Universal Height Requirements at All Four US Parks

Every height requirement at Universal Orlando

30 attractions across the three Orlando parks carry a height requirement. Epic Universe is the newest of them and the one where published figures are thinnest, so treat anything you read about it — here or anywhere — as worth a second check against Universal's own app.

Sorted by park, then by height, lowest first.

Every height requirement at Universal Studios Hollywood

9 attractions at the California park carry a height requirement. The park is smaller, so a child who misses a threshold here misses a larger share of the day than they would in Orlando — there is less to fall back on.

The Studio Tour, which is the reason most people come, has no height requirement at all. That is the single most important line on this page for a family with a small child.

What each threshold actually unlocks

Height charts usually stop at listing the numbers. The useful question is what changes when a child crosses each one, because that is what decides whether a trip is worth taking this year or next.

The jump at 40 inches is the one that matters. Below it a child can ride 9 of the 39 restricted attractions. At 40 they can ride 20. Nothing else on the chart moves the number that far in one step.

How Universal measures, and how to measure at home

Team members measure at the entrance to each attraction using a fixed stick, and may measure again at the load platform. There is no wristband system that carries a measurement across the park, so a child near a threshold will be measured repeatedly through the day and can be passed at one attraction and stopped at another.

At home, measure against a wall with the shoes on, heels flat, standing straight rather than stretching. Then subtract nothing. Rounding up half an inch because a child was almost there is how families end up arguing with a teenager holding a measuring stick, and the teenager is going to win.

Thick-soled shoes genuinely help and are entirely legitimate — a child is measured in what they are wearing. Hair does not count, and a team member will press it down.

If someone in your group is too short

Child Swap is available at every attraction with a height requirement. One adult waits with the child in a designated area while the rest of the party rides, then they swap without queueing again. It works, it is well signposted, and it is the reason a height restriction does not have to cost an adult the whole ride.

The harder truth is about which park to visit at all. A child under 40 inches will find substantially more to do at Magic Kingdom than at Islands of Adventure, and no amount of shows and character meets closes that gap. If that describes your group, the honest advice is to do Universal in a later year rather than to do it badly now.