ADHD tips and Star Wars questions

[CurlyQ284]

Hi all, planning our trip for November 12 on and thought I'd ask for any tips. We took my stepdaughters in 2012 when I was pregnant with DS, this is his first time and he will be turning 10 years old while we are there. We are not super Disney people so pardon if I get some of the lingo wrong. We plan to do Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios plus 2 days at Universal then the final 2 days at my In-Laws new house 90 minutes away by the pool lol. Aside from Genie+ any advice for kiddos with ADHD? He is very rigid and not very easygoing so I'm going to try to build in some shows so he can recharge.

The biggest thing for DS will be the Star Wars stuff. I am considering paying extra for the Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance however I wasn't sure if you would be missing out by doing that. At the Harry Potter castle, the line is usually 90 minutes but it keeps moving and you go through the castle and see all the things and its SO FUN (i am a HP fan). Is it like that for Rise of the Resistance? Or should we get the Lightning Lane?

[Patsy Baloney]

I would do lightning lane for Rise. We did standby (all adults, waited until the end of the day. I think our final wait time was around 45 minutes?) and the line isn’t super interesting. There are a few screens, set pieces, but I don’t feel like it’s ever worth waiting sometimes HOURS for ROR for what we saw. ROR is wildly temperamental and breaks down a lot. I’d hate for you all to be standing in like for 90+ minutes and then it goes down, and all you saw was a sandstone-looking bench and a strategy screen from Star Wars.

[CurlyQ284]

Oh I'm seeing that people staying on property get to purchase the Individual Lightning Lanes at 7 am, and off property has to wait until park open. We are off property (there are too many of us, we would have to get several hotel rooms making it economically ridiculous) so does that mean they might run out of ILL slots for Rise of the Resistance before we can do it?

[CurlyQ284]

Ok from other people's posts they are out of ILL for Rise at 7:01 am so...this is gonna suck but Star Wars the most important part of our Disney Days so I guess we will be in that long ass line. Maybe I'll bring the Switch in my bag that day so he can play while we wait.

[mrsslocombe]

I agree that the line is pretty boring. It's also very claustrophobic IMO. I think Smugglers Run has a much more interesting interior design.

If you can't get LL tickets: two tricks to try to get in a shorter line.
1. The ride breaks ALL THE TIME. If it goes down, try hanging around in the area and then head to the ride as soon as it opens back up.
2. Go at the very end of the day. The posted wait times in the final hour of the park being open are incorrect, they typically keep them posted as far longer to dissuade people from getting in line. The one risk with this strategy is that the ride will break and you won't get to ride.

Both mornings we went to HS in Jan/Feb, the ride was broken first thing in the morning (during early entry for resort guests) and the queue didn't open until about 11am. Also, I saw a lot of families who had kids walk through and join the rest of their party further up the line. I'm not a huge fan of that tactic, but I get it. The wait once you get inside the building was about 30ish minutes for us, it's a lot easier to find your party if they are still cued outside the building entrance.

FYI there is a single rider line for Smugglers Run and you pretty much just walk on the ride. You won't get to be a pilot but I saw a lot of older kids just going on over and over again that way.

[ksun]

I would just rope drop Rise. That's what DH and I did (in November) and we walked right on. Especially if you have early park entry.

Are you sure you don't want to do Epcot? The new Guardians ride and Ratatouille plus Food & Wine would make it worth it alone.

[CurlyQ284]

Apr 25, 2022 13:45:55 GMT -5 ksun said:

I would just rope drop Rise. That's what DH and I did (in November) and we walked right on. Especially if you have early park entry.

Are you sure you don't want to do Epcot? The new Guardians ride and Ratatouille plus Food & Wine would make it worth it alone.

Yeah my SIL texted about the Guardians ride yesterday, which I was not aware of. The only way we could fit it in is if we did Epcot and another park on the same day (possibly HS? DS might not really care much about the other stuff besides Star Wars). I'm trying to make sure there's down time built in. Last trip as very GO GO GO and everyone was exhausted and grumpy and DS is way less easygoing than SDs were at that age but I'm going to talk to H about it and see what he thinks.

[huskymom]

Without early entry, rope dropping will not work, so I would aim for end of the night if you can’t score a LL. Closer to when you leave, google for key drop times (ride specific) - I was able to find everything with this method at odd times.

Will he qualify for DAS pass? I had a few friends use that last time and said it was so helpful.

[CurlyQ284]

Apr 25, 2022 14:00:11 GMT -5 huskymom said:

Without early entry, rope dropping will not work, so I would aim for end of the night if you can’t score a LL. Closer to when you leave, google for key drop times (ride specific) - I was able to find everything with this method at odd times.

Will he qualify for DAS pass? I had a few friends use that last time and said it was so helpful.

I'm googling this, we aren't Disney experts so I'm not familiar. I mean maybe? I have a 20 page diagnostic report and prescriptions, etc but from scanning the brief description it says they don't make you submit that so do I just say he has ADHD and has a tough time waiting in lines? I guess I can give it a try and see if they accept that.

[wesleycrusher]

DS with ADHD can be very challenging at Disney, and it's not even the wait for the rides. He is okay with waiting, we usually play games (he really likes playing heads up with us on the phone, 20 questions or the disney parks game app). The most challenging thing is he wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it and if he doesn't get what he wants his attitude ruins it for everyone. It's hard because Disney can be so rigid with reservations for dining and ride times. We really have to talk repeatedly about doing things for everyone in the family- so dad wants to do this, mom wants to do this, sister wants to do this and you want to do this. We take turns.

