Rides for my little man(age 4 when travel)

[ashleyr409]

Good Morning,

This will be our first Disney Trip ever. I am looking for some help from the Disney experts. My little will be 4 when we travel to Disney. He has never rode on any rides before, and I was hoping I can get some advice on some rides that he might like. I looked on Disney site and read the rides but I would like to get some advice for people who have been with their little ones. Even though he has never been on rides before he loves to jump off my couch and jump on his big brother lol. If I can get some advice on rides for each park it would be very helpful. TIA!!

 

[Accident]

The only way to know if he doesn't like it is to ride it... Youtube videos don't really take away from any ride so first check out http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/height.htm and see what rides he may not be tall enough for and then start to look at ride videos and come up with a plan on what he wants to see...

 

[ashleyr409]

The only way to know if he doesn't like it is to ride it... Youtube videos don't really take away from any ride so first check out http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/height.htm and see what rides he may not be tall enough for and then start to look at ride videos and come up with a plan on what he wants to see...

That's a great idea about the YouTube videos. Didn't think about that. I am pretty sure he might be tall enough to get on most rides just wasn't sure about riding them. We will work on that closer to our Fastpass date. Thanks again.

 

[Honeybee83]

We've gone with my daughter when she was both 2.5 and 3.5 years old. She is very tall for her age (DH is 6'9''). When she was 2.5 she rode barnstormer and loved it. When she was 3.5 she turned into a chicken and was afraid of anything that went faster than the traditional dark rides like Winnie the Pooh and Peter pan's flight. She tried seven dwarfs mine train and was scared of it. We always do YouTube ride through Videos prior as a prep and it has helped. My DD is very timid so if you have an adventurous little one you should be fine with anything they are tall enough to ride at magic kingdom. Except for haunted mansion. That may be scary for a 4 yo. Also, even if he is tall enough to ride Dinosaur at animal kingdom I would suggest that you ride it first and judge for yourself if you think he would like it as it can be intense.

 

[ashleyr409]

We've gone with my daughter when she was both 2.5 and 3.5 years old. She is very tall for her age (DH is 6'9''). When she was 2.5 she rode barnstormer and loved it. When she was 3.5 she turned into a chicken and was afraid of anything that went faster than the traditional dark rides like Winnie the Pooh and Peter pan's flight. She tried seven dwarfs mine train and was scared of it. We always do YouTube ride through Videos prior as a prep and it has helped. My DD is very timid so if you have an adventurous little one you should be fine with anything they are tall enough to ride at magic kingdom. Except for haunted mansion. That may be scary for a 4 yo. Also, even if he is tall enough to ride Dinosaur at animal kingdom I would suggest that you ride it first and judge for yourself if you think he would like it as it can be intense.

Thank you.

 

[cutigerlady]

When my son first went, we made the mistake of taking him on POTC first and at night. He was afraid to ride all dark rides for awhile after that. So you may want to start with something like Small World first! Now he loves all roller coasters any fast rides! For first visits, I recommend going at his pace. You will be surprised at how much they enjoy the things between the rides! My son loves to watch the shows, the ducks, ride the bus/boat/monorail, and just enjoy being there. He liked the carousel just as much as the SDMT FP I had secured exactly at 7 am at my 60 day window. He wanted to watch every "show" he saw down Main St in the morning.

 

[TheyCallMeStacey]

Do you have anything nearby? The summer before we went, we took our son to a local amusement park and then one out of state. We wanted to see what he would think of the rides, to test his stamina, and also see how he would do with waiting in line. All GREAT preps for Disney! He knew what to expect and we knew what was appropriate for him. He was just over 4 when we went, and he even tried TOT (didn't enjoy it, but he tried it!).

We also watched some on youtube - to talk about silly-scary rides (dark rides or haunted mansion).

 

[Barnabas T Bullion]

As always you know your kids the best. If they are adventurous then I'd just caution staying away from the really dark rides (including Bug's Life where my son freaked out).

When I took my son the first time he was also 4 and he totally fell in love with Thunder Mountain (managed to go 18 times on 1 trip over 3 separate days) even though it does start off in the dark a bit. He just made it onto the rides that were at that height requirement and had a huge love for TRAINS which probably helped. He has since graduated to Everest and RNR, the latter of which he considers the best ride ever (I would agree with him).

Mine train and Barnstormer are also good rides for young ones that don't mind some speed.

I do suggest having an arm wrapped around your guy at all times just to help brace him from the side to side motion and give him some physical support in that instance since they just don't have the muscle to keep themselves from getting tossed around.

 

[poppinspal]

My niece was 4 on our last trip to Disney World. She HATED both the Muppet 3-d ride and Mickey's Philharmagic. We were nervous when she said she wanted to ride 7 Dwarves Mine Train but she LOVED it. We think the 3-D shows were too loud for her which we didn't think of before. She'll be 5 when we go in a month and is tall enough to ride Splash. We have showed her the video of the ride and we will try it. She said she just doesn't want water in her eyes so her plan is to cover them. We will see how it goes.

 

[Greenbmw17]

My 4yr old HATED the 3D movies (muppets and mickeys philharmonic) but was okay with Star Tours and loved Soarin. Test Track was a HUGE hit and so was Figment. He thought the smell was hilarious. And the rides with play areas were also faves like Winner the Pooh. He really got into meeting characters and loved Kylo Ren surprisingly.

 

[Habbott]

My guy loved it all. He was 4.5 on the last trip and loved everything, well, we didn't do the teacups. He hated the teacups at 2.5.

