Cedar Fair being unfair to those who need eyeglasses?

Unfair to those with glasses? This seems like a few things could be done to help the problem. There should be a special Eyeglass Wearer's Day. Eyeglass wearers need to stand up for themselves, and purchase new Eyeglass Wearers Pride and Equality stickers for their cars. They also are advised to join PASEW (prescription and sun eye glasses wearers) humanity rights groups spreading the slogan "I may not be able to see your face, but I CAN see your ignorance". This will not go without a fight. I am not a member of PASEW, but I am supportive as I have friends who are PASEW. They are human too!

*** Edited 5/31/2008 4:21:24 PM UTC by P18***

You guys should do what I do when I go to parks. Its called bring a glasses case. All that I do is put my glasses inside the case and put the case inside my cargo pants right before boarding the rides. The only time i've not trusted my cargo pants to hold my glasses case with the glasses is on flying coasters.

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matt. said:
Indeed, I've only worn glasses for a few years now but I learned my lesson pretty quick - glasses have a record of being much safer on my face than getting crushed in my pocket.

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Just buy a hard shelled case for your glasses, and nothing will happen to them.

First off, how am I to know that it was some ill-informed new ride ops who may be making these policies up? I'm sorry, but I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a newbie and someone more experienced, and I doubt the people who complained would either.

Second, why should anyone who wears glasses be forced to ride without them as long as they are secured? After waiting in line for two-hours (or more for some coasters) and then having a blurry out-of-focus ride, I'd be bummed.

ilovethewildone, you're lucky about not being harassed. My friend has been harassed at many coasters. When he shows him the restraining strap, they usually back off.

Am I trying to stir up crap Jeff? Nope, I just wanted to know why riders were being singled out on new rides.

Some of these reports I hear sound like such hostile experiences. If everytime I went to an amusement park I was harrassed I think I would find something new to do with my time.

Another saftey issue that needs to be considered: emergency evacuations. How is someone supposed to climb down a catwalk from 200 feet in the air when they can't see with sufficent clarity?

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Spinout said:
Just buy a hard shelled case for your glasses, and nothing will happen to them.

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...or I could just ride with them and not worry about it. Yay.

Lasik - 100% safe - how could that be possible? They put a laser to your eyeball, and cut open a thin layer (one tenth the thickness of a grape skin). Then, another laser blasts away garbage material in your eye. Which not only does that first laser make your cornea thinner than it should be to keep from forming a more severe eye disorder but the second one can potentially permanently "black blind" you. How do I know this? Because I am one of the horror stories. The surgery thinned my cornea just enough to allow keretoconus to form my corneas into tiny cone shaped and distort my vision. So now I have to type with a screen but a few inches from my face. The good news is that some of the most painful to wear rigid contacts correct my vision enough to allow me to drive, oh and a cure is hopefully somewhere in the next 10 years. But yeah everybody keep doing that Lasik eventually well all be blind together. YEAAAHHHHH!!!!

I believe I remember that Lasik recipients also aren't eligible for corrective surgery for detached retinas, should that condition arise later in life. Not really sure how they're related.

I'm not sure I buy this as being a park policy. They used to sell straps for glasses right in the line for TTD. I can't think of a coaster where I've ever felt like I would lose my glasses, much less combined with a strap. I've only had my glasses leave my face once and that was on bumper cars. I'll bet they don't require straps for that ride.

No, I don't think that is the point. At KD, both myself and my son were asked to remove our glasses each time we've ridden the Dominator. I have never been asked to do so, anywhere. Also, we wore them on the other rides at KD (and Busch as well) and were not asked to remove them. I would think that the Crypt would be one ride that they would do so since you are almost continuously flipped. They don't. It is only on Dominator. And, so far, they have been consistent about it. Someone told them to do so.

Believe it or not, CP Blue Streak took my well fitted prescription glasses right off my face. My girl buddy snatched them in midair. Good thing too, because I had driven that day. (stick shift)

I can see both sides in a general sense, but unless something drastic changed in moving Dominator to KD or VooDoo to Dorney, I don't understand the reasoning behind this. I had no problem with cheap sunglasses on either ride in their previous location.

I rode Dominator twice, roughly four hours ago, and was not asked to remove my sunglasses on either occasion.

For the record they were secured with a strap, but I did see people riding with unsecured glasses.

Seems like a whole lot of nothing to me.

The "unfair" part to me is that there's uneven enforcement. Once I was even E-stopped on the Knott's TopSpin after clearing my *secured* glasses with a ride op. Apparently he and the booth operator weren't on the same page. Then there's the Xcel vs. TTD question. On TTD, straps mean the glasses are "secured" and you can ride without a problem - while on Xcel, there's no way you can safely ride with glasses...but as mentioned before, they're FINE in your shirt pocket.

The ONLY times I've come close to losing strapped eyewear (my sunglasses ARE my prescription glasses) - both were at Schlitterbahn. Beware the BackSplash! No coaster has ever done anything REMOTELY that violent - and the only flatrides that have even *loosened* the strap were very aggressive TopSpins (which you typically can't get at any corporate park anyway).

Perhaps the state regulations in Ohio vs California are different?

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eightdotthree said:
Perhaps the state regulations in Ohio vs California are different?

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Heh...I wonder if that's ever put Carowinds in a pickle.

Dude, I think it was a trial thing at KD at Dominator. I was there a few days ago and no one was asked on the train to remove their glasses. Worse case, an op would remind them of the risk of losing glasses on the ride and that they might want to hold on to them, but did not force them to remove their glasses. I was on it four times. Once in the morning, a couple of times in early afternoon and later that evening before close and at all four occasions, not one operator, nor the controls make anyone remove their glasses on Dominator. Again, the worst they did was remind them that they might lose them on the ride and suggested holding on to them, but no one was told they had to take them off and secure them in a pocket or leave them behind.

That's good to know. They have fairly large storage bins for each train (okay, so now I am slightly changing my position on lockers on rides), and naturally glasses would end up on the bottom of the bin. I guess the solution would be to bring a an eyeglass case if asked to remove them.

The day we were there, one of the checkers was a lifeguard, so I'm wondering what the official policy will be once all employees are strictly dry-side.

One problem I noticed was that several people had lost baseball caps at the bottom of the cobra roll. Either that or they flew off going around the turn following the loop. I'm not sure if that was an oversight on the checkers or if people were holding onto the hats and then put them back on going up the lift.

At the CM Q&A Monty Jasper addressed the Xcelerator vs. TTD policy and told us he just found out about this two days ago (Im guessing from this site) and that "hes working on it."

Oh, really? You mean I might be able to finally ride Xcelerator next time I am in Buena Park? Cool!

(I missed the first half-hour or so of the Q&A)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.