The Disney lawyers decide when a child is ready for the rougher attractions based on height. But children develop at different rates. Some children are taller at younger ages. Some are extra sensitive to various attraction effects. We asked the Parenting Panel this week: How do you decide when your younger children are ready for the height-restricted attractions?
MousePlanet columnist Chris Barry, his wife Diane, 11-year-old Samantha, and twin 8-year-olds, Casey and Alex, live on Long Island and are all major Disney and Walt Disney World fans. Chris writes:
The question of whether a child is ready for attractions just because they’re tall enough has a pretty solid answer…it all depends on your child. I realize that doesn’t sound all that solid, but if there’s one thing that’s pretty solid with all questions pertaining to a Disney vacation, it’s that there is no solid answer. Everyone’s different and everyone has a different experience. You have to know what your child is ready for. You know your child best and even then, trust me—a Disney park can throw them for a loop.
For example, on our first trip with our twin boys, we figured we’d do the exact same thing that we did when we first took their older sister to Walt Disney World years before. We went straight back to Fantasyland and went right for one of their favorite characters, Winnie the Pooh. It was a perfect first ride for her and surely the boys would react the same. She was 4 on her first trip. The boys were now 4. What could go wrong? I’m sure you can see where this is going. Our boys absolutely freaked on, of all things, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
I certainly don’t think it’s a crazy ride. I just think that they didn’t know what to expect and the movement, the music, the characters just all overwhelmed them. Up until that moment the only rides they’d ever been on were carousels and kiddie rides. They just weren’t prepared for the sensory overload of a Disney attraction. Needless to say, my wife and I thought we were doomed. I mean if they couldn’t handle Pooh then we were done for the week and we’d barely started. Fortunately, “it’s a small world,” Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Peter Pan’s Flight managed to soothe them a bit and when they tackled Winnie the Pooh again later on, all was well in our world. Still, the lesson we learned was to never assume your child would be able to handle any ride or attraction. You just never know.
Our daughter adapted instantly to the Fantasyland rides at 4. She handled the sometimes-terrifying-to-kids Snow White’s Scary Adventures on that first trip. However, that was really her limit. She was very hesitant on most everything else. She was talked into Pirates of the Caribbean by an amazing cast member who told her to look for all of the animals on the ride and come find her when she was done and let her know which ones she spotted. She toughened up, now that she had a quest. Sure enough, that same cast member was waiting for little Samantha afterward and listened to her list of animals from the ride.
That same trip, I did bribe her with a new pin to try Splash Mountain, which she absolutely loved…until the big drop, of course. That may have scarred her for life on that ride because it wasn’t until she was 10 and we were traveling with a friend her age that she dared to attempt Splash Mountain again. That may have been just to save face with her best friend because this past summer, at 11, she shopped while we took her 8-year-old brothers on Splash Mountain. She had no interest whatsoever and was very happy pin shopping at the Frontierland Trading Post. Perhaps I inadvertently created that scenario 7 years earlier by bribing her with that Princess pin?
That just proves my point. She’s been tall enough for everything in Walt Disney World for many years now, but won’t go near rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, or Space Mountain, or Expedition Everest. Not happening. I think she’s missing out on a lot of great rides, but I’m certainly not forcing her. She still loves to go to Walt Disney World and I can tell that’s not changing anytime soon. The height restriction has never mattered. She knows what she wants to try and we honor her wishes. It’s her vacation too. Why should she go on rides she has no interest in?
This past summer our 8-year-olds began to want to try new things. They wanted to go on Splash Mountain, even after standing there and watching others go down the falls. They wanted to go on Soarin.’ They were never too keen on the whole 3-D movie thing but wanted to see It’s Tough to be a Bug for the first time. They’ve been tall enough for a while now; they just haven’t wanted to try these things. We know our kids. They’re the ones that were totally freaked out by Heffalumps and Woozles four years ago, so we haven’t pushed them.
The beauty of going to Walt Disney World is that you don’t have to push them. There are plenty of things to do for everyone and there will always be time to go back and try things the next time when they get a little braver. Allowing them to tell you when they’re ready has always been our best advice to others.
