Ride Height Guide · Disney & Universal Orlando

What can a 32-inch child ride?

73 of 106 Disney rides11 of 43 Universal rides

The short answer

At 32 inches (about 81 cm) a child can ride 73 of the 106 Disney attractions and 11 of the 43 Universal Orlando attractions we track. Disney's first height rule of any kind — and the first time a park tells your child no. Every coaster and every mountain. The Barnstormer, the lowest coaster bar at Magic Kingdom, needs 35 inches. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Slinky Dog Dash need 38. Big Thunder, Test Track, Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror need 40. At Universal Orlando nothing with a height rule is open yet. Height rules are set by the parks and are checked at the queue entrance, so measure in the shoes your child will actually wear.

Height
32 in · about 81 cm
Disney attractions open
73 of 106
Universal attractions open
11 of 43
Still too tall
33 Disney · 32 Universal

What changes at 32 inches

Below 32 inches Disney has no height gate at all: a child rides the gentle two-thirds of the roster and nothing is formally closed to them. Thirty-two inches is where the first four bars appear — Alien Swirling Saucers in Toy Story Land, Tomorrowland Speedway at Magic Kingdom, Autopia at Disneyland and Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters in Cars Land. Universal has no 32-inch tier at all; its lowest bar is 34 inches, so nothing opens there at this height.

Newly open at this height

Rides a child could not board at the tier below but can board now.

What is still off-limits

Every coaster and every mountain. The Barnstormer, the lowest coaster bar at Magic Kingdom, needs 35 inches. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Slinky Dog Dash need 38. Big Thunder, Test Track, Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror need 40. At Universal Orlando nothing with a height rule is open yet.

  • ·Seven Dwarfs Mine Train — Magic Kingdom, needs 38"
  • ·TRON Lightcycle / Run — Magic Kingdom, needs 48"
  • ·Space Mountain — Magic Kingdom, needs 44"
  • ·Big Thunder Mountain Railroad — Magic Kingdom, needs 40"
  • ·Tiana's Bayou Adventure — Magic Kingdom, needs 40"
  • ·Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind — EPCOT, needs 42"
  • ·Test Track — EPCOT, needs 40"
  • ·Soarin' Around the World — EPCOT, needs 40"
  • ·Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — Hollywood Studios, needs 40"
  • ·Slinky Dog Dash — Hollywood Studios, needs 38"
  • ·Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run — Hollywood Studios, needs 38"
  • ·The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror — Hollywood Studios, needs 40"
  • ·Rock 'n' Roller Coaster — Hollywood Studios, needs 48"
  • ·Avatar Flight of Passage — Animal Kingdom, needs 44"
  • ·Expedition Everest — Animal Kingdom, needs 44"
  • ·Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, needs 40"
  • ·Space Mountain (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, needs 40"
  • ·Indiana Jones Adventure — Disneyland Park, needs 46"
  • ·Matterhorn Bobsleds — Disneyland Park, needs 42"
  • ·Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, needs 38"
  • ·Radiator Springs Racers — Disney California Adventure, needs 40"
  • ·Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! — Disney California Adventure, needs 40"
  • ·Incredicoaster — Disney California Adventure, needs 48"
  • ·Star Tours – The Adventures Continue — Hollywood Studios, needs 40"
  • ·Kali River Rapids — Animal Kingdom, needs 38"
  • ·Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, needs 40"
  • ·Mission: SPACE — EPCOT, needs 40"
  • ·Tiana's Bayou Adventure (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, needs 40"
  • ·Grizzly River Run — Disney California Adventure, needs 42"
  • ·Soarin' Over California — Disney California Adventure, needs 40"
  • ·The Barnstormer — Magic Kingdom, needs 35"
  • ·Star Tours – The Adventures Continue (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, needs 40"
  • ·Goofy's Sky School — Disney California Adventure, needs 42"
  • ·Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure — Islands of Adventure, needs 48"
  • ·Jurassic World VelociCoaster — Islands of Adventure, needs 51"
  • ·Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey — Islands of Adventure, needs 48"
  • ·The Incredible Hulk Coaster — Islands of Adventure, needs 54"
  • ·The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man — Islands of Adventure, needs 40"
  • ·Skull Island: Reign of Kong — Islands of Adventure, needs 36"
  • ·The Simpsons Ride — Universal Studios, needs 40"
  • ·Transformers: The Ride 3D — Universal Studios, needs 40"
  • ·Men in Black: Alien Attack — Universal Studios, needs 42"
  • ·Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts — Universal Studios, needs 42"
  • ·Revenge of the Mummy — Universal Studios, needs 48"
  • ·Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit — Universal Studios, needs 51"
  • ·Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge — Epic Universe, needs 40"
  • ·Stardust Racers — Epic Universe, needs 48"
  • ·Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry — Epic Universe, needs 40"
  • ·Donkey Kong Country: Mine-Cart Madness — Epic Universe, needs 40"
  • ·Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment — Epic Universe, needs 48"
  • ·Curse of the Werewolf — Epic Universe, needs 40"
  • ·Hiccup's Wing Gliders — Epic Universe, needs 40"
  • ·Dragon Racer's Rally — Epic Universe, needs 48"
  • ·Jurassic Park River Adventure — Islands of Adventure, needs 42"
  • ·Despicable Me Minion Mayhem — Universal Studios, needs 40"
  • ·Flight of the Hippogriff — Islands of Adventure, needs 36"
  • ·Doctor Doom's Fearfall — Islands of Adventure, needs 52"
  • ·Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls — Islands of Adventure, needs 44"
  • ·Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges — Islands of Adventure, needs 42"
  • ·The Cat in the Hat — Islands of Adventure, needs 36"
  • ·E.T. Adventure — Universal Studios, needs 34"
  • ·Pteranodon Flyers — Islands of Adventure, needs 36"
  • ·Fast & Furious – Supercharged — Universal Studios, needs 40"
  • ·Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster — Universal Studios, needs 36"
  • ·The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride! — Islands of Adventure, needs 34"

Does a paid line-skip make sense at this height?

The guide's honest take

The trap at this height is not the queue, it is the second height rule. Both driving attractions that open here let a 32-inch child ride but require 54 inches to drive alone — the rule families most often discover at the wheel, after the whole queue was spent talking about steering. Be honest about it before you join the line. As for paying to skip: at 32 inches almost everything open to your child is a gentle, moderate-wait attraction, so a line-skip product is rarely the lever that fixes the day. Nap timing and the order you walk the park matter more.

Neither resort publishes a flat per-ride price for skipping a line — Disney prices Lightning Lane by date and demand, and Universal prices Express Pass as a day product that swings hard with the calendar. So the only useful question is per ride: which queues are long enough to be worth it. We keep a ride-by-ride verdict in the Lightning Lane worth-it guide and the Express Pass worth-it guide.

Open at 32 inches and worth checking first

How the parks actually measure

Both resorts check height at the attraction entrance, with shoes on, against a fixed marker — not at the ticket gate, and not once for the whole trip. A child measured barefoot at home can come up short at the queue after a long day, which is the single most common way a carefully built plan falls apart. Measure in the shoes they will wear, and if they are within half an inch of a gate, plan the day as though they are in the tier below. Our full guide to Disney World height requirements goes through the rules park by park, and the crowd calendar covers the other half of the problem — when the queues you can use are shortest.

Every Disney attraction open at 32 inches

Travelling with a 32-inch child? Have the day built around it.

A real Disney guide plans the park order around what your party can actually ride, keeps the whole group together instead of splitting at every height marker, and books the passes in the right sequence — from $75/hour on your first trip.

Every height, compared