US with 3 kids under 4

[bamamomto3]

First post, big lurker.

We're planning a trip to Disney/US& IOA at the end of September. I've been to US/IOA twice before, but not in about 8 years. It will be me, my husband, my parents, my brother (who is also an adult) and my three children who will be almost 5, 2.5 and almost 1. My oldest is 41inches right now, my littles will never grow enough to ride most of the rides.

I had planned on doing one day at US and one day at IOA, but after thinking about it, I'm getting worried my kids will be really bored.

This is at the beginning of our trip, so they will be unable to compare it to Disney since we've never been.

My husband, me and my dad are the only real "roller coaster" people. Oh, and my girls (4 and 2 now) LOVE Harry Potter, so I plan to spend a lot of time there.

Me, my husband, and brother will also do HHN while the grandparents take the kids back to the hotel. (we're staying on disney property)

So, will my kids be bored? I'm not terribly worried about the two little ones since my 2 year old as of now HATES anything that moves and my 1 year old probably won't know any different. But my oldest LOVES rides, and I don't know that two days of "Sorry, you're not big enough" is going to be awesome for her.

Oh, and it will be the last weekend of September, so I know there will be moderate crowds and hours will be short, which is why I thought we might need 2 days.

 

[Planogirl]

There are fabulous play areas in both parks and the Dr Seuss area too so there will be things for the little ones to do. You might be wise to split up so that one or more of the adults can entertain the little ones.

The five year might enjoy those same areas plus Shrek, Despicable Me, Men in Black, Disaster, Terminator, Spiderman, Jurassic Park and the other water rides. It all depends on the child's comfort level and height of course. I don't recall the height requirements but Universal does have a page listing those if you haven't seen it yet.

The little kids might be really easy. Our son was content to just see things when he was small so we had no trouble doing things like exploring the World Showcase in Epcot and other such things. He was more difficult when he was older like at preteen age and beyond!

 

[macraven]

play areas for the littles:

Curious George Goes to Town:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Universal-Studios-Florida/Curious-George.aspx


Fievel's Playland:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Universal-Studios-Florida/Fievels.aspx


for the entire family
Animal Actors on location:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Universal-Studios-Florida/Animal-Actors-On-Location.aspx



possibly for the 5 y/o:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Universal-Studios-Florida/Woodys-Nuthouse-Roller-Coaster.aspx



barney show:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Shows/Universal-Studios-Florida/Day-In-Park-With-Barney.aspx



at IOA:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Islands-of-Adventure/Camp-Jurassic.aspx


http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Islands-of- Adventure/Caroseussel.aspx


with parent:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Islands-of-Adventure/Seuss-Trolley-Train-Ride.aspx


great for all 3 kids:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Islands-of-Adventure/If-I-Ran-the-Zoo.aspx



family show:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Islands-of-Adventure/Eighth-Voyage-of-Sindbad.aspx



family fun:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Islands-of-Adventure/Mystic-Fountain.aspx


daily shows at Seuss:
http://www.universalorlando.com/Rides/Islands-of-Adventure/Stories-You-Will-Tell.aspx


if you read thru the above links, you will find the show times.




believe me, the littles won't be bored.
you might get bored in the play areas, but they won't..........

you can use the child swap for any of the rides.
there are some rides the 5 y/o could do.
if you want the family to stay together on some rides, you will have one of the adults go to the play room and watch tv, etc.
when the other riders come back from the ride, the remaining adult can do the ride then.
they sometimes allow the others in the group reride as long as one adult sits with the kids in the waiting room.



i am completely and totally addicted to HHN.
you will have a great time doing that!!
if you go on a peak night, hhn is over at 2 am.

 

[bamamomto3]

Thanks!

One more question if someone can answer. Rider swap. I've read some about it at US/IOA but not sure if I remember correctly. Everyone goes through the line until the end (if everyone wants to ride but there are kids too little) and when you get to the loading area they go to the waiting room? Then switch?
Or do you go to the waiting room at the beginning?

Also I read someone say if you were doing rider swap you could keep your stuff with you through the line correct? (bags, etc).

My husband has wanted to go to HHN as long as he can remember, but we just never made it happen. So we knew we had to go since we would be in Orlando during it.

 

[BeeTeacher]

for child swap your whole family goes through the line, and one waits with the little ones while the other goes and unloads and then they get to go (and often, the others get to get a 2nd turn, as we have seen happen many times).

For Forbidden Journey, the ride line is really long. I'm 46 and about went beserk in there. On Tuesday there was a 90 min wait and we did the single rider and were out in 10-12 mins.

 

[mjohnson96]

Thanks!

One more question if someone can answer. Rider swap. I've read some about it at US/IOA but not sure if I remember correctly. Everyone goes through the line until the end (if everyone wants to ride but there are kids too little) and when you get to the loading area they go to the waiting room? Then switch?
Or do you go to the waiting room at the beginning?

Also I read someone say if you were doing rider swap you could keep your stuff with you through the line correct? (bags, etc).

My husband has wanted to go to HHN as long as he can remember, but we just never made it happen. So we knew we had to go since we would be in Orlando during it.

You can take your bags with you through the lines. Pretty much all rides except FJ will allow you to bring more than 1 person back on the ride when you swap. Only FJ gave us a child swap ticket that allowed the person who waited plus one on the ride. DD loved this since she got to ride back to back and the wait is right at the ride in most cases so you aren't having a huge wait to go back on.

If the wait is long for FJ try the single rider line. You can't do the swap here but I have walked on in minutes.

 

[macraven]

UO has an excellent child swap program.
you wait in a separate comfortable air conditioned room!

 

[Susie22]

If you were staying at the resort and had front of the line privileges, would you still use child swap, or is child swap only available for stand-by riders?

 

[RMulieri]

If you were staying at the resort and had front of the line privileges, would you still use child swap, or is child swap only available for stand-by riders?

We still used Child swap when we stayed onsite.For one, Forbidden Journey doesn't HAVE express pass so it was simpler to use Child swap, plus they show Harry potter movies in the Swap room.The other thing is why wait in the blistering sun and heat when you can wait inside an air conditioned roomWe went through the express line as a family on the Mummy and swapped off.The waiting room had on the Mummy cartoon which my daughter loved to watch.If you have more than 2 adults or kids that would rather go off and do something else, then I could see not using the child swap.But for our family of 3 ,we knew both Dh and I wanted to ride and my daughter didn't so we just used the swap.

 

[glocon]

I hadn't looked at the UO website for a couple of months, and yesterday when I got on I saw it was new and updated. You can get descriptions and height requirements for each ride now! I love it!

Check out the UO website and you can see what would work for your family. It's fun!

 

[AJA]

There are lots of play areas! One of the best is at the Studios (close to ET) it has a slide with a little splash of water at the end, plus TONS of other play areas, water play, etc.

YOU may get bored sitting and waiting on them LOL.