I know Disney Board but...Universal or HS?

[birdman]

I have been planning on spending a day with my 5 year old son at HS, and then a friend just told me that in his view, there is more to do at Universal for him.
Thoughts?

 

[FayeW]

I agree. My son was 6 on our first trip to Orlando. We've been twice more since then. For some reason, our best vacation days are always at Universal, and our worst days are always at MGM/Hollywood Studios!

I find that a lot of the rides and attractions at MGM are really outdated and not really relevant to the very young children in terms of their frame of reference. Most of them have never seen the muppets and star tours is just hokey. Most 5-6 yr olds, on the other hand, have seen Shrek, Spongebob and Jimmy Neutron. They man not know who Fivel is, but they sure love Fivel's playground!

Island's of Adventure is actually our favourite park, so if I would recommend buying the 2 park pass and doing both US and IOA. They are attached to each other so it's less than 5 mins to walk through Citywalk to go from one park to the other. If he likes adventure rides he will absolutely LOVE Spiderman. My kids (now 11 and 13) also still love The Flying Unicorn.

 

[birdman]

Island's of Adventure is actually our favourite park, so if I would recommend buying the 2 park pass and doing both US and IOA. They are attached to each other so it's less than 5 mins to walk through Citywalk to go from one park to the other. If he likes adventure rides he will absolutely LOVE Spiderman. My kids (now 11 and 13) also still love The Flying Unicorn.

Can we do both "parks" in the same day?

 

[FayeW]

Can we do both "parks" in the same day?

Depending on the time of year, and the size of your son, I would say yes. If he doesn't meet the height restriction for the bigger rides, then you would be probably be able to do most of the things he can do at both parks in one day, if you are going at a slower time of the year. For example, we usually go the first week of Dec, and most rides are walk on. There are several rides and attractions that have no height restrictions so he should have plenty to do in each park. I would suggest going over the www.universalstudios.com, and check out the rides/height restrictions to come up with a plan for what things would be "must do" and "nice to do, if we have time".

Personally, we spend minimum 3 days each visit at the Universal parks. For us, US/IOA is the reason we visit Orlando. The Disney parks are just other stuff we do while we are there. Our 10 day WDW passes will last us 3 visits.

 

[Mainebound]

I have been planning on spending a day with my 5 year old son at HS, and then a friend just told me that in his view, there is more to do at Universal for him.
Thoughts?

mom of boys age 6 and 8 here, and I totally vote for Universal. We have been the last 4 years running. there's just more for boys there.

 

[kty]

My son was 4 and 6 during his last trips to us. he lOVED both parks, and still remembers the tornado ride, spiderman, etc. we are going to universal this november. not as busy - they also have shrek! my kids still talk about the unicorn rollercoaster. my daughter was 2.5 and 5 at our last visits and enjoyed universal

 

[Brian Noble]

I haven't been to Universal yet, because the extra days at Disney are so cheap. But, it sure seems like USO has "more to do" than DS, even for a younger kid. At DS, you pretty much eliminate Tower, Coaster and maybe even Tours for a 5 year old. Heck, my 7 year old still doesn't want to get back on Tower, and is still saying he's not ready for Coaster.

(And, after talking him onto Mystery Mine at Dollywood last summer, and having it literally terrify him, he might be right. )

LMA is still a big hit for that age group, but not much else, really. We're going this year primiarly for ESPN The Weekend, which he is really geeked about.

 

[kty]

my 6 and 8 year old are roller coaster nuts. they loved tot and rnr - their two favorite rides in Disney studios. But, other than those rides, they did not like DS as much as the other Disney parks. My 8 year old still talks about some of the rides he remembers at universal when he was 6- he enjoyed the tornado ride, jimmy neutron, spiderman, etc. we are going back to us in november for 2 days, then to mk and maybe another dis park. We hit all the disney parks this past year, so it is time for a mix. hope this helps. with the cheap price of tickets at us, it can't hurt to try it for a day.

 

[birdman]

Just came back from Hollywood Studios and while I can't comment on how much my 5 year old would have liked Universal, he absolutely loved HS. Between meeting the Power Rangers and Lightning McQueen / Mater for pictures, sitting through the Indiana Jones show, and the new stunt show (best of all!) he can's stop talking about it. The stunt show alone may be worth the price of admission (well, maybe not that much, but you know what I mean.)
Disney Playhouse was also a big hit so he really had a great time. He actually liked it even better than MK. Just FYI, we were there Tue. (MK) and Wed (HS) and we were there for rope drop on both days. By 2:00, the crowds in both parks but especially MK, were unreal. Hardly had room to move through FrontierLand.