What theme park for kids w/big age difference?

[Mom22Boyz]

We will be visiting next week and have kids ages 2 and 9. We want to visit theme parks that will interest both. Already been to AK and Sea World.

We thought MK would probably work for both. Older son would like to see Islands of Adventure, but would there be a lot for a toddler to do? Disney or non-Disney attraction suggestions welcome.

For those of you who have been in a similar situation, what do you suggest??

 

[becka]

Well I am not an expert but I would think that all of the Disney parks would be fine and probably the Universal parks as well (although I can't comment on those because I have never been to them).

Your toddler can ride almost everything in all of the parks except for the rides with height restrictions. On those rides you can just use the baby swap (at least at Disney - I assume Universal has something similiar). The bonus with that is that your 9 y/o gets to ride twice in a row.

 

[BevS97]

Universal and IOA are not brilliant for a toddler, there are some kiddie things, but for the most part you will have to baby swap - they both offer baby swap facilities which are very good (for the most part nicer than those at WDW).

At IOA there is a Dr Suess area which has a carosuel, a Dumbo style ride, the Cat in the Hat (which my 3 year old HATED) and a really nice water play area called if I ran the Zoo, all of these would be great for the 2 year old (except possibly the Cat in the Hat, it is dark, jerky and uses strobe lights, I would suggest riding it yourself before you decide).
You can also get lunch at Circus McGurcus and the characters do a little show while you eat.

Other than that, she played on a boat in one area (Near Popeye's Bilge Barges), and that was about it. She didn't like the Jurassic Park play area at all, because there were lots of dinosaur noises when you stepped in the wrong place. There is an inside area called the Discovery Centre which was ok, not very exciting but not scary.

At Universal, there is Barney - if your 2 year old likes Barney, then you really can't go wrong! We spent a lot of time with Barney - there is a nice play area outside the Barney show which she really enjoyed, if you go right after a show finishes then it will be packed, but if you go at a different time then it will be very quiet and you should have the place to yourself.
ET is a fairly tame ride, which your 2 year old may like, but it's very dark, so it depends on the child. My dd also liked watching the Blues Brothers show, but that was about it for Universal - we did the baby swap on a few things, but we didn't spend a great deal of time there as there wasn't a lot for her to see or do.

Seaworld is an excellent park and will probably appeal to both children. It is my dd's favorite park by far, she would probably pick it over MK if asked.

You'll get loads of info on the Disney parks, so I'll leave it at that for now

Bev

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

At the Disney parks- the ones that worked the best for our different ages (3) children was MK and AK. They liked epcot and MGM too- but the youngest two not so much as the oldest. Okay MGM has shows- and our toddler was scared of most of them. The middle child just got upset at all the rides he couldn't ride but his older sister could.
I mean they really liked them all- but I'm sure they liked MK and AK better for all three of them.

We went to US/IOA also - US seemed to be more for the younger ones to do and not as much whining about what they couldn't do but the oldest could. LOL IOA was a hit with my middle child- but only because he's a Spiderman freak and we rode it many times. Other than that though- not a whole lot young children and/or toddlers can do there.

I'm sure on our next trip we'll not get away with avoiding Spiderman all together (LOL I wish... kinda expensive for us to all go there when that's all he wants to ride) but we'll probably spend the most time at MK and AK- with less time at Epcot (except also spending later evenings there if the kids are up to returning to the parks later in the evenings) and MGM a little too- mostly for the shows, dining, and fantasmic.

 

[Mom22Boyz]

Ok, it looks like our hunch on IOA not being place that would have much for 2 year old was right. Can eliminate that one.

We enjoyed Seaworld last time and I think the littlest would, too. DH doesn't want to see it again. Scratch that one.

Its hard to please everyone!

Thanks to all who provided info!

 

[M&M's Daddy]

Our last trip to Orlando was 2 years ago, DD's were 2 and 5 at the time.

We actually found US, to be a fun park for the kids. There are not really that many attractions for kids, about a half dozen, but what we found is that you could spend a lot of time at some of the attractions. There is a Curious George water/fountain attraction, and a nerf ball/air cannon attraction that you could spend hours at either one. Connected to the Barney show and the Hanna Barbera attraction are interactive rooms that you could also spend a lot of time in.

We didn't go to a single attraction that was adult oriented and we still filled up the day.

Your kids have a larger age spread than ours, but I assume that the younger one will nap. When our younger one napped, I went on the Woody WoodPecker coaster about 30Xs with the older one (it wasn't a busy day). You could go on some of the more adult oriented rides with the older one.

We spent about half a day at IOA, while there are probably more attractions directed at kids (again we didn't ride anything that wasn't kid friendly), the attractions at IOA aren't the kind that you really linger at. We did ride the Cat in the Hat about 10 times, both DD's enjoyed that ride.

At WDW, MK is easily the most kid friendly/family oriented park. The other parks have a few rides/attractions that the 2 yo will like but we've found that we had enough kid targeted attractions to fill more than 1/2 a day. That said, we haven't been to AK in 4 years, and they have added attractions since then.