4 year old in Universal

[IzzyB]

OK, so my Daughter who is 4 going on 5 has not been to Universal since she hit 40 inches and she is now almost 44 inches. Because of me being pregnant and having a baby we haven't had a chance to go there because well I wouldn't have been able to ride anything while I was pregnant. OK, so my question is for parents who have had young kids go to Universal. How did you prepare them for rides like Jurassic Park, Gringotts, Transformers, and Spiderman? So I have told her things like it is robots fighting and stuff like that and she is convinced she wants to go on these things. We have gone to Disney a couple times in the last 6 months because we had friends in town. She did Star Wars twice at Disney and she was kind of OK on that. She did Splash mountain, thunder mountain, TT, and Soarin with no issues and loved them all. However, we did ToT and that was the first time she got off a ride and said she did not want to do it again. All other rides she always says she wants to go again. So since that experience I am not sure how she will handle all the rides in Universal. She loves thrills, but she is not so into "bad" guys. Keep in mind I did tell her what ToT was and even in line once we were by the elevators I asked her again and she said, yep, I want to go on. Am I being a bad parent taking her on this stuff or do you think most kids her age are fine on this stuff.

 

[GAcoaster]

It really depends on the kid. My niece who was four when she went last time had no problem with some of those things, but at MK she was scared by Pirates of the Caribbean. At that age they seem to become scared by the things you wouldn't think they would but have no fear of the things that you think they would.

 

[Frank Drackman]

If you could find videos of the ride experience, letting her watch them could soften the blow a bit. Our daughter always loved thrills, loved that silly carnival drop ride (frogged or something) but ToT freaked her a bit, after talking to her, we think it was the lightning strike that turned folks into what she interpreted as ghost.

 

[Hockeyman55]

First, welcome back @IzzyB :wave: Glad things worked out for you guys and doing well.

My oldest is now 5 and was tall enough last year to go on a lot of the rides so we took her on Spidey, Transformers, Woody and Hippogriff, didn't get her on JP or any of the water water rides however. I think seeing the movies helped her with associating with the characters like Spidey and Transformers but the actual rides themselves scared her and now won't go on them again She is just weird cause on one visit she will ride Hippogriff but then the next visit she won't and then take them to BGT and they love the flume ride there and want to go on it over and over. The last thing I do is try to push her to ride. My 4 year old wont go on anything yet besides Hippogriff and loves it. Ive tried to convince them both the JP is just liek the jungle cruise but with dinos and they are not buying it

 

[IzzyB]

First, welcome back @IzzyB :wave: Glad things worked out for you guys and doing well.

My oldest is now 5 and was tall enough last year to go on a lot of the rides so we took her on Spidey, Transformers, Woody and Hippogriff, didn't get her on JP or any of the water water rides however. I think seeing the movies helped her with associating with the characters like Spidey and Transformers but the actual rides themselves scared her and now won't go on them again She is just weird cause on one visit she will ride Hippogriff but then the next visit she won't and then take them to BGT and they love the flume ride there and want to go on it over and over. The last thing I do is try to push her to ride. My 4 year old wont go on anything yet besides Hippogriff and loves it. Ive tried to convince them both the JP is just liek the jungle cruise but with dinos and they are not buying it

LOL about JP, I can see why they don't believe you

Thanks for the welcome back. Hope all is well with you and your family.

See roller coasters are no big deal to her. She will ride Hippogriff 6 times in a row if she could. She has yet to have any fear of any kind of roller coaster and she would love to go on ones that go upside down, but obviously she is not tall enough. First one is at 48" can''t wait for that day, but I imagine we have 2 years for that. But then again I didn't think she would grow 4" as soon as she did to get to 44". She is like 1/4 away from hitting the 44" mark.

She has never watched the movies. She knows some of the spidey characters from her friends at school, but she has never been interested in them. She is interested in Transformers, so maybe I will see if I can tape it and see how she does with that one. She just started talking about it in the last week or two because one of her friends wanted them for his birthday and she thought they were cool.

I might also find a video of the ride like someone else suggested. She is fine with Pirates and Haunted Mansion at MK. She also loves those frog hopper drop ones, she was even on a really tall one. She has zero fear of heights. She was climbing around on the lower roof on our house the other day when John was putting up Halloween decorations. So she is adventurous, I just notice with movies that have "bad" guys she is less into than movies that don't.

 

[MrRoamer]

Kids are really tough. Both of our girls love coasters, and have ever since they were tall enough to go on them (I want to say 7/8). But at the same time the older one was terrified of Small World, Pirates, etc because the AAs creeped her out so much and the younger one is still scared of Twister.

