We recently returned from a 11 day Disney trip March 4 - 14. Exhausting but worth every minute of it. yet there are a few things I noticed and am concerned about, mainly the Haunted Mansion stretch room toward the beginning of the attraction. This was the first trip for our only daughter faire age 5. We thought this would be a good age for her first visit as it would be when she would be old enough to remember alot of the magic yet young enough to believe in the magic. One thing that really got her upset and in tears was the opening scene to Haunted Mansion at MagicKingdom. We never expected there would be a few moments of total darkness plus the lightning and scream nearly sent her into a fit. Disney is a place for families with children!!!!! I was appalled at how no cast member told us we probably should not take her into that scene. We spoke to a cast member at the ride exit who smiled to cheer her up, but still that beginning scene needs to either be changed or removed if disney is going to market as a family park for children. The rest of the ride is amazing, as our little princess faire could sit close to mommy and daddy if scared and there was no pitch black darkness. The music was fun and the characters inside the ride were more appropriate for children during most of the scenes. The beginning however really disturbed her and made her not wanting to ride too much more that day as she was still in shock of the total darkness. The majority of our vacation was great besides that one moment of terror in my daughters eyes. Please consider an update or change in the stretch room, maybe just to remove the total darkness to take into consideration the emotions and vulnerability of the child. When older she will learn to appreciate the ride for what it is as a classic.
That particular scene has played out hundreds of times a day for almost 60 years now and to my knowledge no child has ever been lost or injured in the process.
I understand your desire to protect her from scary things, but, all that is really necessary is reassuring words that it is just make-believe and not real and they are just loud noises and nothing to be scared about. That won't stop them from being scared, but, it will lighten the blow a little. It's a haunted house, surely, that give a clue that it might be scary for someone that doesn't understand fantasy from reality. If you looked around the room I'm sure you noticed that the percentage of really young children is pretty small compared to the adults in the room. Not everything can be tailored to a child of that age, but, there are plenty of other things that are available to her as well.
She will eventually learn the fun of it as my children did. I never thought of it when I first went with my daughters. The youngest was just a little over 6 years old. She held my hand throughout the ride from beginning til the end. She never made a sound. About three years later we made second trip to WDW so before we left I asked if there was anything special that they wanted to see again. She looked at me and said... I've never seen the Haunted Mansion so I'd like to go to that. I corrected her and said that we had indeed been there on our first visit. Her reply was... Yes, I know, but I had my eyes closed the whole time, so this time I would like to actually see it. She did and she loved it.
As much as we would like, we cannot always protect our children, no matter their age, from scary things. What better place is there to deal with that then the relative safety of a Disney Park.
By the way, it's an awfully good thing that she didn't look up during that final scream, because, that is the only real scary part as far as I'm concerned.