In this post, we discuss the best rides (and attractions) for toddlers at Epcot. Epcot has a few good rides for toddlers, but you’ll definitely want to read the entire post—which includes other attractions and activities that toddlers might be interested in. We close with a discussion of Lightning Lanes with toddlers at Epcot.
None of the commentary on this page has to do with how we personally feel about the overall quality of the rides—we keep any commentary focused on whether attractions are suitable for toddlers (of course informed in part by our experiences with our toddler). We have a ranking of all the rides at Disney World if you’d like to see our personal assessments.
Recommended Reading
Here are some other posts you might be interested in reading:
We’ve also got a post looking at some of these issues from the other side. Read about the Scariest Rides for Little Kids at Disney World.
Is Epcot Good for Toddlers?
Despite its reputation for being a more “grown up” park, Epcot actually has a lot to offer kids. Seven rides, including Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure have no height requirements, and only four rides have height requirements.
While the entertainment and World Showcase aspects of the park generally will appeal more to adults, you should be able to mix in enough rides for the little ones to justify a full day. I’d also add that our toddler absolutely loves wandering the stores in each pavilion.
Best Rides for Toddlers at Epcot
Epcot has seven rides without height requirements. If you’d like to read more about these—and all the rides, attractions, and entertainment at Epcot—check out our Guide to the Rides and Entertainment of Epcot. After this list, we’ll go more into other attractions and activities for toddlers at Epcot.
Here are the best rides for toddlers at Epcot:
Frozen Ever After
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
Journey Into Imagination With Figment
The Seas With Nemo & Friends
Spaceship Earth
Living With The Land
1. Frozen Ever After
There can’t be much disputing that Frozen Ever After—the Frozen-themed boat ride—is the best ride for toddlers at Epcot. Besides being a beautifully designed boat ride, it is themed to one of the most popular Disney films of the past few years. The ride is usually one of the most popular rides at Epcot, and with pretty good reason.
For families with toddlers, you’ll want to target Frozen Ever After as part of your Epcot Lightning Lanes Strategy or your Epcot Rope Drop Strategy.
2. Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
Honestly, how you rank these next three rides will just depend on what interests the kid. Gran Fiesta Tour is a boat ride in the Mexico Pavilion that follows two of the Three Caballeros as they attempt to track down Donald Duck.
3. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is the newest ride at Epcot and a welcome kid-friendly addition to the park. You could make a case for it being higher on the list. We personally just have two small gripes: (1) it requires 3D glasses, which won’t be great for the smallest kids; (2) it’s pretty intense and scared our toddler more than once.
4. Journey Into Imagination With Figment
There’s little need to debate the merits of Journey Into Imagination With Figment when it comes to its place in Epcot for toddlers. The dark ride starring Figment takes you on a journey through the senses and, of course, imagination.
For all the faults we personally find with it, there’s no doubt that this zany, purple dragon and his ride are entrancing to children. There are some loud noises and surprising moments.
5. The Seas with Nemo & Friends
The Seas with Nemo & Friends is basically a Nemo-themed dark ride. Hop in your “clamobile” vehicle and ride through a story of Marlin and Dory searching for Nemo as they encounter characters like Bruce and Crush along the way. The ride closes with a cool feature of the Nemo characters digitally imposed on the real aquarium.
6. Spaceship Earth
Spaceship Earth is obviously a fantastic ride, but its theme—communication through the history of mankind—might not be the best fit for toddlers. There are some fantastic sets throughout the ride, but their realism might not satisfy a toddler more interested in colorful characters like Nemo or Figment. It’s also relatively long, so impatient toddlers may struggle.
7. Living with the Land
Personally, I don’t think any list that has Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land in the last two spots is worth reading. They deserve better…but you already made it to this point. (Obviously kidding, sort of.)
Like Spaceship Earth, the theme of Living with the Land will be lost on most toddlers. It’s a great ride—one of the best—but maybe not for toddlers. The sets are nice, and the trip through the greenhouse is cool, but I’d be surprised if any toddler is ranking this #1.
You’ll find Living With the Land in the Land pavilion, which also houses Soarin’. Living With the Land is also relatively long, but changing scenery does a good job of breaking it up.
