I can't believe what I saw on A coaster show!!!
What park did you work at Mustang? At Cedar Point, we were allowed to ask someone to remove their shoes. We did this many times and on several occasions found that shoes were stuffed with things such as paper towels, foot inserts, wooden blocks, you name it. It is even stated in the park map. "Cedar Point reserves the right to ask that shoes be removed to ensure that a child's height is not being artificially enhanced or manipulated." It also says that, "a standard play shoe, which does not contribute excessively to the child's height, will be permitted." Platform shoes are a no go. It's also worth noting that ride ops have the power to tell someone that they are not riding if they don't follow the rules, according to the Ohio revised code. We made many people walk through. Most of them were smokers, yellow line violators, line jumpers, etc.
I agree that people who try to bend the rules to get their child on the ride are not setting a good example and should really re-evaluate their priorities. What is more important? A ride on a coaster or your child's life?
Something else I noticed in one of the shows last night was a guy with a video camera on one of the rides. I believe it was one of the beach rides, not one at a major park.
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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
I think that a lot of non-corportate parks are a little more lenient about these things such as video cameras and height requirements. (this certainly doesn't justify anything, but the idea is true).
I don't mean to call Belmont Park irresponsible here, but I think it is a pronounced fact that they are not as strict as a park that belongs to a corporate chain.
"keep your arms inside the car at all times..."
Rule at all parks....how many of you hold ur hands up when riding...I'd bet nearly ALL of you. Wel lyou are breaking a rule made "for your safety"...back off the kid and the people who do this sorta thing...
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No Limits is every enthusiasts best friend! :)
Some people think that an inch or two does not matter however if the child who was too short was allowed to ride and got scared they could easily weasel out of the harness and/or lap bar so an inch or two DOES matter.And about the hands and arms thing it is a tad different for someone to have their arms out of the car and risk it chopped off than a smaller child to slip out or fly out of the car and get killed.although they are not that different they both are safety matters however the designers of the rides make sure that even those who don't keep their arms inside the car they make the rides so they don;t get chopped off by the way the rides are designed.
*** This post was edited by RaptorTwister on 7/7/2002. ***
What else? Back off the camera toters, too? Just because they've done it before, are members of ACE, or other reasons should those kinds of people be entitled to endanger me?
But, this is entirely different here. Back off, let the people decide the level of safety for themselves, then be a recipiant of news of kids falling out of rides. GREAT! That's real sweet;(.
You people are amazing.
All riders should have to wait. If you're kid(s) are too short to ride, plan something else, don't be selfish. If you know your kids are gonna be too short, they will have to wait until they are of a safe height.
If/when I have kids, it will be my responsibility to plan according to our limits, LOL. No child of mine will EVER get on a ride until they're plenty tall enough. I shouldn't expect that parks will allow leeway in that situation.
It amazes me that there are hardcore enthusiasts here who have advocated that trying to be taller than you are is ok. I believe most enthusiasts know how rides are designed and how each safety function works together to create a safe ride experience for all.
By advocating it is ok to lie and try to cheat the height requirement, you are threatening your ability to continue to ride these same attractions. All that needs to happen is one bad accident involving a height issue, and that ride will be history. That is not worth it in my book. I myself had to wait many years before I was able to ride my first real coaster, Tornado at Adventureland. Every year we would visit and I was still to short. (really only two years) But I can sit here today and say that I am happy I was too short. Because had there not been a height restriction or had it not been enforced, it would have been my luck to be sent headfirst into the ground after I was ejected.
I prefer to live a few years not able to ride something as opposed to being dead.
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wof fan
If she was tall enough, she was tall enough, period. I've taken my niece to parks with me and had ride ops measure her one day, to find she was tall enough, and another, to find she was not. ON THE SAME RIDE.
When your kid is on the cuff, sometimes something as simple as a hairstyle or what the child is wearing will make a large difference in whether they get to ride the ride or not. If it works, why not try it.
Great, now we've got the height police...
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"Escuse me, can you tell me where the heck the Mystery Lodge is"?
If some of you actually bothered to watch to segment rather the resorting to knee-jerk reactions, you could see she was obviously tall enough to ride the coaster. Her hairstyle actually put her over the line. She was riding with her mom and was allowed by the employees to ride.
