Kids rides and height measurement

How strict are they about ride measurements on the little rides? My kid is just around 35.5". Minimum says 36". Think it's worth a shot? Difference between 8 rides and about 15 rides.

Cedar Point is very strict about the requirements of EVERY ride, not just the larger rides.

Depends on the ride op. We were just there over the weekend, and on the tape measure at home, my daughter is 46 1/4". Her favorite ride is the Tiki Twirl, which you need to be 46" to ride alone. She rode at least 10 times in the morning with no issue. We went to the camp snoopy for a while, and while in that area, she rode the Monster which also has a 46" requirement. When we went back by the Tiki Twirl, the new op who was there refused to let her on. He first tried measuring her while on an incline so I went up there to explain why that was stupid. Once he brought her up to a flat spot, he was literally shoving her head down with his hand to show me that she wasn't to the top of the stick. Needless to say, I completely lost my cool on that guy.

Have you considered the possibility that she was actually no longer 46" later in the day? Due to spine/joint compression, people shrink slightly during the day. Considering she was only 0.25" above the threshold, it's not even a little bit unreasonable that she was 0.30" shorter by the time she got back to Tiki Twirl.

B138 said:
Depends on the ride op. We were just there over the weekend, and on the tape measure at home, my daughter is 46 1/4". Her favorite ride is the Tiki Twirl, which you need to be 46" to ride alone. She rode at least 10 times in the morning with no issue. We went to the camp snoopy for a while, and while in that area, she rode the Monster which also has a 46" requirement. When we went back by the Tiki Twirl, the new op who was there refused to let her on. He first tried measuring her while on an incline so I went up there to explain why that was stupid. Once he brought her up to a flat spot, he was literally shoving her head down with his hand to show me that she wasn't to the top of the stick. Needless to say, I completely lost my cool on that guy.

And let me guess, you STILL weren’t able to ride no matter how much “cool” you lost on the ride op who is there for yours, your daughter’s, fellow co workers, and everybody around you’s safety. Height requirements are not set by the ride ops!

As a former ride host, assistant team leader, and team leader at Cedar Point for 5 seasons, even I think that they are unnecessarily strict when it comes to height requirements. I don’t know of other parks that have those ridiculous swinging height stands that could potentially deny a child for being a piece of paper’s thickness too short. Disney has stands that allow hosts to just eyeball it, which works just fine, and that’s all that’s needed, because really, no child is going to be ejected from a ride for being 1/16” too short. I worked at Disney World as well, and never once had a horrific guest experience with an irate parent and crying child like I had on a seemingly weekly basis working at Cedar Point due to a height dispute. CP just likes to be “right”, even at the expense of the guest experience, and denying children to ride for being almost immeasurably too short is a prime example of that. And before anyone jumps down my throat for working at the park and not taking height requirements seriously, trust me, I did. I upheld Cedar Point’s standards no matter how asinine I thought it was at times.

^ But in all reality, isn't it just easier to set a number and stick to it? Why does anyone need to eyeball anything? I mean, if you are tall enough, great, good to go. I'd think you are opening up more issues if you start "eyeballing" and allowing someone who is 1/16th too short to ride...what about the kid who is 1/8th too short? Why have a set limit at all? I've never seen anyone who was legitimately tall enough being denied to ride something if they met the height requirement. I think we are looking for a problem here that doesn't really exist.

Have the child measured at Guest Services where they will give her a wristband that indicates her height. She'll be able to flash the wristband and walk on to rides for the rest of the day.

</drama>

^ In theory.

The swinging height stand is for when eyeballing doesn't work. You can't eyeball height when that child has hair that adds an inch or more to their height.

And what I’m saying is that almost no other park feels the need to be that exact. All it does is create a very frustrating experience that day for the kid and the parents when they’re on the cusp, because not every height stand is exactly the same, and as has been said already, kids “shrink” throughout the day. You can say go to Park Op and get a wrist band, but we all know how that goes - kids still get measured at some rides and denied because they “must have switched bands”, which I’m sure has happened on occasion, or, more plausibly, as I said above, not all height stands are exactly the same, and kids “shrink”.

