09-05-2025
The Best Disney World Rides for 7 Year Olds, According to a Second Grader
As someone who has personally experienced Disney at nearly every age and stage — from my first visit as a toddler in a stroller to various trips throughout grade school (it was even the destination for my senior-year spring break!) and a post-college excursion as an adult — I knew without question I wanted to take my kids to Disney World. I just didn't know exactly when.
By the time my son reached toddlerhood, the pandemic set in and disrupted any travel plans we had for the foreseeable future. Then I gave birth to his little sister and it would be a few more years before I'd entertain the idea of bringing them both to the most magical place on earth. For my now 7-year-old son, it was high time he got to experience the joy the iconic amusement park has to offer. So this past January, we headed down to Orlando for our inaugural family trip to Disney World and packed in as many rides as we could across all four parks in three days.
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We came back exhausted, yes, and for my poor husband with a nasty case of the stomach bug (more on that later) but also with a solid understanding of the best Disney World rides for 7 year olds after witnessing firsthand what he did and didn't like. I also asked him to rank his favorites at each park, interviewed him on why he enjoyed them, and then had him fact-check this article to make sure I accurately captured everything from his POV — so you can ensure these rides are vetted by an actual second grader.
Best Disney Hollywood Studios Ride: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Best Magic Kingdom Ride: Space Mountain
Best EPCOT Ride: Mission: SPACE
Best Animal Kingdom Ride: Kilimanjaro Safaris
My husband and I had my 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter along for the trip, and while there are more all-ages rides than not, my son definitely got to enjoy a wider array of attractions than my toddler. He's on the tall side for his age at 51 inches and easily surpassed all of the height requirements (the final one is the 48 inches needed to go on Tron).
The only things holding him back were fear — he's not a huge fan of roller coasters — and his little sister. Most of the time, my husband and I would divide and conquer so one of us could go on a height-requirement ride with our son that our daughter couldn't. On the last day of our trip, my husband came down with norovirus (PSA: if you go during the winter months, wash your hands constantly!), which meant I had both kids in Animal Kingdom by myself. My son didn't get to go on Avatar Flight of Passage because of that, but I'm sure if he did that would be his favorite ride there.
Second graders are right at the cusp of becoming 'big' kids but still young enough to enjoy the fantasy aspect of Disney. For example, my son still got a kick out of meeting the characters but had we waited longer to take him, I'm not sure this would have been as much of a highlight.
It's hard to compete with the Magic Kingdom, which is home to his overall favorite ride, Space Mountain, and also has the most attractions of any park. But if I had to pick a park that had the highest ratio of rides well-suited for seven year olds, it would actually be Hollywood Studios.
The Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge area is like walking directly onto the movie set and my son was totally captivated by the Storm Troopers marching around. The Toy Story section of the park is also adorable and the family-style dinner we had at Roundup Rodeo BBQ was the best meal of our trip. The spread of corn bread, mac 'n cheese and a platter of house-smoked meats managed to please both parents and picky eaters.
All of the parks offer something great for second graders and you honestly can't go wrong. To that end, here are the best rides for 7 year olds at Disney World at each park, ranked in order by my son, as well as an attraction you can skip to save yourself time.
My son loved this ride so much he used not one but two Lightning Lane passes to ride it twice in the same day. And he's not even a Star Wars fan! He does, however, love anything space-related (a running theme of his top-rated attractions, as you'll discover) and also has a huge imagination — both contributing factors for why this immersive ride earned top marks. You get to pretend you're a member of the Resistance on a mission to escape the First Order while aboard a slow-moving vehicle that's almost captured by an army of Storm Troopers. You'll of course emerge victorious, providing a dose of exhilaration without any adrenaline-inducing drops.
Another Star Wars simulation, this ride assigns you one of three jobs — pilot, mechanic or gunner — depending on your place in line and puts you to work on a flight mission aboard its namesake starship. My husband and son got the coveted roles of pilots, who sit up front and get an unobstructed view of the objects whizzing towards the aircraft. 'You go way up in the air and then straight down like woah,' my son recounted of his favorite moment. The whole experience has a video game-like quality to it, making it perfect for second graders who are squarely in their Minecraft era.
This was the first ride of our Disney World trip and it ended up being a favorite for both my 7- and 3-year-old, making it an all-ages crowd pleaser (honestly, I enjoyed it too!). My son's absolute favorite part was when an immersive screen tricks you into feeling like you're falling down a waterfall 'like, a thousand feet down' as well as a tour through a factory that 'is so funny because it crushed rocks.' The train car gently swaying side to side in a Cha Cha move guided by Daisy Duck also got lots of laughs.
If my son could have a nemesis in ride form, this would be it. On the surface, it looks completely harmless: the adorable Slinky Dog from Toy Story races along an outdoor roller coaster track that's filled with gentle dips, twists and turns. And yet something about being able to see and anticipate these adrenaline-inducing features laid out before him had my 7-year-old seized with anxiety before we even stepped foot in the car. I somehow convinced him to go through with it (we used a Lightning Lane pass!) but he was frozen with fear the entire time.
His displeasure was so evident that a kind cast member noticed and offered us the chance to ride again without having to wait on line — to which he said absolutely not! After speaking with a few other second-grade moms, I found out my son isn't the only kid his age who is terrified of this ride — although I also know of a 3-year-old who loved it. This one really depends on the temperament of your child and serves as an important reminder that just because your kid is tall enough to ride doesn't mean they should.
Based on our experience with the Slinky Dog Dash, you'd think my 7-year-old wasn't a fan of roller coasters and would therefore not like Space Mountain, right? Wrong. If you ask him what his absolute favorite ride in all of Disney World was, he'll tell you it was this one every time without fail. This is partly because we had the privilege of being among the first to ride the iconic roller coaster on its 50th anniversary, which was a very special milestone moment. But I also think the sensory deprivation of riding in the pitch dark made it more enjoyable for him: he couldn't see what twists and turns were ahead, forcing him to surrender to the thrills as they came. Context is everything.
