Tricks for fitting

For those of you who said something along the lines of "its for your own safety"..

Are you telling me that I am safe if I ride in the blue train with a slightly longer belt, but I would be unsafe if I got in the yellow train and there was a slight difference in the seat belt?

Are you telling me that when I wear pajama pants so I can slip the belt under my belly I am safe, and when I wear jeans to the park I am not safe on the same ride?

Your logic seems a little off to me..

As a side note which I haven't seen brought up.. when MF opened it had a 54" height limit. Why did it change? Because people complained that they or their child in most cases could not ride due to size restrictions, so CP changed the seat design.

Personally I think that they are losing more riders in the "to fat to ride" catagory then they were in the "to short to ride" catagory. Also, looking at it from a business point of view, it is not the 48"-54" kids that are going to spend money in their park, it is the adults who may be to large to ride. It just doesn't seem to be a very good business decision no matter how you look at it.

Putting to seats back to the 54" height restriction should at least be looked at as an option in my opinion. Especially with a new family coaster being built with a 48" height restriction (they even advertise Maverick on the site as "less intimidating" than MF or Dragter). I know that there are exceptions but how many 48"-54" kids ride MF anyway? Moving the seats back to the point they were in 2000 would give 6 inches back to the belt and cause a lot less problems.

Those kids will grow taller within a year or two and have their entire life to ride MF, most people are not going to get smaller, in fact, as we age it gets harder to lose excess weight.

Agreed, America has an obesity problem.. but CP is not a health club, or a gym, and they operate in America where people are bigger. It seems to me that they should accommodate the people that they advertise to, afterall a vast majority of their market are Americans.
*** Edited 3/11/2007 9:21:11 AM UTC by Magnum is Still Number 1***

If I'm remembering correctly, the height change came before the seatbelt change.

The seatbelt change is a result of the Six Flags accident on a similar type train.

As for the height requirement, and this is just a guess, after they had experience with the ride they probably found the dynamics to be safe for shorter riders. The seats on the train were never moved.

Magnum is Still Number 1 said:

Agreed, America has an obesity problem.. but CP is not a health club, or a gym, and they operate in America where people are bigger. It seems to me that they should accommodate the people that they advertise to, afterall a vast majority of their market are Americans.
*** Edited 3/11/2007 9:21:11 AM UTC by Magnum is Still Number 1***

Again, and this has been stressed many times, it isn't CP's fault. They have no choice but to abide by the sanctions handed down from the ride manufacturer.

Pete, after 2000 they moved the seats forward to accommodate shorter riders, thus making the belts fit more snug than they did opening year. They didn't change the belt length, but moving the seats forward made the belts lose about 6 inches of usable length.

DRose, I know that they need to do what intamin told them, they can keep the belts the same length and move the seats back to the 2000 position, hence still complying with Intamin, and making happier guests.

My point was that they changed the seats once because people complained about size restrictions, why wouldn't they do it again? This sure seems to be a bigger issue (no pun intended) than the 48"-54" issue which they addressed quickly.

What's your source for the seats being moved?

The only issue I've known of people not being able to ride is the 2004 season when the issued the seatbelt slack rule. Its continued since then.