Millennium and Dragster seat belts 2012

This is SOP at the park in recent years with the belts not being the same lengths on every train, our car for tha matter. I have never been able to ride WT, although I have ridden every other impulse coaster in the country.

I would love to find out which car / seat has the longest belt on Mf... so far it seams red car seats 4 and 5.

I'm really close to fitting about half an inch away and when I tried those two seats still no luck. It has more to do with the way you sit then the seat belt itself.

I think the belts on WT are shorter this year. I have always been able to use the rear buckle without any problem. This year I could not and I weigh less this year than in years past.

So I'm not the only one that was surprised when they couldn't fit on WT. The test seat fit fine, but the belts on the ride itself are shorter. At that point, why have a test seat, if it isn't accurate.

I was just at Cedar Point about a month ago and I had some trouble with Wicked Twister. I had some trouble getting the belt buckled on the very first slot, and I've never had trouble before. Millennium, on the other hand, I always have trouble with, but I think that has something to do with my height rather than weight. I'm a female who's five foot ten, weigh about 190 lbs., and I find it hard to buckle the belts on Millennium because of that.(That's just in a t-shirt and jeans, I have a harder time if I also wear a sweatshirt.) Dragster, I've never had trouble with, yet.

When I was at the park last night, Wicked Twister was a walk-on for about half an hour, so my friend and I took plenty of rides on it, and each time I rode it, the belt lengths were different, and the ride operator knew it. She directed us to one row, and I sat down and just BARELY got the belt to latch in. I had to have one of the ride operators help me push it down. When we went back through to ride again, the ride attendant that had assigned us to that row apologized, saying that she forgot that it was the row with the short belt. All of the other rows that we rode in, I had PLENTY of slack in the belt and easily fit in.

I also rode in the blue train on Mille, and I had to have the belt completely stretched out in order for it to latch.

I just wanted to follow up on this after my first trip to CP this weekend.

For some perspective, and so that everyone who struggles with these two rides understands where I am coming from, I used to weigh over 400 lbs. I have lost 215 pounds and have bounced around between 205-230 for the last year or so, depending on just how much muscle I have built lately (I work out a lot). I am 5'10". Somewhere between here and my highest weight, I was once unable to ride Beast at KI due to the lap bar not going down far enough, so I understand.

At this point, I would say I am a pretty average guy. I can wear a 36" pant waist most of the time, but typically wear 38" because I am old enough to not be vain about the number and to prefer the comfort instead. A 38" pair of shorts or pants will be loose and definitely need a belt if I don't want them around my ankles, though. When I say I wear 38", I really mean that--it's my waistline, not my under-the-belly line. Nothing overhangs the front of my shorts. Again, read above, I'm not judging anyone, just telling you my body type. I know many people would say they 'wear' a 38" when the truth is that they should probably be a much larger size to actually pack everything in there, so I don't think pant size is a great indicator of whether you will fit.

Anyway, on to the upshot. We got in for about an hour of riding on Friday night. TTD didn't have a line so we got up to the loading deck pretty quickly. At this point I was frankly nervous about fitting due to having read so much about this issue. Got on the (I think) black train first. The belt is absolutely a very short one. Shorter than any airline I have been on, which is most of them. I had very little slack. Without being uncomfortable I could have maybe 1.5" to 2" of slack in the belt (the sign out front says that 1/2" slack is required). If I absolutely had to I could probably have jammed myself in with 3"-4" of slack but it would have been painful.

We went on to ride dragster several times over the weekend. I frankly lost count. There is certainly some variance in the belts. I had anywhere from about 1.5" to 3" slack on various trains, with one exception. The red train on TTD, both I and my partner could get probably less than an inch of slack. For reference, he is 6'3", 190lbs, and wears a 32" or 34" waist. So based on our experience, don't take any chances with the red train if you are on the borderline.

Millennium force I had no issue with. Roughly the same amount of slack as TTD. One thing I did notice is that on TTD, the belts are routed OVER the metal bar, and on MF, they are routed UNDER. I'm not sure it makes a big difference, but again, if you're close, it could be what pushes you over. I don't know why they are routed differently on what looks like the same seat. I didn't notice any particular train having shorter belts on MF.

I had been a bit concerned about the lap bar as well. I have very thick and muscular thighs--about 26" around. The lap bar I think will probably fit anyone who can get the belt on. In fact I don't think I have ever read of anyone who could get the belt buckled but couldn't get the bar down.

So, hopefully that helps someone. As has been said many times, these rides are basically all about body proportion. If you have smaller hips & thighs, you're probably fine even with a larger chest/belly area. This is bad news for a lot of women, I know.

I agree about the hips/thighs. That is where the issue will be not the belly. You see big people get off and have no problems. It is all about the hips/thigh/lower waist and how you sit in the ride. Providing the belt is not the shortest ones.....