My little brothers are just as tough to predict. Transformers and Spiderman scare one of them, but JP no problem for any of them.

I agree showing them ride footage may help a lot, but still you just roll the dice a few times and see how it goes. Even if it terrifies them at first or second time they go on, it may end up being one of their favorite rides of all time (Looking at you HM).

 

[IzzyB]

Thanks. I guess I was just trying to make sure I wasn't going to win the worst parent of the world for taking my 4 year old on Gringotts and Transformers Now if she can just trick her Uncle into going on Gringotts. They are huge HP fans, but he hates coasters. I tricked him onto Mummy and he wanted to kill me afterwards.

 

[Hockeyman55]

Showing them ride footage can be both good and bat. Example, JP, its all good until they enter the building and see the Trex, I know if my kids saw that they would run for the hills so I showed them the video up until they went inside then played it off like the internet froze up so we couldn't see the rest

@IzzyB Thing shave been good and smooth sailing since all that drama I had those years back with everything.

I think with my oldest, since we kind of scared her with Transformers and Spidey, she is very hesitant with going on any rides at Universal where we have to go inside a building, minus the Hogwarts Express. She def has her guard up when we are at Universal. Just an FYI on watching the Transformers movies, there are a few bad words thrown around here and there so just to keep an eye on that if you guys are cautious with that type of stuff.

One thing my kids go crazy for is the Mardi Gras parade, they absolutely love love love it and getting all the beads. We have a really great spot where there arent a whole hoard of people around us so they do pretty well with the beads :clap:

 

[Hockeyman55]

Thanks. I guess I was just trying to make sure I wasn't going to win the worst parent of the world for taking my 4 year old on Gringotts and Transformers Now if she can just trick her Uncle into going on Gringotts. They are huge HP fans, but he hates coasters. I tricked him onto Mummy and he wanted to kill me afterwards.

I amost tricked my mom onto Gringotts early this year and she doesnt do fast rides at all. She got sick on barnstormer years ago if that gives you an idea. She saw all the signs and I kept playing it off but then she asked a TM and they told her about it and she ran for the exit

 

[IzzyB]

Showing them ride footage can be both good and bat. Example, JP, its all good until they enter the building and see the Trex, I know if my kids saw that they would run for the hills so I showed them the video up until they went inside then played it off like the internet froze up so we couldn't see the rest

@IzzyB Thing shave been good and smooth sailing since all that drama I had those years back with everything.

I think with my oldest, since we kind of scared her with Transformers and Spidey, she is very hesitant with going on any rides at Universal where we have to go inside a building, minus the Hogwarts Express. She def has her guard up when we are at Universal. Just an FYI on watching the Transformers movies, there are a few bad words thrown around here and there so just to keep an eye on that if you guys are cautious with that type of stuff.

One thing my kids go crazy for is the Mardi Gras parade, they absolutely love love love it and getting all the beads. We have a really great spot where there arent a whole hoard of people around us so they do pretty well with the beads :clap:

Glad to hear it has been drama free.

I am sure she has heard worse come out of my husband's mouth. She knows that there are "adult" words that she is not allowed to repeat. That is how we handle that one since there is no way my husband isn't going to drop an F bomb when he smashes his head on something or something else.

My daughter loves Mardi Gras too. But we didn't make it this year due to just having Savannah and all.

That is funny about your mother. I took him on mummy and didn't realize they added a screen to the single rider line. So we made it all the way until boarding the ride and then he saw the screen where is shows it as a roller coaster. He didn't back out (I think he probably didn't know how to), but he said he refused to open his eyes. I wish those screens weren't there because the beginning is so tame it would have probably been better for him.

 

[MrRoamer]

I have seen those screen scare many a person out of queue. The footage they show make it look like it is the craziest coaster in the world.

 

[awhen]

I got my daughter to try Forbidden Journey by showing her lights-on/nightvision footage. She thinks the dementors-on-a-stick are hilarious now.

 

[Eckert]

I think the difference between a ride like ToT and Spidey/Transformers (aside from the obvious intensity) is the delivery of the story.

I can easily see why a young child would be disturbed and unwilling to ride Tower again; the story is intentionally building up this scary and haunted atmosphere, and the ride itself is scary and is delivered as a "punishment" to the guests with no sense of redemption or forgiveness at the end from the ride itself. You enter the hotel and are a victim of the Twilight Zone. There's no real happy ending and that easily frightens children.