B138 said:
Depends on the ride op. We were just there over the weekend, and on the tape measure at home, my daughter is 46 1/4". Her favorite ride is the Tiki Twirl, which you need to be 46" to ride alone. She rode at least 10 times in the morning with no issue. We went to the camp snoopy for a while, and while in that area, she rode the Monster which also has a 46" requirement. When we went back by the Tiki Twirl, the new op who was there refused to let her on. He first tried measuring her while on an incline so I went up there to explain why that was stupid. Once he brought her up to a flat spot, he was literally shoving her head down with his hand to show me that she wasn't to the top of the stick. Needless to say, I completely lost my cool on that guy.

I work Tiki Twirl, and I can confirm it is EXTREMELY difficult to measure on an incline, and I've encountered people who seemed borderline almost too short with the stick when I take them up to the flat part on top of the ride, but when they go down to the metal height stand it hits their head. That ride needs a height stand inside the ride area so kids don't have to be taken down to the front to be more accurately measured. The current setup requires a child to either backtrack through the whole queue or requires the operator to go to controls and unlock the exit gates for the child to access the height stand out front.

As for wristbands, the wristband won't stop me from measuring a close child with the stick (the PVC pipe), but it might help me be more comfortable with my judgement without taking them to the metal stand. I highly reccomend you get it... it's no guarantee, but it definitely won't hurt.

You gotta also remember that if that ride op is caught letting a child in in contradiction to their measurement's result, even if the safety ramifications are realistically small, the ride op could get in trouble for causing even that small risk. Thus, the only types of ride op you'll frequently find at CP are "strict" and "very strict" in regards to measurements.

B138 said:
He first tried measuring her while on an incline so I went up there to explain why that was stupid. Once he brought her up to a flat spot, he was literally shoving her head down with his hand to show me that she wasn't to the top of the stick. Needless to say, I completely lost my cool on that guy.

Losing your "cool" is the easiest way to solidify your child not riding.

Bryan A said:
Have the child measured at Guest Services where they will give her a wristband that indicates her height. She'll be able to flash the wristband and walk on to rides for the rest of the day.

</drama>

Not sure if any of this is sarcasm or not, but it doesn’t work that way.

As a former ride op and Supervisor in ride operations, I find it odd that some (especially those who have worked in leadership) are considering Cedar Point being overly strict when it comes to measurement. What is the number 1 top priority at Cedar Point? Safety!

Not to mention, as of a few years ago, there has been some leeway on measuring with the height having to be within 1/4 of an inch from the height minimum. Meanwhile, the ride host’s job is ensuring the child rides with a responsible adult who is aware that the child in question is on the border of the height requirement.

I’m still baffled by the amount of parents who get so mad that their kid is not tall enough to ride. A lot of the times it seems like Cedar Point employees cares more about a child’s safety than the parents.

^Leeway? That would make sense (especially on the rides where CP sets requirements higher than the base requirement from the manufacturer) but I was never told about anything of the sort and that doesn't sound like it would fit with the CP/IROC notion of consistency. Nor would it be easy to judge that margin of error. It's not like we have engineering calipers to take such measurements :P.

My original post about having the child measured at Guest Services wasn't sarcasm. I have two young kids and it's what we do. Sounds like others may not have had success with that, but it was never a problem for us. Flash the wristband and go right on.

^^This may come as a shock, but based off of you being an ATL, I assume you worked there during the Kinzel era. I have worked there for both Kinzel and Ouimet eras. Things are a lot different now. Trust me

If your kid is borderline between the height requirement, then the ride op is not doing their job if your kid is not measured whether your kid has a wristband or not. Those policies have never changed and never will for good reason.

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?

Or if the MF seat belt ALMOST fastens?

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?

Couldn't you just eyeball the young person and tell that they were 18?