To celebrate my birthday, we brought our little one to Universal Studio Singapore. Since it was my birthday, I received a free magnet, a voucher for a free bag of popcorn and 15% off retail and dining vouchers.
Prior to the trip, I was very excited packing his stuff and imagining the rides he could play. Of course being only 14 months old, I doubt he could play many rides and I guessed the trip would be more for him to sightsee and run around. I was thinking he could play at most 3 rides – Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase (a slow, kid friendly ride where you witness Elmo and friends battling monsters), Madagascar: A Crate Adventure (a slow boat ride – won’t get wet, don’t worry!) and King Julien’s Beach Party-Go-Round (a carousel).
However, when I was there I was really disappointed to know he could only play 1 ride out of the above 3, and that is the King Julien’s Beach Party-Go-Round. For the other two rides, he was sadly too short – for the Space Chase, a minimum height of 92 cm was required, and for the Crate Adventure, the minimum height was 80 cm, which he was just a few cm short of. Take note that the minimum height requirements stay despite having a guardian accompanying. You can check the minimum height requirements for the rides here.
As we went in June, group sizes were capped at 5 pax and I believe operating capacity was at 50%. The place was not crowded, but because there are not a lot of kid-friendly rides, there was quite a queue for King Julien’s carousel. The first time we played, we were there early (about 12 pm) and we waited only 15 minutes. When we played one more round at 5 pm, the queue was at least 30 minutes. Safe distancing measures contributed to the queue – only unmarked seats could be taken and capacity was halved.
Sad that he could only play one ride so far, I sustained hope that he could enjoy himself at Magic Potion Spin, a small ferris wheel inside Fairy Godmother’s Potion Shop. Sadly, the ferris wheel was closed and I was not the only disappointed parent who brought her child out of the shop.
However, to my surprise, there were two other rides he could take – Dino-Soarin (I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be able to take this one!) and Treasure Hunters. For both rides, a child below 122 cm must be accompanied by an adult. Take note that your child must be able to walk independently as hand held infants are not allowed. When we wanted to enter the queue for Treasure Hunters, the staff asked my husband, who was carrying my son at that time, whether our son could walk. My husband had to put my son down to prove my son could walk independently.
Queue for both rides was fast, less than 20 minutes. The queues had safe distancing markers on the floor and each party (max of 5) was supposed to stand in the individual circle. After every ride, the staff will clean the seats with wipes.
Since I purchased my tickets via Klook, I was entitled to a free set of nuggets for each adult ticket, and a free cake + coffee/tea for each senior ticket. I redeemed the nuggets at Jungle Bites, a restaurant in the Jurassic Park area. Luckily there were seats and we sat there, resting our legs while my son napped. For the senior’s cake set, it had to be redeemed from the Malaysian Food Street’s drink stall. Sadly, they no longer seem to be offering free food sets – instead they are giving retail vouchers.
Because of Covid measures, take note that no shows are allowed. Hence all shows, including the exciting Waterworks, were suspended.
Due to the wet weather, and because of my son’s age restrictions, we didn’t play as much as we had hoped. Still, he had fun walking around and sight seeing in general. He went wild in the shops too!
We purchased dinner at the dining street infront of the casino. Take note that many restaurants were offering takeaway discounts.
This is our quick review of USS! My suggestion is, if you really want to bring your toddler there, do check the rides’ height requirements first to determine whether it is worthwhile for your child to go. For now we probably won’t be bringing him again until he is older – 3 perhaps? Before he needs to pay for a ticket. Currently, tickets are free for children below 3.
Let me know if you are heading to USS and drop me a comment on whether you enjoyed yourself!