Guide to Walt Disney World Attractions: Height Restrictions, Fright Factor, and Motion Sickness Potential - Real Mom Recs

Guide to Walt Disney World Attractions: Height Restrictions, Fright Factor, and Motion Sickness Potential

height restrictions in disney

Wondering how tall your child needs to be to go on the rides at Walt Disney World, Florida? Here is the complete guide to height restrictions in Disney World including all 4 parks and the 2 water parks!

The good news for us Moms is, Walt created Disney World with families in mind. Even the “thrill rides” at Disney are mostly geared towards children. You won’t find the biggest or fastest roller coasters in the world here. His vision was for the whole family to enjoy the parks together. For this reason, there are plenty of attractions have no height restriction. And most of the rides with a height requirement are 40 inches or less, which means a typical 5 year old can ride all but a handful of attractions.

Height Restrictions

Here are the specifics for each park:

Magic Kingdom

height restrictions in disney
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: Somewhere in between a thrill ride and a kiddie coaster
  • Tomorrowland Speedway- must be 32″ to ride and 54″ to ride without an adult
  • Barnstormer (Great Goofini)- must be 35″ to ride
  • Seven Dwarfs Mine Train- 38″
  • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad- 40″
  • Splash Mountain- 40″
  • Stitch’s Great Escape- 40″
  • Space Mountain- 44″

Epcot

  • Test Track- 40″
  • Soarin’- 40″
  • Mission: Space (Earth/Green Edition): 40″
  • Mission: Space (Mars/Orange Edition): 44″

Hollywood Studios

  • The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror- 40″
  • Star Tours- 40″
  • Rockin’ Roller Coaster- 48″

Animal Kingdom

height restrictions in Disney
Nope, it’s not a zoo! Several attractions have height restrictions
  • Kali River Rapids- 38″
  • DINOSAUR-  40″
  • Avatar Flight of Passage- 44″
  • Expedition Everest- 44″
  • Primeval Whirl- 48″

Blizzard Beach

height restrictions in Disney
Don’t forget, water parks have height requirements too.
  • Chair lift- 32″ (no infants)
  • Tike’s Peak- Must be UNDER 48″ (children’s play area)
  • Downhill Double Dipper- 48″
  • Slush Gusher- 48″
  • Summit Plummet- 48″

Typhoon Lagoon

  • Ketchakiddee Creek- must be UNDER 48″ (children’s play area for ages 2-5)
  • Bay Slide- must be UNDER 60″ (children’s slide)
  • Crush n’ Gusher- 48″
  • Humunga Kowabunga- 48″

Guidelines for pregnant women

All of the rides that have a height restriction also come with warnings for expectant mothers. If an attraction doesn’t have a height restriction, anyone can ride including infants and pregnant women. Always use your best judgement and consult your doctor beforehand if you have concerns.

Fright factor

height restrictions in disney
The haunts of Disney’s Haunted Mansion may be silly to some but scary to others

The elaborate theming of Disney attractions is designed to give you an emotional reaction, and some may be scary for children. You know your child best, so use your judgement about what they might find spooky. And please, don’t be that parent who forces their child on rides when they are screaming they don’t want to go on! That’s not fun for anyone.

Magic Kingdom

  • Haunted Mansion- ghosts, ghouls and creepy music can scare children
  • Pirates of the Caribbean– pirate scenes may be frightening to some small children as well as skeletons and canons being fired
  • Splash Mountain– even if they aren’t afraid of the drop, the dark part where the animatronics get creepy might get to them
  • Space Mountain– not the most intense roller coaster, but still potentially frightening since it’s completely in the dark

Epcot

  • Mission Space- either version may induce claustrophobia
  • Spaceship Earth- this ride is slow and tame but there are prolonged periods of darkness
  • Soarin’– scary for those who are afraid of heights

Hollywood Studios

  • Fantasmic (evening show)- villains, loud noises, and special effects may frighten small children
  • Tower of Terror– creepy voice and imagery, this ride is designed to scare you
height restrictions in Disney
Hint: if it has the word “terror” in its name, it might frighten your child

Animal Kingdom

  • DINOSAUR– In-your-face angry animatronic dinosaurs are intense, as well as periods of darkness
  • It’s Tough to be a Bug– 3D movie features bugs and spiders jumping off of walls and dropping from the ceiling; can even frighten some adults
  • Kali River Rapids- some riders will get a little wet, while others will get completely dumped on with water. If your child is afraid of having water poured on their head, don’t chance it.
  • Expedition Everest– your 5 or 6 year old may be tall enough to ride, but that doesn’t mean they should! It is intense, jerky, appears as though the track has been ripped up, then goes backwards, and is centered around a scary monster (the Yeti) in the mountain.

Motion sickness potential

height restrictions in disney
The teacups: innocent kiddie ride, or your worst nightmare? Photo credit: Disneydining.com

If you or one of your kids is prone to motion sickness, look over this list and figure out which ones you’ll want to avoid. Some people are bothered by spinning, while other people can’t handle simulators or going upside down. You likely won’t need to avoid this whole list, just the ones with the type of motion that bothers you.

Magic Kingdom

  • Mad Tea Party (the Teacups)– Spinning. Lots of spinning.
  • Space Mountain-  fast roller coaster with some sharp turns
  • Dumbo, Astro Orbiter, Magic Carpets– these are all tame, but may affect those who can’t take spinning

Epcot

  • Mission Space (Mars/Orange Edition)– most notorious ride in all of WDW for inducing “protein spills”. Centrifuge ride with G forces can make people sick who aren’t normally prone to motion sickness.
  • Soarin’– gentle ride but might be problematic to those very sensitive to motion simulators

Hollywood Studios

  • Star Tours- a jerky motion simulator that makes you think you’re traveling wildly through space
  • Tower of Terror- sudden drops, free-fall sensation
  • Rock n’ Roller Coaster– high speed roller coaster with 3 inversions

Animal Kingdom

height restrictions in Disney
DINOSAUR could leave you queasy AND terrified
  • DINOSAUR- super jerky and rough with sudden stops
  • Primeval Whirl– nicknamed “Primeval Hurl” due to spinning and hairpin turns
  • Expedition Everest- high speed roller coaster which also goes backwards, leaves lots of people green
  • Flight of Passage– motion simulator with some drops

For more on Disney attractions, check out my list of 5 most underrated rides at Disney World!

Author

Adoptive mom, biological mom, slacker mom, Disney mom, and above all things a REAL mom. Fan of blogging, sleeping, and pretending not to hear my kids fight.

6 comments

  1. Excellent, useful resource! I appreciated your detail. Our daughter just hit 38″, so she was excited to get to do some more rides. I will say that I struggle with spinning and do fine on Dumbo and Magic Carpets. However, Astro-Orbitor is a bit tough. I think the fact that it spins faster at the end, and is a bit higher makes me a little queasy. Thanks for the post!

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