New Iron Dragon Height Requirement

Yep, that's another odd one. I remember the Enterprises use to be 54" to ride alone and I believe it was 48"-54" required an adult. But, maybe it was 46" I can't remember. Not sure if the change was from Huss or Cedar Fair. Kennywood has one and it's also 54" minimum currently. So, guessing the change came from Huss.

Sometime in the 90's years after Cedar Fair bought Dorney, Enterprise went up to 60" with or without an adult. It was lowered back to 54" sometime in the early 2000's. that was one of the highest height requirements I have even seen before.

Witches Wheel height requirement for many years was 60" or 48" and accompanied by a supervising companion*.

Many rides were once 48" or accompanied by a supervising companion. I know that used to be the case for pretty much all of the flat rides, and certainly for Mine Ride. I am not so sure about Blue Streak. I think I remember a sign on Mine Ride that said, "Please, No Hand-Held Infants."

Some time in the 1980s there was an incident involving a young kid coming out of Mine Ride (non-fatal, but the kid did break his skull) and I suspect that might have been the impetus for doing away with most of the "or accompanied" rules.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

*Cedar Point's signs always said "adult", but "supervising companion" is now the industry standard term. See ASTM F2291-14:6.4.2 if I remember correctly.

--DCAjr.

So, according to Tony's post we can at least we can say with certainty that this decision had absolutely nothing to do with guest safety. It was made purely to inconvenience the customers, especially families and to make life easier for executives sitting in their offices so they don't have to remember a height requirement of a specific ride at one park.

That's a pretty stupid assessment.

True. A more accurate assessment would be that "that this decision had absolutely nothing to do with guest safety" and was entirely "to make life easier for executives sitting in their offices so they don't have to remember a height requirement of a specific ride at one park."

Certainly it was not to make things easier for employees who probably never work at more than one park, and certainly [heavy sarcasm alert] never work different rides with different height requirements at the park they do work at [/heavy sarcasm].

Face it, the only reasons GIVEN are completely arbitrary. Perhaps there are unstated reasons, but no one has said the change was for safety reasons.

Wow, do executives really sit in their offices and memorize ride height requirements? Guru, your well informed and thought out insites in how the company operates are truly remarkable.

kevinj, although it seems you're trying to be "nice" about it, I can feel your frustration along with everyone else.

Let's face it, it's a complete bullcrap decision and I won't understand any rationale, even "attorneys and insurance", because how do other parks manage?

Flight Deck/Top Gun is a more intense ride than Iron Dragon so I disagree with the consistency rationale, too. They are different ride experiences.

CP needs to start thinking of making the park more accommodating for their smaller guests with their existing rides than making it, like the poster who decided not to come this year because of ID, just carnival rides for kids. I really think they should modify Mine Ride restraints for smaller children if need be as well as revisiting this decision about Iron Dragon.

The thing about Safety Theatre as well as Security Theatre, it's hard to disprove it's unnecessary.

I've said it before, it wasn't worth it to us taking our kids smaller than 48" because we wanted to ride together and we went to Idlewild. I think we did go once when our youngest was able to ride DT and ID only. If it was today, no way would we go unless they were all 48" or above.

Most people understand these issues once they have children of their own.

Back in the 90's I remember my younger siblings being in the 46"-48" height range. They did the trio of Disaster Transport, Iron Dragon, and White Water Landing over and over.

Now 2 of those are gone and the other is now 48". I'm glad that Pipe Scream and Lake Eerie Eagles both help to fill in the gap for riders who are just less than 48".

3snoH un=l said:
kevinj, although it seems you're trying to be "nice" about it, I can feel your frustration along with everyone else.

...

Most people understand these issues once they have children of their own.

Yes and yes. Truth be told, my daughter was heartbroken when I told her. It was a very big deal for her. She watches daddy spend time with roller-coaster "phobics" and talk about overcoming fears of coasters all the time, and this was a very big fear of hers. She had spent the winter determined to tackle it, and sure enough...not so fast, Kylah.

But more truth be told, she was also over it the next day and the next and simply moved on to enjoying what she could.

That doesn't mean the decision still doesn't bite. It doesn't make sense.

I've just chalked it up as a bonehead move by someone who doesn't know any better who likes making decisions that makes him/her feel real important and stuff.

And enjoys making kids cry.

This doesn't have to do with the height, but didn't they use 3 trains before on ID?

I haven't seen them use three trains on Iron Dragon since at least the beginning of last season. It is kind of a shame because the queue is always full now. I remember them doing this a few years ago too with the two trains. Hopefully, they will bring back three trains and the old height requirement.

From what I remember, they did away with 3 train operation a while back, and then tried it again in 2012 with adequate success. I loved 3 train operation at ID

The queue is full? What queue? There's a stage but no queue since 2012..

The queue is behind the stage.

It's not much of a queue, now is it? More like a path to the station.

Imagine how full the queue would be if they appreciated children.

topthrilldragster4lyf said:
It's not much of a queue, now is it? More like a path to the station.

A queue doesn't have to switchback over and over to still be a queue.

Kevinj said:
Imagine how full the queue would be if they appreciated children.

They appreciate my children. Must just be yours that they do not like.

It's not *much of* a queue.. Technically it's some queue but I'm saying it being full doesn't mean much when you can only fit a few cycles worth in it, on a coaster..