What things scared your kids?

[Gumbo4x4]

3 y/o niece was terrified of talking Mickey.

I was amazed how many parents of frightened children (especially at MK) absolutely insisted on having pictures of their kids with the big, scary Duck/Mouse/Dog/etc

 

[kkayluvsdis]

It's tough to be a bug!! All three were crying and screaming. Ages 1, 3, and 6 at the time. We all laugh about it now, but boy, did we feel like horrible parents that day!

 

[alex9179]

Well if you are going to change the thread to what scared you as a kid, when I was around 5 or 6 there was nothing at the Magic Kingdom that was scarier to me than bouncing down the train tracks towards the oncoming light to be killed by a train in Mr Toad's Wild Ride.

Me too!
My mom was so disappointed when she found out that ride was gone.


My kids were 8,7, and 5 on our first trip.

5 yr old
Rode GMR on our first day and it ruined him for most of the vacation. The Alien sequence terrified him and the shoot-out was the last straw. Didn't help that a kid behind us screamed bloody murder the ENTIRE time. That really amped up the fear.
He tried to hide in the footwell of the ship in Peter Pan and refused to go on IASW until the very end of the day. Any indoor ride was a no go.
ITTBAB - spider and bee sequence
Anything dark or loud, he wanted nothing to do with it. He LOVED BTMRR, Barnstormer, and Splash (even though it has a darker sequence).

7 yr old
EE. He was trying to be tough afterwards, but I could see the tears
HM. He was balling after the stretching room. Calmed down a bit on the ride, but was GLUED to me.

8 yr old
EE. Hahaha! We have the ride picture and her face! Poor thing, makes me laugh every time. If she's not screaming, then she's not having fun.

They ALL want to go on EE this time. We keep trying to talk them out of it. We didn't get to ToT on our first trip after the GMR Meltdown. They are all trying to convince me that they'll ride that, too. Ages 9,9, and 6 this time. We'll see.

 

[MSSANDRA]

The only thing that scared DS when he was 5 was Haunted Mansion. No clue why but it was the only time we had tears the entire trip. After HM he refused to even walk past it or TOT which looked like it and still refuses to do so. Older DS was terrified on TOT at 8 but I think that is about the only one that has ever scared him. Oh, I was worried about the alien at HS and tried to distract him when we was about 4 or 5 and he noticed it and laughed.

I'm a teacher and tend to notice scared kids. We have seen a lot of scared kids on there rides:

Stitch
Dinosaur
ITTBAB
Ellen's Energy Ride (the dinosaurs can seem realistic)
The Little Mermaid Show at HS
TOT
HM

Also seen kids get a bit upset in these not obvious places
Figment
Pooh
Great Movie Ride with the coyboy or alien scene

 

[Coach81]

Stitch

 

[Princess Leia]

On our first trip my son was 3. I remember he was scared of Captain Hook. Mind you he was dressed as Peter Pan at the time. We have a great photo with Mr Smee where he is totally unaware that Captain Hook had sneaked up in the background.

 

[tralin]

DD4 at the time was only scared of Dinosour. Too Loud and really bumpy. It was also the first day of the first trip so she was not disney-ized yet. I gave her glow sticks for all of the dark rides, she really only used them on Pirates the first time and TOT. At HM she gave her stick away to the boy in front of her who was very scared. Then again, her favorite movies since she was 2 have always been (and still are at 5) The Nightmare Before Christmas and the Wizard of Oz. Thus, I would say her fear factor is a bit unusual. ToT was her most fave ride of all of them.

 

[kmc]

Definitely tough to be a bug. When my son was three he was so scared I had to pick him up and run out.....just as I was standing up the spiders dropped from the ceiling he was terrified and I felt terrible. Several other kids were crying outside also being consoled by their parents.

The only other thing that really scared him was Snow White. He went on it once at 3 and refused on to go again on other trips. We were there right before it was closed permanently and I begged him.....he was 11 and that witch still scared him. Now he's 16 and we will be going in December....I can't wait for the new ride, and he's really hoping that witch isn't involved in that mine in no way shape or form

 

[catigger]

My dd tried HM when she was 6. No tears but I could see the panic on her little face. She refused to ride it again. It was not until putting her to bed she asked if the ghost was still following us or if it had stayed behind in MK. Come to find out she thought the hitchhiker that was in our doom buggy had been following her the entire day. That memory makes me smile.

