3 Reasons Universal Orlando Rocks ... for 5 Year Olds

We recently came back from an awesome trip to Universal Orlando with our 5 year old twins. Yesterday, I shared 3 reasons Universal Orlando rocks for everyone. Today, I'm sharing 3 reasons Universal Orlando rocks for 5 year olds.

• Easy to navigate. We explored the two parks, Universal Studios Florida (USF) and Islands of Adventure (IOA), with our 5 year old twins on foot. A stroller would have been nice at times when they got tired, and we did carry them a bit, but it was totally manageable. You can also walk from one park to the other, but I wouldn't recommend that until your kids are a bit older.

• Accessible characters. It felt like everywhere we went and anywhere we looked, there were character meet and greets happening. The lines were always super reasonable, so our kids had the opportunity to say hello and take pictures with lots of their favorite characters. Off the top of my head, we saw the Minions, Trolls (Poppy, Branch, Guy Diamond), Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Sam I Am, Marilyn Monroe (random), Captain America and other Marvel characters, Transformers, SpongeBob, Squidward, Patrick, and King Julian. Many of these we ran into multiple times ... I've lost count of how many Minions and Dr. Seuss characters we met.

• Lots of play areas. When we visit theme parks, we find that our kids need ample time for free play in between rides and shows. Universal Orlando had the most creative and fun (even for me!) play areas I've ever experienced, including at children's museums. At USF, we spent a lot of time at Barney's Backyard (my favorite), Fievel's Playland, and Curious George Goes to Town. IOA had Camp Jurassic and Jurassic Park Discovery Center. I'll go into more depth on these in a future post, including a dedicated one for Barney's Backyard. Our kids had a blast at every single one of these play areas and they really made our visit extra special.

I have so much more to share about our trip and why we had an absolute blast at Universal Orlando. There are lots more reasons why they are great theme parks overall, but definitely for the 5 year old set. Before we went, our friends expressed concern that Universal Orlando is more geared towards older kids, but I wouldn't hesitate to bring my kids back ... they had a great time and so did we.

Click here to read 3 reasons Universal Orlando rocks for everyone.
Click here to read 3 (more) reasons Universal Orlando rocks for everyone.
Click here to read 3 (more) reasons Universal Orlando rocks for 5 year olds.
Click here to read a review of Barney's Backyard at Universal Orlando.