Height requirement

WolfBobs said:
One thing to remember is that the human spine compresses throughout the day. Which probably explains why height stands will barely hit his head on some rides and then not on others.

The Power Tower measuring platform was simply wrong last year. I took my daughter to Gatekeep and Windseeker and she was a half inch taller at those. Went to Power Tower right after getting off WS and was turned away. A couple weeks later, they measured her again, and her hair was barely stopping the post from swinging over her so they let her ride.

I didn't berate the OP like some do. It's not their fault. I think I might have sent an e-mail to guest relations to have it checked, because there was a discernible difference from that one to the other 52" rides. I don't think they ever fixed it, but I did notice the OPs later in the season were going by their yellow poles more often and only using the platform thing when it was obvious the child was too short.

Oh I don't doubt the heights sticks or measuring stands vary. I know at GL ours varied quite a bit, we tried to measure them as frequently as possible to make sure things were as correct as possible. Those PVC sticks you see most entrance hosts using tend to grind down over the course of the summer as hosts bang them on the ground, drag them around, etc. The steel ones. No explanation there other then they weren't made properly.

My last season at SFWoA we installed actual rulers on 2X4s' and that seemed to help quite a bit with measuring kids. Parents being able to see that it wasn't just an arbitrary stick and could see actual inches from an independent manufacturer tended to deter some arguments.

I can't imagine the steel height measurement thingies are made to the most exacting tolerances. They're going to vary by a few millimeters one way or another. So, if your child is right at that point where the bar just grazes his or her head on one ride, it's inevitable that it's going to miss completely on others.

Yes, but we are talking about 1/2 to 3/4" difference between WS and PT. I'm not expecting laser precision here, but that's a pretty significant difference.

^ We experienced the exact same situation with PT as well. The day my son first rode WS and GK his head stopped the bar, but barely. When we walked over to PT he walked up to the height stand and you could almost fit a finger in between the bar and his head, my guess is close to 1/2" difference on that one. Seems like the other 52" rides were all very close to each other, perhaps a few mm off like dj suggested.

Altor said:

Yes, but we are talking about 1/2 to 3/4" difference between WS and PT. I'm not expecting laser precision here, but that's a pretty significant difference.

I pointed out only one factor. There are other factors - the fact that you shrink as the day goes on, posture won't be identical each time, temperature causes materials to change dimensions slightly, etc.

Add all the factors up, and it can easily explain the discrepancies between rides.

EDIT: As an example... Let's say Guest is measured as OK for 52" Ride A. Then, on 52" Ride B, the height measurement thingie is 5mm taller. And Guest isn't stretching quite as tall as on Ride A, but just slightly so, resulting in being an imperceptible 3mm shorter. Plus, it's later in the day and all else being equal, Guest's joints have compressed to the point that, all else being equal, Guest is now 9mm shorter. Plus, the temperature has changed such that the measurement thingie is now 3mm taller, even if all measurement thingies were dimensionally identical.

Add it all up (5 + 3 + 9 + 3 = 20), and you're looking at ~.8" inches of difference between Ride A and Ride B, all explained by completely reasonable - and unavoidable - factors.

I 100% agree with getting officially measured! We recently visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg and I liked how their Official Measurement Station was set up. There was a slider my boys stood against which then translated to the appropriate colored wristband.

My youngest (pictured below) just hit 42" and only got double checked on one ride (Curse of DarKastle). His little head just scraped the measuring bar at the ride but because of the wristband he was cleared!

I had a case over the summer at STR where 4 different people on my crew had to explain to an angry father that the 3" spike of hair on the top of his daughters head doesn't make her 46" even though she had the 46" band from guest services.

^^Yes! Or the pony tail on the top of the head. Etc. So many tricks and it all effects the child's safety.

Once, on MaXair, I had a grandfather walk up with his much too short granddaughter. Like, we're talking a good 6 inches. I didn't even have to measure. Of course, out of courtesy I did, but again, she's way too short.

