Question about kids and Universal??

[browniemtb]

Quick question which may have been asked a million times.
Is Universal entertaining enough for a 6 and 4 year old? Are there any rides they can actually go on?
Brownie

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Yes, definitely.

At US, you have ET/Barney/Curious George/Woody Woodpecker/Shrek and possibly others too.

At IOA you have less probably, Suess Landing however has a number of rides that are suitable for small children.

Whether some of the above would be okay for 4 year old I am not sure, Woody for example may be a bit intense - but there attractions at both parks for young kid's.
Sometime's it can depend on your child, my son would not have ridden many of the rides at age 4, but certainly has done from 6 onwards.

 

[stwyatt]

when our son was 5, he did all the rides in seuss landing, did spiderman, ripsaw falls, jurassic park, and the kiddie rollercoaster, flying unicorn. he also did the "storm" x men ride. these were all at ioa. he got a little scared on jurassic, on spiderman he was scared. since it was our favorite ride we asked what scared him. he said it was the bad guys. so we got him to interact during the ride with spiderman--he would yell during the ride "save us spiderman,etc." spiderman quickly became his favorite ride. he got really scared in the poseidens fury show, we took him out of it early. he did all the rides mentioned by other posters at us, plus men in black, back to the future, shrek 4d, jimmy neutron, and twister. twister scared him a little bit. so as you see, there was much to do for him at the uo parks.

 

[yaytezIOA]

Yes, definitely.



At IOA you have less probably, Suess Landing however has a number of rides that are suitable for small children.

That aggrevates me more than anything. Not you Johnny, just the statement, no offense meant. There is definately as much at IOA for a 4 yr old to do as there is at USF. People tend to say USF more because they have Shrek and ET, where at IOA you know it for Spiderman and Hulk. So much more......
I speak from experience, I have a 4yr old girl that is afraid of the dark. We would not dare take her on Jurassic Parks River adventure....way to scary. But let me list by area, and you can decide.
Marvel SuperHero Island: This is the land of HULK. Spiderman isnt bad 4, they may hide their eyes, you may want to try it out in the single rider line first before you take the little one....you decide. Storm Force Excellerator is just like the Teacups at mk, but more fun and less of a line. If they do the teacups, they can do this.
Toon Lagoon: Dudley Do right is a tad much, and I think she's too short. But blutos Bilge Rat Barge, being a rapid ride, is loads of fun. She loves it and likes to yell at Bluto as we go by. Granted, your little one has to be 40' inches to ride.
Jurassic Park: No river adventure...no. But there is Camp Jurassic which has nets and caves to climb in and explore, as well as slides. And of course there is Pterradon flyers. Its a 90 second hanging coaster that just takes a little tour around the camp. Its fun and a must for the princess. There is also the Discovery Center. Here your little ones can learn about dinosaurs, play games and even watch a baby hatch in the hatchery. If you're real lucky you get to see a baby Trike being handled outside of the hatchery so you can actually pet it. I have pics on the Universal Pictures thread.
Lost Continent: My favorite (click my sig link to find out why). This is the land of Dueling Dragons. NO. Flying Unicorn, however is awesome. Its a small coaster, identical to Woody's nuthouse coaster, except its a Flying Unicorn! The theme is just adorable. This one might be much,but its a must with our girl. There's also the Mystic Fountain. He talks! Go have a chat with him. Then there is the Sinbad show. A fun show, not a lot of big bangs,but there are some. Poseidons Fury, a walkthrough attraction, can be a little scary....but it dazzles more than frightens. You travel through a watery vortex and watch a fiery battle between two larger than life adversaries. Lots of loud noise, a little bit in the dark.....but not bad, not a favorite of the monster, but she does like the fire effects.
Finally Suess Landing: Cat in the Hat, is much like Pooh...only its good. Carosuessel is a big merry go round with some great creatures. One Fish Two Fish is a mix between Dumbo and Aladdin at mk....you go around, you sing, you get wet. Then, in May, there will be a new ride....I cant remember what its officially called, but it used to be "Sylvester Monkey Mcbeans Fantastic Driving Machines".
Hope this helps a bit. Yes there are also a few things at USF, but just as many at IOA...you just have to know who to ask.

 

[Skywalker]

My boys were 6 and 4 when we went. They LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Universal and IOA. They could do lots actually. They enjoyed it more than Disney in fact.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

are there any good sites that really show what the rides are like, with pictures perhaps and a description of what they do?

 

[coastergirls]

Last year my not even 3 year old daughter managed the flying Unicorn no problem. She wanted to do it the whole holiday and on last day I said if she did it I would buy the t shirt so she went and did it and took me to the stand to buy her t shirt. She felt so grown up as she had done a coster her sisters had done. To be honest if she was tall enough she did it.
I have 3 coastergirls aged 8, 5 and 3 who constantly ask to be measured to see what they are able to go on when we are there later this year.

 

[LaLa]

are there any good sites that really show what the rides are like, with pictures perhaps and a description of what they do?

I'd like to know the answer to this too, as we are also Disney fanatics with a 7 and 4 year old contemplating Universal for a change this year.

