HELPPPP!!!Is Universal and IOA ok for small children?

[blessed_X's_3]

Hi we are taking a trip to WDW at the end of Sept. This is my DH and my 4th time. My DH would love to go to Universal and IOA since neither of us has ever been. I am worried because we are taking our 3 small sons. Our oldest is 3. Would there be plenty for them to do? My 3 year old LOVES Spidey and I would like to take him just so he could see him but I am worried we will be wasting money. If anyone out there has taken small kids or has any advice for me please let me know.

 

[satman1962]

IOA has a great area called Seuss Landing. A couple rides for the small kids and a mini water/play area to get nice and wet. US has the live show Barney, if your kids are fans. Don't know if it justifies much more than a day to wander through the two parks. There are a few other minor attractions you all could take part in, but those were the ones my kids liked the best

 

[blessed_X's_3]

Thank you. I have never been so all the info I can get helps! I know it is a wonderful place for adults and teens from all that I have heard. I just don't want to spend the extra money on admission if there isn't enough to do. Thanks again!

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

Check out this link for a breakdown of attractions for kids.

My Universal Orlando Kid's Guide

Also, some attractions may have a height requirement (40" for Jimmy Neutron's NickToon Blast) but smaller children are allowed to sit in stationary seating. Hope it answers some of your questions.

Either way, at Universal they should be able to enjoy

Shrek 4-D
Jimmy Neutron's NickToon Blast
Animal Actors on Location!
A Day In The Park with Barney
Curious George Goes To Town
Fievel's Playland
E.T. Adventure

They can also meet characters such as Spongebob, Shrek and Donkey, Scooby Doo and Shaggy, Alex The Lion and the Penguins from Madagascar, etc.

Then over at Islands,

If I Ran The Zoo
The Cat In The Hat
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Caro-Seuss-el
and the new High In The Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride
Me Ship, The Olive play area
Jurassic Park Discovery Center
Camp Jurassic
The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad Show

Plus, they can meet Spiderman and the other Super Heroes and Seuss Characters as well.

Is it just me or should we make a sticky thread on things to do for kids at Universal?

 

[phamton]

Wow, that link is a little outdated. The Wild West show has been gone for quite awhile. My favorite article on what kids can do at Universal and IoA is not up at the moment to I will paraphrase it.


Production Central

Jimmy Neutron: Most of the kids are familiar with the Nick characters from the ride especially the Rugrats and SpongeBob. It is a fun 3 D simulator ride with stationary seats for younger kids. When you exit the ride there is an interactive area where kids can send an email to friends, be the director of a cartoon, or control the sound effects of a cartoon. They can play a trivia game and, if they get enough correct answers, they win a round on an arcade game. SpongeBob also has a meet and greet in that area. You don't even have to go on the ride to enter the interactive area.

Shrek: The best thing is the meet and greet with Shrek, Fiona, and (my favorite) Donkey. I can spend quite awhile just listening to Donkey interact with the kids.

Woody Woodpecker Kid Zone

After exiting Barney, there is a play area where kids can make music, splash in the water, or draw on the walls. There is also a meet and greet with Barney.

Curious George is a wet and dry play area. Kids can squirt people with water cannons or run upstairs to dump buckets of water down. There are all sorts of water interactive areas. For those who want to stay dry, there is a Ball Factory where kids can shoot and throw nerf balls and plenty of climbing for the little ones. The balls are soft and safe whether you are throwing are getting hit.


Fieval's Playland has tons of interactive elements and everything is at a mouse eye's view. There is also a slide where kids can take a two person water raft down.

World Expo

Kids love standing inside the giant coca cola bottle and getting fogged.

New York area

Let the kids run through the fire hydrants while you get ready to watch Street Breakz or Blues Brothers. Stop in a Monster Cafe and watch clips of some classic monster movies. Let you kids laugh at what you used to find scary.

Near Jaws and also near Mel's drive-in is a special effects picture taking opportunity.

