Drop Rides and riders height/weight

I mean, cool, but people drowned under a boat, were ejected to their death on two separate rides, Cedar Point had a boat flip, and Holiday World just scrapped their ride because it sucked. I'm not in any hurry to put my kid on one of their water rides.

bigboy:

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.

One would think that a park might reconsider constructing a ride that has such a low max height requirement. I've been planning to ride Pantheon sometime this year, and I'm 6.5 feet. 76 inches is 6.3333 feet. I can't imagine spending all that time, money, and energy to be turned away for that reason.

Edit to add - I'm not 6.5 feet. I'm 6 feet one inch. I don't know what I was thinking when I typed that. But still, I know people who are six-and-a-half feet tall.

Only like 1% of the population is taller than 6'4". You can't build the church for Easter Sunday. I get that it's frustrating for that 1%, but I have can't see many parks making a decision on that basis.

Take your shoes off?

Oh, the irony of the 1% complaining about unfairness.

Ugh, I am just in the wrong 1% I guess. I have been a Six Flags America member for 10+years. I normally don't ride the inverted rollercoaster "Mind Eraser", however after attending and loving "Great Bear" at Hershey Park, I decided to give it a try because it is a similar ride. So, I rode the ride this weekend in the back row and it was pretty awesome. I mean, I couldn't see anything in front of me and was just being whipped all around, but whatever it was fun.

I then got right back in the line and wanted to try it from the front. I had to wait four rides as Fast Pass people jumped in front of me, so I sat there for 20 minutes when I could have hopped in any other seat. But NO, I have patience. One unusual thing about this ride is the operator of the ride is right next to the front seat Queue lane. As in I can reach out and touch the controls if I wanted to. Very odd in todays coaster world, but this ride is quite old. I imagine the "Operator" of the ride is the top dog of the employees. I did my best to slouch down, but as I tried to ride two rides in a row, nope "can we get a height check on this guy". The employee said "Really, I have to height check him!?!" She was embarrassed, but I just got up picked up my bag and walked out.

Adventure World*'s Mind Eraser was, if I remember right, a Rev. 1 machine, that is, the first batch of them to be produced after the prototypes, T2 and the one in the Netherlands. I do know it was the second one I ever rode. I seem to recall that there are cut-outs in some of the vertical supports because of clearance issues that were corrected in later models.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

*That's what they called the place the last time I was there...Six Flags America.

--DCAjr

He’s always hated you.
I don’t know what shoes has to do with height restriction. If you’re seated the thing that matters is the distance between your butt in the seat and that head/hand chopper. The only thing shoes would effect is the height of your knees.

You're correct in that the revised SLC layout (which premiered with Adventure World/SFA Mind Eraser, Top Gun at Paramount Canada's Wonderland and other rides in 1995) corrected a few tight spots for clearances. When Condor, the prototype at Walibi Holland, received its new Vekoma hangers with vests in 2021, the park had to get a local company to modifiy some supports. Turns out the new vests allowed guests to spread their arms more, which could put some riders too close to some supports exiting the Rollover. This is the result:

DoubleMeatTaco, I am hearing some strange things about how BGW is operating Pantheon. They are the same trains as Velocicoaster, yet BGW decided to throw on the 76" height restriction which Universal did not implement. Velocicoaster also require guests to be 51" tall to ride, while Pantheon is 52" minimum. The weirdest thing though is this: if any guests appear overweight, the ride operators will try on purpose to show a red light on the sensor if the rider secured its restraint. I've had multiple friends show a green light on the restraint and then having one or two ride operator appear, mention they don't know if they can fit on the ride. Then, they'll violently pull on the restraint, hoping for a brief moment for a red light to appear and giving them an excuse to kick the rider off with no guest recovery offered.

This damages the restraint locking cylinders and wear them out prematurely and also make the guests angry. What is Busch Gardens end game in this?

I doubt very much that a ride op pulling on a restraint causes any more damage than the full weight of an occupant pushing against it during the ride.

Absimilliard:

What is Busch Gardens end game in this?

Why does their always have to be something foolish or nefarious behind parks making decisions that don't make sense to the layman? Ever consider the idea that the park knows something we don't? If they're doing it, there's likely a good reason beyond just pissing people off since, you know, that can be bad for business.

BigBoy, seeing that no one else in the industry, including the chinese parks and the german park with one of those ride are not doing it, it is a SEAS decision. If there were any reasons to do it for safety or redundancy, the CSEI (chinese safety commission that certify rides) would demand parks in China do it. The TUV offices in Germany who inspect many european rides also don't require it and it is not part of Intamin standard operating policies. The CSEI had an important workshop at IAAPA Expo in Orlando in 2019 as that market is now so important for manufacturer that they explained to foreign suppliers what they were expecting in rides now. That's how much weight they have on the industry and their word is god in China: we are starting to see perfectly good roller coasters get removed since they reached "the end of their service life" according to the CSEI. In the case of a Vekoma or B&M coaster, its 20 years and as I saw when I visited TRON backstage in Shanghai, it also applies to Shanghai Disneyland according to its hidden CSEI certification plate.

On the topic of wear and tear for the restraint cylinders, they are not meant to be pulled so suddently in such a way and at the minimum, will add cycles to their use. They will have to replace them more often.

All of that talk is a mile wide and an inch deep. Again, not knowing or liking the reason doesn’t mean there isn’t one. No amount of trying to position yourself as a knowledgeable industry insider can change that.

And I still call BS on the restraint durability. I asked a friend who builds such things, he confirms. That tug is not even in the same universe as what it endures during the ride.

My college age son, who will be a Sophomore at Penn State next year, went with a 5 of his friends for two days last week to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I have read the reviews, and I have zero desire to travel 4-hours to get denied due to height, so I'm just not going to go. Then to top it off, I get this response from my son. Salt in the wound. It really does hurt :(

It took me till my last day but I got my lap, Veliciocoaster is better.

^ Not even close, man... At this point, I am persuaded you just like all the controversial coasters... Such as Magnum, for example... Pantheon is not even in the same league as VC, even if you took away all the theming!

But it's OK, I still appreciate ya.

Pantheon has one stand out element (the three launches with the bunny hill) Veliciocoaster’s entire second half is a standout moment, that’s not saying Pantheon is bad, but I haven’t ridden on a new steel coaster and immediately knew it was a top ten for a long time.