Credit: Edited by Inside the MagicThe Walt Disney World Resort is known as the place where dreams come true, but young guests are battling an absolute nightmare at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Disney World might be home to charming attractions like “it’s a small world” and Peter Pan’s Flight, but the parks are also somewhat notorious for knowing how to scare the living daylights out of some of its guests. Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror, and even the Haunted Mansion have been known to eek some people out, but Dinosaur at Disney’s Animal Kingdom has been jump-scaring guests for years.
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Dinosaur is a gnarly dark ride, even by Disney standards. It might come with a soft coating of ’90s cheese with its time-travel scenario and campy performance of Dr. Seeker, but even this twenty-something Disney fan is willing to admit that carnotaurus is one nasty piece of work. With a reputation like that, some parents still encourage/drag their kids onto the ride.
Dinosaur Traumatizes Disney World Guests
Whether it’s Disney or Universal Studios, theme park guests everywhere at some point have boarded a ride thinking they can handle the intensity only to discover they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. However, warning signs and descriptions exist for a reason.
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A recent post on r/WaltDisneyWorld shares a story many Disney buffs have heard before. The parent takes a small child onto a ride loaded with scary dinosaurs, the child is scared senseless, a child cries, and the parent regrets their decision and rolls the credits. However, this time a much more serious reaction occurred.
u/Bcider shared the following experience after taking their five-year-old onto Dinosaur, and the results were equal parts expected and unsettling.
“My son loved the fossils and intro to the ride. 30 seconds into the ride I realized my blunder. It was the jankiest ride I’ve ever been on. The entire thing was in pure darkness, the dinosaurs barely moved, it was rough as hell, and I couldn’t stop cracking up at the cheesy dialogue. “Left! Right! Left! Right!” My son to my surprise was quiet the entire ride. As we got off he told me in a very muted voice that he didn’t like the ride. Poor guy was scarred for the rest of the trip asking before every other ride if it was going to be like the dinosaur ride.”
It’s one thing to see kids crying after an intense ride, but literally scaring them into silence is a completely different story. Even more unnerving is the fact that this isn’t an abnormal occurrence.
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u/Iprefermadneto adds in the comments below,
“Literally my dad took me on it when I was in elementary school and it was the first time I’ve realized we are all going to die one day haha. This was when it was called “Count Down to Extinction” too and I just flat out had a crisis in the hotel room that night about asteroids. It didn’t help that was the same day we went to Rainforest Cafe and the thunder terrified me.”
Incidents like those above might be funny looking back, but that’s not the case for all riders. There’s a difference between accident and malicious intent, and one guest shares a very disheartening account.
u/Throwaway071521 shares further down,
“This reminds me of my dinosaur story: we were getting in line and overheard a mother and daughter in line ahead of us. This child was maybe like 3 or 5 years old and seemed a little hesitant to ride. To comfort her, her mom said “don’t worry, it’s JUST LIKE small world.” I think about this like once a month. EDIT: *4 or 5 years old, not 3 or 5 years old.”
Additionally, this isn’t the first time something like the scenario has happened, and it’s even gotten cast member attention. @dappermanatee, a former Disney World CM, shares that this kind of behavior is doing more harm than good with the following TikTok.
@dappermanatee Replying to @pzadude78 oh I know them…#dappermanatee #disney #magicbreak #disneystorytime #disneyworld #castmember #disneytiktok #disneyparks #castmemberlife #castmemberstories #castmemberproblems #castmembersecrets #castmemberconfessions #disneyattractions #fyp #disney100 #worldoffrozen #consent #missionspace #epcot