Ever since my son was 2 years old, he's loved riding around our property on his motorized vehicles (he has a red Jeep and a John Deere tractor, and he still takes them out for a spin even though he's comically too large to fit in them now). So it should be no surprise that he loved this classic racetrack ride — kids get a kick out of being behind the wheel, even if it's a gas-powered hot rod that clunks along a guard rail at 7.5 MPH. Subjecting his dad in the passenger seat to bouts of reckless driving only amped up the fun and peels of laughter.
While we're likely a few years away from visiting a true Halloween-style haunted house, Disney's iconic version that's more spooky than scary was the perfect way for my son to dip his toes into the world of fright-inducing attractions. He squealed in anticipation as we cruised through the ghost-filled mansion in a slow-moving car past bulging doors and dancing specters. The only time I sensed genuine fear from him was when the ride randomly paused for a few minutes in front of a headless statue in the graveyard. 'Goodbye to that guy,' he said with relief once we started up again.
This seated show featuring animatronic bears performing a variety act is super nostalgic for me (perhaps because it reminds me of a childhood spent at Chuck E. Cheese?) so I was bummed my kids were not as into it as I was when I was their age. My 7-year-old found this incredibly boring and wanted to bail almost the second we stepped foot into the theater. Not even the alluring Teddi Barra descending from the ceiling could dazzle him, and it wasn't that he just didn't have the patience to sit through performances — he actually loved the Frozen Sing-Along Celebration at Hollywood Studios, which surprised me! With so many attractions to choose from at the Magic Kingdom, you can keep walking past this one if you have a second grader in tow.
Another space-journey simulation (told you there'd be a theme!), this ride is very similar to the Millennium Falcon in Hollywood Studios. You get assigned one of four roles (engineer, pilot, navigator or commandeer) before boarding an enclosed rocket ship that embarks on two missions — one to Mars, and one orbiting Earth. You're seated in front of a control panel and have ample opportunity to press the buttons before you, which is like catnip for a 7-year-old boy who just wants to be part of the action. The seats move up and down to re-create various flight sensations but my son described this as an overall 'calm' experience.
More flight simulation! Except instead of traveling to a galaxy far far away, this immersive ride re-creates the sensation of flying through the air while you're seated in a hang glider that's raised high above the ground. As your feet dangle in the air, you'll take a (virtual) journey around the world through a video tour of iconic landmarks projected on an 80-foot IMAX screen. 'You get to see polar bears and at the end Tinker Bell flies through Epcot and you land near the Spaceship Earth ball,' my son excitedly recounted.
Epcot's first-ever roller coaster — and Disney's first-ever reverse coaster — is extremely popular for good reason: it's a fast-moving, exhilarating and incredibly smooth whip around the galaxy with a great soundtrack to boot (you'll fondly recall the ride every time you hear Tears for Fears' 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World'). I'll admit, my 7-year-old had some anxiety going into this. 'Is this a fast roller coaster?' he asked with trepidation after seeing a sign that alluded to its 60 MPH top speed. I somehow managed to assure him it would be nothing like the Slinky Dog Dash, and while his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his skull when the coaster spun around a planet like we were water going down a drain, he overall did enjoy it. I mean, how could he not, it's space!
Now don't get me wrong, my son has no beef with Nemo — in fact, it was one of his favorite movies when he was a preschooler. This ride is just so slow-moving and uneventful, he found it incredibly boring (it barely held my 3-year-old daughter's attention too, if I'm being honest). You sit in a clamshell car as it gently tours through a retelling of the Finding Nemo storyline and 'says the same thing over and over and over again,' according to my 7-year-old. On the positive side, it's part of a larger attraction that includes an actual aquarium with jellyfish, sharks and clownfish, as well as a reef-themed play area that I couldn't tear both my kids away from.
My second grader loves reading non-fiction books about animals so it should be no surprise that he got a kick out of spotting them in their 'natural' habitat in the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. During our 20-minute guided tour on an open-air vehicle, we spotted several giraffes running around as well as a flock of flamingos, an elephant, swimming hippos, rhinos and a pride of lions. That's just a small sampling of the 34 different species of African wildlife that call the reserve home, and you never know which animals will (or won't) reveal themselves, which is part of the fun.
In order to reach this animal-centric attraction, you'll need to take the 7-minute long Wildlife Express Train, which meanders past a series of unremarkable veterinary buildings. Once you arrive, there's loads to do: take photos with Lion King characters Pumba and Timon; view reptiles, amphibians and even a live veterinary procedure (we saw a sedated Cheetah get a wellness visit) behind the glass exhibits; or pet docile goats in the small petting zoo called the Affection Section. As you can see in the photo above, my son especially enjoyed grooming the goats with one of the coarse-bristled brushes they have on hand — something our dogs at home would (literally) never stand for!
This live theatrical performance was high on our list of things to do at Animal Kingdom for my Lion King-obsessed toddler, and I was a little nervous my 7-year-old would get fidgety and bored. Not so! He actually enjoyed the Broadway-style singing and circus-level theatrics — maybe even more than his little sister because he's old enough to appreciate the skill. The action-packed segments featuring flame throwers and monkey acrobats totally captivated his attention.
For the record, it's me who's recommending you pass on this dinosaur dig–themed playground, not my son — he had an absolute ball climbing the ropes courses, straddling fossilized dinosaurs and going down slides in an infinite loop. Neither of my kids wanted to leave this place! But of all the incredible attractions, shows and rides that Disney World is legendary for, I simply would not prioritize a glorified version of a park playground. You can do that at home.
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