Idiot brother took 3 year old son on HM first

[Order66]

We had a similar problem on our sons' first visit. They were 6. We started at MK, went over to Tomorrowland, saw a long line for Buzz and grabbed a FP. Said look, that "stitch thing" only has a 5 minute wait, lets do that....the boys love Stitch. OMG had no idea about that attraction and the boys freaked out. Hated the touching, the spitting, etc..... In fact wouldn't go in that attraction again for years....LOL So after promising that we wouldn't go in there again, we next go on to Buzz and they seem fine we explain the ride to them...shoot the Zurgs. Half way through the line, one son is having a hysterical melt down. We asked him what was wrong. He's crying that he doesn't want to die. What??? So in his mind if Stitch spits at you Zurg must shoot back and he was afraid we wouldn't survive. LOL I calmly and quietly explained to him that it would be pretty bad for business if Disney killed guests and that the ride was just pretend. Fake guns, just targets, just like a video game. That satisfied him. They were a little leery of other dark rides on that trip but we just played the "real or pretend" game in line. If they loved something, of course it's real. If they were scared, it's just pretend so nothing to worry about. Haunted Mansion was OK, but they only agreed to try once that trip. Roller coasters great. They only thing they refused was riding TOT because they weren't going on anything named Terror!

regards

 

[bumbershoot]

You have to test the water, just jump in feet first. You will find out right away if they like rides or not.

It worked for you and your particular kid. For other kids all you would do is determine that they don’t like roller coasters and/or dark rides. They might like every other ride, but you wouldn’t know because now they won’t willingly go on any of them.

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.

My kid wouldn’t accept a bribe until he was around 8 or 9. And then it was still rare. If he found no merchandise he liked, he wouldn’t go on the ride.

 

[kathy884]

We made a similar mistake when our son was three by taking him in It's a Small World. Those dancing dolls really freaked him out. He was scared of characters and didn't want to ride Dumbo either. We just called it a day and didn't do any more time at Disney parks. He liked the monorail, the little boat to Fort Wilderness and back, the resort swimming pool, and SeaWorld, so we stuck to those activities and avoided the Disney theme parks for the rest of the trip. We waited till he was six to do Disney theme parks with him and that was a right choice for him. All kids are different and ready for different things at different times.

DS is 22 now, but didn't enjoy dark rides till he was 19. He is a well adjusted Disney loving adult now. And the Small World experience did not ruin him for life.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

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.

I’ve bribed them plenty of times. Lol. Especially at WDW. It’s how i got my son to ride RnRC and ToT.

And next trip i want to rent points at BWV but DD is traumatized my her gmoms sofa bed. I told her the sofa bed there is nothing like her gmoms but she’s being whiny about it. We worked out a deal that she can get a new phone case in Disney if she stops whining and sleeps on the sofa bed.

 

[Happiest.Haunt_999]

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.

This and they set off epileptics like myself. So OP, please be considerate either way.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

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 idiot parents (I love them, but I shake my head at their parenting sometimes) took me on that ride when I was 4. They were shocked that a ride called Snow White’s Scary Adventure scared me. Then they took me on Haunted Mansion. Perfect ride to get over a scary ride, right? I read the book, why would I be scared?

There were a string of Disney movies that had them saying some variation on “Why did Dumbo make her cry?” or “Why was she scared during the Rescuers?” Disney is not kind to sensitive children.

OP, I got nothing that hasn’t already been said other than lay off the dark scary rides for the rest of the trip.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

My idiot parents (I love them, but I shake my head at their parenting sometimes) took me on that ride when I was 4. They were shocked that a ride called Snow White’s Scary Adventure scared me. Then they took me on Haunted Mansion. Perfect ride to get over a scary ride, right? I read the book, why would I be scared?

There were a string of Disney movies that had them saying some variation on “Why did Dumbo make her cry?” or “Why was she scared during the Rescuers?” Disney is not kind to sensitive children.

OP, I got nothing that hasn’t already been said other than lay off the dark scary rides for the rest of the trip.

I don’t even remember if i saw the scary adventure part but if i did i would’ve thought “its disney. It’s for kids. It can’t be scary!” Now i know better but back then i thought it was a place for kids.

 

[lovethesun12]

We made the same mistake. I actually asked people about the ride and they said it was more silly scary. So in my mind I pictured Casper ghost-like (these people didn't have kids either).

My 3 year old was fine but didn't love it and still says he's never going on "The Halloween ride" again.

My daughter 1.5 years at the time only knew a handful of words. I was sad she didn't like it but have to say it was kind of funny - she kept saying "no" every few seconds for the entire ride. I guess it was the best she could do to express herself LOL

 

[sndral]

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.

