turns on some of the bigger rides but now I'm concerned that I'm planning too early. What can toddlers ride?

 

[kmb584]

Help please! We are planning our "first" family trip to Disney in nov or dec of this year. Our little one will be 2.5 years old. She is currently 33" tall and I've seen some height requirements for rides and I'm worried she won't be able to ride much. I know my DH and I will probably take turns on some of the bigger rides but now I'm concerned that I'm planning too early. What can toddlers ride?

The attractions that your daughter can ride are far more numerous than the ones she can't, so please don't be too concerned. The ones she won't be able to ride due to a 40"+ height requirement are:

• Space, Splash, Big Thunder and Stitch's Great Escape at MK
• Test Track, Soarin' and Mission Space at EP
• Expedition Everest, Kali, Dinosaur at AK
• RnR, ToT, Star Wars at DHS

Barnstormer at MK has a 35" height requirement so she may or may not be able to ride, and if the Mine Train is open by this fall she won't meet the requirement for that either. Disney is geared towards family attractions rather than thrill rides.

 

[siegal]

I just took my 2.5 yr old. There were slot of attractions to see. I made a list of things it's a bit messy with my notes but maybe you'll like it HOLLYWOOD YES Toy story mupper vision beauty and the beast voyage of the little mermaid Disney Jjr honey i shrink the kids MAYBE The great movie ride studio backlot tour Indiana jones stunt show CHARACHTERS: toy story charachters at Pixar Studios Camera Dept. mickey at sorcerors hat minnie at magic of disney imagination disney jr. animation courtyard NIGHT SHOW - fantasmic 7 pm MAGIC KINGDOM YES Pirates small world jungle cruise mickeys philharmagic haunted mansion tommorowland speedway little mermaid/ariels grotto astro orbitor buzz lightyear dream along with mickey dumbo dumbo playground the laughing place playground (by space mountain) enchanted tales with belle mad tea party petes silly side charachter meatings peter pan carousel swiss family tree house barnstormer 38 inches magic carpets of alladin tom sawyer island peoplemover railroad (fantasy and frointier land) casey jr splash MAYBE liberty square boat enchanted tiki room monsters hall of presidents carousel of progress CHARACHTERS club 626 tommorland dance party jasmine - adventurland bazzar classic - town square fairy godmother - boutique merida - fairytale garden tiana - liberty square toy story - by splash mountain princess fairytale hall (2 entrances - one for cinderella, one for rapunzel) tinkerbells magical nook storybook wozer the clown storybook circuis play area/charachters PARADE/NIGHT: maint st electrical parade 7 pm move it shake it paade Night show at 8 EPCOT YES spaceship earth ellen journey into the imagination with figment living with the land maelstrom the seas with nemo gran fiesta mexico turtle talk with crush epcot charachter spot club cool (coca cola) innoventions east and west maze in the UK mini train in germany MAYBE the american adventure CHARACHTERS: winnie - UK snow white - germany aurora - france mulan - china donald - mexico classic charachters - legacy plaza west jasmine - morroco NIGHt illumintions 9 pm ANIMAL KINGDOM YES Affection section the boneyard habitat habitat meet fav disney pals adventure outpost tricertop spin S wildelife express train finding nemo tough to be a bug pangani forest kali river maharaka jungle trek kiliminjaro safari MAYBE lion king show CHARACHTERS mickey discovery island adventurers outpost goofy and pkuto - outside Chester & Hesters Dinosaur Treasures pocohontas - discovery island trail PARADE: mickeys jungle parade 345

There were also random shows we ran into she liked.
One magic show in Italy and one in the circuits area

 

[lorenni]

I'm sure the last post listed everything but it lost me after the first couple lines (I need paragraphs and punctuation.) So, I'll list a few rides/shows that our 28 month old really enjoys:

Magic Kingdom:
Teacups
Little mermaid
It's a small world
Country bear jamboree
Tiki room
Jungle cruise
Pirates of the carribean
Flying dumbo
Flying carpet
The train

Animal kingdom:
Nemo show
Lion king show
Safari

Epcot:
Nemo ride
Turtle talk with crush
Mexico ride
Norway ride (maelstrom)


He emphatically does not like tough to be a bug at animal kingdom and is still reminding us how much he does not like it (we got back from our most recent trip 2 weeks ago!)

You will find plenty to do. We found that often stopping and listening to the mariachi band in Mexico or Bollywood dancers in Animal Kingdom were just as engaging for our son as any ride would be. Lots to look at and listen to! Have fun!

 

[EagleScout]

Some toddlers emphatically do NOT like pirates rides or Mickey's philharmagjc the to loud/dark/scary - so just know your kids. Similar for Nemo and figment rides at Epcot

 

[epsmith921]

My daughter kept saying "mommy I'm a little nervous." before every ride because she was just unsure about what to expect. Things she loved:
Dumbo
Small world
Speedway
Buzz
Peter Pan
Pooh
Philharmagic
Ariel ride
Carousel

Things she wasn't so sure about:
Pirates
Haunted mansion (I told her the howling outside was dogs saying hi to us! Terrible mom!)

She loved the monorail and the steam trains. Particularly the steam trains. Oh and the friendship boats at Epcot. We just rode the loop outside the parks our arrival night and she really liked it.

She was almost 2.5 when we took her, and she wants to go back every day. It was awesome.

We just took her and figured she'd warm up to stuff and if she desperately didn't want to do something, we weren't going to push her.

 

[edtricia]

Our girls were 2.5 & 7 when we went, and the little one did great! Our older one got scared on a few rides-anything dark or loud, even though we skipped haunted mansion, everest, and the mountain rides. Really depends on personality. We let them watch the ride first. You can also show her videos on youtube and see how she reacts. I was surprised how many things our little one could ride. I don't do rollercoasters, so for me it worked great. I never felt like I missed out on anything and I sent dh on the big stuff solo while the girls and I wandered, snacked, or repeated nearby rides.

 

[lilmape]

Thank you all very much. Right now loud scares her, but we are working on it. I definitely won't force the issue. I'm most excited for the carousel and dumbo lol. I know we will ride those a lot!

 

[RoosMama]

Thank you all very much. Right now loud scares her, but we are working on it. I definitely won't force the issue. I'm most excited for the carousel and dumbo lol. I know we will ride those a lot!

Just one thought about the loud - I thought my DD2 would be scared of the fireworks, and when we were in MK, she was, but it turns out she was actually worried about them coming back to the ground, not the noise. Once I told her they don't come to the ground, she was fine. Obviously that isn't for all toddlers, but just in case it works!

 

[danceintherain]

At 2 1/2 my son was tall enough for the Barnstormer. We skipped pretty much everything else with a height requirement. Since we go fairly frequently, it wasn't a big deal, especially since DH has developed some motion sickness issues. He didn't ride a lot of things with us, even if DS could.

There are soo many attractions at WDW that I actually found it easier to cut out all the height sensitive rides. We still had more than enough to fill our time. Again, it wasn't our first or last trip, so we know we'll get to do everything again. When we took DS at 3 months old, we did switch off for a lot of the rides, because he slept a lot anyways.

At 2 1/2 DS particularly liked the shows and characters.
Oddly enough, he HATED the carousel. He also didn't like the moving walkways to get on the ride, but once he was on the rides, he was fine.

We ended up spending a lot of time doing the Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom game, because it was something we could all comfortably do together. It was a different kind of trip, but we still had a blast.