Whether your kids are in diapers or learning to drive, their vacation fantasies can come true in Orlando. Offering rides and activities for kids of every age group, the area’s theme parks make it easy to keep everyone in the family happy—at the same time.

Universal Orlando Resort

SeaWorld Orlando

Walt Disney World Resort

Universal Orlando Resort

Universal Orlando Resort’s two parks, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida are best known for their high-speed roller coasters and thrilling movie-themed attractions, but their spectacularly themed kids' areas ensure that even the littlest vacationers will have a blast. 

At Islands of Adventure your little ones may not be tall enough—or brave enough—for the rides their older siblings love, like The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (height requirement 40”), or coasters like Dueling Dragons (height requirement 54”) or The Incredible Hulk (height requirement 52”) but colorful, crazy Seuss Landing was built just for them! With nary a straight line to be found in the whole pastel-painted Island, your kids will be mesmerized by the magical rides from the storybooks they know and love — the Caro-Seuss-el; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; The Cat in the Hat; and the If I Ran the Zoo play area.

While Jurassic Park River Adventure (height requirement 42”) is too fearsome for some young ones, it captivates others on a journey through the famed island.   While waiting, toddlers and their older siblings can slide, crawl and climb their way through the prehistoric playground at Camp Jurassic. Brave young explorers can get a dinosaur’s-eye-view of the Camp while soaring on the Pteranodon Flyers (height requirement 36”). Or, at the Jurassic Discovery Center, they can learn about dinosaurs and unearth the secrets of earth’s past with hands-on exhibits, games and displays.

At Universal Studios Florida, those normally aloof teenagers will be crying for their mommies after experiencing the new Revenge of the Mummy – The Ride, where they’ll come face to face with fireballs, scarab beetles, and an army of warrior mummies (height requirement 48”). A favorite with tweens—those not-quite children, but not-yet-teens ages 9-12—is Men in Black Alien Attack (height requirement 48”)—in which young agent trainees “kick alien butt,” zapping aliens who’ve taken over the streets of New York.

Who’s the kids’ favorite undersea dweller? Why it’s SpongeBob SquarePants—and you might just meet him at  Nickelodeon Studios, where you can also get slimed. Meanwhile, Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast takes kids through their favorite Nickelodeon cartoons as they try to help Jimmy save his newest rocket creation from the evil Ooblar on the planet Yokian. Trust us, your kids will know what we’re talking about!

Whether they’re crawling through balls at Curious George Goes to Town, climbing through the one-of-a-kind mouse house at Fievel’s Playland, navigating through Popeye’s Me Ship, The Olive, or singing along with A Day in the Park with Barney, even your smallest vacationers won’t be able to find enough time to explore it all.

Finally, the whole family will enjoy a vacation within a vacation as they join that lovable ogre Shrek, along with Princess Fiona and Donkey on a wild honeymoon adventure at Shrek 4-D.

SeaWorld Orlando

With a multitude of family-friendly shows, rides, and animal attractions, SeaWorld Orlando offers good clean fun for the whole family. SeaWorld Orlando’s new dolphin spectacular, Blue Horizons. The show features majestic marine animals, exotic birds and elaborately costumed performers blending the horizon between sea and sky in a Broadway-style performance. Meanwhile, Odyssea brings the mystical undersea world to life before your eyes with high-flying acrobatics, comedy, imaginative costumes and special effects.

Kids love animals—and in this case, the bigger the better. Shamu, the killer whale, and his friends show off their immense power and grace in two different shows, Shamu Adventure during the day, and the dynamic evening show, Shamu Rocks America. You’ll be amazed at what animals can do as you watch SeaWorld’s other shows, including Pets Ahoy! and Clyde and Seamore.

Between shows, families can visit their favorite marine animals at the Stingray Lagoon, Manatee Rescue, Pacific Point Preserve sea lion and seal habitat, Penguin Encounter, Shark Encounter, Dolphin Nursery, Clydesdale Hamlet, and more.

Of course, the older kids won’t sit still for a show until they’ve ridden Kraken, Orlando’s only floorless coaster, which takes them through seven upside-down loops to heights of 15 stories at 65 miles per hour (height requirement 54”). You may want to save Journey to Atlantis (height requirement 42”) for the end of the day—or bring a change of clothes. This action-packed undersea adventure is one part roller coaster, two parts water ride, and you will get wet!

Tweens and teens today are more environmentally and socially conscious than the generations before them—that’s why they’ll love SeaWorld’s new 60-minute “Saving a Species” tour, which takes visitors behind the scenes for a look at the park’s animal rescue, rehabilitation and release efforts (small additional cost for this tour).

Once inside, the little ones won’t want to leave Shamu’s Happy Harbor. This miniature seaside paradise is complete with four stories of nets and tunnels, a huge sand box, a ball crawl, water maze, a ship and nine slippery slides (some activities have minimum and maximum height requirements).

While you're there, spend an evening at The Waterfront which captures the spirit of all the best seaside villages with quaint shops, strolling entertainers, restaurants and shows.  For the very young to the very young at heart, SeaWorld Orlando is an ideal vacation spot.

Walt Disney World Resort

Everyone knows that the four Walt Disney World parks are ideal for young kids, but what about your harder to please tweens and teens who think they’ve been there and done that? Just tell them they don’t know Disney!

Disney serves up its share of scares with thrill rides and coasters in every park. Magic Kingdom caters to those no-longer-kids-but-not-quite-teens with mildly wild attractions Space Mountain (height requirement 44”), Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (both have 40” height requirement). They contain just the right fear factor to let tweens test their independence.

Moms and dads will score cool points with the older kids when they share a 60-mile-per-hour “limo” ride on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Disney-MGM Studios (48” minimum height). But only the most fearless teenagers will want to encounter The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a completely random 13-story free-fall in an abandoned hotel elevator shaft (height requirement 40”).

“Awesome!” “Whoa!” and “Oh man!” are just some of the gasps you’ll hear from your kids—and your own lips—as you hover on the edge of your seats during Disney-MGM’s new "Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show." Specially designed cars, motorcycles and jet skis combined with unbelievable special effects are guaranteed to bring out the Bond, James Bond, in all of us.

At Epcot, kids rate the new Mission: SPACE experience as nothing less than out of this world as they join their fellow astronauts in launching from earth to another planet (44” height requirement). Your smart-cracking teenager will feel like a real dummy—a crash test dummy, that is—riding Epcot’s Test Track. After enduring this series of road hazards, near misses and hairpin turns, they might just quit bugging you about getting a driver’s license (40” minimum height requirement). The whole family will be flying high at Epcot’s newest attraction, Soarin’, where you’ll get a bird’s-eye view of California’s most spectacular natural and man-made wonders like the Redwood Forests, the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite National Park, Napa Valley and more.

Who knew that roller coasters existed in the age of the dinosaurs? At Animal Kingdom, they do! The Primeval Whirl takes riders spinning back through time in a series of dips, twists and turns that are ideal for the younger set (height requirement 48”). Of course, nothing promotes family bonding like a bone-drenching rafting trip through blazing infernos, wild waterfalls and gushing geysers on the Kali River Rapids. Warning: After riding this soaker, those image-conscious teenagers will want to go back to the hotel to fix their hair!

Whether you visit the parks at Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld Orlando or all three, you’ll find rides, games, shows and play areas for your tiny tots to your teenagers—and even your grown kids and grandkids! And of course, each park offers plenty of experiences for the whole family to enjoy together.