Any MF trouble??

Has anyone had any trouble getting onto MF this year with the new seatbelts??? And has anyone with a 40" inch waist gotten on this year??

This interests me as I have ridden it from 2000 till 2003. I was unable to ride in 2004, THANKS INTAMIN! I didn't even know there were new seatbelts. I hope someone can report on this issue soon!

They made the belts even shorter this season. Now me, who has a 36" waist, had trouble. I could pull 3-4 inches of slack last season.

Same here, holcomb. 36" waist, just barely got the inch.

This is getting excessive.

36 eh? I better take a measurement of my measurement! ...makes me worry.

39 inch waist and I got the "two fingers" width TTD required. I didn't get a chance to try MF. I will on Wednesday though.

Thats a Fk'n joke. If I had a 44 inch waist I'd be relatively skinny for my build.

Honestly, 36in waist? I'd be willing to bet more adults can't ride it than can.

Chuck, who sees 38-42 as averag adult male in most stores.

I have never had a problem on a coaster before including MF, but after hearing all this, I don't think I am going back to CP till my MF diet starts working. I have been on MF over 50 times but they were all pre-S:RoS accident.

A lot of people believe it has more to do with the size of your thighs. I'm not sure I agree because I have very muscular legs (no really, I have a 30" vertical leap) and last year I did OK with a few inches. 37ish" waist. I haven't heard anything about the belts being replaced this year though.

I think it has more to do with the size of your butt than anything else. Even if you have a big gut, you can probably get the belt low enough that it goes over your pelvis and under your stomach. If you have a big butt your pelvis would be up higher from the seat bottom, and the belt might not fit.

While waiting for our front car ride on opening day I had never, and this includes last season, seen so many people turned away from riding. The belts did seem shorter than last year to me too. I noticed that ops on MF and TDD were helping guests try to get the required slack, which they made a major point of NOT doing last season. I fear that making interval, at least on MF, is a thing of the past. The line was crawling on Saturday and having all three trains stacked seemed to be the norm. I realize it was opening day but from what I could see it was all seatbelt related.

My bad Jeff. Im not exactly sure if they got new belts this year year. But from a forum on PointBuzz, someone said that they did because they weren't able to fit for their life.

Nah, the belts are the same as last year. Thankfully I have lost some weight and I fit with relative ease, unfortunately that is not the cast for a lot of folks. I do think this belt length rules out a lot of folks that I feel should be able to ride. Unfortunately, this also again this year, makes for horribly long loading times. Opening day I got in line with 3 trains running and the only part of the queue that was full was the very last one right before the ramp. This shouldn't have been much more than a 20 min wait at worst case, but it was almost 40 minutes!

This really is silly. I'm a big boy at 5'9" 240 lbs, but I'm by no means *huge* and the thought that I couldn't go ride MF is just a huge turn off to me. Honest, I was thinking of making the trip to Sandusky from Connecticut this year but I really think I'm going to hold off. I realize I'm only one person, but I hope CP knows they're losing business because of this. I would have brought 3 other people with me, we would have stayed probably 2 nights in a hotel, etc etc. and I know there are other people in the same boat as me on this one.

Oh well, maybe next year.

When MF was built in 1999-2000, it had a restraint design that fit most adults and everyone believed was safe. Unfortunately the restraint system failed (cost a life at S:RoS), so obviously, it wasn't safe enough. The re-designed restraint is safer, but won't fit a significant chunk of the park-visiting population. That's unfortunate, but it's something everyone (guests, CP and Intamin) will just have to deal with.

To everyone who is trying to lose some weight, I wish you the best of luck. (I went from 42" to 37" last season -- it wasn't easy.) To those of you who won't fit the mold, you have my sympathy, but I think we all agree that when you ride, you should be safe. There are plent of other coasters out there, so go have fun.

I was worried last season. I didn't make it out to CP until Coastermania in the fall. I had been on a diet and lost over 30 lbs. It paid off as I was able to fit into the restraint pretty easily.

I haven't been on the diet like I was last year, but I have been eating along those lines. My weight has remained pretty much the same. It will interesting to see if I have a problem this year. It would be embarrassing to have to get off the ride like I've seen many have to do last year when I was there.

You'd think that CP would do some type of redesign like Six Flags has done. That way MF could accomadate people larger then what the current restraint set up allows for. It seems as if they are just going to leave it as it is. Guess people have to diet to ride it.

*** Edited 5/9/2005 2:28:07 PM UTC by Coasterfantom2***

Well something a little odd about the six flags restraints. I don't remember seeing many people who did not fit on SROS at SFNE last year. In our 1st trip this year, I saw numerous people on each train be told they could not fit the restraints and leave. The belts look like the same ones....

This is too bad that they have to do this....I have no problems fitting, luckily (I'm like 5'11" and only like 140lbs) but I really feel sorry for people who aren't even that big and can't fit. A bunch of people from my family are comming up for a week in June, and I just hope that some of them can ride it. It just seems like there would be a better way to go about this, especially knowing CP (heck, spend less on a coaster next year or don't get one at all, and spend money on new TTD-ish trains) or something of the sort. At any rate, it looks like its just going to stay this way...what a shame.

Couldnt fit yesterday, had about an inch between the two ends to buckle, my friend who I consider "normal" struggled to get the inch.

Seeing that I am from Wisconsin and it takes extra planning and longer travel distance to visit CP (which I have annually for the past 7 years,) I dont think Im going to CP until they do something about MF. I had a great time yesterday, knew I probably wouldnt get on it, tried to have a great time regardless, but I failed slightly to due to the irritation of looking at my #4 all time steel coaster and being unable to ride.

Due to gentitcs I will never loose my weight in my theighs and rear end so there is no way I will ever fit on that ride again unless the restraints get fixed. If Intamin cant redesign the restraints to fit all body types, why cant they make a row for bigger people (like BM's big boy seats)?

I fit in every other coaster designers standard seat (even B&M and Huss's OSTRs) but I cannot fit on Intamins (t-bar nor OSTRs). Im sorry but there is something seriously wrong with that company, between their designs (TTD was down more then it was up yesterday,) their inablity to fit a large percentage of the riding public, and safety (everytime someone dies it allways seems to be on an Intamin ride) I hope parks stop buying from them until they change their act.

Anyway, I wrote a letter to CP explaing my position and asking them to put pressure on Intamin to do something to allow people like me to ride (since Intamin would never listen to me, I at least have a chance with CP). Until something is done it is not worth it for me to make the trek out to CP when I have SFGAm close by. *** Edited 5/9/2005 4:29:36 PM UTC by Touchdown***

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greatwhitenorth said:
When MF was built in 1999-2000, it had a restraint design that fit most adults and everyone believed was safe. Unfortunately the restraint system failed (cost a life at S:RoS), so obviously, it wasn't safe enough.

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It's not obvious at all. What you're saying is not true. The restraint is safe. The accident was caused by human error, not the restraint. The more stringent requirements are Intamin's way of covering their ass. The ride is not any safer with the shorter belt or slack requirement. Cedar Point I'm sure knows this, but can't do anything about it because by state law they're required to adhere to Intamin's specification. *** Edited 5/9/2005 4:37:03 PM UTC by Jeff***