Hubby and I are taking the kiddos for a little vacation down to Southern Cali. to hit the beaches and stop in at Universal Studios. I have not been to the park since the mid 80's and would like some reviews from you mamas who have been there lately. What did you like? What didn't you like? OUr kids are 11,8 and 4 and are looking forward to the adventure! THanks for your input!
Universal doesn't have a ton of rides so if that's what you are looking for, I'd go to another park. It does have a lot of movie related tours and shows. I took my 9 year old there last year and she enjoyed but didn't love it. There were several shows/rides that were too old for her so we skipped them. She also didn't understand a lot of the movie references which didn't help. She did like the behind the scenes tours.
In Buena Park there is a place to go for dinner that would be fun for the whole family it is call Pirates Dinner Adventure.
I would think about another park you might want to go to.
Universal Studios isn't for younger kids in my opinion. They have water park areas, virtual rides, fair games, shows and the studio tour. Out of that list the virtual rides sometimes have age or height requirements, the fair games are a lot of money, most of the shows wouldn't be appropriate for a 4 year old, and the studio tour is ok, but some get bored on it (the biggest part of that now is the King Kong 3D experience...the rest of it isn't as exciting).
For the ages of your kids I would consider Disneyland, Ca Adventures, Legoland, SD Zoo, or maybe Knotts Berry Farm (they have some rides for younger kids).
If you don't want to go all the way to San Diego, but don't want to do the whole Disneyland thing...check into Knotts, it's close to Anaheim.
I'm totally not trying to cursh your plans....I live in So Cal and I am a season pass holder to a lot of the theme parks.
Everytime we go to Universal we leave our 2 year old at my inlaws for the day and go. It never fails that people bring small kids and they take them into something and the kids freak out (like the terminator show with loud gunfire and smoke) or the House of Horrors (scary walk through haunted house thing), even the Simpsons ride had kids screaming they wanted off. Even the studio tour had kids crying during the King Kong 3-d part.
It's just from exerience. I hope this helps in some way.
Have fun on your vacation!
I agree with the previous responses. Universal Studios is geared towards older children. I took my children there and had to leave half way through the Haunted Mansion. People are dressed with the intent to scare holding bloody weapons and they jump and touch you. We even asked if they would not jump out since my daughter was crying. They consider this part of the excitement. We had two days to spend in U.S. and they were pretty ready to move on during the 2nd day. Legoland was awesome for younger children. I took my kids when they were younger and they loved the creativity and the rides that all look like legos. I would spend a day at D-land before spending the money for Universal.
