NEW Policy with MF seatbelts?

When I went on TTD and MF the ride ops just pulled the belt a little bit and pushed the T Bar down even tighter than I pulled it down, and sad your good to go budy or something.

My old teacher used to weigh around 290-300 pounds, He lost almost 100 pounds in 3 months and now hes VERY skinny compared t what he used to be, and i mean VERY. Wanna know how he did it? He ate a little healthier and he went out and started running, he set goals, like "this week ill run a mile a day, next week two" so on and so on, he started training himself running through the streets of his town for a Marathon, surprisingly when he did the Marathon he finished. If you would see a before and after picture of this guy.... your Jaw would drop. Obviousl the key to loosing weight is to try as hard as you can to be physically active.. So for all the people who cant ride MF, you shpuld look into running.

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He lost almost 100 pounds in 3 months

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No way is that true. Cancer patients don't even lose like that. Either do Gastric Bypass patients. You said that he was very active? He would have been replacing muscle weight with fat. Losing over a pound a day wouldn't even happen if you totally stopped eating.

It seems to me a little bit more can be done that pushing the test seat out front and put an 8"x10” sign stating the policy. I noticed the crew is good about catching people and getting them to try the test seat, but it is virtually impossible to catch everyone.

Whatever happened to the idea of putting like a yellow stitch marking at the 1 inch line? I tihnk that would clear up some confusion. It doesn’t seem like it would be a costly or timely effort either. A needle and a little nylon thread and I could have it done in a couple of nights ;).

It was confirmed yesterday that the policy was not in effect "since the beginning of the season".

On opening day, TheRealCP was able to ride MF. The belt was a little tight, but she had no trouble buckling it.

Yesterday she tried the test seat and was 1/2 inch from being able to even buckle that belt.

To me, that's a dramatic difference.

Needless to say, neither of us rode MF.

Well if the inch of slack on the seat belt is required for saftey, then it is a good thing they are doing. I mean, what would happen if some fell out on TTD because there wasnt an inch of slack?

Let's not shout now... Simple intuitive deductive reasoning should tell you that an inch of slack is not going to make any ride safer. Think about it for a minute ... why would tightening the belt even more than you can tighten it make it safer? Was I unsafe for the first few years? Man am I lucky to be alive..

Good point cyber. A seat belt is a seat belt and no matter how tight or lose it is doesnt mean anything. If the seat belt can cloe with out the rider straning to pull it closed then they should be able to ride.

Oldcper,
I feel for your friend, I'm almost in the same boat. I can fasten the belt but no extra slack

I think what is most frustrating is being able to ride in May, but not in July. It's frustrating enough for people who rode last year to not be able to ride this year, but to have ridden this year already and be told "nope, sorry" is even worse.

If you have any doubt about whether or not you will be able to buckle the seatbelt, let alone pull 1 inch of slack, then don't hesitate to try the test seat out at the entrance. That's what it's there for. So that guests don't wait in our long lines in July and August and not be able to ride. Simple as that.

Well, I'm going to CP today regardless. I've lost 37 lbs since March (Atkins at first + lately a low calorie diet since Atkins stalled after 3 months; don't believe you can eat all you want as long as you keep your carbs low. I had them less than 20g a day and I still wasn't losing weight after it stalled after 2-3 months). I now keep carbs lower than normal, but watch calories instead (carbs are way above Atkins levels now) and the weight has resumed dropping again, rather rapidly the past few days at that. I only wished I'd switched diets sooner (just switched last week). Atkins alone just flat out doesn't work once your body adjusts to burning fat. Several studies show it stop working over long lengths of time and I'm guessing that's why. I've been walking over a mile day so it's not like I haven't been getting any exercise. 1200 calories or so is way more effective in the long run than keeping carbs low alone. It's also MUCH harder to do as you get hungrier than on Atkins. But after almost 2 months stalled at around 260 lbs, I got sick of it. Atkins seems to maintain weight very well, though. I never really gained weight on it no matter how much meat & cheese I ate. The losses just slowed an then finally stopped. I've heard you body can't store new fat very well when in ketosis, so that might have something to do with it.

