Universal/IoA with a 5 year old?

[Miss Mo]

We are heading over to Florida again in July. Bit of July addicts but to date we have only done Disney since our son was born. He is starting to get really into superheros and the likes though and I know he would love the Simpsons and Shrek stuff at Universal and probably all the Dr Seuss stuff. Have you taken a child this young before. We always stay on Disney property and do the Disney stuff and a slow pace, carefully planned for the things we want to do, trying not to plan days that are really long, but staying long if the mood/tiredness takes us. I'm worried that a full park day (which is what this would have to be, would be too much for him) also thinking about the extra expense. If we do have a couple of days here we will probably hire a car for a few days too, all adds up.

Thoughts please?

Thanks

mo x

 

[macraven]

if you would book a room onsite, that would solve the problem.

unlimited waits in lines for rides and shows.

easy to walk back to your onsite hotel for a break, pool time or nap.



with the heat in July, staying onsite is a plus!

 

[troydjames]

I took my 5 year old son last October for the first time and his older sisters as well, we stay on site for the front of the line access, always worth the money, especially when busy. If you are considering 2 days you could always book one night and have 2 days worth of front of the line access.
As far as rides my son loved all rides of Seuss land, seeing and having picture made with spider man and watching the super hero parade with the can am motorcycles.
At universal studios the despicable me ride he did not like the moving seat, they have non moving seats in front and also in shrek ride just have to ask someone to move to those seats, the parades are really nice the floats come out about every 30 minutes and stop in front of Mel's dinner for a dance party, seems to me they have really stepped up their game in character interaction in both parks, Seuss landing always had someone walking and taking pictures and so did the Studio's side, their is a great playground and small coaster at woody woodpeckers that he loved, and a water soak park.
As far as rides what he enjoyed, his favorite the cat in the hat, one fish two fish, flight of the hippogriff, woodys rollercoaster. Animal actor show and all the dance parties.
I think 2 days is plenty of time for a 5 year old, all my kids enjoy the resort pools and activities so much we only spend about half our time in the parks and half at the pools.
The front of the line access will spoil you for all other parks, I love Disney to but I feel like the value at Universal is better for my family of 5, we stayed one night at the Animation resort last year at a cars suite and loved it but cost me $300 a night, although smaller the Royal pacific resort cost me $180 a night and I am not forced to stay in a suite because of family of 5.
If you like character meals we love breakfast at Ohana's and do it every year, we tried Universals version at the Studios, great character interaction, food not near as good as Ohana's, If you only have time for one stick with Disney for that.
Feel free to ask any questions, I have never been in July so I don't know about crowd size, we always go in early October when crowds are light and not as hot.

 

[Miss Mo]

Thanks guys! Accommodation is already booked at Disney as we weren't originally considering universal at all. Don't want to mess with that now as it took us forever to decide. Thanks for feedback on rides. We have done long days at Disney before we just never plan it that way just stay if we are up for it! Thanks for feedback x

 

[shoney]

I agree with staying onsite if you can.

We took our boys there for the first time when they were 4 and 6. Forgive my memory because they are 11 and 13 now....

they loved it! The characters were more relevant to them then Disney....superheroes, dr suess, curious george, nickelodeon, shrek, etc were all their favorites. The 4 yo still liked Barney at the time too.

We went in August and it was HOT! There were so many water areas for them to play in, in addition to the rides. I dressed them in bathing suites and t-shirts and had a spare. When they got wet, they changed and the other suit dried. It worked perfectly and just looked like shorts! they always rode whatever rides they were tall enough for.

I know so many people think US/Ioa are only for older people, but my kids really liked it.

We took them back again when they were about 8 and 10 and are planning another trip for this summer, if all works out.

 

[Miss Mo]

Thanks! That's good to know! Can't really stay onsite though as already doing a split stay at Disney AoA for 4 nights which ds is v excited about (so am I lol) then 10 nights at Saratoga springs but that came with free dining and suspect would lose that if we changed booking, plus don't want to stay in 3 places. Shame we hadn't considered doing universal earlier! :-( have you found young ones ok on Spider-Man? This is the one ds is particularly excited about but I remember this being quite scary! Lol! X

 

[Miss Mo]

Oh and great to know about the water bits. July is always soooo hot but it's really the only time we can go as we are in the uk so want to do 2 weeks at least to make it worth the trip and I'm a teacher so need to do school holidays!

 

[JessB320]

We did universal/IOA in sept with a 5 and 6 yr old. Stayed off site and site multiple open to close park days. DS 5 was in love!! He got his picture with spiderman and that one pic alone was worth the whole trip lol!!! Both kids like Harry potter too and we went on the hippagriff more times than I can count. They did great with the long days and didn't want to leave when the parks closed.

 

[Miss Mo]

Thank you!! If we can get the extra cash together then I think we'll probably give it a go! I know he'd be fine with the long day if it wasn't for the heat. Not going to bring a stroller this time as the trips we did when he was 2 and 3 he pretty much refused to go in the thing so it was just an extra hassle for the flight, buses and having to put it somewhere to go on every ride! I just liked it incase he wanted a nap! That said he lay with head on my lap and slept for an hour or two in the rose and crown pub in Epcot last time so there are ways if required!! I think hubby is quite keen to do universal now that we've been talking about it! Also plan to try and have at least two years of cheaper holidays after this might not get the chance again for a while! Thanks x