Thinking of adding 1-2 days at Universal with a 3 year old

[Karrie Davis]

We will be at Disney World staying at OKW November 12th - 20th with a rental car. My son will be just shy of 3 years old and should be 40 inches when we go (he is 39.5 w/shoes right now and in a growth stage). He loves Shreak so much; Mickey & Shreak is what life is about right now. Plus I had no idea there were son many cool things for him to do at US & IOA.

Have any of you done this? Is it worth doing for a day, can we hit kid rides at both parks in one day from November 12th - 20th without staying in one of their hotels and using express lanes? Should we plan 2 days or just buy the 4 park tickets for universal and sea world along with our 9 day tickets for Disney.... It might be nice to do a couple big rides but if there is not time it is fine because we are making this trip about Jake as much as possible.

We are doing Sea Wold for 1 day for sure already

Thanks!

Karrie

 

[golden1]

Personally, I see Universal as themed more towards older kids and teens so I will be skipping it this year with my two toddlers. The next time we go, I will try it. I would really like to see UIOA but I just think that the kids will get more out of Disney than Univeral right now.

 

[MOQu]

Doing Universal and IofA both in one day would be a huge endeavor, but having FOTL access by staying onsite will be a big help. I've done the Universal parks with a toddler and must say that they beat Disney hands down for having much nicer places to wait with a child while other people ride. Last month I got sick and tired of walking around gift shops (too hot to sit outside) at WDW with DS2 while everybody else rode "big people" rides!

We did Universal when DS was 1 1/2 and he loved everything, including earthquack! Seuss Landing was a hoot with him!

 

[Karrie Davis]

The bad part is we are not onsite and that is what I was worried about. I was hoping that that time of the year it would not really matter, maybe it does though.... I don't really want to do any rides that my son can't go on with us. He is a trill seeker for sure so that helps. Mostly I want to do Seuss Landing, shreak, and Kidzone. I t would be great to get some of the other thrill rides in that he would like too but the real kid stuff is first. I am tempted to extend our trip a few days because it all looks like SO much fun! It is just that we are taking another trip right before we go to Florida and I think that may just be too much.....

If I would have known how cool US & IOA were for my little guy I would have planned to stay at universal the 1st 2 night and then done Disney the following 6 nights. Next year we are doing the Disney cruise so we will not have many Florida days.

Thanks!

 

[krismom]

My kids LOVED universal and IOA last year! WE paid extra for the FOTL and it was worth every cent. They spent hours at the Discovery Center (Jurassic Park) and Seuss landing. They saw Shrek a few times and still talk about the awesome Curious George water play area. Try to get there if your little guy is a fan-
They have a buy one get one ticket deal now, which we used as well. Any other questions- I'd be happy to anser...

 

[Karrie Davis]

Thanks krismom!

How do you just buy the FOTL? I was thinking it was only for a few days per month but maybe I was not looking at it right...I just did not get it on the site at all. How does it work, where do you get it and where are the buy one day get 2 tickets ?

Thanks!

I know we will enjoy it, we will be at Disney enough to not miss anything. Plus we were there last year too.

 

[Karrie Davis]

Well, I looked again and saw that our dates are just lower down the page and less money So they are good for only one time per ride? How do=id it work for you guys?

I still did not see the buy one get one free on tickets, I did see the buy 2 get a whole bunch free.... I would rater do buy one get one free on a combo ticket. I also thought about doing the ones for $189 each with Sea World included, not sure if that is worth it though since we will be at DW most of the time.... HUM..... I would love to only spend on day at US but 1.5 maybe. It is so hard, money is the not the bigest deal on this trip but no one wants to just waist it either!

Karrie

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

We just got back from a trip to Universal with our DD7 and DD3. We stayed onsite at Royal Pacific, and if you have any opportunity to do that, I would recommend it. We were amazed at the difference FOTL makes. The parks were not very crowded, but the lines for rides my kids wanted to do were reasonably long (30 minutes for Seuss Trolley). If your DS is like my DD's, he is going to want to ride his favorites over and over - the purchased express pass just gives you FOTL for each ride one time. We rode three rides in the time it would have taken to ride one without FOTL, and we were there at a slow time (end of August).

My DD3 is 40 inches tall but quite timid when it comes to rides. She rode Spiderman and was terrified, but your DS may love it. At IOA, DD3 and I spent almost all of our time in Seuss Landing and rode the same three or four rides over and over again. She was happy while DH and DD7 did their thing. At US, I felt like we spent more time waiting around for big sister, but you won't have that problem. My DD3 wouldn't ride Shrek or Jimmy Neutron, but they should be fine for your DS if he is brave for his age. She liked Barney, ET, and the Curious George playground. Since your DS is more of a thrill seeker, you should find plenty to do.

I do think US and IOA skew more toward thrill rides and older kids, but it was such a good value for our family (buy 2-day ticket, get five days, buy adult ticket, get kid's ticket free) that we were willing to take a chance. It will probably be a few years before we go back, but it was a lot of fun! It was worth the price of admission just to go to Seuss Landing - we think it is the best themed "land" in all of Orlando!

If you book an onsite hotel, you can check in early on the day of your reservation and get FOTL access all that day and the next. Head over to the Universal board for some great info - they are very nice!

 

[flortlebap]

We are doing two days at Universal and IOA. We have a 5, 2, and 1 y/o plus 7 adults. If we didn't have that many adults, we'd definiteyl skip it. You could probably do Universal in 2 hours. No kidding, last time we did everything we wanted to (adults only trip) in half a day and spent the rest of the time at IOA!

There are more kiddy orientated things at IOA - Universal is a bit dated, no 3 year old would appreciated BTTF... or ET if they haven't seen the film. The kids will probably love Seuss Landing though. But be warned that you will probably be rather bored at Universal!!

 

[krismom]

Thanks krismom!

How do you just buy the FOTL? I was thinking it was only for a few days per month but maybe I was not looking at it right...I just did not get it on the site at all. How does it work, where do you get it and where are the buy one day get 2 tickets ?

Thanks!

I know we will enjoy it, we will be at Disney enough to not miss anything. Plus we were there last year too.

The FOTL was supposed to be for one ride/each ride only, but the workers never marked them, and we used them numerous times. The boy one adult get a child free tickets are on the universal website- I'll try to post a link...


KIDS FREE & THREE DAYS FREE
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