Park choices with a young family

[Milpston]

[QUOTE=DisneyBride08;12967243]I don't think we would had but this was the 4th time my DH would have been without spending time at Universal. It was a must for him. She loved the Harry Potter areas and looking around. I think if we only had her we would have gone to the shows, playgrounds etc. She had to wait for her brother to go on the rides and she kept saying 'when is it my turn'. She loved Islands of Adventure as there was more for her to go on. I'm slowly making my way through our vlogs but haven't looked at the universal footage yet.

I loved the break from Disney as the fast pass system was new to us and I felt it made it hard work. Disney was also very busy. So was Universal too though. Universal doesn't have that magic though.

We are going to Paris in February and I'm so looking forward to the laid back approach.[/QUOTE

May be I'll have to get her into Harry Potter to help make my mind up.

I have just watched your Vlog and now waiting for more

[DisneyBride08]

Originally Posted by Milpston

May be I'll have to get her into Harry Potter to help make my mind up.

I have just watched your Vlog and now waiting for more

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My two don't know who Harry Potter is but they loved the minions

I'm trying to post a video every Sunday

[JLH]

on our first visit my youngest was four and we did all parks , he loved universal in fact we all preferred it to Disney , our first visit was 21 days and we would have found that too long a time in just Disney .

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by JLH

on our first visit my youngest was four and we did all parks , he loved universal in fact we all preferred it to Disney , our first visit was 21 days and we would have found that too long a time in just Disney .

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That’s exactly what I am thinking. Did you do the sea world parks too? If so and you had to drop one would you drop seaworld or universal for the 4 year old?

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Milpston

We are doing a week onsite at Disney and have 14 day ultimates that I will likely upgrade to 21 days.

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In case you don't know, you can't upgrade to the 21 day ticket whilst you're over there in Florida. You can only get 21 day tickets here in the UK so you would need to upgrade them whilst over here.

As for where to go, we took my 3 (nearly 4) year old daughter to Universal many years ago and there's was plenty of stuff for her to do. Admittedly, there wasn't lots of rides for her to go on (Seuss Landings in IOA plus one or two in US) but she loved the shows and the play areas, like Fievel's play area, Me Ship the Olive, Jurassic Park Discovery Center, etc. She also really liked Barney at US. She could've happily played in the play areas all day.

Seaworld is a good park to visit for youngsters. The Happy Harbour area has 4 or 5 rides that little ones can go on plus there's a large rope play area with slides and a water play area nearby. The shows (especially Pets Ahoy) will appeal to kids as will seeing the various animals.

If you can afford it, then I'd definitely recommend a day at each of the Universal and Seaworld parks.

[BufordT]

Enjoy it, every park has plenty to do for all ages. We took ours to Universal along with Disney a couple of years back. They were younger and Universal, because we were limited on days was rushed and not enjoyed unfortunately. I think my fondness of it from previous visits without the kids had me a bit blinkered. This year we stuck purely to Disney and had the same idea for next year but the kids are dying to go to Sea World and Legoland. For a couple of minutes I thought no, Disney is more than enough why pay the extra. Then I remembered their love of Orlando is down to me and how crazy I am about the place so I can't fault them for wanting to see more. Our 14 nights have now turned into 21. So for an extra £1000.00 we have a car, hotel on I-Drive and tickets to Legoland, Busch Gardens, Aquatica and Seaworld, sod it lol. Then our remaining 2 weeks are in Disney, we will not exit the bubble.

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

In case you don't know, you can't upgrade to the 21 day ticket whilst you're over there in Florida. You can only get 21 day tickets here in the UK so you would need to upgrade them whilst over here.
.

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I was planning on just calling and getting them upgraded some time soon ( I booked direct). Will that work? I don't suppose I can just do that online somehow?

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by BufordT

Enjoy it, every park has plenty to do for all ages. We took ours to Universal along with Disney a couple of years back. They were younger and Universal, because we were limited on days was rushed and not enjoyed unfortunately. I think my fondness of it from previous visits without the kids had me a bit blinkered. This year we stuck purely to Disney and had the same idea for next year but the kids are dying to go to Sea World and Legoland. For a couple of minutes I thought no, Disney is more than enough why pay the extra. Then I remembered their love of Orlando is down to me and how crazy I am about the place so I can't fault them for wanting to see more. Our 14 nights have now turned into 21. So for an extra £1000.00 we have a car, hotel on I-Drive and tickets to Legoland, Busch Gardens, Aquatica and Seaworld, sod it lol. Then our remaining 2 weeks are in Disney, we will not exit the bubble.

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Haha. I have already lost count of how many times I've said "sod it, it's only £? more. I started off with the plan of indirect flights and 2 weeks in a cheap three bed villa with just Disney. Now I've got SSR and two 5 bed villas with direct flights. Really want to think carefully before I spend loads more on park tickets.

[JLH]

Originally Posted by Milpston

That’s exactly what I am thinking. Did you do the sea world parks too? If so and you had to drop one would you drop seaworld or universal for the 4 year old?

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yes we did all the sea world and discovery cove parks too .For our family we liked universal over sea world but as someone else said there was a great play area in SeaWorld but then again there was a good one at universal too. We loved Aquatica though ,even preferring that over the Disney parks. Not sure if it does or should make a difference but I have three boys so I always thought they may prefer universal over any other park. I would compare both and see what appeals to the whole family .

[Powlay]

I think the one person who may get bored with 21 days in disney is the 16 year old. There are really only a couple of rides in every park that will suit a child of that age.

MK - Space mountain, thunder mountain, 7DMT, splash mountain
AK - Avatar, rapids, everest
HS - Rockin rollercoaster, tower of terror
Epcot - Test track, soarin

There will be more than enough to keep a 4 year old and 17 month baby entertained.

Would there be enough at Universal to entertain the littler kids whilst the 16 year old rides the bigger rides? Id say yes and no. We've just returned and did disney and universal and had a 21 month old baby and at universal there wasnt much at all. Red fish, blue fish and caraseussell were ok, other stuff were all 92cm. Shreck we did also and then it was basically lots of looking about and self entertaining with characters and play areas.

But the 17 month child will sleep at times when you can go on rides with them so...