What can a 42-inch child ride?
The short answer
At 42 inches (about 107 cm) a child can ride 99 of the 106 Disney attractions and 32 of the 43 Universal Orlando attractions we track. A narrow gate, but it opens one of the best rides at each resort. Space Mountain (Walt Disney World), Avatar Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest and Indiana Jones Adventure are still out of reach, as is everything in the 48-inch tier. Height rules are set by the parks and are checked at the queue entrance, so measure in the shoes your child will actually wear.
What changes at 42 inches
Forty-two inches is a short list with a high ceiling. It opens Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT — the hardest ride at that park to get on — plus Matterhorn Bobsleds, Grizzly River Run and Goofy's Sky School at the Disneyland Resort. At Universal it opens Men in Black, Escape from Gringotts, Jurassic Park River Adventure and the Bilge-Rat Barges.
Newly open at this height
Rides a child could not board at 40 inches but can board now.
- ·Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind — EPCOT, 42"
- ·Matterhorn Bobsleds — Disneyland Park, 42"
- ·Grizzly River Run — Disney California Adventure, 42"
- ·Goofy's Sky School — Disney California Adventure, 42"
- ·Men in Black: Alien Attack — Universal Studios, 42"
- ·Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts — Universal Studios, 42"
- ·Jurassic Park River Adventure — Islands of Adventure, 42"
- ·Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges — Islands of Adventure, 42"
What is still off-limits
Space Mountain (Walt Disney World), Avatar Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest and Indiana Jones Adventure are still out of reach, as is everything in the 48-inch tier.
- ·TRON Lightcycle / Run — Magic Kingdom, needs 48"
- ·Space Mountain — Magic Kingdom, needs 44"
- ·Rock 'n' Roller Coaster — Hollywood Studios, needs 48"
- ·Avatar Flight of Passage — Animal Kingdom, needs 44"
- ·Expedition Everest — Animal Kingdom, needs 44"
- ·Indiana Jones Adventure — Disneyland Park, needs 46"
- ·Incredicoaster — Disney California Adventure, needs 48"
- ·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"
- ·Revenge of the Mummy — Universal Studios, needs 48"
- ·Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit — Universal Studios, needs 51"
- ·Stardust Racers — Epic Universe, needs 48"
- ·Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment — Epic Universe, needs 48"
- ·Dragon Racer's Rally — Epic Universe, needs 48"
- ·Doctor Doom's Fearfall — Islands of Adventure, needs 52"
- ·Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls — Islands of Adventure, needs 44"
Does a paid line-skip make sense at this height?
Cosmic Rewind is the reason this height matters to your budget. It runs a free virtual queue and a paid individual selection, and standby is frequently not offered at all — so at 42 inches the question stops being whether to pay and becomes which of the two routes you try first.
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 42 inches and worth checking first
- ·Is Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Lightning Lane worth it? — Almost always worth it
- ·Is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Lightning Lane worth it? — Usually worth it
- ·Is Peter Pan's Flight Lightning Lane worth it? — Almost always worth it
- ·Is Jungle Cruise Lightning Lane worth it? — Usually worth it
- ·Is Tiana's Bayou Adventure Lightning Lane worth it? — Almost always worth it
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 42 inches
Travelling with a 42-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.