In a week I will be heading down and we are going to get the city pass: 3 days at DL, 1 at Universal and 2 in San Diego. Last time I was at Universal Studios there were no rides. There were about twenty of us on a tour of the working studio. We were taken to the employee cafeteria where we saw stars eating lunch, we watched part of an episode of a then popular show being taped (Adam-12). I guess that shows my age, though at least I was a kid, a very young kid I'll add.

In looking at the map and web site for Universal it looks pretty small, maybe a dozen attractions. Should we plan for a day and evening, just the day, a half day or something in between?

When we were there in December 2004, we spent the entire day there and spent the evening strolling and browsing City Walk. We did the normal tours, rode Jurassic Park twice, rode The Mummy ride once and watched the Waterworld show. Hope that helps. :)

Universal is a different experience... there aren't a huge number of attractions, but a lot of them are shows, which take longer. I tend to think of a it as a cool place to visit every 10 years - the backlot tour is cool (it's now big trams - not 20 of you wandering around), there are some good rides (Jurassic Park), and lots of shows - you'll likely enjoy Shrek 4D and the special effects shows, possibly some of the others. There's a "maze" as well, that gives you a hint of what knott's scary farm is like.

It's rarely open into the evening, and it's at least an hour from Disneyland, so keep that in mind, as well. You could probably do a solid morning/afternoon, and then return to Disneyland for the evening, but I'd plan to spend a day at Universal. You can spend some time post-park at CityWalk (outdoor mall) or head to Hollywood to see the Walk of Fame, do some shopping, get an ice cream from the Disney ice cream shop...

We are using a citypass which means we get three days at DL, one at Universal, etc. So, we will not be going back to DL for the evening because I don't want to use one of the days for just the evening, but I like the idea of the walk of fame or some other LA kind of thing for that evening. Plus just resting isn't a bad idea, we will have a two-year-old with us.

Sounds like a good plan! Universal can take up the full day if you do everything. But, like other posters mentioned, there are a lot of shows (most 15 - 20 minutes) so it is just naturally a slower paced day.

If you are into the "magic" of movies, it really is a fun time (just not a place to go over and over again!) Definitely do the Backlot Tram ride (that can run 45 min to 1 hr, depending on shooting schedules.) If you go during the week, you are more likely to see some activity on the backlot. There is a special effects type show down in the area where Jurassic Park is, and that (used to be) 45 mintues as well.

Other attractions not to miss...Waterworld is a pretty cool show (though not sure if the 2 y.o. will like it as much as you might), my DD (17 months) loves the Animal Show, and Shrek may be a good option (though I haven't seen it myself.)

Have fun there though! If you run out of stuff to do, like other said, you can walk around Citiwalk or check out other LA area stuff like Hollywood, etc.