Mary Kraemer is an avid Disney fan and travel consultant with CruisingCo/MouseEarVacations who loves to travel with her husband and children to Disney destinations as often as possible! Mary writes:
I have two varieties of kids when it comes to the subject of rides: the cautious ones and the can’t-wait-to-ride-it ones. So, I’ve had the experience of a child who’s tall enough for a ride who won’t even consider going on it while their younger and shorter sibling is cursing the stars at not being tall enough to ride. I’ve had the experience of getting the Child Swap pass with one of my taller, older kids while the little one goes on the ride with my husband (and then goes on the ride again with me!)
I firmly believe that height restrictions are in place for a safety reason and that they should be respected. That said, I also believe that height restrictions should be measured accurately and consistently to avoid disappointment for those riders who are ‘just’ tall enough to make the limit. Not all of the measurement devices in the parks are exactly correct, which can make a child who was able to ride one 40-inch ride unable to go on another. (I’ve been known to carry around a measuring tape to show the child’s actual height to cast members.)
When my kids were just getting started with faster rides, I took the “what you see is what you get” approach and took them on Gadget’s Go Coaster in Toontown at Disneyland Park. There are no surprises or inside places on that ride, so the kids could truly see everything that they would experience. Part of my more cautious kids’ concerns about rides was the unknown factor, fearing what might happen during the inside part of the ride. I’ve found that the fear of the unknown has prevented my more cautious kids more than anything else.
When my cautious kids haven’t wanted to go on a ride, I have not forced the issue, with one exception. Generally, when we visit Disneyland or Walt Disney World, I know we’ll be back again at some point, so if they miss a ride, they can try it out next time. The exception was a visit to Disneyland Paris, where we have less certainty of a repeat visit. All my kids had ridden the Disneyland Paris version of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and loved it, and my cautious pair had ridden Space Mountain in the U.S. parks, so I insisted that they try the one at Disneyland Paris atypically ignoring their protests. Well, they survived the ride, but they sure weren’t happy about it, and I felt terrible that I’d broken my own rule about not forcing kids to ride something they were hesitant about.
I just found a different variation of this issue on my recent cruise onboard the Disney Dream. The terrific new Aquaduck water coaster has a height minimum requirement, but if a child doesn’t weigh much, they don’t have the mass on the raft to make it go through the tubes, which shuts down the ride. It will be interesting to see how this issue is resolved for future sailings because this is an enormously popular feature of the new ship, and it’s time-consuming to have to evacuate the lightweight child (and probably more than a little disconcerting to them to be stuck!).
Chris, also known as GusMan, is always planning his next family trip to WDW and loves to help others plan their trips as well through sharing his experiences. Chris writes:
Over the years, in comparing Walt Disney World to other parks, I have always complemented Disney on how the rides appeal to both children and adults alike. However, anyone who visited with their children of different ages, heights, and adventure level knows that what may be a thrill for one, is scary for another. The question to ask is how can you tell when they are ready to move up to the next “level” of adventure.
I have to admit that I bribed and coaxed my daughter to go on rides such as Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster as soon as she got tall enough. We still laugh at the story about her yelling at me to make the ride stop after we went upside-down. However, I think that pretty much personifies the idea that sometimes the child knows they are not ready for a certain ride. The height requirement might be there, the curiosity factor is there, but when they see the ride vehicles take off in the blink of an eye, they will communicate to you their feelings for sure. The key thing is: Listen to your kids. If they don’t want to go, make other arrangements. The last thing you want is to make an unappealing attraction their main memory of their last vacation.
After that mishap, we decided that a little research was in order for other attractions. Looking at height requirements is obviously a way to determine what would be considered “in-bounds” for the kids. We would then read different reviews from online and printed resources and look for key words that would help us determine if we should exclude the ride. Scary, dark rides might be OK for some attractions. However, add in other adjectives such as “spinning” or “avoid if you are prone to motion sickness” and you really have to think twice. That does not necessarily mean that the ride will be totally taken out of the running, but approached with caution.