The grandfather proceeds to think that I'm being unreasonable, and suggests that she take HIS place on the ride. I told him, it's not that you can't ride and she can, it's that she's physically incapable of riding the ride.

So, he tells me that he'll walk her across the platform and ride. I tell one of the other hosts to make sure she doesn't ride. As they're checking seats, they notice that that girl is being put into one of the seats by the grandfather. Of course, they tell him to take her from the ride immediately, and after a brief conversation, they finally leave the ride area.

Long story short: Height requirements are for the safety of yourself, your kids, and others. And some people, who don't understand that, will do whatever it takes to get their children, or grandchildren, to ride.

The wristband is not necessarily a guarantee. A friend of mine got his kids measured at guest services and they were still measured on some rides, and denied at least one of them because of the inconsistent measuring stands. So what was the point of the wristband?

(And p.s., they had used a measuring tape at home too, so it's not like they were trying to pull a fast one. Some of the measuring stands were just flat out wrong.)

Just got back from Dollywood, and I was completely shocked to see that Wild Eagle (with the vest restraints) has a 50" height requirement. I think it would be amazing if GateKeeper and Valravn could go to 50" too! Would definitely help with the family crowd saying there aren't enough rides with smaller height restrictions. While it's not 48" it is a lot shorter then the normal B&M 54" requirement. 2-4" inches is a huge difference. (That's what she said!)

...or more specifically, that's what Dolly said. (Sorry, had to.)

^^My guess why CP made it 52" is because they didn't want to add another height category... this is probably the same reason why Six Flags makes many of their rides that would be 52" at CP 54" (Kingda Ka and both V2 impulse coasters come to mind.)

(Not saying SF is stricter - while SF does have 54" restrictions on Arrow mega-loopers like Viper, and increased Intamin hypers to 54" after the Bizarro accident if I have my facts right, they also have 42" and 44" restrictions on some wooden and looping coasters (Demon, SFOG Scream Machine) that CF would set to 48.)

djDaemon said:

EDIT: As an example... Let's say Guest is measured as OK for 52" Ride A. Then, on 52" Ride B, the height measurement thingie is 5mm taller. And Guest isn't stretching quite as tall as on Ride A, but just slightly so, resulting in being an imperceptible 3mm shorter. Plus, it's later in the day and all else being equal, Guest's joints have compressed to the point that, all else being equal, Guest is now 9mm shorter. Plus, the temperature has changed such that the measurement thingie is now 3mm taller, even if all measurement thingies were dimensionally identical.

Add it all up (5 + 3 + 9 + 3 = 20), and you're looking at ~.8" inches of difference between Ride A and Ride B, all explained by completely reasonable - and unavoidable - factors.

But in Altor's example they went straight from WS to PT. That eliminates the compression (9mm) and temperature (3mm) impacts. That leaves 8mm (0.314"). So if the bar truly hit her by 1/2" on WS then it still should have hit her on PT even with the potential, reasonable difference in bar heights.

Shades said:

So if the bar truly hit her by 1/2" on WS...

Maybe it hit by 0.313". :-)

I know that in that situation, my "Dad eyes" would easily see an extra 3/16" of clearance for the simple fact that I'd want to see it that way.

My overall point was that it's unlikely that CP wouldn't notice nor care that their height checkers varied by a full half inch. The more likely scenario is that someone who is right on the edge of a height category will, for the reasons I pointed out, get on some rides in that category and not others.

I wonder what the acceptable variance is for parents with bad attitudes?

WolfBobs said:

^^Yes! Or the pony tail on the top of the head. Etc. So many tricks and it all effects the child's safety.

Another tip to parents from someone who has measured children before: Yes, we do look at shoes. A standard tennis shoe (like the one on the child pictured above) is acceptable. But if we see a platform shoe, we have all rights to ask the child to remove the shoes to get an accurate height. (At the front / Town hall, if we ask the child to remove the shoes, there is a blue board that they can step on, which is the acceptable thickness of a shoe).