I'm 255 lbs today at 6'2" and wearing 42" size jeans. From what I've read, I probably won't fit on MF with the new rules (I was able to ride last year at 285+ lbs and was 4"-5" wider around the waste; you'd think that would equate to at least 2" of slack now, but I'm not counting on it). But then my weight distribution seems a little different from some by comments on here (I've gotten my belt fastened on MF before at 293lbs the first wearing 48" pants the first season for MF, which some said isn't possible).

I'm just hoping to ride TTD (which wasn't running last year the first time and had a 4 hour wait the 2nd time so I didn't ride) and get lots of rides in on Gemini and Magnum. If I can fit on MF, great. If I don't fit, maybe I'll be under 240 before the season ends now that my weight loss has resumed.

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CurrentlyDownDueTo FillInTheBlank said:

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He lost almost 100 pounds in 3 months

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No way is that true. Cancer patients don't even lose like that.quote]

Wanna bet? In late October 2002 my father found out he had cancer running rampant through his liver, throat, and stomach. He weighed 285lbs when he was diagnosed. He passed away on January 31st (a day after his 49th birthday) 2003, and weighed 160lbs. Not trying to be a know it all, just saying watch the "cancer patient" references because it's a God awful disease and a lot of people have watched loved ones waste away before their eyes because of it... *** Edited 7/25/2004 6:25:20 PM UTC by Shane Denmark***

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Losing 100 pounds in 3 months isn't impossible without having cancer. Hell, my mom lost 85 pounds in 2.5 months when she finally stopped dieting.

Losing a pound a day isn't possible? Get your facts straight before you say something. Sweat alone can make a person loose 5 pounds in 24 hours.

Well, the good news on Sunday was that I was able to get the 1 inch of slack on MF and TTD without too much difficulty at 255 lbs / 42" shorts. Others that couldn't at that weight either didn't know how to pull on their belts (the lady showed me to pull on the belt across my hips with one hand while pulling the belt slack with the other and that easily boosted the slack whereas just pulling on the slack part did nothing at all) or they have different body weight distributations. Essentially, I had no trouble getting on any coaster that day (including Wicked Twister and Mantis, which were both reasonably comfortable).

I did note that MF's line was about the length that took about 40 minutes to get on last year (including a big 10 minute delay for some reason). Because of all the seatbelt checking and despite running all three trains, it took about 1 hour 10 minutes to get through that line! The train just before ours sat there for like 3 minutes alone while a station belt checker tried desparately to help this guy get slack on his seatbelt that clicked but wouldn't give 1 inch of slack. He eventually let him ride, but I don't know if he got the slack or just gave up after such a big effort and let him ride anyway. These delays are RIDICULOUS. They should just shorten the belt slightly or something instead of having to go through that, although I might not have been able to get it buckled by myself if they had since I had more trouble getting it to fasten on the actual train than getting the slack whereas on the test seat it was the other way around (but that was before the lady showed me how to get the slack). I'd say the test seat was still slightly easer to fasten than the real thing, but it was close.

On Wicked Twister, I had no trouble fastening the test seat myself, but needed a little help to shove the fastener in on the actual ride (hard to get leverage on that buckle design when it's close plus it was on the opposite side as the test seat I tried before I noticed). The ride-op eventually just pushed it in for me while I held the restraint and had no more trouble.

TTD felt almost identical in the type of restraint as MF (the seats were slightly different, but the mechanism felt about the same difficulty to fasten, IMO). I didn't need any assistance to get it fastened or the required slack (which they seemed to want there too), though.

The bad news was that the weather forecast on Friday said NO RAIN for the next 7 days (they made a HUGE deal out of that forecast one the one news channel; I forget which one) and sure enough, it rained on Sunday... and Monday and on/off all week so far (and I mean where I live too not just Sandusky since at first I thought it was because I just listened to the Cleveland TV forecast and didn't specifically check Sandusky on the Net). It just drizzled and sprinkled most of the day (finally stopped around 8 PM or so), but that didn't stop them from closing half the rides for most of the day. It made no sense, really. You could ride Magnum in the 'rain' (nice as the breaks were all off and it seemed a nicer ride than usual towards the bunny hop part where it often suffers from breaking out by the pretzel loop), but meanwhile The Gemini sitting next to it wasn't running (they're both steel tubular track so I don't get it). By the time the Gemini did start up again, there was a big line for it and a 30 minute wait. I only usually see that kind of line at the end of the season. It's usually 10-15 minutes max in my past experience.

