Questions about taking a little guy

[samheatherwhite]

I am looking into our first trip to the dark side. I have several questions and greatly appreciate any advice.
My son will be two, he won't need to have his own park ticket will he?
Any recent reviews on the character breakfast? Which characters?
Do they have a rider swap option similar to Disney where the adults and older child can take turns watching the baby so everyone can ride without having to wait in line twice?
It looks like we might have 4 adults, a 6 year old and a two year old. There aren't any onsite rooms that could accommodate all 6 of us are there?

 

[bumbershoot]

He won't need a ticket.
Rider Switch at Universal is done *inside* the line; everyone in your party will go into the line, and when you're near the seating area there will be a room that the little guy and an adult go to, then you switch. I think this is great EXCEPT for when kids are a bit older and get skittish about things...like my 9 year old won't even enter the line for the Mummy; there's no way he would have done rider switch for it because it's specifically the line that scares him (even though he'll ride everything else). But at 2 he's probably not like that quite yet.
Cabana Bay will have suites, I believe...but they don't get the unlimited Express Pass...

 

[tweak89]

I am looking into our first trip to the dark side. I have several questions and greatly appreciate any advice.
My son will be two, he won't need to have his own park ticket will he?
Any recent reviews on the character breakfast? Which characters?
Do they have a rider swap option similar to Disney where the adults and older child can take turns watching the baby so everyone can ride without having to wait in line twice?
It looks like we might have 4 adults, a 6 year old and a two year old. There aren't any onsite rooms that could accommodate all 6 of us are there?

Two year old: No ticket required. Child tickets for ages 3-9 (all other adult)

Character Breakfast: No kids, so can't help. Official info here.

Child Swap: Yes. Similar to Disney. From the officialwebsite:

Sit out then swap. If your kids are too small or unwilling to go on a particular ride you want to experience, please take advantage of our "child swap" program. Each ride and attraction has a child swap area where one member of your party can wait with the little ones while the rest of your party rides. Once they are off the ride, swap places and whoever rode can stay with the kids while the adult(s) who sat out get the opportunity to enjoy the ride.

Rooms: As far as I know, the standard rooms come in two configurations (Single King or Double Queen). Even club level rooms are the same. Depending on the resort, there may be a small difference in square footage. Each resort does feature larger multi room suites, but pricing is on the ridiculous side. Plenty of info on the official site.

 

[samheatherwhite]

Thanks for the info. I appreciate ya'll taking the time to help out!

 

[Lisa0806]

We were just there in early January with our 2 and 5 year old. They do have a rider swap however it is a bit different then how disneys works. At disney you are given a ticket and can come back to use fastpass line at another time. At Universal you are not given a ticket. The younger child and a parent wait in a waiting area and then when first parent and older child done, they come get you and you go straight to front of the line. The positive of this was that if its raining or hot or whatever, you can be inside waiting in a small room with the younger child, the negative side of how this works is if your child takes a nap in stroller. Our 2 year old took an almost 2-2.5 hour nap every day in his stroller and for some of the rides you couldnt bring the stroller, so taking advantage of parent swap was then more difficult if he was napping. I remember that the harry potter ride and spiderman ride at Islands of Adventure both had a waiting room. Our two year old loved the Suess land. He loved the show, characters, and rides in that entire land! He is still telling me he wants to go on the "hat" ride. lol. There is also a play area in suess area that both of my kids enjoyed. At the Universal Studios side, my 2 year old enjoyed the barney show (and after the barney show there is a play area they can play in which my kids also enjoyed). There was also a curious george play area they liked as well. I'm sure every kids has different fears but my 5 year old while not scared at anything at disney or anything else at universal was terrified at TWISTER(my two year old was fine with it though lol.) The 5 year old had done all roller coasters and everything but only scared at Twister. Maybe because we actually have had tornadoes where we live so harder to remember it was pretend! We loved eating at Mythos, great food for adults, but also has kids meals with normal "kids" food. My kids really enjoyed the sushi dessert there (rice crispy treat/fruit roll up thing). The kids also enjoyed watching the Parade. If you have certain characters you want to see the most during parade ask a cast member and they will tell you best spot to be. My daughter told them she liked Dora the Explorer and they told us where to stand, and sure enough Dora stopped right in front of us for a long time. Have fun!

 

[momto3pirates]

We went over Thanksgiving 2013 with a 1 year old and a 3 year old. I was surprised at how much there was for the little ones to do. We have done US/IOA several times with older kids and never noticed all the play areas for little ones. We had a blast in the Curious George ball pit! Also Fievel's playland was great for running around.

We always stay onsite to get express access. I cannot imagine doing US without it. We have a family of 6 so just get 2 connecting rooms.