4 Year Olds 1st Visit

[WhitBit]

Hi all!

So I'm a long time Disney fan who has been to Disneyland several times and Disney World once (so far). Four of my visits have been as an adult, just for my own personal enjoyment (no kids). In about a week and a half my family is taking my 4 year old nephew on his very first visit to Disneyland. I'm probably much more hyped than the rest of my family, although they all enjoy Disney, even as adults.

My sister hasn't explained much about Disneyland to my nephew other than there are rides there. He told Grandma that one of his friends from preschool went do Disneyland. Grandma asked, "what did your friend do at Disneyland?" To which my nephew relied, "Umm, watched movies?" Lol

So my question is do you think it's better to let him go into it blind not knowing what to expect? Or are there things you would show/tell him to get him excited about it?

We have a 9 hour drive (split into two days), with 4 adults and my nephew in the car together. I was thinking my sister and I could show him YouTube videos or something to keep him entertained in the car while also getting him excited about Disneyland.

 

[Chris Jarrett]

I used to show my kids movies that had rides and/or lands in the park. If you have Cars on DVD, fast forward to the part where they turn on the lights in radiator springs for the first time. It shows all of what the land has to offer.

Also, my kids love watching videos of the parks on YouTube. I prefer to show them videos that Disney puts out themselves rather than vlogs.

 

[Curious Constance]

Nothing delights little kids more than seeing things in real life that they are familiar with and have first hand experience with. Kids like to find comparisons to their world that they are comfortable with and used to. And not being familiar with any of the stories or movies I feel would make the park much less impactful and potentially scary.

 

[WhitBit]

Thanks for the input so far.

I think I'm going to ask my sister if my nephew can come over to my house next week. I think I have Cars, Peter Pan, and The Little Mermaid and I was thinking I could fast forward to some of the exciting or musical scenes in those movies. I have more Disney movies, but those are the ones that I can think of that have rides at Disneyland. He has seen some Disney movies before, but I don't think he has the attention span to really sit through the whole movies.

He does know who Mickey Mouse is from pictures, so I thought I'd explain that Disneyland is where Mickey and all his friends live. Mickey is the King and Minnie is the Queen, and all the princesses and Lightning McQueen (etc) live there too. I can tell him that Mickey made a really huge playground with rides and castles and pirate ships.

In the car I think I'll show him pictures and video clips of the rides and parks.

 

[s8film40]

My 3 year old loves looking at park maps. He always asks for one when we enter a park and will read them later on after we're home pointing at the things he likes and telling us what he wants to do again.