New Seatbelts

Hi everyone! It's been a long time. Visited Cedar Point last Sunday, Mothers day, May 8th with my mom and my boyfriend. Now, my mom is a 46 year old woman who doesn't happen to have the body of a 16 year old girl. As approaching her favourite ride, MF, in which she has rode 10+ times before, they stopped her and requested her to try the tester seat before walking any further. These type of things wouldn't embarass her, but I was ill about the way they bluntly asked, quite loud for her to test it out, and I was also unsure why. Oh, they took 3 inches off the seatbelts! :D How come I did not hear about this? I was quite upset how Cedar point would chose to do this, it's almost prejudice. The ride rode FINE with the seatbelts the way they were. I was almost for certain now, my dad with the average beer gut wouldn't fit either! So my mom had to sit out and I felt horrible. Sorry if there was already a post about this but I needed to vent and some feedback.

Sorry to hear about your mom. Yes there are a couple of threads on the MF board about the new seat belts. Also, it's even worse than you think. The seat belt on the test seat is longer than on the actual train. I had a good 2"+ on the test seat without pulling hard and just barely made it on the train.

From what I can tell, the belts are all different lengths. I'll pull 4 inches of slack one time, get on a different train a little later, and pull 2 inches, and end the day out on another train and pull 3 inches. The test seat means nothing.

Mr. Ninja did you happen to try the test seat? If you did were any of the seat belts as big as it was.

I don't know why they don't hand stamp everyone who has passed the test seat. That way they should make sure that you get a seat that fits no matter what.

I quit trying the test seats. Early last year, I tried the MF test seat. I barely got it buckled. They told me not to worry about it and that I'd fit when I got on the train. They were right. I pulled about 3-4 inches of slack.

Whenever they ask me to try the test seat, I just tell them I rode it earlier or rode it the day before and they let it go at that. I haven't had anybody ask me to try it since early last year.

I thought the ride ran fine before. My mom also is a huge fan of millennium and doesnt have a 16 year old body and im worried she won't make it on now

You guys make it sound like Cedar Point voluntarily made the seatbelts shorter just to get less fat people in line for the ride. It wasn't their decision. If you want to get angry, get angry with INTAMIN for establishing the rule. Or, better yet, blame SF:NE and their ride ops for not knowing who to let ride and who not to let ride without killing someone.

Im not mad i can still go on it :). but if my mom cant get on i will be mad at intamin. i know CP trys to get as many people on their rides as possible

Yeah, I'm mad at SF:NE and Darien Lake, not Intimin or CP.

I'm sort of borderline, and I used to say I have ridden it earlier in the day. I have always been able to ride. This year I'm afraid to even try. I'm too embarrassed trying to pull the belt to get the 1" slack while everyone is looking at you.

The problem is ME. I need to lose about 5 pounds to fit easily. At least I can control that.

I think it's totally okay if you get mad at CP AND Intamin at the same time and here's my logic behind it all: purchasing power . You have CP buying 20-25+ million dollar roller coasters from a company and naturally it goes without saying that this is creating a "real good relationship" between the park and the manufacturer. Now if this BS (and no that doesn't stand for Blue Streak either) rule comes down from Intamin, which by the way we all know now as a quick-fix, then why doesn't CP put a little pressure on the ole' company it just did major business with? I know they have to follow directives by law and all and that's what they've done so far but why, oh why do they not bark back at Intamin? (for all we know they may be doing just that but it obviously isn't working that we can see)
That's my reasoning for being mad at both. (for whatever it's worth)

Yea the new seat belts do blow. and its like if they want CP to keep buying their stuff dont you think they would talk to them a little more before dropping this stuff on them. Because now some customers are upset and when you cant ride MF... you cant ride all 16. and if you have upset customers because of a manufacturers ride adjustment...dont you think they may try to stray away from that company to keep the guest happy?

Or are we just reading way to much in to this.

I don't think you've seen the last of Intamin at CP. None of us really know how good or bad CP's relations with Intamin really is.

And all of this stems from a moron crew in New England who let a guy ride that shouldn't have been allowed on a Space Spiral type ride let alone a roller coaster. And the sad thing is that his weight had nothing to do with what happened,it was due to ignorant ride ops.

I'd like to point something out that everyone else seems to have missed.

Yes, many of US who have been on these boards for the past couple of years, and people who went to CP last year were well aware of the difference in the belts on MF.

Here is someone who is clearly upset because they had no other way of finding out about the seatbelt changes that were made at the beginning of last year.

I understand CP is required to follow restrictions set down by Intamin. But more and more people who were able to ride MF in previous years return to CP and are met with this rude surprise after they are in the park.

I'd think CP would find some way of making these restrictions a bit more clear than a couple of blurbs hidden in the website.

That, of course, is beside the obvious discrepancies in seatbelts from seat to seat and train to train.