Now on to IoA:

Suess Landing

The whole land is built for kids, with even the fences, signs, and steps are built kidsize. One Fish Two Fish is like Dumbo but with water. Caro-suess-el is a whimsical carousel full of Dr. Seuss characters. Cat in the Hat has some spinning but kids love this ride.

If I ran the Zoo is another interactive play area. Kids can crawl into holes, squirt water on a small island, and play tic tac toe. There are plenty of areas to climb and get some energy out.

Other areas in Suess Landing: Toss a coin into the mouth of the fish in McElligot's Pool to receive a surprise. Sit on Horton's Egg outside the Cat, Hats, and Things gift shop. Walk through the street of the Lifted Lorax and listen to the Once-ler. Stop by Sneetch Beach and listen to the story of the Zax. Meet the Grinch, Cat and the Hat, and Thing 1 and 2.

Jurassic park

The Discovery center there is a mini-science center where every exhibit is based on dinosaurs. Kids can test their dinosaur knowledge, X-ray the inside of a dinosaur egg, have their DNA sampled to create a new dinosaur, search for bones in a rock, and can "Beasuar" by looking through virtual reality glasses in dinosaur models, or watch a dinosaur hatch in the nursery.

Camp Jurassic is a play area where kids can run through caves, squirt water, climb rope bridges, and go down slides. There is also a kids' ride called Pteranodon Flyers where adults can only ride if they are accompanied by a child.

Lost Continent

Stop by the Talking Fountain near Poseidon's and converse. Be prepared to get squirted with water.

Toon Lagoon

The Me Ship, The Olive is a tri-level play area.. there are stairs to climb, slides to go down, and a piano to play. They can squirt the people who are on the boats at Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rats.

Marvel Super Hero Island

Storm Force Acceltron is a teacup clone. This one makes me dizzy but kids love it. But there are characters who ride into Marvel several times a day for Meet and Greet.

 

[mouse1]

When my son was three he loved the cat in the hat ride. We had to ride it again and again. Now he is four and he was tall enough to ride spiderman and he loved it.

He expecially like the Curious George water play area.

I think your kids will have a great time.

 

[blessed_X's_3]

Thank you guys so much. I guess it is a go then. We will have to do both of the parks because my son loves Shrek and of course Spidey. Does anyone know if that could be done in one day. We would only be there for the kids so we wouldn't do any of the adult rides until later that evening when we take the kids back to grandma. Thanks again!

 

[sha_lyn]

Since your trip is the end of sept, I think it could be done, but since you and your
DH plan on going back for the big rides, I would allow 2 days.

 

[Laurabearz]

If your 3 year old happens to meet the height requirement for Spiderman the ride, I would still advise NOT taking him on it... it is very intense. But there are options to meet spiderman in person for a photo op! Also my kids (6,4,2 at the time) found ET to be scary... it has a lot of dark parts to it. But they all LOVED woody's play area, and Suess landing! Our kids loved meeting Dora, Rugrats, Super hero's, Popeye etc... more so than the Disney Characters! Worth going just for the photo ops!

 

[sha_lyn]

DD has been riding Spiderman since she was 3 1/2 and loves it. I've seen many 3 yr olds on the ride, and I don't remember seeing one freak out yet.
Just prepare your 3 yr old and he should be fine.

 

[Laurabearz]

Yes, prepare your 3 year old for bad guys 3 stories tall that shoot flames out of guns the size of your minivan and the heat that you can really feel... also prepare them for when they fall 20 stories face down and the whole car is shaking... Prepare them when the lighting strikes the ride car and shakes the daylights out of it. Prepare them when so that when the massive buildings that are on fire start to fall on them.... and then let them ride.

 

[sha_lyn]

or how about telling them the truth... there is no 20 story fall, there aren't any real bad guys shooting at them, there aren't any real buildings falling on them, there isn't any real lightening etc.