Finally, this is a good time to point how just how subjective this ordering can be. Our toddler definitely prefers the relaxing Living with the Land to the loud, busy Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. But that will probably change in 6 months, and then again 6 months later.
Other Activities for Toddlers at Epcot
Epcot is heavily into non-ride attractions. Future World is heavily focused on interactive spaces and The World Showcase is filled with cultural, non-ride attractions and entertainment.
If you have a full day at Epcot, you should be able to find time to stop by each of the spots we’re going to list next. You might find some activities are more for older kids, but you also might find that your toddler really enjoys the design of the space or hitting buttons and making things happen.
Activities for Toddlers Around the Park
Character greetings aren’t as big a thing at the other parks as they are at Magic Kingdom, but there are still a few to be found in Epcot. We have a few other posts explaining how to meet characters:
Check the Times Guide or Entertainment section of the My Disney Experience app for times all the tons of entertainment throughout the park, like JAMMitors and the Jeweled Dragon Acrobats.
Luminous is the nighttime show at the park. With lots of music and fireworks it should entertain most kids. It’s usually way past our toddler’s bedtime, so they haven’t seen it yet.
Festival Scavenger Hunts
One thing we recently had a ton of fun with was the Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak scavenger hunt during the Food & Wine Festival. Zoe had a ton of fun finding Remy around the World Showcase, even spotting him a few times before we did during the day.
Every festival has one or multiple of these scavenger hunts available for purchase (about $10). You could do the hunt without purchasing the map / prize, too.
Future World Activities for Kids
Moana Journey of Water is probably the highlight for kids among the non-rides at Epcot. This walkthrough attraction features a variety of interactive water features. You should expect to get a little wet, but the major effects have separate paths to allow you to avoid getting too wet.
Beyond that, four of the attractions in Future World have interactive spaces filled with games/activities at their exits. Project Tomorrow is at the exit to Spaceship Earth and features several games/activities themed to “the future.” ImageWorks is another interactive space at the exit to Journey Into Imagination with Figment.
Advanced Training Lab, which includes an indoor playground, is at the exit to Mission: SPACE (a ride we don’t mention above because of its 40” height requirement). The Seas With Nemo and Friends is (confusingly) the name of both the ride and the attached pavilion, which houses one of the world’s largest aquariums.
Test Track also has a pavilion where you can buy a car (so probably not much fun for toddlers), but also with a few car-related activities at least worth walking by. There’s also a playground near Test Track.
Within The Seas pavilion you’ll find Turtle Talk With Crush, which we highly recommend for kids of all ages. This is the chance for kids to talk to Crush from Finding Nemo, though smaller children will mostly just be observers.
The Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival is a great option for kids. It’s an 18-minute 3D show of Disney and Pixar short films.
World Showcase Activities for Kids
The Kidcot Fun Stops are craft stations found around the World Showcase at each of the countries and a chance for kids to engage with Cast Members from around the world. We’ve got an entirely separate post about Kidcot at Epcot. There’s also the related Epcot Passport. This is more suitable for older kids or adults, and comes at a price.
Around the World Showcase you’ll find a variety of displays and streetmosphere entertainment. Besides this, we want to highlight the indoor theater shows. Reflections of China, The American Adventure, Impressions de France, and Canada Far and Wide are all indoor shows with a focus on scenery and history of the respective countries.
Beauty and the Beast Sing Along is held in the France theater during the day.
Finally, our kid loves just wandering around the pavilions—-particularly the stores.
BOOKING Lightning Lanes WITH TODDLERS AT Epcot
Our separate Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lane Strategy don’t really cover planning specifically for small children, so we wanted to add a section here.
Keep in mind that these rankings only apply if you’re not planning on using rider switch for adults to ride the rides with height requirements. If you are planning to rider swap, then we still recommend the adults stick to our regular Genie+ plan (links above).
With six rides without height requirements on Genie+, including two hugely popular ones (Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After), we’ve always felt Genie+ was a good buy at Epcot. To be fair, you can get through the park without it, particularly with a good rope drop strategy. But Epcot’s wonderful World Showcase pavilions are where you want to spend your time—not waiting in line.
The only paid Lightning Lane at Epcot is Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, a coaster with a 42” height requirement.
What are your favorite activities for toddlers at Epcot?
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
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Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
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Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
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