While most guests know Universal for their exciting thrill rides and adventures through Wizarding World, there’s also plenty for the youngest travelers (and toddling wizards and witches). But with three parks to choose from in Orlando, you might want to know which is the best for your little one. Read on to find out which Universal Orlando theme park is best for small kids!
About This Post and Related Posts
This post compares the three parks at Universal Orlando Resort (Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, Universal Epic Universe) to figure out which is best for small kids. “Small” is relative, but for our purposes I’m going to be breaking it more or less into two groups—kids under 36” and kids 36” to just under 40”. Once your kid hits 40”, all the parks have a variety of ride options, and picking the best for your kid will turn more on their preferences (e.g. coasters vs. screen rides) than anything else.
You can read more about the rides of the three parks here:
Implicit in this analysis is that shorter kids tend to be younger, and younger kids are going to be less attached to any single IP or land. But a kid who loves Dr. Seuss content is probably going to love Seuss Landing. If your 2-year-old really loves The Tonight Show, maybe just walking through the store outside the Race Through New York Ride (40” height requirement) is enough to melt their heart. I’m not going to do too much leaning on that here, except for the more obvious cases.
Even though this post isn’t just about height requirements, those still provide the best anchor for the discussion. So, we’ll be starting with kids under 36”, for whom the ride lineups consist of 9 rides without height requirements and 2 rides with a 34” requirements. Then we’ll move onto kids who can additionally ride the 6 rides with a 36” height requirement. You can read all about the height requirements at Universal Orlando Resort here.
In addition to rides, we’ll talk about other things the parks have to offer, including entertainment and character greetings (spoiler: ride count isn’t dispositive in all cases!). Again, you might dive into these more deeply—a kid who will have the time of their life meeting Popeye the Sailor Man doesn’t want to be stuck over in Universal Studios Florida shakin’ hands with Bart Simpson.
Reminder: Not All Visits Have to Be About Your Little One
As an initial point, I have to say that if you have a kid under 36” and you wound up on this post, you’re probably asking the wrong question. No Universal park comes close to, say, Disney’s Magic Kingdom when it comes to kids this small. While we all had plenty of fun with Zoe at Universal even under 36”, we don’t think a family traveling to Universal with a kid that small should focus too much on making the visit for them.
Find the things for the little kids where you can (as detailed in this post), but the difference the parks make in your mind will probably be enough to tip the scales either way. No one wants to spend the day with a parent grumpy they missed out on something cool in the other park—everyone prefers to see their parent smiling getting off a ride they were eager to ride. Even if you just open yourself up to using single rider lines, you’ll find plenty to move you one way or the other.
With that said, onto rides with no height requirements…
Universal Studios Florida is Best for the Tiniest Travelers (Under 36”)
The lowest height requirement at Universal Orlando is 34”, and kids under 34” will have nine total options:
3 rides at Universal Studios — Hogwarts Express - King's Cross Station, Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast, and Kang & Kodos' Twirl 'n' Hurl
4 rides at Islands of Adventure — Caro-Seuss-el; Hogwarts Express - Hogsmeade Station; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; and Storm Force Accelatron
2 rides at Epic Universe — Fyre Drill and Constellation Carousel
(As a preliminary matter, it’s worth noting the Hogwarts Express connects two parks and requires park-to-park tickets. If you have park-to-park, you won’t have to choose between those two parks—do both. If you don’t, you can’t ride the Hogwarts Express. Our trip—get park-to-park. 100%.)
At 34” kids can also ride ET Adventure at Universal Studios Florida and Yoshi’s Adventure at Epic Universe. These two rides don’t really impact our analysis too much, so I’ll mostly be focusing on kids under 34” here.
If your kid hasn’t yet hit 34”, you can probably ignore Epic Universe. The main problem here is that one of the two ride options—Fyre Drill—sees way outsized waits relative to quality (in my opinion), and many kids might hate it (you may get soaked).
Outside rides, Epic Universe does have an excellent playground (Viking Training Camp in Isle of Berk). And exploring Super Nintendo World might be enjoyable for small kids. But this whole discussion is about the relative merits of the parks, and for the smallest kids, Epic Universe doesn’t stack up.
This brings us to the older two parks—Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. You can see that Islands of Adventure wins on ride count. Moreover, the gap is probably bigger than the numbers indicate—Minion Blast isn’t much of a “ride” for a kid under 34”, it’s mostly just standing and watching screens go by.
Outside of rides, things are a little more complicated. Universal Studios Florida has the very new DreamWorks Land. That land has several play areas (including water play areas), plus the DreamWorks Imagination Celebration show and the Po Live! kung fu show. In the event there’s a parade during your visit, it will be at Universal Studios Florida.