No one is advocating breaking any rules. She was tall enough, fair and square.
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"Escuse me, can you tell me where the heck the Mystery Lodge is"?
*** This post was edited by RaptorTwister on 7/7/2002. ***
Also, hair does not count as height, at least when we measured kids at CP. That bar had to be stopped by the kid's scalp, head, or whatever, in order for them to be good to go. Brushing through someone's spiked up hair was not good enough. Like RaptorTwister said, CP has official measurement spots in the Park Op Office, Soak City Gate, and Town Hall Museum. Even if a kid has a wristband, the ops usually do a quick check and if it's close, the writband gets them on. If they are still obviously too short, then they probably did something shady to get the wristband in the first place.
Also, I think this reaction is caused by the fact that the segment could be paraphrased something like this: "There was one problem. In order to ride, she has to be 50 inches tall. She is only 49 inches tall. But today, with her big shoes and new hairstyle, she makes it." It's not a knee jerk reaction. I know from working a ride that this is exactly the kind of crap that people try to pull every day and they're not very smart to do so. If the park is careful about measuring, most of them probably get caught, but in many cases they probably get away with it. Inversion or classic woodie? It makes no difference! Manufacturers and parks set the height requirement based on the design of the restraints, not whether a ride has inversions or not. For example, Corkscrew and Raptor both go upside down, but their restraints differ and thus their height requirement differs. Millennium Force is the tallest coaster and North America and just because your 48.5 inch kid can ride that does not mean they can ride Raptor, Mantis, Wicked Twister, or Power Tower. The restraints differ - end of story.
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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
MDomnis,
Slight glitch in what you said there. Nothing against you, but I'll quickly correct it:
Millennium Force is the second tallest coaster in North America. Superman: The Escape is still the tallest, unless MF has gained 105 feet that I don't know about...
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"What am I doing?"
"OoooohwhAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
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Can we change the name of Top Gun to your mom so no one wants to ride your mom?
I did not mean anything hostile in the least by that post, Teenage Ninja; that said, however, it seems unlikely that S:TE's car regularly fails to go more than 310 feet up the tower. I am not trying to start any arguments, and I do not mean to be attacking either coaster in question. I was going by pure track height measurement in my post.
Back to the topic: That probably was a very bad idea. Height requirements should not be compromised. Here's why: People might well argue, "My child is two inches shorter than the height requirement. A girl on a TV show I saw once was let on this coaster though she was one inch too short. If you can let one inch slide, why not two?" and the amount of "leeway" could rapidly snowball from there. Let the girl anticipate the ride while she grows that one inch; it might make it even better! In the meantime, she should stick to kiddie coasters, for which she most likely would meet the height requirements.
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"What am I doing?"
"OoooohwhAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
I think that if kids do not meet the hight requirment they should wait.. Kids have plenty of time to reach the right size and there are a lot of rides the park offer to youngsters. Kids should be able to enjoy what is offered to them.
Just my opinion.
Edit: Removed my stupid preaching that had nothing to do with this topic.
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KoRn is the Mellennium Force of ROCK
*** This post was edited by dexter on 7/9/2002. ***
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"Escuse me, can you tell me where the heck the Mystery Lodge is"?
We should know by now that ride height requirement are not a perfect science. Otherwise you wouldn't have Cedar Fair changing their's like a ladder every other year.
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"Escuse me, can you tell me where the heck the Mystery Lodge is"?
Hey Dexter, no offense but it is impolite to try and criticize someones penmanship when you left the "S" off of put's.
Let's try to stay on the real topic of height requirements. I have already submitted my two cents.
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wof fan
*** This post was edited by Matt on 7/9/2002. ***
WoodenCyclone said:
I dident see anything wrong with it, becuase it's not like she was riding alone, she was with her parents and her mother was holding onto her,but
That's scary logic. Really scary. Terrifying to an amusement park and it's legal concerns, surely. A judgment call from the parents is satisfactory to take higher priority than the recommendations of the ride manufacturer?
SFGAMDie HARD said:
Wow, this room must be forum must be filled with naturally tall people.
Actually, die hard, I'm five foot four. Additionally, the coolest thing to see is not someone breaking the rules and risking future amusement park enjoyment for others, but someone who is responsible and has fear and respect for the amusement park ride.
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