 

[elaine amj]

The one that surprised me was how freaked out my DD got in the Norway ride. She spent the entire ride freaking out that a troll was going to be around the next corner. We had stayed away from the obvious HM and ToT but I didn't even consider trolls to be frightening.

And Dinosaur was terrifying. She cried in the waiting room. She managed OK once I covered her eyes and ears (through the entire ride). She had absolutely no love for animatronic dinosaurs. It took until about 10/11 on before she could handle them without hysteria.

 

[BlovesC]

My DH's nine year-old nephew was terrified to the point of tears within the first ten seconds of ITTBAB.

 

[Ravenne]

At 5 it was DINOSAUR in AK, and Stitch in MK.

On the other hand, I thought she would be terrified of Space Mountain. She refused to admit that she was nervous, but I figured she would be...until the pic at the end of the ride I saw her with a HUGE smile on her face.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

We have been on 3 family Disney vacations, and have managed to scare the pants off one or both of our children on each trip. Hand me my MOTY award, please.

2011: First trip, youngest was just shy of 2, oldest turned 5 on the trip. They LOVED A Bug's Life, so we thought they'd be fine in It's Tough to Be a Bug. No. Nope. Oh heck no. Terrified. Screaming. We felt horrible. They thought it was funny until Hopper, but after that, it was no go.

2012: Space Mountain. By then our daughter was 6. She loves space and had been really looking forward to it. Petrified. I hadn't been on it since a post-college trip in the 90s, and I didn't remember it being so dark. Plus, it's inline seating instead of double seats. I don't think it would have been so bad if we could have sat together. She will not go on it again. We then traumatized her the next day of that trip on Mission: Space. I sent my husband with her on that one (I've never been on it) and she came out crying again. We felt horrible and promised her that for the rest of the trip, she was in charge of picking all rides and that we wouldn't go on anything new.

2013: Kids were 3 and 7. Finally staying up later, so we thought we'd check out Fantasmic. They didn't like the evil stuff, didn't understand the dream parts, and then were petrified at the dragon. Like both screaming, petrified.

So, we're really looking forward to our 2014 trip, which gives us another chance at a vacation where we DO NOT end up terrorizing our children in any way. LOL.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Whoops. Apparently the Disboard have a glitch tonight.

 

[MaggieMollyMom]

My girls are terrified of the Winnie the Pooh ride. Storm, bad dream....yep, scary stuff! But love TestTrack.....? go figure

 

[kelconic]

My 7 year old loves most rides but she just could not do ToT. She wanted to sooo bad and tried twice, but each time the lights went out during the library portion she got scared. I know she would have loved the elevator if only she could've gotten past the creepiness!

 

[sewingmolly]

My niece was terrified by Dinosaur when she was 13. Now she's 17 and still hates it. She rides with her eyes closed. When she rode Forbidden Journey at Universal, she closed her eyes early on. She just hates things jumping out at her.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

Don't recall seeing this one (sorry if its a repeat), but I thought it might be nice to have a comprehensive list of things children have found scary, and "why".

I'll start with my own DD6

Fantasmic (horrifying). She hasn't cried that hard since the dog died

It's Tough To Be A Bug - Hopper was creepy. She liked the rest, and wouldn't rule out doing this when she's older

Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular - Scary/creepy music. She wanted out

Seeing Darth Vader around DHS - he's creepy

We skipped Haunted Mansion for obvious reasons

Dinosaur in AK scared our 7 year old
A Bug's Life scared our then 2 year old

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

Our DD9 still refuses to go back to "It's tough to be a Bug". On our first trip when she was 5 she screamed and cried. But to be fair we live in the arctic so when she was younger she was scared of grass and trees She still refuses to wear sandals in the South, the grass might touch her feet and she hates any bug, but trees seem ok

 

[BrokeMack]

Just got back from my 3 year old's first trip. He wasn't scared of anything we tried. HM (I think he was a little nervous in the stretching room the first time) , Pirates, Barnstormer (he absolutely loved it) , Wishes (covered his ears, but was smiling the whole time).