Recently, my grandson took his first trip to the Disneyland Resort and one of the major points of discussion as the trip was being planned revolved around choosing the perfect attraction as his first.
Just prior to his 3rd birthday, my son and daughter-in-law planned a three-day trip to the Disneyland Resort. They included several members of the family on the trip, including grandparents and siblings, so I was able to tag along.
My son did a lot of the planning, with input from the group, of course, but we had trouble deciding on what the boy’s first attraction should be.
As much as some Disney purists would like to think that there is a “right” answer, there really isn’t. In fact, when his mom and I took our son to the Disneyland Resort for the first time at 6-weeks old, his first attraction was the former A Bug’s Land classic, Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train. It was very random for Disneyland fans and 22 years later, I can’t remember why we decided on that.
There are many kid-friendly attractions that have no height requirement, so there are a lot of choices to consider.
The classic answers for Disneyland Park would be Dumbo the Flying Elephant, “it’s a small world”, or King Arthur Carrousel. Any of those would be a perfectly acceptable answer for a toddler or even an infant.
You could also throw something like The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh or Casey Jr. Circus Train on that list.
Over at Disney California Adventure, you might consider Jessie’s Critter Carousel, The Little Mermaid-Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, or even Pixar Pal-A-Round.
My grandson is right at 38″ tall and fairly adventurous, so that adds a few possibilities to the list such as Gadget’s Go Coaster, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, or Autopia.
In the end, the consensus was that his first attraction would be Dumbo the Flying Elephant. A classic answer to be sure, but it felt right. At rope drop on our first morning, we headed toward Fantasyland.
Mickey had other ideas.
Just as we got in line for the attraction, it experienced some technical difficulties and closed. We quickly pivoted, found something nearby with a reasonable line, and his first attraction became Mad Tea Party.
He loved the spinning, of course. That was evident later in the trip when he laughed and laughed on Mater’s Jingle Jamboree (the holiday overlay for Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree).
I will say that on his first trip the boy was up for anything including Millenium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, Golden Zephyr, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pixar Pal-A-Round, and Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure. Grandpa even got to ride with him on Haunted Mansion Holiday where we saw all of those “silly ghosts”.
We never did make it back to Dumbo the Flying Elephant, so that will have to be something for his next trip. I always leave something left to do for my next trip, so why shouldn’t my grandson.
