Universal With a Toddler: Not Recommended

[FrancieNolan]

I'm guessing with that many kids you have enough adults to rotate being with the little one. But if you were just a couple with a 2 year old then for all the thrill rides the adults have to ride alone while the other is with the 2 year old.

I think that this should be stressed.

If a trip solely consists of parents and toddlers/pre schoolers I would not head for US/IOA.

But if you are traveling with a large group with a wide age range then there is something for everyone at US/IOA.

A lot of the enjoyment of IOA can depend on the temperment & height of the child.My children are 6& 8 are thrill seeking and on the tall side- 50 & 53 inches- so they love IOA.

 

[Rip]

While I agree that both parks would greatly benefit from the addition of a few more attractions geared towards the younger kids, I guess my kids are atypical. We've been taking them both since they were infants. Obviously there wasn't much to do for them until they were toddlers (not that they even knew), but they have always enjoyed most of the attractions in US. In addition to the Fievel play area, they like Barney, E.T., Jaws, Twister, Earthquake (then), Disaster (now), Shrek, the animal show as well as the horror makeup show and Beetlejuice. At IOA there is obviously less, but all of Seuss Landing as well as the JP play area and the Sinbad show and Poseidon's Fury.

I guess my point is that if you've never been, I wouldn't get too terribly worried that there won't be enough for the smaller ones to do. You might be surprised.

 

[jrtoastyman]

I'm guessing with that many kids you have enough adults to rotate being with the little one. But if you were just a couple with a 2 year old then for all the thrill rides the adults have to ride alone while the other is with the 2 year old.

Yeah, with that large a group, you could well be fine -- I think part of our problem was that it was pretty much just us. I still stand by the original point, though, which is that there's not a heck of a lot at Universal that a toddler is likely to be all that jazzed about -- even a lot of the "kids" areas are too much for the really young. Just know that one of two things will have to happen: (1) someone will be hanging with the 2 year old while other people go do stuff, or (2) you'll be taking a 2 year old around from ride to ride and doing the ride swap thing.

I guess to put it another way, you're basically bringing a toddler along with you while you go to Universal, rather than taking a toddler to Universal, if that makes sense. It's just not made for little kids.

 

[neoavatara]

I find many of the same problems at Disney too. Though, admittedly, Universal is geared to a slightly older crowd.

I am going with a 1 year old, a couple 5 year olds, and 10 year olds in a few months, with numerous adults, and I think it will be just fine.

 

[drag n' fly]

We have never taken the kids to UO because the youngest was never tall enough to enjoy the park. He is now 8.5 and ready to get this party started woot!

You can always take younger kids of course but the fun train will run at a much slower pace lol

 

[jrtoastyman]

I find many of the same problems at Disney too.

Definitely true as to the ride situation, but there are enough other things at Disney that are kid-friendly that we were able to stay occupied without feeling like we were missing out on anything -- meeting characters, seeing parades, seeing shows, etc. It helps that she knows and loves the Disney characters, so she was constantly seeing things she recognized.

 

[minnie mouse ears]

We took 4,7,8 and 11 yr olds for 1 day to IOA last wk and had fun. The 4 yr old rode popeys, played on the boat, rode spinning rides by hulk, rode spiderman, jurrasic park, dr suess rides, flight of the Hipograff and others. He drank butter beer , watched sinbad etc. I guess it depends on the kid.

 

[ccgirl]

Just returned from a 3.5 day trip to Universal. The fist day and a half, it was just my wife and I. The second day, we had our 2.5 year old daughter. To make a long story short, we learned the hard way that while there are indeed things that appeal to the younger set, Universal is at its heart a more adult-focused park, and not really ideal for a toddler. Some observations:

At UO, the whole Woody Woodpecker area is awesome. Our daughter thoroughly enjoyed Fievel's playland and the Curious George area. She could have spent all day there.

Unfortunately, with that said, that pretty much WAS her entire day because there's nothing else at UO that she could ride or that we would have wanted her to ride. Even the Shrek movie proved too intense, between the darkness, the loud noises and the moving seats. She did see Dora on her way out, which was a nice capper to the day, but we basically gave up around 1 pm and took her back to the room.

IOA was even worse. The play areas there are more geared towards older kids, and there are only a few rides that are options for the little ones at all.

Another thing I noticed that wasn't as apparent to me when it was just my wife and I was how little shade there was at UO/IOA. Jurassic Park has some nice shade, but most of the other areas are wide open to the sun.

Anyhoo, we loved our time at Universal, but we're definitely going to wait until our daughter is older and taller before we take her back there. As it was, we were basically going from ride she couldn't do to ride she couldn't do, in the sun, which made her fussy and made it tough for any of us to really enjoy the trip as much as we did a few days earlier at Disney.

Just wanted to pass along my thoughts for any parents of small children considering whether Universal would be a good fit. At least for us, it wasn't (yet).

Thanks very much for this. I was wondering that myself. Looks like we'll add the water parks in April rather than UO/IOA.