I have just come from three days at the park. I can absolutely confirm that the belts on the red train of Millennium are longer than the blue or yellow trains. And it didn't seem to matter where I sat on the red train, the belt was longer then the other two trains. Over all, I think the belts are the same length as last year.

Well they are still the standard Intamin clip belt.

Aaronosmer said:
So I'm not the only one that was surprised when they couldn't fit on WT. The test seat fit fine, but the belts on the ride itself are shorter. At that point, why have a test seat, if it isn't accurate.

Despite all of the posts with people's height and weight, this is what I was really wondering about. I think if you can fit in the seat of shame outside the line, then you shouldn't need to wonder if you're wasting the next hour of your life. I guess people who are borderline won't know for sure until they're locked in.

^ As I have worked WT before, I can assure you Twister's line has not got up to an hour wait this early in the season yet. Maybe 30 mins, but that's it, unless there was some type of down time.

Secondly, all 32 seats have the same length seat belts, except one which is dedicated for the smaller guests anyways. We actually had a guest who thought he was being fooled so he brought a mini tape measure and measured 4 seat belts after measuring the test seat at the entrance...To his surprise, they were all the same length, and he still couldn't ride. When the park closed, just for fun after we got done cleaning the area around the ride, we measured all 32 seat belts and they are all the same length (except for that one of course)

^ That's pretty dumb: Why would you have one seat dedicated to smaller guests? The ride operators don't always assign rows to people, so what if someone just walked into that row with the small seat belt? It's not his/her fault that he/she wasn't able to fit, but yet I'm sure the ride operators would disregard the fact that the seat belt was smaller, and make him/her leave.

^ If that's what you think then you obviously don't pay attention while you're waiting in line. While working WildCat the last two years my crew and I learned where the larger seat belts were compared with the smaller ones. If a larger guest was trying to squeeze into a smaller seat we would kindly ask that they just wait a car or two so they can get into a car with the larger belts. I'm 100% positive that the Twister crew knowing that seat belt was shorter would have done the same thing.

Just back from my first trip and it was great - MF and TTD were both fine! (YIPPEE!) - seems everyone has trouble on mf due to the placement of the buckle - routing under the bar may give a bit more room, but makes buckling up a bit more awkward.

WT is where I had a problem - went on early in the day, near the front, with no queue, and when I pulled the restraint down, I knew it would be tight, but there was a pretty good chance I'd fit with a ride op pushing down, and I did. I went to ride later - I think it was 3rd row from the back, and just knew there was no chance - the belt and buckle didn't even touch! tried both seats on that row, could this be the smaller belt? I can't believe that I'd have gained weight during the day!

The test seat was ridiculously short - they have the "buckle" on a different hole to what they do on the ride itself - meaning I was about 3 inches short....

tcgolfer said:
^ If that's what you think then you obviously don't pay attention while you're waiting in line. While working WildCat the last two years my crew and I learned where the larger seat belts were compared with the smaller ones. If a larger guest was trying to squeeze into a smaller seat we would kindly ask that they just wait a car or two so they can get into a car with the larger belts. I'm 100% positive that the Twister crew knowing that seat belt was shorter would have done the same thing.

Thank you! And yes, we always did. We would always give them another chance to try a different seat the next cycle too if they complained about it.

As for you, Nickster, just as there is a seat dedicated to the smaller guests, there are a few dedicated to the rather larger ones as well with the shoulder harnesses slightly raised up for a better fitting (seat belts are still all the same length). But before you make anymore false accusations again, let me just fill you in on what ride ops really have to deal with since you clearly don't know: strict rules to follow (which are 100% reasonable, although most guests don't see it that way), safety procedures, seat assignments, gates locked, eye cycles, constant pissed off guests, ready to call for a hold at all times, spieling, etc. Assuring that a guest is actually waiting for the correct sized seat is lowest on our priority list, because as you can see there are other things we need to assure first. Actually, giving a large guest the second chance to find a better fitting seat after dealing with all of the above is actually out of courtesy and many other places wouldn't do it. Heck, I even know a few people who work at Kings Island and my cousins actually worked at the Six Flags in New Jersey, and they all share similar stories by saying most of the operators at those parks have the mindset of "it's not my fault they're too fat to ride" without giving them a second chance. So like I said, we would give them another chance because everybody deserves to ride such an awesome ride...Just saying :)

caffeine demon said:
WT is where I had a problem - went on early in the day, near the front, with no queue, and when I pulled the restraint down, I knew it would be tight, but there was a pretty good chance I'd fit with a ride op pushing down, and I did. I went to ride later - I think it was 3rd row from the back, and just knew there was no chance - the belt and buckle didn't even touch! tried both seats on that row, could this be the smaller belt? I can't believe that I'd have gained weight during the day!

TRY row 16 on the right side. AVOID row 8 on the right side

Greetings everyone!

First post, but I've been lurking on this site a while, and I am a season pass holder.

Does anyone know which trains on TTD have slightly longer seatbelts, just like red is slightly longer on MF? From what I've read above, red and black are both among the shortest.

Thanks!