Overweight Harry Potter fans turned away from Forbidden Journey

Actually, I think Credit and his kind should be thanking those of us who are not of the perfect weight. After all, we are the people who spend more than our share of money on all those unhealthy goodies the parks sell at grossly inflated prices. Money that by the way, makes up a sizable chunk of revenue that corps like Cedar Fair and Six Flags report every year in their financials.

Now I suppose Cedar Fair and the other big boys could take the initiative and switch out cheeseburgers and chicken fingers in favor of celery and carrot sticks. Good luck charging $16.50 for that though. That's going to be a big hit in the pocketbook. The other alternative is that we fat, obese, overweight slobs put down the plastic fork as Mr. h0 says, and stop spending money totally and immediately on all that calorie rich fare offered by those same parks that have test seats at the fronts of their ride queues. But when that happens, the park will have to make up all that lost revenue somehow. The only way will be to raise the admission fee for everyone, including those of perfect body proportions, or to greatly reduce the expenditures on future rides. So when there are no more new rides to slide your toned buttocks into, you'll regret the day you shamed us into giving up nachos and caramel corn.

BTW, have you ever seen someone doing the walk of shame from an ice cream or pizza stand at an amusement park? You know, head down, disappointed, empty handed. Didn't think so. Guess these Harry Potter fans should just drown their sorrows in a large order of fries and a souvenir cup full of soda.

The fries at UO suck. :) I would also mention that the park actually has quite a few real healthy options, and not just in some remote stand buried deep in some corner of the park. It's pretty much everywhere. I mean, who else sells grapes from a midway cart?

I'm sorry, but I'm not with you on this one RGB. While I don't agree with Credit here either, it strikes me as pretty far off base to associate park profits with American obesity. If that were the case, how would parks like Alton Towers or Europa Park get by? (operating on the assumption that the Euro-park extreme girth crowd is significantly smaller than at US parks)

I would bet money that the average park sells far more deep fried Oreos (side note: drool...) and other horribly fattening, unhealthy goodies to their crowd of average-sized guests than they do to their unhealthily obese crowd, solely based on the fact that there are far more average-sized guests than super-sized ones. I mean, park treats are just that, treats... I'm pretty sure funnel cake shouldn't be a staple of anyone's diet. Sure, it's nice if there are healthy options at an amusement park, but they're by no means necessary.

You've met me and may remember that I'm not a large person to begin with, but I'm pretty confident that if my weight ever started ballooning skyward, I'd be doing something about it long before it started keeping my off amusement rides. IMO parks are places to indulge a bit, and I would never show up to one expecting to start my diet.

I'd hazard a guess that if all of the most obese park guests were suddenly average-sized people with average-sized park food consumption habits, parks' bottom lines wouldn't flinch a bit.

- Bill (who chases his mayo-dipped Potato Patch fries with the largest soda he can find and an order of deep fried Oreos to boot, every time)

Sorry RGB, I am not with you on this one either. Nobody said anything about not enjoying a burger with fries when at the park, but this is to be taken in with moderation.

Fast Food per se is not unhealthy, but if you start with a breakfast burito, double cheesburger meal for lunch and fried chicken for dinner, 7 times a week, you will get problems(including maybe not being able to get on some rides)

Part of the problem is that as many posters have said, it is impossible to make restraints that will fit everyone, but our society is geared towards everyone having the right to access every experience, therefore people have the expectation of being able to ride everything.

I am 199cm tall and have great problems on many rides, and increasingly it seems, am too tall for some. This annoys me greatly but there is nothing I can do about this so it is not worth throwing all the toys out the pram everytime this happens. I currently am nursing a few bruises on my shoulders from the Vekoma SLC at Flamingoland!! Admitedly, when I get to IOA next year, if i cant fit on The Forbidden Journey, I will be gutted, but I would rather that than seriously injured. If all seats were designed to make me comfortable, imagine how tall the height restriction would have to be, and how many riders would be excluded as a result? Likewise for weight and girth - surely designers will have done their research and hit broadly down the middle.

I think some of the postings on here have been a little harsh, but if being overweight is through lifestyle choice as opposed to a medical issue, and that choice means you cant do something you enjoy, then that sounds like a great motivator to do something about it rather than expecting the whole industry to change.

Anyone else here ever have to stuff a heavy guest with coaster patches all over their jacket into an Arrow Mine Train Car? The back right seat is a bit bigger but the ride is designed to restrain kids so many don't fit and have to do the walk of shame. I remember hearing several times "BUT I FIT INTO THIS LAST YEAR!!!". Clearly someone got into the snacks during the winter.

It would be nice if all the old mine trains got new individual restraints like at Great Adveture and Hershey. They are much better for everyone especially those who are taller.

