Help! I don't know how to plan! Any trip reports with children 8 and under?

[samheatherwhite]

I have posted 2 on the boards. To Hogwarts we Go and to Hogwarts again, the hat returns that have young kids. In the first the kids are 2 and 7 and in the 2nd they are 4 and 8.

 

[macraven]

op i posted what i found on the uo site on the thread listed below.
i was searching for your thread and did not find it until now.
said i would be back and check out the below thread in this forum.
it has fun things to do for kids 8 and under.


Universal with kids 4 and under?

 

[kohlby]

I guess my main concern is, Is there enough for the under 51" kids to fill 3 days, or are we better off staying at Disney and just doing 2 Universal? It will be cold while we are there.

There always has been for my kids. But we also spent time at the great play areas and did some ride multiple times. When they were younger, ther favorite park out the 8 (Disney/Universal/ Seaworld) was Epcot, followed by IOA. So, if trying to balance Disney and Universal, it really depends on how many Disney days you have planned.

 

[flateacher]

I see that you said "it will be cold when we are there". How cold is cold to you? Not sure where you are from but it can be in the 70's in Dec. We have relatives that will go to the beach on Christmas (and get in the water). So it might not be as cold as you think it will be. OR we may have a cold snap and it might get into the 60's and 50's at night. YEAH!

Other than that - as others have said... don't worry about the planning... you don't need to do much of it. My youngest is 8 and we started going here 4 years ago. I think there is a lot to do. The Dr. Suess area is still a favorite of hers. You might even be there during Grinchmas so you can catch a show or two for that. At Universal my daughter loves the Pet Show and "Santa" parade.

If it was me with little kids... staying in one place is easier. As for hotels... with littles - I would pick Portofino over Hard Rock. If you can get into Royal Pacific I would pick that one first. It is our favorite because we can walk back to it if needed. We don't even wait for the water taxi.

 

[bumbershoot]

I guess my main concern is, Is there enough for the under 51" kids to fill 3 days, or are we better off staying at Disney and just doing 2 Universal? It will be cold while we are there.

The likelihood of it being "cold" is low.

It CAN get cold, and it's worth having clothes for it just in case, but it's not something you can plan on. Even during The Cold Snap of December 2010 by the 15th it was in the 80s again if memory serves (it was our departure day). And while that cold had happened the year before and again in Jan 2010, it's not absolutely normal.

Prepare for cold just in case but don't expect it.


For our first trip, in 2010 when DS was 6, we stayed 4 days at Universal and wanted to stay longer. And that's with me being a chicken, DH being of a size that doesn't allow him on the big rides he longs too do, and DS being too small or scared if some of the bigger rides.

So I say "go for it". If for some reason you don't love the parks like we did, there's mini golf and other things to do. Stay onsite and you get a lovely resort experience. And so on.

 

[wonderlandwego]

I have posted 2 on the boards. To Hogwarts we Go and to Hogwarts again, the hat returns that have young kids. In the first the kids are 2 and 7 and in the 2nd they are 4 and 8.

Wonderful! I will look for them.

op i posted what i found on the uo site on the thread listed below.
i was searching for your thread and did not find it until now.
said i would be back and check out the below thread in this forum.
it has fun things to do for kids 8 and under.


Universal with kids 4 and under?

Thank you!!

There always has been for my kids. But we also spent time at the great play areas and did some ride multiple times. When they were younger, ther favorite park out the 8 (Disney/Universal/ Seaworld) was Epcot, followed by IOA. So, if trying to balance Disney and Universal, it really depends on how many Disney days you have planned.

5 Disney days. 1 of which is a resort/ Disney springs day.

I see that you said "it will be cold when we are there". How cold is cold to you? Not sure where you are from but it can be in the 70's in Dec. We have relatives that will go to the beach on Christmas (and get in the water). So it might not be as cold as you think it will be. OR we may have a cold snap and it might get into the 60's and 50's at night. YEAH!

Other than that - as others have said... don't worry about the planning... you don't need to do much of it. My youngest is 8 and we started going here 4 years ago. I think there is a lot to do. The Dr. Suess area is still a favorite of hers. You might even be there during Grinchmas so you can catch a show or two for that. At Universal my daughter loves the Pet Show and "Santa" parade.

If it was me with little kids... staying in one place is easier. As for hotels... with littles - I would pick Portofino over Hard Rock. If you can get into Royal Pacific I would pick that one first. It is our favorite because we can walk back to it if needed. We don't even wait for the water taxi.