A HUGE trigger for my DS is money and buying souvenirs. We tried to do the thing where each kid gets a 25 dollar gift card but all he wanted to do is go into every store and begged to buy stuff. It was all he could focus on. We finally let him spend his money the second day because we thought if he spent it, he would then have no more the rest of the trip, but then he still wanted to go in-stores AND only wanted to stay in the hotel room to play with the toys he did buy. The next trip I just flat out told them we are not getting ANYTHING.

[ksun]

I don't know that you could do half day and get on Guardians and Ratatouille. Epcot is more or less my favorite park so I don't understand people skipping it lol. I'd forego AK and do Epcot if I had to choose.

[CurlyQ284]

Apr 25, 2022 14:29:20 GMT -5 ksun said:

I don't know that you could do half day and get on Guardians and Ratatouille. Epcot is more or less my favorite park so I don't understand people skipping it lol. I'd forego AK and do Epcot if I had to choose.

My other thought was to go another time. This is our big Orlando trip but my ILs live 90 minutes away so next time we visit we could just plan 1 day at Epcot.

I can't cut out the last 2 days at ILs house, MIL is already not happy that its only 2 days 🤣

[wesleycrusher]

My kids also really likes free play- so the dinosaur graveyard playground at AK and Tom Sawyer Island at MK are must dos for him.

[nmosrob]

Apr 25, 2022 14:25:50 GMT -5 CurlyQ284 said:

Apr 25, 2022 14:00:11 GMT -5 huskymom said:

Without early entry, rope dropping will not work, so I would aim for end of the night if you can’t score a LL. Closer to when you leave, google for key drop times (ride specific) - I was able to find everything with this method at odd times.

Will he qualify for DAS pass? I had a few friends use that last time and said it was so helpful.

I'm googling this, we aren't Disney experts so I'm not familiar. I mean maybe? I have a 20 page diagnostic report and prescriptions, etc but from scanning the brief description it says they don't make you submit that so do I just say he has ADHD and has a tough time waiting in lines? I guess I can give it a try and see if they accept that.

Our friends went 2 weeks ago and were able to do this, same situation. They said it was really easy, and they didn't even have to show any documentation. They didn't use it for everything, but were specifically concerned about the wait times for smuggler's run and ROTR. 

[nsl]

For my 11 year old with ADHD, the best thing we’ve done at Disney (we go every year-ish) is to build in low-stimulation time for him to recharge. There’s just so much to see and hear and do all the time there, and he needs way more breaks from it all than our neurotypical 14 year old. So we go to Tom Sawyer’s Island or ride the canoes at Magic Kingdom, spend time in the play areas at Epcot and AK, and spend as little time as possible at HS because there aren’t a lot of good low stimulation areas there. We always take a midday pool break and rarely stay at the parks until fireworks/closing. We also talk ahead of time about which rides we are and aren’t willing to wait in long lines for, and let him have a lot of say in what we decide to wait for when we’re there. He’ll even log in to the app to check wait times before our trip so he can anticipate what it’s going to look like. He’s not a super rigid kid, so YMMV, but that’s what’s worked best for our family.

ETA: FWIW, Smuggler’s Run as a pilot was incredibly frustrating for him and almost ruined a chunk of our most recent trip. I really wish we’d had him read/watch reviews ahead of time so he’d have known that it’s a notoriously frustrating ride/role and he could have chosen a different position where he didn’t feel responsible for stuff happening (like running the ship into things). 

[genet313]

We just got back from a trip with my 7 year old with ADHD and the stimulation was actually great for her. She was totally engaged really calm most of the time. We did a lot of afternoon pool time.

The anxiety over some rides was not. She had a full blown panic attack on Mine Train so please check with your kiddo to make sure that he actually wants to do some of the roller coasters if he’s at all anxious. For comparison, My other two kids, 3 and 5, loved it.

[rennequin]

I would suggest looking into the DAS pass. We had it on our last trip and it was an absolute life/trip saver. I got it for a medical reason (back issues that make it very painful to stand still for long periods of time. Walking is ok). The process was super simple - just took time. I had to do a web chat (waited on hold for 2 hours first) with a very nice cast member. He asked a few questions about the accommodations I need/why standing is difficult, etc. I didn’t have to provide documentation at all. He approved it & took my picture for the pass. Then he transferred me to a chat feature where I was able to pre-select 2 rides/day for a DAS pass (kinda like the old fast pass system). The biggest rides (ROTR, mine train, etc aren’t available for pre selection but a lot are)
Then while we were there, the app had a DAS option for the individual rides, so we could select the ride we wanted and we got in the virtual queue with a return time equivalent to the time we would’ve waited in the actual line. During that time we could get a snack, go on low wait time rides, etc. so I was able to rest or keep moving. You can only be in one DAS line at a time.

[sparty04]

I didn't go on it but DH got LL for Rise at probably 9am (was sold out at 7) for him at my older kids. I think it was for around 4pm. The ride was broken down when the time came but was fixed before 5. He still waited about 25 min to get on with the LL. The standby line at that time was 120 minutes, I'm assuming because of all the LL that had to go through.

(This was last week). They loved the ride though.