For our youngest, the guiding factors we used if he was ready for a ride was height and if he was actually interested in a certain ride. To help with this, we got him involved in the attraction investigation process. We talked about certain rides he has yet to try and get his first thoughts. Most of the time he says that he does not want to try the attraction; however, that is usually not his final answer. Tapping into the many attraction videos hosted at YouTube and showing them during our trip-planning time, turned out to be a great resource. In many cases, the videos will give us a better idea of what he would like to try as we note his reactions to attractions such as Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain. We repeat this process a couple of times before we leave to make sure his reactions are consistent or possibly showing that he is open-minded to something new.
To be honest, I wish my youngest had the adventurous spirit in him like my oldest child. It would make height the only restriction to consider. I am sure that as he grows older his interests will change and he might be willing to try new attractions. It’s a matter of this parent’s patience to allow his sense of adventure to grow. I’m sure that sooner or later I will get the picture of our whole family enjoying a nice, peaceful ride on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
Parenting in the Parks columnist Adrienne Krock’s three boys are now 12, 9, and 6. They’ve been visiting Disneyland since they were each just weeks old and Annual Passholders since their 3rd birthdays. Adrienne writes:
My husband and I have a strategy for introducing our children to the more adventurous rides. As soon as they hit 35-inches, we started with Gadget’s Go-Coaster at Disneyland Park. Gadget’s is a short ride and completely visible from the outside so it felt safer to our children. While the Matterhorn also has a 35-inch height restriction, our children have not all enjoyed its rough ride and at least one of my sons thought Harold (the Abominable Snowman) was a little too scary.
When they hit 40-inch mark we made Big Thunder Mountain Railroad their first ride for that height. Again, Big Thunder is mostly outdoors and they could even seen part of the tracks from a few places outside the ride. The boys usually chose to wait a little longer before moving up to the completely enclosed and dark Space Mountain.
Until this point, we enjoyed the luxury of living locally and holding Annual Passes to Disneyland. I believe in the “Don’t force the issue” rule. At the same time, I did force our youngest child to go on two rides he was reluctant to try at Walt Disney World. I admit it. Please don’t hold it against me but I forced my 5-year-old to ride… Kali River Rapids and Splash Mountain.
I can certainly appreciate not wanting to get wet on a ride. I hate getting wet on rides. When we all rode Kali River Rapids at Extra Magic Hours at Animal Kingdom, this same child was very upset that we made him ride three times in a row. We had a plan for the wet: We wore ponchos and rode at the end of our day when we would be returning immediately, by car, to our resort. He recovered quickly once we got off and watched our group ride the attraction three more times. Fortunately, he harbored no long-term ill-will.
But I knew in my heart that this child would love Splash Mountain. Of my three, he was the only child who never went through a phase where he was afraid of characters with giant heads. While he did not care for Harold, he otherwise had always been my adventurous child. So I did force him to ride Splash Mountain. When we exited the ride, he immediately turned and asked to ride it again. Ah-ha! Fortunately, I gauged the Splash Mountain situation a bit better than the Kali River Rapids episode.
Some rides without height restrictions have been challenges, too, and we can learn lessons from those. The Enchanted Tiki Room can be too loud for some children, even before the thunderstorm. Giant spiders fall from the ceiling in It’s Tough to Be a Bug and other bugs spit “poison” at guests. Sometimes we just have to think ahead to what surprises might startle younger children. For children who have not grown up among Disney theme parks, which are much bigger and grander than many local fairs and carnivals, the large rides can be intimidating. I am grateful that my older, more tentative child, had the luxury of an Annual Pass so that, as he grew, he had a frame of reference for experiencing the next bigger rides. Some members of the MousePad message board have found videos of rides online to prepare their children for what the rides might feel like, especially if the children are less familiar with Disney parks.
For our family, building up from the easier to the scarier rides seemed to work well but we have definitely found that sometimes a tall enough child is not always ready for the attractions with restrictions.
It’s your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
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