Now at 6.5 he will be ready for space mountain and Everest.

YouTube videos really helped us.

 

[Pesky]

I made a huge mistake at DLR and we RDed Radiator Springs Racers. AWESOME ride but the kids were slightly petrified. And that was AFTER seeing the ride through video several times (those are great because I could tell with DS what would work and what didn't and that DD was a total thrill junkie). I'd build your way up if the timing can work for you this way. Sort of like
Smaller, "safer" rides: carousel, dumbo, flying carpets, IASW, PPF, tea cups (depending on who is spinning it), Barnstormer, train, people mover, CoP, Jungle Cruise, Little Mermaid
Medium: 7DMT, POTC, HM, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh
Full-Throttle (may have some intense moments): Splash, SM, BTMRR (I would say this isn't as bad as some of the others)

 

[JanBlessed]

As it is your first trip , I agree w a PP and take time to let the boys enjoy the parks themselves. There are fun and memorable moments that we had as a family with little ones that don't include rides at all.
As for rides advice: I'd start w baby rides and then move up to the dark and scary ones

 

[caliope]

We've taken my now 4 year old son 3 times so far with another trip coming soon. At 16 months, we stuck to Small World, Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Nemo, the carousel, etc. At age 2, we added in Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz, Barnstormer, Haunted Mansion (he wasn't a huge fan), Muppets 3D, tea cups, Spaceship Earth, and a few others. At age 3 when he was tall enough, we added Big Thunder Mountain (his new favorite), 7DMT, TSMM, Star Tours, Great Movie Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Astro Orbiter, among others.

If I was taking him for the first time at age 4, I'd start the same way we did when he was 16 months and gradually add in more adventurous rides during that same trip until we reached his comfort level. He will see the rides as you walk around and will tell you what he does and does not want to do; at least, that's what we found with our 3 year old in February.

We get FP+ for the most popular rides just in case he is interested and we go early morning to keep standby wait times down. We try not to get in any line that posts a greater than 20-25 minute wait because we know that at this age it will sour his experience (and ours!) due to restlessness.

Our little guy also LOVES the Move it, Shake it parade, the shows, and the character meet and greets, not to mention just looking around at everything going on.

 

[danielocha30]

I do some planning and get fastpast for the hard to get rides and if any of my kids decided not to ride we just don't, I usually go in the line with my DH and kids for ToT and no power on earth will make me ride it again but I do stand on the line with them and when the cast members ask How many? I get out of the way, you can chickened out at anytime! you can do the same if your little one back ups right before boarding, must of the time he will have a peek of what's going on, and you as a mom already know that Space mountain is too much for a 4 year old and that Buzzlightyear is a must!

 

[roseaster]

My kids love rides, but they are older now. For a 4 year old, who has never been on a ride, I would do it in stages.

Start with things that are gentle and not a scary theme. I will use MK as an example.

Start with things like Jungle Cruise, IASW, Dumbo, Aladdin's Carpets, etch (there are more, obviously) These are things that are gentle ride with non scary themes.

Move up to things that are still gentle rides but may be darker or spookier like POC, HM.

Then move on to things that are a little faster, Barnstormer, 7DMT

Then move on to the big ones, Splash Mtn, then BTMRR, then finally Space Mountain.

I have always let my kids ride what they wanted as long as they met the height requirement.

My now 11 year old gas always been super tall. I think she was on ToT before she turned 3, and she loved it. Her next trip she wouldn't ride t because it was too spooky, but she had no issue on any of the roller coasters.

 

[UnaPalomita]

We went in 2015 and spent two days at the Magic Kingdom when my son was about 4.25. He is adventurous but on the shorter side. We started with the carousel and went on it like 3 times before moving onto the rest of the park Then we had some fast passes for Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear, The Barnstormer, and Winnie the Pooh.

My son was sandwiched in-between my husband and I during the ride so if he got scared he would cling to me or my husband. That only really happened on The Haunted Mansion!

We did some non fast pass rides like Under the Sea, People Mover, the Astro Orbiter, Dumbo, and the Magic Carpet ride. He loved everything There are so many rides at the Magic Kingdom that you're sure to find a favorite.

His favorite was the Speedway. My husband went on that ride with him 34578885 times He still talks about it!

We also did a meet and great with Donald and Goofy. Normally he is scared of Santa (go figure lol) but shyly enjoyed the experience.

Enjoy your trip! And definitely show him the you tube versions of the rides!

 

[ChasingLeslie]

The only ride my 5 year old didn't care for was Haunted Mansion. Otherwise, she rode and liked everything (except the rides over 40").

 

[JoseeM]

We took our daughter to Disney for the first time right before her 2nd birthday. She hated any ride in the dark or inside, even Winnie the Pooh, but anything she could ride that was out in the daylight she loved. Took her again at 3.5 and she loved anything she could ride, although she was timid when riding barnstormer. Going again at 4 years old in November and now she's all about anything she is tall enough to ride. Can't wait to take her on everything. I think it's really kid dependent and the advice to start slower and work up to bigger and scarier rides is the way to go since you don't want to scare them before they've discovered things they like.

 

[Bob Dolewhip]

My daughter at 4 freaked out at A Bugs Life. My friend's kid was terrified in Stitches Great Escape. I think these type of immersive experiences can be scary for the little ones because they are not just watching from their pirate ship, but are in the middle of something scary.
Everything else was just fine.
My son who is 4 now really wants to go on the dumbo ride and toy story mania/buzz lightyear. He remembers them from the last trip and is crazy to try them now that he is "big".