Dream Trip ---- Toddler might be to frightened to go on anything!... Post trip update...

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by Chatnoir

So we've booked a two week trip for May 18.

We booked it about 6 months ago, and it will be our first trip with our daughter, who will be 2.5 years old when we go.
We are soooo excited to take her, and obviously want the trip to be amazing and for her to love it.

But this weekend we went to a local theme park... its Very small, and has a few rides that she could go on...small train ride, small boat type ride etc...anyone, she was too scared for any of it! She loved watching them, but as soon as we tried to take her on, she'd start crying and fight to get off.

We are now a bit worried she will be like this in Disney... we weren't expecting it! she's usually such a dare devil that we didn't think this would be an issue.

We are really pushing ourselves to afford this trip (booked when we were feeling flush...now not so!) and I'm slightly concerned we are gonna come away thinking we should have saved the money and gone somewhere else!

Anyone else have experience of this? Get all the way there and the kids refuse to go on ANYTHING!

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I think the thing with Disney that attracts me as a mid 40's bloke with 2 kids is that it's so much more than fairground rides. There's shows, shops with stories, and little details everywhere. We've been with both our kids as toddlers, and as much as you the adult is tempted to focus on what you miss out on, they find things to go on that you as an adult wouldn't consider, but which turn out to be fun. It's about spending time together without daily stresses, it's not just ticking off rides. One huge difference from a local fair is that everything she will go on she will be sat with a parent, which may not always be the case with a local fair. One I remember specifically from our last trip, on the carousel they let you put the child on the horse and the parent stands next to them.

I was the other day quoting a trippie to a work colleague. If I remember correctly, they had a boy that had been before, and when they were boarding their flight he suddenly refused to get on the plane.
They calmed him down and went the next day, but as they say, there's always somebody worse off !

[jas72]

Originally Posted by Chatnoir

So we've booked a two week trip for May 18.

We booked it about 6 months ago, and it will be our first trip with our daughter, who will be 2.5 years old when we go.
We are soooo excited to take her, and obviously want the trip to be amazing and for her to love it.

But this weekend we went to a local theme park... its Very small, and has a few rides that she could go on...small train ride, small boat type ride etc...anyone, she was too scared for any of it! She loved watching them, but as soon as we tried to take her on, she'd start crying and fight to get off.

We are now a bit worried she will be like this in Disney... we weren't expecting it! she's usually such a dare devil that we didn't think this would be an issue.

We are really pushing ourselves to afford this trip (booked when we were feeling flush...now not so!) and I'm slightly concerned we are gonna come away thinking we should have saved the money and gone somewhere else!

Anyone else have experience of this? Get all the way there and the kids refuse to go on ANYTHING!

See more...

Yup I waited 45 minutes to ride the Dumbo flying elephants and my 3 year old refused to go on and started crying. The attendents were great and said we could stand for a while incase he changed his mind... he didn't He had fun at the shows though and we spent a lot of days at seaworld as he loved the dolphins and Rays and Shamu of course.

He still has great memories of Seaworld it's his (and my) favourite park.

Have to add that he's 12 now and Manta is his favorite ride.

[Jake71]

We're planning on going 2019 with DS and his family. Our DGD will be 5 by then but is so scared of the dark and going into things that might be dark that DS is now worried about spending so much money and her hating it. I've tried to reassure him that it will be fine and it's a while till we all go.

[duchy]

The thing with kids is it can work both ways , the fearless ones can suddenly decide something scares them and the less than brave ones suddenly amaze you by wanting to do things you'd have expected them to refuse. You'll also often see in trippies kids who the previous year loved a particular ride and a year later refuse to go on it .
My son loved water rides in the UK but absolutely refused to go on Splash Mountain ... in case he got wet ?!
All you can do is go with the flow , at least with Disney there's always another ride to do instead.

[Burgmeister]

We first went with DD when she was a little over 2. She was OK with rides but freaked when I took her to meet Goofy.

We then queued to meet Winnie the Pooh and friends and she was very excited until it was her turn to meet them and then she got upset. The characters were absolutely brilliant with her and she came out much more confident than she went in.

As has been said by others, there is so much for little ones to do without the rides so don't worry about it.

DD really loved the Disney Playhouse show at Disney Studios (is that still going?). If it is still going then I would definitely recommend it for younger kids.

[Chatnoir]

Thank you so much for all the replies, its so difficult not put pressure on our selves to make it a "perfect" holiday. I know she will love some of it, and hopefully even if she is scared at first, after a few days she will warm up to it!
I just hope she's ok with the characters! lol xx

[stanboys]

I think as long as you go knowing that it won't be the same holiday you would have had without children and are prepared to change plans as you go you will have a great time, whether she goes on any rides or not!

We took youngest ds at 2 and he went on the rides he could but wouldn't go near any characters, until a trip to universal and a meeting with spongebob! A friend of mine went last year and her ds at 4 didn't want to see any characters the whole time and wasn't a great fan of the rides either! We both had great holidays.

Be prepared to walk away from something, be it a character or ride, and don't push her. As others have said a Florida holiday and Disney World trip is so much more then the rides.

When we first went with children I started feeling bad when we were missing things, then of course realised they didn't have a clue what they were missing so that feeling was pointless!

Plan things but don't worry if you have to change them, you'all all have a great holiday whatever you do or don't do

[Burgmeister]

I can still see the look on my daughter's face when she saw the parade. That alone was worth the money. Brings a lump to my throat all these years later.

[BoxOfFrogs]

i think the important thing is to avoid dragging little ones on to rides crying, it breaks my heart to see people do that, saw this at haunted mansion last time, i felt like taking their child away and slapping them

as said by others, so much more to disney than rides and lets face it, kids can have a great time in a puddle of mud, it'll be impossible for your little one to not have a magical time

[Bal]

Originally Posted by Chatnoir

Thank you so much for all the replies, its so difficult not put pressure on our selves to make it a "perfect" holiday. I know she will love some of it, and hopefully even if she is scared at first, after a few days she will warm up to it!
I just hope she's ok with the characters! lol xx

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We took our daughter when she had just turned 3. My advice is don't try to make it perfect. It won't go exactly the way you have planned it anyway! Young kids will always see to that! Plus, Disney is just a magical place at that age, with all sorts of unexpected surprises. My daughters favourite memories include an impromptu meeting with Sleeping Beauty, giving Pooh a cuddle, the swimming pool in our villa, meeting Tinkerbell, digging for bones at Animal Kingdom, dancing with a cast member in AK, and been given coins by the doorman in POFQ to make wishes in the fountain!

Ask me before holiday what I thought her memories would be, and it would have been meeting Anna and Elsa, riding SDMT, and many of the other big ticket things we think are what we are there for. In truth, she doesn't even mention any of those. It's the little stuff. Go at their pace, enjoy the detail...