Moderate Thrill Rides at Disney and Universal
The level where the money actually goes — more rides worth paying to skip than any other, including the big ones.
The short answer
38 of the 175 attractions we track across Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Universal Orlando and Disneyland Paris sit at the moderate level. 36 of them carry a minimum height rule, from 35" up to 48"; the other 2 have none at all. The level where the money actually goes — more rides worth paying to skip than any other, including the big ones. On our own honest reading, 18 of the 38 have queues long enough that paying to skip them is usually the right call, and the step up from here is the big thrill level.
What moderate actually means
Moderate covers the mountains, the water rides, the simulators and the bigger dark rides: real drops, real speed, strong motion and, on a few of them, getting wet. Big Thunder Mountain, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Avatar Flight of Passage and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey all sit here. Nothing at this level inverts and nothing holds a rider upside down, but several are intense enough that a rider who was fine on every family ride will still want out.
Who this level is for
The level most adults and most children over about eight will spend their day in, and the level where a trip is usually decided — the rides people fly to Orlando for are mostly here, not one level up. It does not suit anyone prone to motion sickness: the simulators at this level cause more trouble than any coaster on the site.
The queues that decide the day
7 attractions at this level sit in our worst peak-standby band — 90 minutes or more at peak.
- ·Avatar Flight of Passage — Animal Kingdom, 44" · Almost always worth it
- ·Crush's Coaster — Walt Disney Studios, 107 cm · Almost always worth it
- ·Radiator Springs Racers — Disney California Adventure, 40" · Almost always worth it
- ·Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — Hollywood Studios, 40" · Almost always worth it
- ·Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, 40" · Almost always worth it
- ·Tiana's Bayou Adventure — Magic Kingdom, 40" · Almost always worth it
- ·Tiana's Bayou Adventure (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, 40" · Almost always worth it
Does a paid line-skip make sense at this level?
This level holds more attractions we would pay to skip than any other level on the site, and the reason is capacity rather than popularity: a mountain or a water ride loads far fewer people per hour than a theatre, so its queue builds and stays built. If you are buying one line-skip product for one park day, this level is almost always what you are buying it for.
None of the three resorts publishes a flat per-ride price for skipping a line — Disney prices Lightning Lane by date and demand, Universal prices Express Pass as a day product that swings hard with the calendar, and Disneyland Paris prices Premier Access per ride per day. 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, the Express Pass worth-it guide and the Premier Access guide for Paris.
Worth paying to skip at this level
- ·Avatar Flight of Passage — Animal Kingdom · 90+ min at peak · Almost always worth it
- ·Crush's Coaster — Walt Disney Studios · 90+ min at peak · Almost always worth it
- ·Radiator Springs Racers — Disney California Adventure · 90+ min at peak · Almost always worth it
- ·Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — Hollywood Studios · 90+ min at peak · Almost always worth it
- ·Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park · 90+ min at peak · Almost always worth it
- ·Tiana's Bayou Adventure — Magic Kingdom · 90+ min at peak · Almost always worth it
- ·Tiana's Bayou Adventure (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park · 90+ min at peak · Almost always worth it
- ·Big Thunder Mountain — Disneyland Park · 60–90 min at peak · Usually worth it
- ·Big Thunder Mountain Railroad — Magic Kingdom · 60–90 min at peak · Usually worth it
- ·Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park · 60–90 min at peak · Usually worth it
Plus 8 more at this level, all listed park by park below.
2 attractions at this level offer no paid skip at all, so no product of any kind shortens that wait — standby is the only line there is.
Ready for the next step?
The big-thrill level has no entry below 40 inches at all, and every single ride on it carries a height rule — the only level where that is true. It is also where inversions, launches and free-fall drops start. If a rider is happy here and nervous there, that gap is the honest reason why.
The shortest way into the big thrill level
The big thrill attractions with the lowest height rules — the usual first try for a rider stepping up.
- ·Test Track — EPCOT, 40"
- ·Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! — Disney California Adventure, 40"
- ·Space Mountain (Disneyland) — Disneyland Park, 40"
- ·The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror — Hollywood Studios, 40"
Too much? Step back down
Stepping back to family keeps the coasters but removes the drops and the water. It is the obvious move for a party that split at this level and wants to ride together again without anyone being talked into something.
Height is the other half of this question
A thrill level tells you what a ride does. It does not tell you whether your child is allowed on it, and the two answers come apart more often than families expect — this level runs from 35" up to 48", so one child can clear the level and still be turned away from the ride they came for. The ride height guide walks that ladder inch by inch. If you are planning around where these rides physically are rather than how they feel, the lands guide groups them by the part of the park they sit in, and the crowd calendar covers when those queues are shortest.
Every moderate attraction we track, park by park
One party, four thrill levels, one day. Have it planned properly.
A real Disney guide builds the park order around what your group will actually ride, keeps the party together instead of splitting at every height marker and every nervous rider, and books the passes in the right sequence — from $75/hour on your first trip.