How do you prepare a little one for a trip to Disney? My 4 (and a half) year old is very excited about our trip, but apprehensive about some of the rides. Rides she is presently scared of include: The Haunted Mansion (my FAVORITE ride, so much so that it's the ringtone on my phone!), Pirates of the Carribean, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Snow White's Scary Adventures.
We've started watching videos on youtube of all of the rides I think she'll be scared of to prepare her. This doesn't mean showing her all the rides, that wouldn't be fun, just the ones I think she needs to watch a few times to psych herself up to ride. I get the distinct impression she thinks she'll be fighting her way through pirates or running away from ghosts, no matter how many times I explain that she'll be carried through the ride on a car/boat/etc.
Our favorite place to watch rides is the Infomouse. Her tips, ride through rides, and information are a perfect starting place for anyone prepping for Disney. I also like SpokesMayne's Day at DisneyWorld, and how you can click the video to ride the rides.
Let me know what your tips for preparing little ones for the scarier parts of Disney are.
Disney Dreaming,
Leslie
I'm a new follower from the Blog hop. I really enjoyed your post. Our family loves the Haunted Mansion too but since it was bit scarier when they were younger, I would hide their eyes during the really scary parts.
ReplyDeleteWelcome! I think that's what I might do, plan to cover ears and eyes as the need presents itself. :)
ReplyDeleteOurs were both apprehensive about Pirates of the Caribbean. We had a harder time with Drake; he actually cried a little and we pretty much had to drag him on. They both really enjoyed it. I don't know what it is about that ride that freaks them out! Mine didn't know anything about it before we went. Maybe it's the big skull and crossbones. Maybe pirates just sound scary. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteHaunted Mansion, Drake was a little apprehensive but he really enjoyed it. Oksana, of course, loved it.
Snow White's Scary Adventures really aren't all that scary. But telling them that doesn't logically work, lol. My kids both did fine on that one.
Tower of Terror - are you planning on taking Claire on that? We didn't hit that park last time we were there; I haven't been on this ride since I was 14, but I remember it being fairly intense. Aside from darkness and scary visuals, it's got a pretty extreme straight drop down. Maybe it's because I've never been a huge fan of 'drop' rides, but I don't think I'd take the kids on this one unless they really wanted to do it. I wouldn't push for this one.
As far as preparing your kids... well, maybe in your particular case you could help her prepare by telling her Drake and Oksana have been on some of those rides and they loved them? I don't have any other helpful tips. We didn't try to prepare the kids at all before we went... just because we didn't think about it, really. I didn't expect them to get scared, I don't know why.
This year we've done some preparing for our potential Universal Studios trip by watching some of the on-ride videos on youtube. They were really nervous about some of the rides, like Jaws and Twister... watching the videos has psyched them up for all the rides. EXCEPT for The Mummy's Revenge... neither of them wants anything to do with that one, lol.
Mostly in the past, our strategy has been to let them see the ride, talk about it and what happens on it, and use their trust in us to convince them to go on it. Which usually works, lol.
Also, you guys are going to Universal, right? I would seriously prep her for some of their rides. Many have frightening elements, much more so than Disney. My kids STILL talk about how much the Jurassic Park River Adventure scared them. (And me, too, a little, lol.) The Spiderman ride is FANTASTIC but my kids were a little scared on it the first time. (They both went on it again though, and still talk about how it was their favorite ride.) And I know I've told you at length about how awesome the Harry Potter ride is, but also how very INTENSE it was. (If we make it back there this year, Drake's tall enough to go on it, though Oksana still isn't. He wants to go but he's very nervous, lol.) Those are all at Islands Of Adventure. We didn't hit Universal Studios with the kids, but as I mentioned above, we're prepping for that (that's the one we're most likely to hit as OJ's sister has free passes for that one; we could get into Islands of Adventure at a discount, but it will probably still be cost prohibitive :( ).
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