Kids rides and height measurement

JohnMosesBrowning said:
The ride op is just doing their job. Don’t blame a young person who just wants to do a good job. I have to check id’s before I sell tobacco. Should I give someone slack because they are ALMOST 18?

Wait...who is this in response to? Perhaps re reading what I said if that’s supposed to go to me. I’m saying the ride op is not doing their job if they DON’T measure a kid even with a wristband.

you can do it at the Park entrance (by the big Pop stand on the left as you come in) but some Attendants don't give 2 cents about it (one told me it wasn't as accurate as the poles....Pardon me?) What about consistency???? they should see the wristband and say ok your fine not question it! Kinda made me mad.

I usher at a Big name music Venue in the area and I have to check tickets and keep people from smoking so I know how things go in dealing with people (I have to make sure people are not coming down from the "cheap seats" by checking and people get angry I check over and over but I see tons of people during the course of the show and its a blur), so I understand the attendants but still if you are checked at the main location and get a wristband it should be honored 100%. at the main height check they make the kids take their hats off (made my son take off his and he still made the 48" mark but the attendant at Wave Swinger was probably having a bad day and was being snotty about it) we had no problems on any other rides at 48". If you have a Wristband System for Kids Honor it!

That's not the total purpose of the wristband though. It's a tool to help ride hosts when they're on the fence about whether the child is safely able to ride. It's not a free pass into the ride like FastLane+ or a Platinum Pass.

That just creates confusion, the parents think when they get the wristband the kids OK to ride that height and below, how can they be on the border when the person at the main entrance doing the check swings the metal bar on top of their head (without their hat) and he makes the height? Shouldn't the white poles with the stripes and the metal "check" apparatuses all be the same?? More of that consistency thing.....just sayin

Again, that’s why there should be some leeway. Never mind the fact that kids’ shoe soles vary greatly. Kids who are the exact same height can either make it or miss it by 1/4-1/2” depending on what kind of shoe they’re wearing. And neither child is in any more “danger” than the other. Eyeball it. Looks good? Have fun! That’s the Disney way.

And that would make everyone's life easier; workers, kids, and parents.

If it's so close that you have to bring out the idiotic swinging metal apparatus, the kid is fine. And then you see the employees who swing it back and forth slowly again and again...squinting...as if they are peering into a microscope trying to solve some meaningful problem.

But...as others have stated, this is their job. The problem lies with this being part of their job. The training for checking height should be exactly what was just mentioned. Eyeball it.

Then again, some people's eyeballs need adjusting.

I'm only 6-2, and I say only because I don't even come close to being "too tall" to ride something. Twice at the beginning of the season...both on Maverick...I was stopped at the entrance to check my height to see if I was too tall. I thought they were joking, but nope...they made me stand there against the stick.

My girls sure got a kick out it, though. Maybe they can make some "short enough to ride" wristbands for 2019?

And then there is the CP way, the Disney way is not necessarily the correct way. A person who is too short may not even be in danger of falling out of some ride but can be tossed around too much because they are small, which can lead to injury. You can bet that if a 47.5" kid hurts themselves or gets tossed the parents would be first in line to sue the park because the ride op allowed their undersize kid to ride.

And while I agree, that risk exists everywhere, and yet, I have never been to another park that does it this way on such a consistent basis. And to be fair, this isn't always the case (depending on the employee) at Cedar Point, either, it just seems to be the norm.

It's not just Disney, it's literally every other park we have ever visited. Anecdotal, of course, and I appreciate the concern for safety.

I certainly wouldn't let it ruin our day at Cedar Point. It's happened quite a bit over the years, but you just move on.

^^ If that were truly something the park was concerned about, they would make all kids remove their shoes and measure barefoot, because you can’t tell me that in a lawyer’s eyes, a kid’s shoes would count toward their total height to make the park’s height requirement. That’s why parks add on inches to the manufacturer’s recommendations.

^CP's policy, and this is official and posted publicly at the height stand at Lost Persons in Kiddie Kingdom, is that a "standard play shoe" that doesn't excessively boost their height is OK. One implication of this (if memory serves) is that if you are just barely 48" in reasonable shoes but under 48" barefoot, you can ride Snake River Falls only with shoes while people who are tall enough barefoot can ride barefoot. In fact, I seem to vaguely remember this policy being applied to me, presumably in 2006 when I was barely 48". Same should go for Thunder Canyon and 46".

The swinging bar apparatus likely exists because metal is more consistent than the plastic height sticks. Obviously you can't control thermal expansion on the stand or the guest's spinal compression, but the stand CAN be more accurate vs. the sticks due to the gradual weardown that occurs to height sticks as they are ground down by normal use. Also, the crossbeam on the stand provides a simpler "yes or no" answer (depending on the guest's hair, it's sometimes a bit more complicated) compared to trying to hold your hand level or eyeball the height stick.

Make a bridge to run under. If they clunk their heads they’re good.

I had a friend with two kids, and one of them took after the freakishly tall side of the family. Unfortunately, she was the younger one, and to the older one most things in life just seemed like all kinds of unfairness. So when they got to “that age” she just quit taking them to places like that and waited til both kids were above the height req. Then they could decide on their own to ride or not.

Parents get their kids measured all of the time. Then they rip the wristband off of their tallest kid and put it on their youngest kid to fool the ride hosts. Happens ALL OF THE TIME! That’s why I am all for ride hosts thoroughly measuring kids at ride entrances/stations to ensure they meet the requirement whether they have a wristband or not.

So I'm assuming the same parents try and make their kids shorter at the ticket booths?

^^ Maybe if Cedar Point’s policy wasn’t to ruin the day of a kid who’s 1/32” too short to ride, they wouldn’t have as many parents trying to cheat the system.

RCMAC said:

Make a bridge to run under. If they clunk their heads they’re good...

That sound like a policy my dad would have come up with.

CPVet said:

^^ Maybe if Cedar Point’s policy wasn’t to ruin the day of a kid who’s 1/32” too short to ride, they wouldn’t have as many parents trying to cheat the system.

I used to be a cashier many years ago. One day, I had someone who was 1 day too young to buy a bottle of wine. Legally, I could not sell it to him because he was still too young to buy any type of alcohol. But in your theory, ehhh... what's one day?

There's a quote: "It's a height requirement, NOT a height suggestion."

One is a literal law and one is an arbitrary policy manufactured by an organization. Not the same thing. Listen, I have no dog in this race. I have no kids and probably never will. Maybe one day I’ll be able to take my still unborn niece or nephew to Cedar Point, but that’s the extent of how much this truly affects me. But what a lot of you just don’t get is that NO OTHER PARK cares as much as Cedar Point does. Other parks would rather make the kid happy and let them ride than squabble over and create a terrible guest experience over a nearly immeasurable height difference. Especially when all it would take is for Billy to switch shoes with Johnny who has a slightly thicker sole, and all of a sudden Billy is tall enough to ride. How does that seem right to anyone?

^One is literally law. The other is literally a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The park wants to ruin kids days... Wow! that’s the dumbest crap I’ve ever read here, it makes the drone morality thread read like Socrates.

Because it the law is equal to Because it's Legal.

CPVet said:

^^ Maybe if Cedar Point’s policy wasn’t to ruin the day of a kid who’s 1/32” too short to ride, they wouldn’t have as many parents trying to cheat the system.

It's not a matter of ruining a kids day, it's a matter of under x height is not safe to ride a ride.