It will be too cold for water rides or swimming, I do know that the pools are heated, so maybe a couple of times down the slide, but water rides at the park or a lot of swim time is definitely not in the plans. My first choice is Royal Pacific for hotel, the availability is very low, only suites left, which I don't need. My concern with Portofino Bay is that it looks to be farther away than the other 2. Is it still a comfortable walk to at least one park?

The likelihood of it being "cold" is low.

It CAN get cold, and it's worth having clothes for it just in case, but it's not something you can plan on. Even during The Cold Snap of December 2010 by the 15th it was in the 80s again if memory serves (it was our departure day). And while that cold had happened the year before and again in Jan 2010, it's not absolutely normal.

Prepare for cold just in case but don't expect it.


For our first trip, in 2010 when DS was 6, we stayed 4 days at Universal and wanted to stay longer. And that's with me being a chicken, DH being of a size that doesn't allow him on the big rides he longs too do, and DS being too small or scared if some of the bigger rides.

So I say "go for it". If for some reason you don't love the parks like we did, there's mini golf and other things to do. Stay onsite and you get a lovely resort experience. And so on.

If we do the 4 nights then I am planning on mini golf and Blue Man Group!

 

[bumbershoot]

It will be too cold for water rides or swimming, I do know that the pools are heated, so maybe a couple of times down the slide, but water rides at the park or a lot of swim time is definitely not in the plans. My first choice is Royal Pacific for hotel, the availability is very low, only suites left, which I don't need. My concern with Portofino Bay is that it looks to be farther away than the other 2. Is it still a comfortable walk to at least one park?

It could easily be in the 80s for your trip. It being too cold for swimming isn't something to plan on. Think about, sure. But plan?

Even my Floridian cousins swam when they were with us before the cold snap hit.

PBH is a little longer than RPR but it's a totally fine, comfy walk.

Doing the slide without swimming is going to be the coldest way to do it. Get in the warm water, get out and climb stairs. In the water, out into the air. . Expect there to be some swimming if only to be in the nice warm water, if it's somewhat chilly. . And make sure the parents are ready with a bunch of towels!

 

[newsliner1]

We took our 3 youngest this past April ages 4,5 and 13. They loved it. Many of the rides they really liked (Minions, Transformers, Spiderman , the Simpsons, had a height of 40 inches to ride which our 4 year old just made) they also loved ET. Suess land, the Barney show, Ptererrian flyers. Also Harry Potter world. We were there for 4 days and never got bored. They also liked the animal actors show, the parade and I'm sure other stuff I forgot. It was a such a great trip we upgraded to power passes and are planning to go back in January or February.

 

[kohlby]

5 Disney days. 1 of which is a resort/ Disney springs day.

We found it worked very well to have a complete day for pool/relaxing/shorter activities when the kids were younger. So, I'd do 2 Disney park days, then your resort/Disney springs day, then 2 more Disney park days. Then the next day a pool/resort day. This works out very nicely if it's also switch hotel day as you won't feel rushed. You could add minigolf in during that day too if needed. Then two Universal days. Then play it by ear. At the end, we find it's a lot easier to let them go longer and stay up later. We've found it's very important that they have plenty of rest time at the start of the trip. That helps keep their immune system up and decreases the chance of them getting sick. I don't worry about that at the very end of our trip. (Also, overtired kids can often complicate things so I try to not get them overtired until the very end of the trip).

We have found plenty to fill 3 days. (When we went in November, my thrill-ride loving child was barely 51" (Meaning only in the morning), one was far over but wouldn't do any of the rides that were over 48", and one super timid kid who wouldn't even do many of the 40" rides. We did 6 days in the parks. Two years prior, we also did 6 days in the parks and the thrill-rider was barely 48", (meaning only tall enough in the morning). Youngest was so timid them that he struggled even with Twirl and Hurl so he didn't do any other rides! He still had fun though.

 

[kohlby]

I wouldn't worry about the distance of the hotel from the parks. The water taxi is super easy. Though it was only a 6 minute walk from RPR to the parks for us, we often took the water taxi just because it was relaxing and easy - even though it took more time than that.

 

[kohlby]

December 10th.

We've gone that week twice and it was plenty warm enough for swimming both times. We live in the southeast and are cold weather wimps and it was still fine.