Rides like Spider-Man and Transformers (even Gringotts), while having the "bad guys" your daughter doesn't like, have a different dynamic. They are less malicious and more adventurous, and the riders always have the presence of a defender with them. Spider-Man and Optimus are always right in front of you, protecting you from the villains and doing their best to make sure that you are "safe". This I believe allows kids to be more involved and have someone to root for throughout the experience as opposed to just being "punished".

Jurassic Park is gonna be a little tougher just because the guests are kind of on their own and it's a pretty stressful environment. I think you're going to have to be the defender on that ride.

 

[Frank Drackman]

I think you will be fine, our daughter sounds a lot like yours. We didn't start going to UNI until she was around 6 as we waited until she was tall enough for most rides...I knew she would hate seeing the big coasters and not being able to ride them.

On our first visit, she jumped into the test seat at Hulk and proceeded to tell the attendant that she felt she fit the seat just fine and should be allowed to ride although she was not tall enough.

ToT was the only ride she's ridding that she did not like on her first ride, maybe the other poster is on to something about the lack of a protector or a hero...we were a little hesitant for Mummy, but she made us ride it server all times in a row, by her second ride, she was already quoting lines from the ride, to this day she still screams for a cup of coffee.

I say just don't force her into anything she is apprehensive about, maybe start with Spider-Man and she if she likes that type of ride before riding Transformers (transformers was not open on our first visit, so it is not one she wrote at 6 years old).

 

[IzzyB]

Yeah I would never force her on a ride. We always give her an option and she always wants to go. She says she wants to ride them and we explained everything to her. So I guess we will see on Monday how she does.

She wants to go on rides like Hulk, but when we tell her she is not tall enough she just says, "OK" and moves on. She is pretty good about that stuff.

 

[Disneyhead]

Welcome back Izzy, and congrats on the Family Expansion Project.

Can't help with the kiddo info. By 4-5 my girls were all over the big kids rides. They are fearless.

 

[IzzyB]

Well the trip for Abby went well. She was scared the most on Gringotts, but said she liked how the dragon saved the day and she would ride it again. Transformers she was not scared at all. We never got to do Spiderman or Jurassic Park. The lines were insanely long, which shocked me being off season on a Tuesday.

I do question how everyone is against FP+ for inflating ride lines when Express does the same thing. Lines ranged from 45 minutes to 100 minutes. We mainly were in lines around the 45 minutes mark and while some were right on, some were a little less. Towards the end of the evening (after 5 PM) lines dropped to 25 minutes to 65 minutes. But outside of a couple rides my family didn't want to ride (Twister and Mummy) nothing was under 20 minutes even at the end of the evening. HE was even 25 to 60 minutes all day long. The 25 was around 5:30/6PM. I couldn't imagine going to Uni during the summer, spring break, or Christmas.

 

[hockey87]

Well the trip for Abby went well. She was scared the most on Gringotts, but said she liked how the dragon saved the day and she would ride it again. Transformers she was not scared at all. We never got to do Spiderman or Jurassic Park. The lines were insanely long, which shocked me being off season on a Tuesday.

I do question how everyone is against FP+ for inflating ride lines when Express does the same thing. Lines ranged from 45 minutes to 100 minutes. We mainly were in lines around the 45 minutes mark and while some were right on, some were a little less. Towards the end of the evening (after 5 PM) lines dropped to 25 minutes to 65 minutes. But outside of a couple rides my family didn't want to ride (Twister and Mummy) nothing was under 20 minutes even at the end of the evening. HE was even 25 to 60 minutes all day long. The 25 was around 5:30/6PM. I couldn't imagine going to Uni during the summer, spring break, or Christmas.

Last weekend through Tuesday is actually one of the busier weekends of the year due to Columbus Day. Alot of schools and businesses were closed on Monday, so people make a long weekend out of it. Tuesday still had some residual crowds from the weekend.

 

[IzzyB]

Last weekend through Tuesday is actually one of the busier weekends of the year due to Columbus Day. Alot of schools and businesses were closed on Monday, so people make a long weekend out of it. Tuesday still had some residual crowds from the weekend.

I didn't think that many people had off. Hopefully my sister has better luck tomorrow. Because those lines were insane. We rode Gringotts, MIB, Transformers, and HE twice. That is it.

Even on holiday weekends or busy weekends at MK I am able to ride way more rides since 3 of them I can use FP+. I also never spend 8+ hours at MK or any Disney park and we were at Uni for 8+ hours.

 

[hockey87]

I didn't think that many people had off

Maybe not in the immediate area, but a lot of people travel to Orlando that weekend.