Great, try the train next, then autopia (or whatever those cars the kids drive are called) the people mover, catch the horse trolley down main street, etc. at which point he might be over the HM trauma and ready for Pooh.

 

[MermaidMommy]

I carefully researched what ride would be best to take DD3 on for her first visit, and settled on Pooh. Wouldn't you know it -- the Heffalumps terrified her. I was sure the vacation would be ruined, because you can't get much tamer than Pooh, and she refused to ride any other dark rides. We went to the gift shop and found the light-up toy that was the least bright. Then, she went on the rides with it, but we put draped a jacket over it, so she could see it but it wasn't visible outside our car. (We were also on rides like Pooh, Peter Pan, IASW, etc. I wouldn't have tried it on something like HM.) After that, she was completely fine, and rode everything. She just needed to have a sense of control over the darkness. I would strongly suggest it, with the caveat that it's done in a way that won't impact other guests.

 

[Sleepy425]

Money, ice cream for breakfast, and a special souvenir...
I may or may not be speaking from personal experience

 

[mom2rtk]

I carefully researched what ride would be best to take DD3 on for her first visit, and settled on Pooh. Wouldn't you know it -- the Heffalumps terrified her. I was sure the vacation would be ruined, because you can't get much tamer than Pooh, and she refused to ride any other dark rides. We went to the gift shop and found the light-up toy that was the least bright. Then, she went on the rides with it, but we put draped a jacket over it, so she could see it but it wasn't visible outside our car. (We were also on rides like Pooh, Peter Pan, IASW, etc. I wouldn't have tried it on something like HM.) After that, she was completely fine, and rode everything. She just needed to have a sense of control over the darkness. I would strongly suggest it, with the caveat that it's done in a way that won't impact other guests.

Damn Heffalumps. I hate when that happens.

 

[Robo]

Great, try... autopia (or whatever those cars the kids drive are called)...

Tomorrowland Speedway.
(Although, those cars -and the entire queue area- are pretty LOUD.)

 

[randumb0]

Luckily I've been grooming my son on that ride since before he turned 2. Now he's 4 and loves it

 

[Ninja Mom]

When I had a child (or husband) who was whining and complaining about going on a ride I would threaten to make them go on Snow White's Scary Adventures. Since it had SCARY in the name it lent me some street cred.

Since you are dealing with a 3 year old you don't exactly have to tell them that Snow White's SCARY Adventure doesn't exist anymore. They won't know... I'd also mention that the Haunted Mansion was the home of 999 Happy Haunts and Snow White has a cranky witch. That's even more street cred. By the time you are done building up just how bad Snow White's Scary Adventures is the Haunted Mansion will seem like Winnie the Pooh.

It's Disney Math.

~NM

 

[Ladyfish77]

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.

Please don't do this. If a child keeps such a light on in a dark ride it totally ruins the ride for everyone around them. This happened to us on Haunted Mansion. Kid kept the light up toy (one of the bright color changing wands) during the entire time (in stretching room, on doom buggy. It was horrible for everyone else because the glow was distracting and when the buggys turned we'd get blinded by the bright light.

 

[Lynn57]

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.

What a great idea from that cast member! I would suggest just letting go of the non-boat dark rides for a little bit and riding lots of the other rides for the day until he's feeling trusting again! The train around the park, people mover, Magic Carpets are all additional rides that he may like.

 

[SomDayMyPrnceWillCom]

We went with my 3 year old son this year and our 2nd day in MK, we headed to HM to ride first thing that morning. Short standby of course, son was excited but something happened to the ride and it shut down. Cast members let everyone know and 3 year old started melting down when told we were going somewhere else. One of the cast members in the fast pass line saw what was happening and came over to talk to us and gave us a card that had an invite or something on it from the Master. He said present that to fastpass attendant if he wasn't there when we returned and tell them his name and he sent us. He tried to talk to my son and calm him down with the invite and all, then all of a sudden, they said the ride is back up. Everyone starts getting back in line, my boyfriend went to put stroller back at stroller parking and the attendant pulled us all to the fastpass line and said that my son and his family was his special guests and allowed us through. During the ride, he hid his face for the majority of the ride because he was scared but eventually turned around and saw some of the ending. We're going again during Easter week/spring break and not sure if he'll want to ride it again but he now calls it the Scooby Doo ride because the ghosts reminded him of Scooby Doo apparently.

 

[maccagerl]

This happened with my 5 yo on our first trip to WDW.
She totally freaked out at the pirates on POC.
For the rest of the trip, every time we went on a ride, she would ask where the exit signs were! As long as we could see an exit sign, she was fine!

 

[HopperFan]

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.

KUDOS to the CM thinking out of the box.

Now he should be able to adjust that for some other rides.