Universal studios/islands of adventure?

Universal is nowhere near as good as Disney. We made the mistake of going to Universal while staying at Disney once - never again. If you're staying in a Disney resort for 6 days, you certainly have enough time to visit Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and the Hollywood Studios, and one or two of the Disney water parks as well - I like Typhoon Lagoon. Epcot is huge, and the Hollywood Studios aren't really big. I recommend getting one of the "park-hopper" passes, so you can go to multiple parks in one day. There's a boat that goes between Hollywood Studios and Epcot. A good plan would be to spend 1 day at Epcot and see the laser light show, then part of the next day at Epcot, take the boat to Hollywood Studios, get reservations for dinner at the Brown Derby and the Fantasmic show and watch that.

don't get me wrong i like universal and islands of adbenture but i think the better value is disney. first universal has no dining plan if you are just visiting the parks and not staying in the hotel. secondly you have the disney dining plan so why would you want to waste more money on food at another park. third i'm sure you and your husband and kids would like universal but you will also love disney and there is way more to do at disney. and your 9 year old may not be tall enough for all the rollercoasters at islands of adventure you have to be 55inches for most of them. my niece is 9 and tall for her age according to the doctors office and she is still too short she is 54inches. where as at disney world you children and you guys can go on every ride. the tallest you have to be is 52 inches and that is for the rockin rollercoaster starring aerosmith. trust me you will enjoy yourselfs much more if you go to disney and you will save money in the long run.

The one place you SHOULD NOT visit is Universal with kids of that age. Most of the movies and rides there are for movies the kids will never have heard of. I'm round that age and I'd never heard of any. So from a kids point of view it's not that great. It also only has 3 rides The Drasic Park ride [boring] the Revenge Of The Mummy ride [AWESOME] and the Simpsons ride [okay but long queques] So my advice don't go. The others I can't help with.

Universal studios/islands of adventure have some of the best thrill rides in town. Plenty of restaurants in close proximity to park. You can get a 7 day hopper for $90 + tax on their website.

We did Universal studios with kids ranging for 4-17 and all of them loved it. There were rollercoasters and rides for all ages. Each meal was about $50 for 3 people. Snacks ran about $20.00 for 3. The food there was really not that great, especially for the price. It was almost on par with the food at Disney but much more expensive than the Disney food plan. We, towards the middle of our stay, took our food in in coolers after realizing that we really weren't too fond of the food choices. We were in a huge group though and always had someone who could watch our stuff. We also stayed on site so it was easier to go back and forth if we needed to. As far as Disney is concerned, we liked both Animal Kingdom and Epcot. If I had to skip one, it would be Epcot. Friends who were just there this summer said that Epcot has added several new attractions so you may want to stick with Disney after all. Also, you may be pushing it trying to cover two different theme parks on one vacation. To really enjoy Disney itself probably will use all 6 days. We were there 7 and still didn't get to see everything.(Remember lines are long!) It took use two 1 week trips to Disney to cover everything, 4 years apart. We were at Universal 1 week and saw most everything that we wanted. We may go back sometime. Hope you guys have a blast!