What rides trick parents and kids?

[rudetreehill]

My sister is planning to take her daughter, 2, for her first Disney visit. We're planning on it being a VERY low-key event, letting the child do what she wants to do. But what rides to parents often make the mistake of thinking is kid friendly when it's not? For example, there's some stuff on The Great Movie Ride (the alien in the ceiling, for example) that people might forget about when getting ready to take a young child aboard.

What rides do parents commonly make this mistake with?

 

[jorem1]

Definitely "Stitch's Great Escape" My 11 year old son hated it. My 8 year old daughter cried. Basically just a lot of screaming, noises, darkness, and bad smells !!1 We will never go on this ride again.

 

[puffkin]

My DS2 will go on pretty much everything (he is really tall) but he is not a fan of Snow White. It is pretty dark and scary for a little guy. He will ride it, but then he tells us never again. Since it is in Fantasyland, and is a classic dark ride, parents probably don't realize it is a bit scary.

I also think Dinosaur is pretty intense for younger kids....and younger kids are the prime audience for dinosaurs

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Not a ride, but my kids hated It's tough to be a bug in AK. The show was too intense for them when they were little (almost 2 and almost 3.) Also the Enchanted Tiki Room during the thunderstorm part scared my almost 3 year old until he was 6 years old.

There are a lot of rides with a potential to frighten kids. My kids were fine with most rides as long as they could turn their face into Mom or Dad during the scary part.

 

[lisadr]

Dinosaur!
Any/All of the 3D movies
Stitches Great Escape
Soarin (but this one is a toss up-some little kids LOVE it)
Safari(I saw little kids cry when the bridge looked like it was collapsing)

 

[pooh4evr]

SNow WHite's Scary Adventures- although I haven't been because our older 2 refuse to try it- but I have heard it is a bit scary.?

 

[GPA1015]

The Star Wars Ride- I am not prone to motion sickness nor my children. But when we were done with that ride we were a bit green!

 

[Tiffany_MommyOf3]

The only thing any of my kids have not liked was It's Tough To Be A Bug at AK. Everything else that they are big enough to ride is a hit! haha.

 

[Tiffany_MommyOf3]

Oh yeah, Snow White did scare me as a child - when the witch pops out with the apple.. does she still do this? We haven't ridden it in a very long time because my kids find it boring.

 

[hammie59]

Rides my 5yr old wanted to ride and ended up not liking after doing so:

Dinosaur
Test Track
Space Mountain (not surprised)
Expedition Everest (again, not surprised)

***After riding both above mentioned rollercoasters, Big Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Tower of Terror didn't stand a chance. Maybe next time.***

Rides that had a few scary moments, but he got over it:

Great Movie Ride
Snow White

 

[Tiffany_MommyOf3]

Great Movie Ride is my 2 yr old and 3 yr olds fave at DHS

 

[Mickeyherewecome123]

Its Tough to be a Bug in AK was a bit scarry for my 5 year olds. When the huge bug came out my one son was literally under the bench seat and stayed there for most of the show. We laugh about it now. But he was really scarred. Although, he says he wants to go see it again when we go back this April.

 

[DRS_Are_Best]

I would start on a low key ride -- carousel or small world -- and see how it goes. If it goes well, you can start introducing more intense rides. My mistake when going with a 13 month old was the 1st ride we took him on was Aladin's Flying Carpets -- a little too much as a start. By the end, he LOVED those kinds of rides.

Either way, after rides that are relatively intense for the 2yr old, have a quiet ride planned (TTA or SmallWorld or similar). Wind down time will be appreciated......

AVOID ROLLER COASTERS unless you think the child will be OK.

 

[Faldred]

Following up to DW (DRS_Are_Best) above, if you are going to think coasters, build them up with several rides, and then try Goofy's Barnstormer. I would not suggest starting them off on Test Track, Big Thunder, Space Mountain, Everest, etc.

 

[koolaidmoms]

My DD still hates The Great Movie Ride to this day and she is now almost 9. The witch pops out in Wizard of Oz, they take over the car with gun shots and the Alien coming out of the ceiling - just too much for this 3 yr old the first time we went. She cried the whole way through. We ride it each time we go now - just once because everyone else loves it but she puts her head down, closes her eyes and covers her ears through the whole ride.

Most other rides we use our judgement. DD is just getting into rollercoasters now and has done BTR and Splash Mountain. She wants to try RNR and Test Track this time. We let choose when they were ready for the more "scary" things. I suggest getting a book and reading about all the rides first, what they entail, the scare factor, etc... Knowing your family what can they take.

 

[angeleigh]

Definitely "Stitch's Great Escape" My 11 year old son hated it. My 8 year old daughter cried. Basically just a lot of screaming, noises, darkness, and bad smells !!1 We will never go on this ride again.

Sorry I little off topic but have to share. My dds trick dh into going on this ride. While we were walking by he told the girls that it looked cute and asked if they wanted to try it. The said sure smiling from ear to ear when they went. I volunteered to stay with ds. It was so funny. He has an extremely weak stomach and did not enjoy it at all. The girls remind him that it was his idea. Even though they had experienced it before and neglected to share their experience.

 

[angeleigh]

My sister is planning to take her daughter, 2, for her first Disney visit. We're planning on it being a VERY low-key event, letting the child do what she wants to do. But what rides to parents often make the mistake of thinking is kid friendly when it's not? For example, there's some stuff on The Great Movie Ride (the alien in the ceiling, for example) that people might forget about when getting ready to take a young child aboard.

What rides do parents commonly make this mistake with?

When ds was 2 he did not like the Winnie the Pooh ride. It was scarey for him.

 

[Elmo888]

Snow White and Great Movie Ride.

 

[#1 Pocahontas]

My usually fearless 2 year old freaked at many things in I didn't expect.

She was scared to death of the 3D shows; Tough to Be a Bug totally freaked her out. She was also scared of Mickey's Philharmagic. She just didn't understand that those things were not coming after her. So we didn't do anything else like that while we were there.

She really didn't like Fantasmic. When the music got scary and the villains were there she panicked. That was the first time I ever saw her cover her eyes because she was afraid.

We didn't even try Snow White because she told me there were mad trees on that ride. LOL

 

[shoppgirl]

My 4 year old was afraid of so many rides at Disney!!! THe first "ride" to set her off was Mickey's Philharmagic. She wasn't too happy with the dark theater, and the 3D effects flying at her, and she most definitely hated the mist or any water sprays! She also hated the dark rides like Peter Pan and Pooh, because they were too dark for her. TTA was a bust too! Even the Jungle Cruise freaked her out because the boat went into a dark cave!! We learned to avoid all dark rides after that, and anything that popped out at you and sprayed you!

Hopefully she will outgrow all of this one day so we can enjoy all the rides. But we most definitely take the girls to Disney for a very low key vacation and we make sure to do things the girls enjoy, rather than what we would enjoy. I figure it will always be there, and one day, we can hopefully enjoy everything there is to offer.