Idiot brother took 3 year old son on HM first

[DVCcurious]

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?

 

[yulilin3]

Maybe show him videos of the rides?

 

[mousehouse23]

Maybe have him show the boy some ride-through videos on youtube, so he knows what he's in for?

 

[mom2rtk]

In all fairness, plenty of adults panic heading into Small World.

 

[wgeo]

He's 3? Maybe get him some sweet treat and give him a few minutes to cool off. I'm thinking like a big old sucker or something, that he could distract himself with as you walked through a que. OR buy him a new stuffie that he could use a "security blanket" while going on the rides.

 

[foohpah]

It may be the dark that bothers him too. Get him one of those light up toys or a glow stick to carry onto the rides.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

It's not really pertinent to your needing to give him advice and you can tell me it's not my business ....

However, I'm curious if you're willing to indulge me. Is there a reason he picked that one?

I'm a fraidy cat but rode HM at 5 and was never scared of it but my 11 year old granddaughter who watches things I won't watch with her father hates it.

 

[Skywise]

pfft- show him real fear and put him on space mountain next!

Seriously - I bet it's more the dark ride aspect than the content.

Try the People Mover next - he can see that from the outside but it goes into dark areas. Follow that with Buzz Lightyear (which he can see from the People Mover) then try IASW again then Peter Pan.

...

THEN POTC

 

[mousehouse23]

I'm a fraidy cat but rode HM at 5 and was never scared of it but my 11 year old granddaughter who watches things I won't watch with her father hates it.

My 14-year-old STILL hates it, and I've abandoned any notion of her ever feeling otherwise. She just waits for us in Liberty Square now while we enjoy our doom buggy.

 

[Donalyn]

I made a similar idiot mistake with my DNephew when he was three. He loved TNBC and all things Halloween, so I thought he'd be okay with HM. Not so much, when the thunder started.

He did eventually calm down. Hanging out with others helped. Happy characters helped (face ones). Treats and a nap. Still wasn't very happy on a lot of rides, but we just adjusted accordingly. (Luckily we had some other non-riders in the bunch, so we could leave him with them if the other kids wanted to ride.)

 

[Dug720]

It may be the dark that bothers him too. Get him one of those light up toys or a glow stick to carry onto the rides.

If I see someone with a light up toy on Haunted Mansion (well, any dark ride, but especially that one), I will lose it. NO NO NO!

Please don't ruin dark rides for everyone else.

 

[VAfamily1998]

My 14-year-old STILL hates it, and I've abandoned any notion of her ever feeling otherwise. She just waits for us in Liberty Square now while we enjoy our doom buggy.

I'm 42, and I don't like it either! I go on it for my family's sake, but keep my eyes shut the whole time!

 

[glencoe]

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?

Mickey's Philharmagic, small world, buzz light year, carousel of progress, monsters laugh floor....lots of smooth fun indoor stuff to try to fix that goof up. My older son was the same way and we felt like we were torturing him to get on any ride!! Then after a few "nice" ones he was fine and more trusting. Good luck!!

 

[DisneyDad2015]

Character Meets?

Your story brought back a funny memory from my families first trip to WDW...even though it wasn't so funny at the time.

Our first day was at AK, and the first thing we decided to do was It's Tough To Be a Bug. My DD, who was 6 at the time, had the biggest melt down I've ever seen her have about half way through the show. At this point, my DW and I are thinking that this was going to be a terrible trip if she couldn't even make it through a simple show. Well after getting her calmed down, we went and did a character M&G with Mickey and Minnie. For whatever reason, it seemed to completely turn the trip around, and the Its Tough to Be a Bug Show was the only hiccup we had the entire trip. Granted, she's 9 now and still refuses to see that show, but I'm hopeful that one day she'll give it another try...

 

[danabalana]

I made a similar mistake with my son when he was 4. It was our first time to Universal and I took him on the King Kong ride. What a mistake! I couldn't get him on a dark ride in any park until he was about 8 or 9.

 

[Micca]

made a similar idiot mistake with my DNephew when he was three. He loved TNBC and all things Halloween, so I thought he'd be okay with HM. Not so much, when the thunder started.

My DGD freaked out in the library at TOT when the thunder/lightning portion of the Twilight Zone video came on. I agree that the "scary" dark rides may have to take a back seat. Hopefully he'll be ok with things like Peter Pan & 7DMT.

 

[Robo]

the first thing we decided to do was It's Tough To Be a Bug. My DD, who was 6 at the time, had the biggest melt down I've ever seen her have about half way through the show. At this point, my DW and I are thinking that this was going to be a terrible trip if she couldn't even make it through a simple show...

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.

 

[DisneyFive]

I can feel his pain. We had no ill intentions, but we made a similar mistake with our (then) 3 year old son with Splash Mountain. Very first full day of our very first trip to Disney World in 2010. Thought he would be fine. Boy were we wrong. The big problem with Splash is that it's very tame until the very end, then... DROP! It didn't seem like it at the time, but it really freaked him out.

So what did this mean for the rest of our trip? Every ride, even the ones that looked very tame, freaked out our son. He was expecting a crazy ending to everything, even rides like Pooh. He finally started to come around by about the 5th day, but still not back to normal.

Just a word of warning.

Good thing is, he's all good now. Loves ToT, Splash, RnRC, etc... whew!

Dan

 

[DisneyWife2015]

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.

Well, this was the first trip to WDW. We didn't know that at the time, though I'd 100% agree now.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Character Meets?

Your story brought back a funny memory from my families first trip to WDW...even though it wasn't so funny at the time.

Our first day was at AK, and the first thing we decided to do was It's Tough To Be a Bug. My DD, who was 6 at the time, had the biggest melt down I've ever seen her have about half way through the show. At this point, my DW and I are thinking that this was going to be a terrible trip if she couldn't even make it through a simple show. Well after getting her calmed down, we went and did a character M&G with Mickey and Minnie. For whatever reason, it seemed to completely turn the trip around, and the Its Tough to Be a Bug Show was the only hiccup we had the entire trip. Granted, she's 9 now and still refuses to see that show, but I'm hopeful that one day she'll give it another try...

To be fair, that’s probably the most fear-inducing attraction at Disney, especially for little kids.