Islands of Adventure has Seuss Landing, with its Character Zone and musical storytelling “Oh! The Stories You’ll Hear!” show. That land has a small play area, and Jurassic Park’s Camp Jurassic is a bigger net-climbing and slide area.
Overall, I think the play areas at Islands of Adventure are slightly better, and it does have the higher ride count. If you were trying to fill half of a day, then Islands of Adventure is the easy winner.
But if you’re looking at a longer day, I think other factors push Universal Studios Florida over the top. Besides the DreamWorks Imagination Celebration and possible parade, Studios also has the Animal Actors On Location Show and a few greetings (SpongeBob Squarepants, Minions) that tip the scales.
Finally, there are the not-specifically-for-tiny-kids things. When it comes to Wizarding World, Studios has Diagon Alley and Islands has Hogsmeade. I find Diagon Alley to be much more dynamic and better for all ages, though I have to concede that my almost-5-year-old kid still has no love for the fire-breathing dragon or Knockturn Alley.
As a family, we all particularly love Springfield USA (Simpsons land) at Studios. Emily and I (mostly me, I admit) go for the nostalgia, while Zoe loves the cartoony atmosphere. No visit to Universal is complete without a beer and non-alcoholic Flaming Moe at Moe’s Tavern.
As I noted above, choosing between these parks under 34” might not be the best approach, and I bet that’s partly why I’m so inclined to say Universal Studios Florida is the better park for the tiniest travelers. Simply put, it’s the park we more enjoy not doing many rides at. It’s got the better shows and atmosphere for our family to just spend a leisurely day at.
Finally, the addition of ET Adventure once a kid reaches 34” only solidifies Universal Studios Florida as the best option for these kids. And the addition of Yoshi’s Adventure at Epic Universe at 34” doesn’t change things for that park. Things get more interesting at 36”, however.
Islands of Adventure is Better for Bigger Little Kids
If you scrolled down to this section because your kid is 36”, that’s fine, but the above content is still very relevant, so I recommend reading it as well.
Once kids get to 36”, the ride balance really tips to one side. They’ll gain 6 rides across the resort:
5 rides at Islands of Adventure: Flight of the Hippogriff, Pteranodon Flyers, Skull Island: Reign of Kong, The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride, Cat in the Hat
1 ride at Universal Studios: Trolls Trollercoaster
0 rides at Epic Universe
So, Epic Universe still won’t enter our analysis much, but you a kid of any age who loves Mario might be most at home in Epic’s Super Nintendo World. Ride numbers aren’t everything, but if you’re keeping score, when we get to 36” we’re at:
9 rides at Islands of Adventure
5 rides at Universal Studios
3 rides at Epic Universe
That gap between Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios is no longer small. And the five rides gained at Islands of Adventure are all distinct:
Flight of the Hippogriff is a coaster.
Pteranodon Flyers is a unique suspended flying ride.
Reign of Kong is an intense, screen-based thrill ride.
Seuss Trolley is a fun overhead train ride.
Cat in the Hat is a classic dark ride.
These five inject a lot of variety in terms of ride types while also giving you an excuse to visit a variety of lands. Your kid won’t just be stuck waiting around while you do rides.
At Universal Studios, ET Adventure is a classic dark ride (albeit with a flying bicycle twist) and Trollercoaster is a roller coaster, but since the park was already lagging a bit behind Islands of Adventure in terms of rides, I think it needed to do a better job playing catchup.
Of course, your kid might not be ready for Reign of Kong. And it’s possible the kiddie coasters even give them pause. If your 36”-tall kid won’t get any benefit from the rides at Islands of Adventure, then Studios is probably still the better park for all the reasons I gave above.
But in general I think that Islands of Adventure is just genuinely a good theme park for kids 36” and taller. If they can get some value out of the nine rides available to them, then you’re set up for the perfect day for everyone in your family.
All Your Other Universal Orlando Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Universal Orlando planning! Take a second to check out our most important content!
Just starting out? Start with our Universal Orlando Resort planning guide! If you’re considering a Universal hotel, read our Guide to the Hotels of Universal Orlando Resort!
You’ll want to know what rides the parks offer, so we’ve got a Universal Studios Florida Rides Guide, a Universal Islands of Adventure Rides Guide, and a Universal Epic Universe Rides Guide.
If you’d like an idea of how to plan a day at these parks, we can help there, too. Our One Day Universal Studios Florida Itinerary covers a full day at the original park, our Universal Islands of Adventure One Day Plan covers Hagrid's, Velocicoaster, and more, and we even have a One Day Guide to Epic Universe covering Universal's newest park.
Want to know how to get on rides without the long waits? Read all about Express Pass at Universal Orlando Resort. Plus, early risers always have the best theme parks days (well, we think so). Read about Early Park Admission at Universal Orlando to learn how to get an extra hour in the parks.