Universal Studios with Preschoolers

On our first visit we did Universal Studios Singapore as a family with 3 kids. We had:

• 2 adults;
• one 7-year-old, tall enough to ride alone on all, but the 2 scariest roller coasters in the park;
• a 5-year-old, tall enough to go on most things accompanied by an adult; and
• a 2 year old who is only tall enough for a couple rides.

We snapped a picture of each kid at the Ride Height Restriction Chart before going through the gates into the park. It's a lot easier to check that picture on your phone than to fight the crowd out front of a ride to measure a child who's not tall enough in the first place. It's important to note, that if a ride say a child needs to be accompanied by an adult it may mean 1 adult per child.

This park has a very small foot print, but has a lot of stuff to do in it. It's 7 lands are laid out as a circle around a large central pond. The immersive theme-ing is great, but you can get yourself to any of the lands quickly just by walking straight around the main "road". It's certainly nice to be able to leave quickly with small children. I imagine I could get back to the gates within 15 minutes from the farthest reaches of this park. It also means you can leave the park to eat easily if you want to spend all day and don't want to pay theme park food prices.

I'd never done a theme park with a 2 year old before. I've been with infants, with a 3 year old,  a 4 year old, teenagers... of course that's always been at a Disney Resort... a 2 year old here was a little different.

Lines here are were very long and rather hot. Saturday saw 6o+ minutes waits even an just over an hour after the park opened. We ended up going back to Customer Service and upgrading our Annual Passes to get Express, so that our little ones didn't have to wait so long. Which will also mean a shorter wait while others ride the "big rides".

Thankfully, Ms.I is used to a day in the stroller so that helped a lot. We set her up with her water bottle and some little figurines on her tray for her to fiddle around with, and strolling around she was perfectly content. Which is good because Universal doesn't let in outside food, and snacks are usually my backup plan. On the other hand Ms.I was not very impressed with the rides. I'm going to have to come up with some distractions for rides if she doesn't get happier about them.

First we tried Shrek's 4D adventure. I should have looked a little closer at the line. We were already in the line the inside the castle before I realized this was probably a show of some sort and not a Meet and Greet like I was imagining.

Ms.E (almost 5) and Ms.C (7 yrs old) were both quite scared by parts of the show. It was dark and had some pretty spooky elements (a graveyard, a ghost, a fire breathing dragon...). As an adult I was quite impressed with the 3-D show. The comfy leather seats move, so you almost feel like you are on a ride. Imagine your seat making a galloping motion when Donkey runs away with you on him.

Although they were ready to leave in the middle of the show, the big girls made it to the end, and the next time we went to the park they asked to do it again. Ms.E said "I was scared, but I liked the ending." Ms.I only made it 2 minutes into the show. Her and Jonathan left and found a small Ferris Wheel in the gift shop that they rode. Ms.I was not entirely sure about that one either.

We found Shrek and Fiona outside Shrek's 4D adventure later. We got a copy of the Daily Showtimes Guide. It lists character Meet and Greets on it too. All the Meet and Greets are outside. This means if you're aware of the times, you can wave to the characters as you wander by without necessarily standing in line for a photo and hug. A glimpse and a chance to wave is all my girls wanted.

In Madagascar A Crate Adventure was a funny boat ride full of zoo animals. Ms.C and Ms.E loved it, but when we rode it the second time, Ms.E said "I can't sit on this side. The skeleton might get me." In other words don't make the little kids board the boat first or they will be closest to the skeleton which doesn't move or anything, but it's a skeleton. This ride is dark inside and there are a few spooky (to a toddler) scenes in it. Ms.I said "I want to go home!!" a number of times while we rode it, but you can't get off a boat midway.

We tried Madagascar's Carousel which lived up to expectations. We used a stationary seat with Ms.E and she was only mildly unimpressed. If you're an adult take note, you must wear the seat belt on this ride, and some of the belts are quite short. I watched a few men struggling to get the belt around themselves. My only other comment would be that loading, by the time everyone is settled and the safety checks done, takes almost as long as the actual ride.  Loading seems to take as long as the actual ride. A lot of people can ride this at once though, so time waiting in line is short. With the music and wide choice of hilarious "animals" to ride, this ones pretty fun!

The 2 bigger kids went on Spaghetti Space Chase with Jonathan. It was right up their alley. Ms.I was too short to go on, but that gave me time to scope out the food options in New York. I found beef hamburgers and milkshakes - something Ms.E will actually eat. We saw chicken burgers in Far Far Away.

Lost World Jurassic Park was probably our favorite land. Everyone did Dino Soaring here. This is one of those rides where I was surprised to need one adult per preschooler. This is because you are only allowed two people per pterosaur (which mean one adult and one child). Ms.C was tall enough to go in a pterosaur all on her own, so our whole family was able ride at the same time.

Our first visit was a great fun filled family day! Our goal was to get our passes, learn the park layout, and experience some of the kids rides. I didn't want to leave yet, but we headed home about 4 pm before we got too tired. We have a few more "kids" rides we haven't tried yet and we haven't even touched on the "thrill" rides or the shows. We live so close to Universal, that we will be back soon.