^Amen to that. No one has been able to best Arrow/Morgan individual U-bars for the combination of comfort and fit a wide range of body types on a steel coaster.

Comfortable? Only if there isn't any air time. You've gotta clamp down the seatbelts on Magnum or you're going to have bruised thighs.

I would argue that is more a function of Magnum being its crazy ejector air self. I don't have the same problem on Gemini or any other Arrow/Morgan hyper and they all have airtime.

This has not been brought up.But the ride manufacturer may have done this on purpose because the arm has a max weight limit.If 4 persons of large size ride together it may exceed the max weight for the arm.Is it better to tell guests they will not be safe or that they are too big and the ride can't lift them.

If this is true we may see a two or three person bigger person seats

Kevin38

If the arm can only lift a certain amount, then telling a guest they can not ride because it would be unsafe would be correct.

But that would not necessitate turning away larger customers. You put four people in the car, the servo kicks in, and if the arm is overweight the system should be able to detect it quickly and tell the operator to take someone off. Then you remove a rider to the next car, and the problem is solved. You put the heavier riders in the middle seats, whatever. Because it is a multi-passenger vehicle, there should be no need to exclude a rider who is above average weight because the important factor is the total weight of the passenger load, not the weight of any given rider.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

But what if the next 3 people are still going to make it over weight? And the next 3? How many times do you make the bigger person wait before they get on, at the expense of capacity? That whole scenerio was what the guy was talking about not being able to design it for everyone to fit.

You don't (necessarily) take off the fat guy. You take off *someone* and send the ride out with 3 total people strapped in, rather than 4. Weigth issue eliminated. And if 3 people really weigh enough that they exceed the maximum weight of a ride designed for 4 people, they probably don't fit in the ride anyway.

Tekwardo said:
But what if the next 3 people are still going to make it over weight? And the next 3? How many times do you make the bigger person wait before they get on, at the expense of capacity? That whole scenerio was what the guy was talking about not being able to design it for everyone to fit.

Forbidden Journey checks size before you enter the queue, then at the end of the queue they have an entire ride car where larger groups were being asked to sit before they reach the moving walkway and get on the ride. I don't know if in fact there is a scale on that car or not, just witnessed a number of groups with larger guests being asked to try it out.

8.3, that would be fine, since you have 2 shots to see if you'll be able to ride, that doesn't necessarily impact capacity. And it doesn't have to be the bigger person to wait like was said by BB, but still once you get there, and wait, it starts to suck capacity.

I'm not saying that I think the restraints are made too small on purpose, though, cause that was what the OP suggested. I think they make them broad enough to fit people, and if you can't fit, it may not even be that you weigh too much. The only place I've seen it say anything about certain weighted people not riding was in the article, and that wasn't correct, because they even admitted that a taller person who weighed the same was able to ride.

Tekwardo said:
but still once you get there, and wait, it starts to suck capacity.

Have you been on the ride yet? Not sure if you have or not but the way it works is you get to the "end" of the queue where there is an op seating people based on the size of the group numbers wise. That's where the single rider line gets merged as well. That op sends people to either try out the test seat where there is another op helping them or to one of maybe four additional queues before you get on the ride.

It would take an extreme case where the process would take away from the overall capacity of the ride.

You could also design it so that there is only one or two "big seats" per arm to limit group waits. No one is going to complain their group is split up if it is because they cant fit in the normal seats.

^Overly complex solution that doesn't solve the problem. You've obviously never worked in a queue line. Splitting up a party for ANY reason, other than Group is X persons and ride vehicle is X-y seats is a disaster. People don't understand, will argue, hold up the line further, etc., then having to tell them that they are being split up because one is too large is just unworkable.

The current solution works just fine. Multiple shots at test seat, currently enough staff to handle the queue positions to flag potential issues, and a one size seat that fits most , except the ends of the normal distribution. The problem is that Americans are pushing the bell curve off the scale (pardon the pun) at the high end.

While I sympathize with those of extreme natural body dimensions that preclude them from riding Forbidden Journey, the manufacturers just can't design a one size fits all that truly fits ALL.

And as for all the grief in this thread about the way I phrased the obesity problem, well, tough (except for the inappropriate use of one word, I forgot where I was posting). As someone else above said, they were actually losing weight by drinking water (instead of sodas), eating fresh fruit (instead of sugary treats), etc. Those things work, as well as reasonable portions, and (wait for it) exercise. I'm not saying it's easy, but you didn't get fat overnight, and you won't lose it overnight either. Blaming the ride manufacturers because you're 5'8" and 265 and can't fit; and me for pointing out the obvious solution, is just absurd.