 

[blessed_X's_3]

Wow I guess we will have to check out the ride when we get there and see how he reacts to it. I was hoping to take them all on the ET ride though. I guess we will just go and see how they react when they see certain things. My 3 year old will barely be 3 but he is very tall. I am guessing he might make the height requirement. I will have to check. Thanks for all the info!!!

 

[damo]

Wow I guess we will have to check out the ride when we get there and see how he reacts to it. I was hoping to take them all on the ET ride though. I guess we will just go and see how they react when they see certain things. My 3 year old will barely be 3 but he is very tall. I am guessing he might make the height requirement. I will have to check. Thanks for all the info!!!

Maybe have him ride through it the first time without the 3D glasses. The ride is only intense with the 3D immersion. Otherwise the virtual drops and things being thrown at you have no effect.

 

[mouse1]

I guess it's a matter of opinion. I would never consider ET scary. Both my kids rode it at two years old and had no fear of it at all. My four year old wanted to ride Spiderman again and again.

It all really depends on the child. Some are more scared then others. I've been on ET so many times I've lost count and have never heard any small children cry on it.

If your 3 year old likes spiderman and is 40 inches he probably would love the ride. I didn't find it as intense as described in an earlier post at all. If on the small chance it upsets him you can take the 3-D glasses off him. I'm not the type of person who likes thrill rides at all I would never ride the Hulk. MY nine year old was terrifed on the Mummy ride and would not ride it again. She couldn't wait to ride Spiderman again. My four year old would ride Spiderman all day if we let him.

Don't miss out because of what other people say you know you child best.

 

[blessed_X's_3]

Not much scares my little guy. He will usually try anything and doesn't really notice he is scared until he is halfway through whatever it is, if he gets scared at all. Now my 2 year old on the other hand is very leary of everything. But I don't have to worry about him he won't meet the height requirements anyway. I think my little guy might like Spidey. He loves the character and just to know that he is on a ride named spiderman will probably have him going nuts!!! I think I will try ET for them for sure though. Thanks everyone for all the heads up it really helps when you have no idea what you are getting into!!

 

[sha_lyn]

The Travel channel has a really good special on the spiderman ride. I thin it called behind the scenes universal orlando, or something to that effect. they tend to rerun it around this time of yr. It shows how they made the ride. My DD watched it right before our first trip to IOA. I think it really helped prep her for Spiderman.

Now OTOH for DD the more real a ride could be the scarier it is for her. Jaws really got to her the first trip (but yet she rode spiderman several times that trip). It took serveral trips before she would ride it again. In fact I think she has only ridden it that one time that my mom went with us.
She is 8 now and will ride ROTM over and over, but she won't ride Jaws.

 

[Gonz Of Lancashire]

Back to the original post, if you have three kids, and the OLDEST is three years old, I wouldn't bother with either park as there is clearly not enough there for very young kids (taken from my experience). However, if you insist, Suess Landing is great and there is the odd ride or two in the rest of the park(s) which are suitable. Oh, and as for Spiderman, for a three year old, I wouldn't entertain it. The height requirement is 40" for Spiderman.

 

[blessed_X's_3]

Thank you. I was wondering if anyone thought it may not be enough. I think becuase of the 2 little little ones I was hesistant but I may just check it out one day to see. Is IOA the only place to meet spidey? I had read about a breakfast with Spiderman but that is also at the restraunt in IOA. So if I have to pay admission to go to that I will have to check out all the areas also. I would really like my 3 year old to meet him. Does he ever appear at any of the other resort restaurants? Thanks for all the wonderful info.

 

[sha_lyn]

All of Seuss Landing is geared toward the little ones.
As is the section in US that houses Fivel's Playland, Barney,Curious George, ET, Animal Planet live etc. If your littles ones love Barney, it would be worht going just for the show IMHO
Also in IOA is the Jurrasic Park Discovery Center and Camp Jurrasic which has Petrodon flyers.