I'm afraid I can't report on the button part, b/c my DS did not want one. I did see plenty of people wearing them, though! We stayed at the BLVD, which is a 5min walk from the shuttle stop at the bottom of the Universal hill. It was cheaper than the Hilton and had 2 king beds instead of doubles. The 30min early entry isn't tied to your hotel stay, as far as I can tell - you just have to buy your tix online direct. I didn't do that, chose to save money instead by buying from
UT (I doubt I can type out the name of the ticket seller here). I would say I did have some regret that we didn't do that on Saturday, b/c we could have gotten a couple extra rides in, but still not sure it would have been worth dragging the kids out of bed 30min earlier and paying I think $20pp more. Also, I doubt that that would have helped on Sunday - if Forbidden Journey was up to 50min wait before official park opening, then there must have been a LOT of people with early entry. It's probably hit or miss, whether it's worth it.
The animal show had dogs (a bunch of them, including a Buddy and the dog that plays Max for their Christmas grinch stuff), cats, guinea pigs, owls, a falcon of some sort, 2 other fancy birds (with plumes on their heads? crested somethings?), a rat, a pig, a porcupine... I'm sure I'm forgetting some!
None of us are vegetarian, but they had mac n cheese on the kids menu, which came with fries and grapes. DS got that. The menu says ages 9 and under for the kids meals but no one asked or cared who it was for. They had a sandwich that was sort of a grilled cheese with tomatoes, bacon, and chicken - which I'd assume you could get a veg version of. They sold various sides too, lots of vegetables. I'm spacing on a veg entree, b/c I decided to get bangers and mash for thematic reasons.
Which is funny, b/c it was the only meal I ate that was not vegetarian! (I eat less meat than the rest of my family but don't avoid it entirely.) The veggie burger in Jurassic Cafe was ok, a bit dry, but tasted fine. The Hard Rock in Citywalk had a great veggie burger, really tasty! We had dinner there one night, and at Margaritaville the other night. We got Voodoo doughnuts too, which was fun.