I'd love to see some photos of rides/attractions.

 

[left210]

If you go to the Universal Studios website and go into each park then you can drop down to each section within the park. It will show you a picture of the ride - some not so good - but what I liked about it is you can actually view a very short video of the ride. It can be slow if you do not have high speed connection but it does give you a brief overview and I thought it was helpful. See link below but you will have to move around the site to see all of the rides.

http://themeparks.universalstudios.com/orlando/website/attraction_hulk.html

 

[LaLa]

okay, thanks!

 

[mom2riceboys]

I think there is a lot for a 4 and 6 year old to do at Universal and IOA. My DS loved all the splash playgrounds. If it is warm enough, your little ones will enjoy them. Also, my kids loved meeting all the characters. We never had the long lines to see a character like we do at Disney. It also seemed like we ran into a lot of characters. Also, make sure you check out the Spiderman character meal at Confisco Grill at IOA. This was the highlight of my DS4's trip! He saw Spidey, Cat in the Hat and Things 1 and 2. The characters spent so much time with him. Well worth the money!

 

[phamton]

I would suggest you look at these two articles and decide if there are some things there that your kids would like:

Kids at Universal

Kids at Islands of Adventure

For a site with pictures and ride descriptions, check out http://www.ioacentral.com

 

[JohnnySharp2]

That aggrevates me more than anything. Not you Johnny, just the statement, no offense meant. There is definately as much at IOA for a 4 yr old to do as there is at USF. People tend to say USF more because they have Shrek and ET, where at IOA you know it for Spiderman and Hulk. So much more......
I speak from experience, I have a 4yr old girl that is afraid of the dark. We would not dare take her on Jurassic Parks River adventure....way to scary. But let me list by area, and you can decide.
Marvel SuperHero Island: This is the land of HULK. Spiderman isnt bad 4, they may hide their eyes, you may want to try it out in the single rider line first before you take the little one....you decide. Storm Force Excellerator is just like the Teacups at mk, but more fun and less of a line. If they do the teacups, they can do this.
Toon Lagoon: Dudley Do right is a tad much, and I think she's too short. But blutos Bilge Rat Barge, being a rapid ride, is loads of fun. She loves it and likes to yell at Bluto as we go by. Granted, your little one has to be 40' inches to ride.
Jurassic Park: No river adventure...no. But there is Camp Jurassic which has nets and caves to climb in and explore, as well as slides. And of course there is Pterradon flyers. Its a 90 second hanging coaster that just takes a little tour around the camp. Its fun and a must for the princess. There is also the Discovery Center. Here your little ones can learn about dinosaurs, play games and even watch a baby hatch in the hatchery. If you're real lucky you get to see a baby Trike being handled outside of the hatchery so you can actually pet it. I have pics on the Universal Pictures thread.
Lost Continent: My favorite (click my sig link to find out why). This is the land of Dueling Dragons. NO. Flying Unicorn, however is awesome. Its a small coaster, identical to Woody's nuthouse coaster, except its a Flying Unicorn! The theme is just adorable. This one might be much,but its a must with our girl. There's also the Mystic Fountain. He talks! Go have a chat with him. Then there is the Sinbad show. A fun show, not a lot of big bangs,but there are some. Poseidons Fury, a walkthrough attraction, can be a little scary....but it dazzles more than frightens. You travel through a watery vortex and watch a fiery battle between two larger than life adversaries. Lots of loud noise, a little bit in the dark.....but not bad, not a favorite of the monster, but she does like the fire effects.
Finally Suess Landing: Cat in the Hat, is much like Pooh...only its good. Carosuessel is a big merry go round with some great creatures. One Fish Two Fish is a mix between Dumbo and Aladdin at mk....you go around, you sing, you get wet. Then, in May, there will be a new ride....I cant remember what its officially called, but it used to be "Sylvester Monkey Mcbeans Fantastic Driving Machines".
Hope this helps a bit. Yes there are also a few things at USF, but just as many at IOA...you just have to know who to ask.

Hi, In response to your post.

We are regular visitors from the UK and very familiar with both IOA/US.
I am sure you are correct, the thing is I can only comment on personal circumstances.
There well may be as much for children at IOA , I am very familiar with all the attractions you list in your post, however, all children are different and a lot of them are just not suitable for our son.
Joshua is 8 , he is autistic and whilst perfectly mobile and happy, he is unable to talk - although he can communicate using many other sounds (and screams) etc...so in our position, although he is not a tame boy there generally have not been many rides 'that he would like' rather than rides he would be able to go on.

Joshua goes on Popeye's Barges and a few of the rides at Suess Landing, but up to now not many of the other rides, although this August Spidey/Jurassic and Flying Unicorn will definitely now be okay for him I think.

At the end of the day all children are different, my comments and yours can only reflect the way our children are.

The likes of Spiderman, Jurassic Park and Flying Unicorn may be suitable for some young children, however they would also be un-suitable for others..it just depends on your child.

We are massive Universal fan's and have AP's, will be returning for 3 weeks from August 8th, we cannot wait.