Blue Streak was a walk-on by 9PM. Oddly enough, I'd have to say I enjoyed my ride on Blue Streak and Wicked Twister (of all things) this year more than MF and even Magnum. Even Gemini seemed better for the first drop. I can't explain it other than I seemed to get a better "drop feeling" in my gut on Gemini and Blue Streak than MF or Magnum. You can't get even the slightest HINT of air-time on MF the way they staple you in now (I used to be able to get at least a half inch to move up in my seat slightly to feel it) so it's worthless as an "air" coaster now, IMO and just all speed, which doesn't feel as good to me. Magnum seemed fine, but didn't thrill me on the drop this year for some reason (I had some abdominal cramps most of the day from breakfast for some reason so that might have contributed to loss of sensation on some rides as they were being overriden by unpleasant cramping).

I got on TTD at ~11PM and was my last ride of the day. It wasn't running most of the day because of the rain/sprinkling so I was shocked to see the line was only an hour long. I wasted no time and got in line. My friend wouldn't get on that one with me (too fast or some nonsense which made little sense since she went on MF). I wasn't going to argue with her or let her ruin my chance to ride it so I got on alone.

I've ridden Hypersonic XLC at Kings Dominion a couple of years ago (I see that it says on KD's web site that Hypersonic is the only air-driven coaster in the US, which is odd since CP says theirs is hydraulic, which I assumed was approximately the same thing), but I've heard that TTD is less intense. Knowing Hypersonic reaches 80mph in 1.8 seconds, TTD would have to hit ~178mph in 4 seconds to be the same acceleration. It only does 120 in 4 seconds so that would seem to support that conclusion. Indeed, I'd almost call TTD a cakewalk compared to Hypersonic. It's like Wicked Twister x3 or something, but it's no Hypersonic. Hypersonic kicks you right in the chest on launch (I almost couldn't breathe for those 1.8 seconds it was such a shock) whereas TTD just seems extremely fast and hard acceleration. TTD brings images of a dragster to my head alright while Hypersonic brings images of a carrier catapault launch isntead (probably much less intense than a carrier, though, but that's the way it feels by comparison). TTD's tower is very disorientating and goes by in a flash, but feels smooth and you never feel like you're going to fall out or anything while Hypersonic feels like it's going to throw you right out of the train (and probably would catapault you pretty good if it weren't for those restraints) when it shoots over that vertical tower. OTOH, Hypersonic is not the kind of ride I'd want to ride multiple times in row (it's a bit much for a short span of time for that kind of launch, IMO) whereas I think I'd be comfortable riding TTD ten or twenty times in a row. It's much more "pleasant/fun" but less "thrilling" than Hypersonic. They really feel very different, IMO.

On another plus note, I played one game of skeeball for 50 cents and scored four 50-point shots (3 in a row on the last 3 balls of the game) and won my first ever prize on that game (~12 inch Scooby-Doo; similar sized stuffed animals were selling for $15 in CP gift shops) so I was pleased, but had to make an extra trip to the car so he wouldn't get ripped while riding or something.

FYI, the key to pulling down the restraint on WT is to pull down over the shoulder portion, not pull the front toward you.

Millenium Force was fine with the larger seat belt. It was the the parks falt for that man falling out of the Super-Man ride. They should have left the seat belts alone and made sure each rider was checked GOOD.

I felt alot safer with a longer seat belt that could be tightened rather than a really tight seat belt can give way to all the stress from the belt pulling on the lock when a somewhat larger person puts it on. *** Edited 7/30/2004 12:25:19 AM UTC by Huggy Bear***

For anyone interested..

my friend and I went to CP on Wednesday last week.

He is a 5" 10" , 240lb guy (goes to the gym a lot, lots of muscle mass, not necessarily girth) and wears a 38 waist, and he got on MF with no problems.

Just a heads up!

Some people have different body proportions.

I've always been able to ride MF. And I've lost some weight to make sure I can always ride.(That's my one incentive). I do think some seats are different, for example, I have trouble with last seat, right, yellow car. I avoid that one. I had a real tought time trying to pull slack.(And of course the ride op would not help one bit).

I also won't sit in the test seat. I just say I was already on earlier in the day.