Disneyland Paris height requirements: the complete chart

Safety is the reason just 10 rides at Disneyland Paris set a height limit. The lowest bar is 81 cm (Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, and Autopia when your child sits in the passenger seat), and the highest is 1.40 m, for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. Around forty other rides welcome every guest, whatever their height.

Put simply, a little one can enjoy nearly everything here, even at a young age. There’s no restriction on Peter Pan’s Flight, "it’s a small world", Pirates of the Caribbean, Phantom Manor, Ratatouille, or Frozen Ever After, and none on the newcomers Raiponce Tangled Spin and Cars Quatre Roues Rallye either.

In this article, I give you the complete chart of height requirements (sorted by height), clear guidelines based on how tall your child is, and my Rider Switch tip so nobody gets left on the platform. My first piece of advice: don’t rely on a measurement taken at home. What counts are the signs at the entrance of each ride (measured with shoes on).

Here are the 10 rides with a minimum height, listed from the easiest to get on to the strictest. Height is checked at the ride entrance, shoes included. Each ride is located in a land, meaning a themed area of the park.

Autopia works a little differently, with two separate limits. Kids who reach 81 cm can ride beside a grown-up as a passenger, while taking the wheel on their own calls for 1.32 m, so their feet reach the pedal.

Every other ride has no height requirement. That means around forty rides are open to everyone, whatever your child’s age or height. The new additions at Disney Adventure World (Raiponce Tangled Spin, Cars Quatre Roues Rallye, Frozen Ever After) are among them: none of them has a restriction.

To keep things simple, here’s what each height step unlocks. Every time your child passes a threshold, new rides open up, on top of all the ones with no restriction (which they can enjoy from a very young age).

A helpful but cautious guideline: height is what matters, never age. Just as a rough idea, many kids get close to one meter around age 3 or 4, but it varies a lot from one child to another. Always go by their actual height.

Until your child reaches 81 cm, they can already do the vast majority of the park: all the gentle rides, the slow dark rides, and most of the big classics.

Peter Pan’s Flight, "it’s a small world", Pirates of the Caribbean, Phantom Manor, Ratatouille, Frozen Ever After, Raiponce Tangled Spin, Cars Quatre Roues Rallye, Orbitron, and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, for example, all welcome kids of any height. Babies and toddlers get their own section further down.

At 81 cm, your child can try two thrill rides, as long as an adult rides with them: Autopia (as a passenger) in Disneyland Park and Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop in Disney Adventure World. Watch out: even though it isn’t very tall, Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop is a small drop tower (Toy Story). The fall is short but can startle more sensitive kids.

Reaching 1.02 m changes a lot. Your child can now board Big Thunder Mountain, the gentlest coaster in the park for families, the Star Tours: The Adventures Continue simulator, and over in Disney Adventure World, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, whose free fall packs more of a punch.

At 1.07 m, your child can ride Crush’s Coaster in Disney Adventure World, an indoor roller coaster whose cars spin around. It’s very popular and often has long waits, so consider Single Rider (a separate line for solo guests, often faster) or Rider Switch (see below).

At 1.20 m, your child can get on the more intense rides: Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain (formerly Space Mountain, so its height requirement is 1.20 m) in Disneyland Park, plus Avengers Assemble: Flight Force and RC Racer in Disney Adventure World.

Once they hit 1.40 m, kids can go on every ride in the resort. That includes Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril in Adventureland (Disneyland Park), the only ride that requires this height. Expect a brief yet intense coaster ride with one tight loop.

A lot of new parents ask this, and the answer is reassuring: Disneyland Paris is very welcoming to babies. The forty or so rides with no minimum height (gentle rides like "it’s a small world", Pirates of the Caribbean, or Le Carrousel de Lancelot) are open to them with an adult.

That said, keep two things in mind. First, the height requirement applies to the child’s own body, so you can never hold a baby on your lap on a ride with a restriction (roller coaster, drop ride). Second, some thrill rides require the child to sit up properly on their own. If you’re unsure about a toddler, ask the Cast Member (the staff member) at the entrance, who will tell you whether they can ride.

For everything your baby can’t do yet, Rider Switch (see below) lets you each take a turn.

On the practical side: strollers aren’t allowed in the lines. You park them in the designated areas near the ride entrances (remember to take your valuables with you).

These minimum heights aren’t random, and they have nothing to do with age: they match each ride’s safety system. Harnesses, seat belts, and lap bars are designed for a minimum body size. Below it, the restraint can’t hold the child firmly against the seat, and on a sharp turn, a hard launch, a drop, or a loop, they could slide or not be held properly.

The rule is the same at every Disney park in the world, and there are no exceptions, not even for one centimeter and not even with an adult.

In practice, it depends on what the ride does:

No exception is ever made, whether your child is one centimeter short or riding next to a grown-up. It can feel unfair at the time, yet that’s exactly what protects your child.

Keep three separate ideas apart: height decides which rides are allowed, age decides who can enter the park and walk around, and supervision means having an adult along. Below are the official rules set by Disneyland Paris.

At the entrance of each ride with a requirement, a sign or a measuring bar lets you check your child’s height. Those markers on site are what count, shoes included. My advice: check before you step into the line, so nobody gets let down at the front.

A few simple tricks can make a difference of a few millimeters: the measurement is taken with shoes on, so sneakers with slightly thicker soles are perfectly fine.

On the other hand, a bun, a headband, or a cap doesn’t count (the Cast Member will have your child take it off so the head sits flat under the bar). Also make sure your child stands up straight, heels on the ground, without going up on tiptoe.

If your child is just under a threshold, group together the rides they can already do so the disappointments don’t pile up. A good combo when a child is too short: Rider Switch so you can each take a turn, plus Single Rider, which often lets the waiting parent get through the line faster in the meantime.

And remember: with around forty rides that have no restriction at all, there’s more than enough to fill a day, even for the littlest ones. Rides with a height requirement are only a small part of what’s on offer.

Now that you know what your child can ride, explore every attraction in both parks (detailed pages, wait times, filters) in all the ride pages. To go further, check out the best rides in the park and gentle rides for little ones.