Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the adventures, with Disney's gift for special effects, is often intimidating and occa-
sionally frightening to small children.
There are rides with menacing witches, rides with burning towns, and rides with
ghouls popping out of their graves, all done tongue-in-cheek and with a sense of hu-
mor, provided you are old enough to understand the joke. And there are bones, lots
of bones—human bones, cattle bones, and whole skeletons are everywhere you look.
There have to be more bones at Disneyland Park than at the Smithsonian and the
UCLAMedical Schoolcombined. Astackofskullsisattheheadhunter'scamponthe
Jungle Cruise; a veritable platoon of skeletons sail ghost ships in Pirates of the Carib-
bean; a macabre assemblage of skulls and skeletons are in The Haunted Mansion; and
more skulls, skeletons, and bones punctuate Snow White's Scary Adventures, Peter
Pan's Flight, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
One reader wrote us after taking his preschoolers on Star Tours:
We took a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old and they had the *#%^! scared out of them at
Star Tours. We did this first thing in the morning, and it took hours of Tom Sawyer
Island and It's a Small World to get back to normal.
Our kids were the youngest by far in Star Tours. I assume that either other
adults had more sense or were not such avid readers of your book. Preschoolers
should start with Dumbo and work up to the Jungle Cruise in the late morning, after
beingrevvedupandbeforegettinghungry,thirsty,ortired.PiratesoftheCaribbean
is out for preschoolers. You get the idea.
The reaction of young children to the inevitable system overload of Disney parks
should be anticipated. Be sensitive, alert, and prepared for almost anything, even be-
havior that is out of character for your child at home. Most small children take Dis-
ney's variety of macabre trappings in stride, and others are quickly comforted by an
arm around the shoulder or a little squeeze of the hand. For parents who have ob-
served a tendency in their kids to become upset, we recommend taking it slowly and
easily by sampling more benign adventures such as the Jungle Cruise, gauging reac-
tions, and discussing with children how they felt about the things they saw. A mother
of two reported this:
TheonethingIregretistakingmy4-year-oldontheTowerofTerror—thedropsand
jolts didn't bother him, but the holographic “ghosts” sure did!
Sometimes, small children will rise above their anxiety in an effort to please their
parents or siblings. This behavior, however, does not necessarily indicate a mastery
of fear, much less enjoyment. If children come off a ride in ostensibly good shape,
we recommend asking if they would like to go on the ride again (not necessarily right
now, but sometime). The response to this question will usually give you a clue as to
