By Walt Disney World hosts dozens of family-friendly attractions and many thrill rides to boot. Of course, Disney cares more about ride safety than anyone else in the industry.
Every quarter, Disney World posts its theme park-related injuries, and the list typically consists of an average of one or two attractions, a stunning feat.
Hundreds of thousands of guests flock to the park each week. So, Disney’s safety speaks for itself when only a handful suffer even minor injuries each quarter.
To maintain that top-in-class level of safety, Disney employs stringent height requirements at the various attractions. Every park features at least a couple of rides with such rules in place.
So, let’s quickly run through the list of attractions with height requirements, including a few things you should know. We’ll go park by park to help you avoid surprises.
About Height Requirements
Before we discuss the attractions, we want to stress something important here. Disney exhaustively researches safety data when determining height requirements.
Parents, we implore you to follow these guidelines during this visit. Every time we visit the parks, we notice a handful of well-meaning mommies and daddies berating Cast Members.
These parents foolishly believe that if they harangue employees long enough, the Cast Members will relent and allow their children to ride. Folks, that is NEVER going to happen.
Disney trains its staff to treat height requirements as gospel. The company does this because injuries could occur to smaller children who don’t fit the safety harnesses correctly.
Long story short, ignoring height requirements would be dangerous. Frankly, you don’t want to visit any theme/amusement park that ignores height requirements.
Even an inch or two of difference in height could jeopardize your child’s safety. So, please don’t do that.
We understand how much you don’t want to disappoint your child. Every parent knows that look of excitement a kid gets when they’re trying to stand on their tippy toes to reach the needed level.
Yes, parents don’t want to watch that look of crushing disappointment sweep over their child’s face when they realize they’re not quite tall enough yet. It stinks.
Do you know what’s even worse? It’s spending part of your vacation receiving medical treatment for someone in your family. Just think about all the tears they’ll cry then!
Suddenly, skipping one attraction doesn’t seem so bad, does it? Please maintain the long view when you’re at Disney.
Everyone wants your family to have a wonderful time. Height restrictions protect your loved ones. So, please don’t ask Disney to overlook them and thereby endanger your child.
You can glance at this list to identify which rides may not be possible for your kid on your upcoming trip.
Then, you can alert them to this fact, thereby establishing reasonable expectations. You’ll avoid that tearful look of disappointment. Besides, it’s nothing a Dole Whip can’t fix.
In terms of general height guidelines, here’s what you need to know. According to Stanford Children’s Health statistics, here are the average ages for the following heights:
- 32 inches or taller – 2 years old (boys and girls)
- 35 inches or taller – 3 years old (boys and girls)
- 38 inches or taller – 4 years old (boys and girls)
- 40 inches or taller – 4 years old (boys and girls)
- 42 inches or taller – 6 years old (boys and girls)
- 44 inches or taller – 6 years old (boys and girls)
- 48 inches or taller – 8 years old (boys and girls)
- 54 inches or taller – 8 years old (boys and girls)
Long story short, most (but not all) four-year-olds should be fine on plenty of fun Disney rides. For some of the most aggressive rides, a child should wait until they’re six.
Also, please keep in mind that these are Disney’s guidelines. You know your children better than anyone else. So, you may decide that they’re not ready for some attractions anyway.
For example, Haunted Mansion doesn’t have any height restrictions. However, if your child is easily frightened, it may not be the best idea.
Some kids love to be scared. Then, we have kids like David, who was afraid to take baths as a child because of Jaws movies and their spoofs. He swears it made sense to him at the time.
Disney is providing you with guidelines at its various attractions. From there, you should just use your best judgment. You’ll never lack excitement at Disney anyway. What’s one ride in the greater scheme?
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Rides with no height restrictions:
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Na’vi River Journey
- Wildlife Express Train
38 inches or taller:
- Kali River Rapids
44 inches or taller:
- Avatar Flight of Passage
- Expedition Everest
No other attractions at this park include height requirements. So, you’re really only plotting how to approach three rides, two of which are probably too aggressive for kids anyway.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Rides with no height restrictions:
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Toy Story Mania!
32 inches or taller:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
38 inches or taller:
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Slinky Dog Dash
40 inches or taller:
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue!
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
48 inches or taller:
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets
We have one important caveat here. We’ve gone ahead and listed Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which isn’t currently open.
We’re showing the former height requirement when it was themed to Aerosmith. Since Disney hasn’t announced track-related changes, we presume that estimate will remain.
However, Disney may dial down the aggression on this attraction now that it has a Muppets theme. In that scenario, the height restriction may drop to a lower height. That’s what we expect, but we wanted to warn you about the previous rules.
Overall, you’ll need to make some decisions at Hollywood Studios if you’re traveling with a small child. You’ll be fine on three of the rides. The rest will depend on your kid’s age.
EPCOT
Rides with no height restrictions:
- Frozen Ever After
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Living with the Land
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends
- Spaceship Earth
40 inches or taller:
- Mission: SPACE
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Test Track
42 inches or taller:
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
While EPCOT has a reputation as the theme park for adults, you can see that it’s quite family-friendly with its rides.
We’re not even counting the other experiences here, such as Journey of Water | Inspired by Moana. Even better, kids will love most of the rides without height restrictions.
Sure, they may find Living with the Land and Spaceship Earth a bit boring, but it’s a solid list overall. So, if you’d worried that your kids would find EPCOT dull, you should reconsider!
Magic Kingdom
Rides with no height restrictions:
- Astro Orbiter
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Haunted Mansion
- It’s a Small World
- Jungle Cruise
- Mad Tea Party
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid
- Walt Disney World Railroad
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
32 inches or taller:
- Tomorrowland Speedway (passenger)
35 inches or taller:
- The Barnstormer
38 inches or taller:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
40 inches or taller:
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
44 inches or taller:
- Space Mountain
48 inches or taller:
- TRON Lightcycle / Run
54 inches or taller:
- Tomorrowland Speedway (driver/solo)
We’ll provide the same caveat here as we did at Hollywood Studios. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin are currently closed.
So, we’ve listed the previous wait times with each one. However, we feel more confident about these height requirements as the rides are adding elements rather than changing their themes.
To a larger point, the height requirements at Magic Kingdom tell a story. This is the most popular theme park on the planet, and that’s largely because of its structure.
Disney has made many of the best and most iconic rides here readily available to guests of any age and size. Only eight rides include any restrictions, and half of them are fine for four-year-olds.
One of them, Tomorrowland Speedway, lists a modest requirement of 32 inches for riders. The more stringent 54-inch requirement applies only to drivers alone in cars.
Disney does that to make sure a bunch of small kids aren’t wreaking havoc on the tracks and turning the experience into roller derby/bumper cars.
Realistically, the only four rides that will require a bit of strategy are Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and TRON Lightcycle / Run.
Overall, Magic Kingdom provides the most potential entertainment for families with small children, which explains its consistent popularity over the decades.
Finally, as a general tip about height requirements, we’d suggest that you be proactive. Manage expectations with your children about certain attractions.
Let them know which ones they won’t be able to experience this time. Look at the situation like you’re giving them something to anticipate for a future visit!
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