Universal with young children

[Kylo Ken]

Hey all. I am sure this has been asked a billion times so forgive me for asking one more time. My family and I are considering taking the trip over to Universal but have our reservations regarding our two youngins.

We are WDW APs and almost feel like we'd be cheating on the mouse, but we want to try something new. I haven't been to either Universal park in almost a decade and have missed out on much (yuge Simpsons fan here...trust me I'm crying at the fact that I have never seen that). Gone are the days, of King Kong, JAWS, Back to the Future, Earthquake, Ghostbusters, The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera etc but I'm looking forward to what's new there.

Here is our big dilemma, I have two children, 4 and 2. My 4 y/o is 42 inches tall while my little guy is about 25 inches tall. I know my 4 y/o can go on a lot of rides, but it doesn't seem like my little guy will be able to ride much. Does Universal allow lap riders on rides such as the Simpsons, ET, etc? Judging by what I am reading, we are going to be a few years away still from going. Any help and insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Kylo Ken]

I'm pretty sure you cannot have lap riders on the Simpsons (Which does a lot of shaking and moving around) and ET, there usually really strict about things like that. However universal does offer a lot of things for kids, if they like dinosaurs the Jurassic park area has a giant play ground for kids and there's the Pteranodon Flyer ride which is design for childern, there's a small childern's coaster in hogsmade, the Dr. Seuss area has 4 childern rides, and a play ground area, also in Toon lagoon there's a big 3 level playground in a ship, universal has ET and woody's woodpecker childerns roller coaster as well, and there's a wet play ground near woody's woodpecker (i believe which has a slide?) Orlando also has characters out sometimes ( http://orlandoinformer.com/universal/orlando-characters ) Have a great time

Thanks for the reply. So there aren't many rides like say Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan etc where for instance my little guy would be a lap rider? I figured the Simpsons would be a tad bit rough since it uses the Back to the Future ride model. It seems like we may just wait a little longer and keep on just visiting the mouse. Thanks again!

 

[gardenrooms]

Hi, I've been checking out the rides as we will be in Orlando next week with a 32" 2-year-old, and also several of the kids' rides mentioned by Derrit have height restrictions ranging from 33" to 40" (2 of the Dr. Seuss area, the Woody Woodpecker coaster - and I didn't check the other coaster but imagine it's true for that as well) so he will not be able to do much in the way of rides. I was hoping he could go on Minions as they have a stationary unit (our pregnant daughter-in-law was relegated to that on our last trip, so he did, in effect, already go on that ride) but I see no mention of that possibility in the material.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Universal only has one lap sitting ride (Hogwarts Express). Most of the rides are inaccessible to toddlers. But what Universal does have for the toddlers is awesome play areas like Camp Jurassic and Curious George's.

 

[Kylo Ken]

Thanks for all of the responses guys. It seems like the general consensus is that my little guy won't be able to ride much. Looks like I still have a few more years of visiting the Mouse's house. Thanks again!

 

[BubbaQuest]

Unfortunately Uni does not have a lot of family friendly rides. However, they do have a pretty good rider swap system. The main difference being the entire family has to go through the queue together. I like it since everyone can enjoy some of the great queues together like Forbidden Journey, but I'm not sure if some talking portraits would be enough to entertain your 2 yo while standing in line for an hour.

 

[21stamps]

Legoland. Perfect ages!!

 

[gardenrooms]

Ive brought my barely 2 year old to Universal before she was 36"- not much for them to do, but she still enjoyed it- just looking around ,etc. In all honestly though- I'd wait for 48" (or at the very least 42"). 42" gets you on all the good stuff sans the big coasters and Harry Potter FJ. 48 gets you on forbidden Journey. The 4 year old would love it though. Consider doing just a dad/oldest trip in the future if you really want to check things out- I did that the second my oldest was 47" and I bought some big freakin shoes

lol - you can also roll socks up and stick them in the heels.

 

[matt clark]

My opinion is to wait on universal until all riders are at LEAST 40 inches.
There are a few things the little ones can do... and they do have child swap...and they do have barney etc.... BUT its such a hassle IMO.
Give the 2 year old one more year and they should be at 40 inches by 3 or maybe even 4.
I sometimes forget my kid is huge lol

 

[DisneyDaver]

There is very little for toddlers at Universal. I'm going to Universal for 5 nights in November with my extended family including my then to be 18 month old daughter, 7 and 9 year old nephews and 12 year old niece. The older kids really wanted to go to Universal instead of WDW. Since my daughter won't be able to do much at Universal, I'm going to rent a car and take her to MK one day (and possibly two days) so she will be able to go on some rides instead of only watching the older kids.