Help with ride choice

[Goseethemouse]

We will be at Universal this summer and will have 14 day tickets so plenty of time to visit any ride/attraction we want. However, my boys (11 and 8) are not exactly thrill seekers. At Disney I have a pretty clear idea how intense the various rides are but at Universal I am less certain...

We did visit Universal two years ago and this was what the kids thought:

Loved: Shrek, Jimmy Neutron, Men in Black, Dr. Seuss landing, Animal Actors, ET

Undecided: Simpsons, Twister

Hated: Forbidden Journey, Jurassic Park (yep, IOA didn't go so well...)

I would really appreciate it if someone could give me an idea about the rides we haven't been on yet. Really don't want to repeat last year's mistake but don't want to miss out on fun rides either. With the playgrounds etc. and the coasters of course it is pretty obvious what you get but other rides it is just hard to tell...

 

[damo]

They can do all of Suess Landing. Cat in the Hat is not just for toddlers. It is quite fun. If they like the TeaCups at Disney, they should do Storm Force Acceletron at IOA. Spend time in the Jurassic Discover Centre and the huge Camp Jurassic playground. Do the Sinbad show. Not sure if they would like Flight of the Hippogriff or not or even Poisiden's Fury.

At Universal, Jimmy Neutron is now Despicable Me which they should really like. Disaster should be okay for them as the tram doesn't move. How do they like Catastrophe Canyon at WDW?

Transformers and Simpsons are very similar and may be a bit much for them. They are great rides though.

They should do ET. Terminator may be too intense as well.

 

[kohlby]

Agree to try ET. My kids actually did do well with Terminator. But it's a show instead of a ride so that made it less intense for them.

Simpsons totally freaked out my middle child She was younger than your kids, but a thrill seeker. I thought she would be fine since it was animation, but the sensation of crashing into things was too intense for her.

Poisiden's Fury was fine for them too - though I liked the older version of it better.

We're planning on trying Twister with them this trip. We haven't done it since my oldest was 3 years old though. He did fine with it, though needed an adult by his side. (The fog in ET totally freaked him out though so he didn't do ET until he was 6).

Don't forget to spend time at the Mystic Fountain too.

They can see all of Flight of the Hippogriff, so that makes it easier for them to make a decision on it.

For FJ, they can do just the castle tour. My kids loved even wandering around the stores. Make sure to get to Ollivanders in the morning when lines are shorter for the little wand show.

We let our kids choose if they want to go on a ride with a height limit. If they don't, then they don't have to. That way, it's their choice and they feel in command. It's meant that my middle child has gone on some rides we would have not chosen for her. (Like Tower of Terror at 3. She didn't love it, but bounced back quickly). It's meant that my oldest wouldn't do rides he was tall enough for until his little sister did them too - though she's close to a foot shorter than him. We figure that if they have a sense of control, that it will go better.

We're considering Mummy for our next trip but aren't sure. My oldest, who isn't a thrill seeker, did okay on it at 6. (He did okay on FJ at 8 though, but did not want to do it a second time with rider swap). But I'm not so sure if my more bold middle child will be 7 will be freaked out by the dark in Mummy. I'll be finding a video to watch to remind myself of what the ride does exactly and then explaining it to her. That's another option for rides - there's lots of You Tube videos. The quality of the videos can often make rides seem more scary though so pick and choose before your children watch them or use them to familiarize yourself and report.