Idiot brother took 3 year old son on HM first

[DisneyDad2015]

I'd say that ITtBaB is far from a "simple show."
I'd say that it is one of the top two to three most "terrifying to guests" experiences at WDW.
(The others being Dinosaur and Tower of Terror.)

I do actually love ITtBaB, but it is designed to be "personally invasive' for guests.
Especially tough on kids.

Obviously didn't realize this at the time, since this was our first trip to WDW. I'd 100% agree with that now though.

 

[skyblue17]

One thing that really struck me was how DARK so many of the rides are. There are moments in Pirates where you are just in complete and total darkness, and that's an otherwise not-that-ominous ride. I remember my little brother (6yo at the time) was afraid to go on SO many rides because of the darkness. He wouldn't go on HM at all and I went alone with my mom. I feel for little kids who don't like the dark, even the gentle rides have it!

Anyway, in this case, maybe just give him time to refresh and reset and go on outdoor rides for a bit? Then remind him that he likes the characters on some of the inside rides?

This reminds me though that when we were there on this trip, Little Mermaid stopped for a bit in the middle, which was fine. However, I had to laugh that my car stopped in the Ursula section and the entire time we were stopped (it wasn't THAT long but it wasn't short either), I had "Poor Unfortunate Souls" being sung at me on a loop as I sat there in the darkness!

 

[robinb]

Disney sells small keychain flashlights at the Emporium. Buy both kids a flashlight and let the 3-year old know that he can use it if he feels scared. The only caveat is that he not bother other guests with it.

 

[KdKyA]

So my idiot brother and family (husband, wife, 7 year old girl, 3 year old boy) arrived last night and went to MK first thing this morning.

The first ride was Hainted Mansion. The ride scared the bejeezus out of my nephew. He refuses to go on any rides now. So my brother called me for ideas. The mom and daughter had a FP for princesses and my brother took his son on Dumbo. Apparently he’ll go on a ride he can see, but has a screaming panic attack when the tried to get him to go into the IASW building. So they’ve done Dumbo, barnstormer, and teacups.

I told him to try the Pooh meet and greet since you can see the entire thing before getting in line.

Do you guys have any other ideas?

I wouldn't say your brother is an idiot. We all make mistakes and what we don't deem as scary for us could be terrifying for littles. As adults we see HM as fun and silly. A 3 year old does not. That being said, I won Mother of the Year award when my twins had just turned 5. I took them to Disneyland by myself. The very first ride was Space Mountain. My son had to sit by himself in front of my daughter and I. Let me tell you, they were totally traumatized. Not like that's a scary ride lets do it again traumatized. More like, my mom just tried to kill me and now I want a new mommy traumatized. The picture for everyone to see just made me feel totally awful. They seriously looked like they thought they were dying. Am I an idiot? No, just didn't think it through. After that we did slow non traumatizing rides. But when you think about it, just about every ride has some terror aspect to it for small children. Stick with small world, Pooh, tea cups, people mover and then a nice treat. Then go up a small amount in intensity. My kiddos are now 10 and they are thrill seekers and love spinning, scary, roller coaster, sudden drops, etc. Yet to this day, I still can't get my daughter back on Space Mountain hahahaha!

 

[ToddlerMom311]

Maybe advise your brother to take them to lunch at Pinnochio's Village Haus? You can watch IASW from there so it might be less scary. Just an idea, however that will only help with that one ride (if at all).

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Wowzers. Yeah, I don't know if you can recover from that on this trip. My DS10 has been to WDW about 25 times and I JUST took him on HM this past August. I told him exactly what it was, that it was all fake, etc. etc. Any younger than that (based on what I know about my kid), it would have literally caused him nightmares. I took him to Fantasmic when he was 3 1/2 and that terrified him. He was terrified of the Winnie the Pooh ride at 3 as well. And face characters. And Crush. Most kids at that age think everything they are seeing is real. I would probably stick to outdoor rides for now, show him some youtube videos of other rides they are planning to go on, but I wouldn't push it.

 

[KyGirl]

I wish I had some advice. (Although I think the advice about alleviating concerns over darkness are probably on point. My DD5 will ride any roller coaster they will let her on but won't ride anything where there is too much darkness.)

However, I just have to say that in my family my dad STILL complains about how much he spent on Disney tickets in the mid 80s when they took my sister and I (maybe ages 4 and 6?) on the old Snow White ride, totally scared us to death, and then spent the rest of those expensive days riding the carousel and standing in line for Dumbo. He claims that they dragged us kicking and screaming onto IASW while everybody in line stared at us and then went back to Dumbo. He refuses to ride Dumbo to this day.

 

[tarahill]

Another big issue bedsides the dark is that it is so hard at Disney to tell real from fantasy. My cousin at this age was terrified of a lot of rides because everything seems so real. Disney is so sensory on a lot of rides that even if we say it's pretend their brain cannot grasp that.

3 year old's brain: I can touch make believe characters. Cartoons are real here. I can take a picture with Cinderella and have their autograph. The water splash during Pirates was real, so how is the cannon not really being shot towards me? I saw the ghost in my car, how is that not real. The heat from the villain's explore is hot, so that is is real.

You can do your best to explain, but their brains don't always get it. So my suggestion is doing some rides that don't blur fantasy and reality as much. My kids loved the trains, people mover, any of the up and down or spinning rides, and stay away from the dark rides. At 3 they should want to ride it's a small world 944 times in a row.