 

[frequency]

The worst time we had was when my son was 8 and the other kids we took were 10 and 11. He was the only one too short to ride the coasters at IOA. It was heart breaking. the other mom kept saying we could just do baby swap with him on those rides. Well thats just mean! Make the poor kid wait while the others ride the ride, then come back and tell him how great it was! I ended up splitting up the group and taking him to Universal side where he could ride everything.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

I couldn't agree more. We took our kids when they were 4 and 2 during Mardi Gras. It was really awful. The only thing they could do was the ET and Barney stuff, and you have to walk back through where the concert stage is (Hootie and the Blowfish was the act that night) to get out of the park from the "kids" area. People don't let you through, they are drunk, spilling beer, etc. We didn't even end up going to IOA the next day, we were so disgusted with the whole UO trip.

Now, that being said, those kids are going to be 14 and 12 for our November trip, and we've added the little guy, who will still be 3. The big kids REALLY want to go again, especially now that Harry Potter has been added, so we're staying onsite for a night, and hoping for the best. I'm not that big of a coaster fan, so I won't mind staying with him while DH rides the big rides with the older kids.

 

[Wadecool]

Just returned from a 3.5 day trip to Universal. The fist day and a half, it was just my wife and I. The second day, we had our 2.5 year old daughter. To make a long story short, we learned the hard way that while there are indeed things that appeal to the younger set, Universal is at its heart a more adult-focused park, and not really ideal for a toddler. Some observations:

At UO, the whole Woody Woodpecker area is awesome. Our daughter thoroughly enjoyed Fievel's playland and the Curious George area. She could have spent all day there.

Unfortunately, with that said, that pretty much WAS her entire day because there's nothing else at UO that she could ride or that we would have wanted her to ride. Even the Shrek movie proved too intense, between the darkness, the loud noises and the moving seats. She did see Dora on her way out,
which was a nice capper to the day, but we basically gave up around 1 pm
and took her back to the room.

IOA was even worse. The play areas there are more geared towards older kids, and there are only a few rides that are options for the little ones at all.

Another thing I noticed that wasn't as apparent to me when it was just my wife and I was how little shade there was at UO/IOA. Jurassic Park has some nice shade, but most of the other areas are wide open to the sun.

Anyhoo, we loved our time at Universal, but we're definitely going to wait until our daughter is older and taller before we take her back there. As it was, we were basically going from ride she couldn't do to ride she couldn't do, in the sun, which made her fussy and made it tough for any of us to really enjoy the trip as much as we did a few days earlier at Disney.

Just wanted to pass along my thoughts for any parents of small children considering whether Universal would be a good fit. At least for us, it wasn't (yet).

If I were to write a summary of our two days at Universal/IOA, this is exactly how I would sum it up with regards to what DD3 could actually do. Other than getting a Fiona doll and meeting the Cat in the Hat, she could have skipped it and not missed much.

 

[Yoshi]

The lack of tamer/family friendly rides is why my family avoided IoA for years. After going to the park for the first time in January, we still feel the same. As a thrill seeker, I really liked the coasters but there was very little everyone could ride as a family. Even the Cat in the Hat which should have been a ride for everyone had the spinning which prevented some people from riding (and others didn't want to try again).

 

[disneypolybride2008]

good thing i read this thread.. i was thinking of doing universal and wet n wild with my then 2.5 year old, but we'll stick with disney til she is older.

 

[Panagiota]

My 5 year old loves it. She enjoys the Simpsons ride, men in black, ET, loves the ball area behind woody woodpecker.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

Last year we went to Universal and IOA with a not quite 2 year old and a four year old. To top matters off, both are small for their age. The four year old rode all the Suess rides, the Flying Hippogriff and about 12 times on Pterandon Flyers, which was an unequivocal hit. At the Studios, he rode the Woodpecker Coaster, ET, Jaws (a big mistake but not an option anymore) and played in curious George. The 2 year old wasn't able to do much but she enjoyed what she did do (the Suess spinny ride and Caro-suessel) and the various splashy water areas (oh, and Jaws, but she didn't know what was going on, thank goodness). There was a LOT of swapping, but they make it easy at Universal. I don't know, we had a really fun time and are headed back this year. She may be tall enough (almost 36 inches as of today and we are going in August) to do the Pterandon Flyers and the kiddie coasters this year. My now 5 year old is excited about the River Adventure. We are really excited, but we do only spend about 2 to 2.5 days there. Then it's onto Disney.

 

[Magalex]

We started to visit WDW every other year in 2005 when our DS was 4 1/2 yrs old. (we trained him at local amusements parks before the age of 4). We have been very patient. He is 11 yrs old now & this June we are visiting Universal but still staying on WDW property. We waiting for the World of Harry to be completed & we now don't have to worry about height requirements. So parents of toddlers it will come soon enough when you miss those little colorful play areas. We WILL visit Suess Landing!!!!

 

[derekburgan]

Wow, I'm shocked at this one. I would have thought the exact same thing before I took a recent trip with a 2.5 year old in our party. I didn't realize how much was there at USF, and like the OP wrote, she literally could have played in the Woody/Curious George/Fieval area all day long.

But she also loved the Seuss area, besides the very kid friendly theming and colors, the Caroseussel might have been the greatest thing she had ever done. Any time we go to a mall or any place that has a Carrousel, she wants to ride it. The day before we went to Downtown Disney and did the one there. The Seuss Landing one blows that away, and there's almost never a big line to get on, so the kids can just keep riding as much as they want. Add that to the trolley in the sky and the One Fish/Two Fish ride and she was having a blast!

I'm not going to say Universal's biggest appeal isn't to the 9-40 crowd, but our little girl couldn't have been happier with what they had there for her.