Drop Rides and riders height/weight
Hey tall guys. Any word on how strict they are on the Pantheon coaster? I was talking to various enthusiasts and they said they were VERY strict on the 76". They might have one of those upside down L shaped measuring poles that you need to fit under (not verified.) I just measured myself (without shoes on) and I am 76.5", which sound right since I BARELY squeak under the 77" height for Kingda Ka. Any updates from tall folks turned away?
Never had a problem on any drop ride, but several coasters have been difficult for my 6'6" 270# frame. I am all torso and arms - I wear the most common length of pants for men. The only straight up "sorry, sir..." I regularly got was on the various Deja Vus. Sometimes the one in Atlanta would let me on and those head/footchoppers were intense at this height.
My trouble usually comes from the ostr angle to get to locked position. If the mechanism could go out an inch or two then down, instead of just down, I'd probably have very few issues. I find I just barely fit in the railblazer trains - trying to get out of the car at Wonder Woman in San Antonio was entertaining for the crowd. V2 and the like are right out, and some of the older RMC lap/shin bars hit my lap in a weird place preventing the lock.
My worst day for fitting in rides was at SFFT, Wonder Woman was a close call, Goliath was fine, Superman, Batman, and Rattler were out - and two of those were my main reason for visiting. Ah well. :/
I guess I will stick with Six Flags and Hershey Park this year. It's not a shabby one-two punch, I'll have to push Busch Gardens for 2023, especially when I see this **** where I would not be allowed to ride https://parkrovers.com/home/2022/3/9/pantheons-max-rider-height-76-is-strictly-enforced-at-busch-gardens-williamsburg
Shades, sorry my last comment wasn't very clear. My kids wanted to go to Busch Gardens this summer, I told them we were going to wait and hit Busch Gardens next summer instead. Regardless, I won't be riding Pantheon this year or next year unless they change the MAX height to 77". Oh well, plenty of other coaster to ride.
So as an update, I was able to ride Pantheon 4x a few months ago over two days. Didn't think I would, but was never checked!
At the end of the night, I did see them actively checking and did deny two people, but somehow I managed to not be noticed. So that was a nice surprise.
That's what is really frustrating, a lot of times it just depends on the teenage kid working and if they want to confront a 6'5" adult. I have noticed that if managers are around (different colored shirts) they would enforce the rules much more strictly than if alone with another teenage worker. The height restriction on Superman at Six Flags America is 76", however I have been riding that ride for 15-years and have NEVER been questioned. That was until last year, when some kid let me ride the coaster 4-times in a row (no crowd) then called me over to let me know I was too tall but was being nice. Ah, "OK, thanks man, I really appreciate that" was my response. There is zero reason on that ride for a height restriction.
The best analogy I can think of is of a cop pulling someone over for speeding 58-MPH in a 55-MPH zone. Yes, technically they can ticket you for that, but really cop?
Maximum height restrictions typically have something to do with the reach envelope, for which height is the only proxy you can really use to measure.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
If they have a maximum height requirement, there's a reason. Parks with the intent of making people happy and getting their money typically don't create arbitrary rules to piss off people who think the world owes them every possible convenience.
It would be nice if there were some indication of what the reasoning is for the restriction...that is, is the issue reach, leg extension, or something else. People tend not to all be of the same ratios, believe it or not, which is why I sit up higher in a seat than someone who is 2" taller than me. .I seem to recall a story about an ACE ERT somewhere where taller riders were asked to reach for the ceiling in the station, and if they could touch it were told to keep their arms down during the ride to avoid hitting anything. Well you can do that with a group of ACEers during ERT. In normal operation that tall person is as likely to take that as a challenge.
But it would be nice if there were some way to individually evaluate riders who fail the "can't be taller than this" test to decide whether some of them could be allowed to ride.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
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A person's head to toe height is a simple yes-no test that a ride operator can use quickly. If you layer on something like interpreting someone's body type or reach, you're just asking for trouble.
Someone 6'2" could have a longer 'reach' than someone 6'6", or have a longer torso (therefor the head is not supported by the headrest) compared to someone who has a shorter torso but longer legs. As we all know, body proportions vary a bit.
Intamin simply chose these height limits as that is what they designed the trains around (head rest height, restraints, etc...), 99th percentile for men or whatever and all that jazz. It's not the reach envelope in all cases. Most all Intamin's produced have 76-78" height limits, but they only actively check/enforce on a few.
Some other parks enforce max height limits by confirming that the headrest supports the head properly for max height, versus a blanket max height :) Which is a better approach IMO, due to the whole varying body proportion thing.
Yes, anecdotally you could find variations in reach relative to height, but statistically it's valid to say the taller you are, the further you can reach.
The solution isn't varying on height, it's designing with a larger reach envelope.
Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
I just returned from a trip to Europe and I had a very close call with a ride with my height: the Tivoli ladybug coaster at Bellewaerde in Belgium. Its an ancient 1981 Zierer large tivoli, that will get removed after this season and the park added a roof above the lift. The roof is so low that at 6'3, if I barely raised my hand above my head, I was touching the roof crossbeams! Funnily, there was no maximum height limit listed for this ride. Attached is a POV of the ride showing the roof.
Looking back at it, you can see how Zierer evolved the layout to have better clearances when you compare with the ones Six Flags/Premier Parks purchased around 2000. The Bellewaerde version opened in 1981 and will be removed after this season, for replacement with a new Intamin prototype river rapid. The new Intamin river rapid will feature a tall lift hill and slide section. It will then go up a tall elevator lift before dropping into an Half-Pipe, all aboard a rigid Intamin river rapids boat.
They've done quite a few water rides in Europe and elsewhere since, all who worked out great. Chiapas at Phantasialand, a new flume at Family Park in Austria, second largest river rapids in the world in China and a few others. Its Silver Dollar City who currently struggles with Mystic River Falls, which is not an Intamin ride. WhiteWater West, who purchased the Hopkins name and patents failed hard in Korea when they sold a Super Flume (think of Dollywood's flume, Splash Mountain at WDW) to Everland. The resulting flume soak riders to the bones, as the engineers had no control on water flow, leading to a rough ride that splashes water everywhere. Given the local guests who tend to dress up when going to the park, is a major issue. Then, WhiteWater sold another flume to Calaway Park up in Canada: its a nice flume featuring a moving station, coaster drop and elevated section. It opened on the last weekend of the year.
Back to Bellewaerde, this is what they are getting: 
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