 

[annabelle004]

Oh no! I did the same thing with my child when he was two, maybe three. I had just forgotten what that ride might look like to a child. Because it just isn’t scary to me, and I’m scared of everything! My suggestion was going to be to get something that had some sort of light on it. Nothing too bright but something that would be fun and help him feel more secure. But I can appreciate how other guests might be upset by that.
Another thing that might work is simply to let the cast member know that the little boy is fearful and see if they can help with ideas or distractions that will make the ride more enjoyable

 

[bumbershoot]

Another big issue bedsides the dark is that it is so hard at Disney to tell real from fantasy. My cousin at this age was terrified of a lot of rides because everything seems so real. Disney is so sensory on a lot of rides that even if we say it's pretend their brain cannot grasp that.

3 year old's brain: I can touch make believe characters. Cartoons are real here. I can take a picture with Cinderella and have their autograph. The water splash during Pirates was real, so how is the cannon not really being shot towards me? I saw the ghost in my car, how is that not real. The heat from the villain's explore is hot, so that is is real.

You can do your best to explain, but their brains don't always get it. So my suggestion is doing some rides that don't blur fantasy and reality as much. My kids loved the trains, people mover, any of the up and down or spinning rides, and stay away from the dark rides. At 3 they should want to ride it's a small world 944 times in a row.

Yes to your whole post.

Also, apparently I’m 3. Because I love small world.

 

[revdon64]

Hop over to AK and have him do It's Tough to be a Bug, what could possibly go wrong?

 

[DIS-OH]

I took my then 3 and 5 year old DDs on PotC for their first ride. We spent the rest of the trip saying "no, this ride is not in the dark and no one is going to shoot us on this ride."

Good news is that my now 27 and 29 year old DDs grew up to be WDW fanatics!

 

[Texans_loyal]

I'm 26 and i have to close my eyes when we go through the graveyard part. nope, not opening them.

 

[DVCcurious]

OP here with an update:
My brother mentioned the problem to a cast member at Dumbo and he suggested leaving MK and riding a resort ferry so my nephew could see boats are fun and then try Jungle Cruise. So they did that, they rode the Polynesian ferry over and back and then went to the JC exit and showed him how the Jungle Cruise boats are like the resort ferry and then he went on the Jungle Cruise with no problem.

Then they took him to Pinocchio’s diner which ny brother said has a big window looking at the Small World ride and they showed my nephew the boats and he agreed to ride Its a Small World.

So he likes the boats but he probably won’t trust any non-boat ride vehicles.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

So he likes the boats but he probably won’t trust any non-boat ride vehicles.

So then the next logical ride would be Splash! I'm guessing he's not tall enough though. That's too bad.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

OP here with an update:
My brother mentioned the problem to a cast member at Dumbo and he suggested leaving MK and riding a resort ferry so my nephew could see boats are fun and then try Jungle Cruise. So they did that, they rode the Polynesian ferry over and back and then went to the JC exit and showed him how the Jungle Cruise boats are like the resort ferry and then he went on the Jungle Cruise with no problem.
Then they took him to Pinocchio’s diner which ny brother said has a big window looking at the Small World ride and they showed my nephew the boats and he agreed to ride Its a Small World.
So he likes the boats but he probably won’t trust any non-boat ride vehicles.

TBH, totally fair of the kid to say that he doesn't want to challenge the fear of any more ride vehicles in the dark during this trip! Good for him for doing some other activities that were non-threatening!

 

[jltdone]

2015 our son turned 5 on that day it was our first day in the park, We had CP for breakfast before rope drop. The first ride we went on was space mountain. He had never been on a ride before never even seen a roller coaster. My wife said what are you going to do to this poor child. I told her we have to start somewhere start at the biggest and the rest is a piece of cake. He didn't mind it, yes it was the dark that he didn't like but the 2nd day he wanted to go on it over and over again. You have to test the water, just jump in feet first. You will find out right away if they like rides or not.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Wow you don't think much of your brother do you?
Many toddlers really ejnjoy HM.
I did... and two of my nieces adored "scary" things at that ag too.

I'd say maybe suggest youtube videos of rides and explaining what they are like before he goes on.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I did this with my son when he was 3. In my defense i had never been to WDW and it was 2003. I wasn’t big on the Internet back then so i didn’t research much.

So we go on Snow White and my son CLAWED my neck and chest grabbing and holding me. I felt so bad.

My son luckily gets over things pretty quickly so after some bribery and a few smoother rides he was perfectly fine.

On the flip side i took my daughter on the same ride when she was 3 and she loved it. We actually rode it about 5 times in a row while the boys rode splash.

 

[mom2rtk]

I did this with my son when he was 3. In my defense i had never been to WDW and it was 2003. I wasn’t big on the Internet back then so i didn’t research much.

So we go on Snow White and my son CLAWED my neck and chest grabbing and holding me. I felt so bad.

My son luckily gets over things pretty quickly so after some bribery and a few smoother rides he was perfectly fine.

On the flip side i took my daughter on the same ride when she was 3 and she loved it. We actually rode it about 5 times in a row while the boys rode splash.

I see nothing wrong with a well placed bribe in situations like this. A Build-A-Bear outfit finally got my daughter on California Screamin. And now it's her favorite ride. That was a good investment.