Wicked Twister troubles

It was running fine later on Thursday, but there was some downtime in the morning and afternoon

Thought this would be a good thread to revive since I had my first troubles on this ride yesterday.
**Background....I've been riding Wicked Twister since its opening year of 2002. I'm a 6' tall man and have always been around a steady 220 lbs w/ a 36-38" inch waist including this past autumn 2016. **

Since Thanksgiving, I've lost 19 lbs. from weightlifting,cardio,etc and 5x a week working out due to wanting to look better for Summer 2017 and also out of necessity from getting older. Here's where it gets weird...

Sunday May 7th, 2017 (and yes I've read about this before on these forums)...I almost experienced my first walk of shame EVER on WT! I could not get the damn seat belt from the OTSR fastened to the side of the coaster after multiple tries. I was sitting in the middle row (seat 6 or 7) on the outer Tiki Twirl side. I usually sit in the first or last row. Would the seat make a difference? A ride op had to come over and slam down the OTSR to get it done! I've never even come close to experiencing that before in 15 years of riding. So my question is WHAT GIVES? >>> Are the seat belts (which looked like a measly 9" long being shortened once again (they did appear so to me) or is it from my shoulders possibly getting bigger from exercising, that I had this problem for the 1st time? How could I have this problem after dropping 2 pants sizes down, to a 34" waist and losing almost 20 lbs in the off-season? What gives?

Clearly you are not eating enough CP fries.

Since you brought it up, I noticed this last weekend that Wicked Twister seemed to be loading very slowly. As best I could tell, it was due to people having trouble fitting in the seats. It seemed that each train had several people that they had to stop and try to get the belt fastened on, and even get let out. The ride ops were certainly working very hard, but when every train has to let people off for a restraint that doesn't fit, it greatly slows load times down.

I'm not sure what changed. The belt could be shorter. I think they can also move where the buckle is on the seat. Maybe they moved that?

Shoulders will get you lol. It sounds totally ridiculous to talk about it, but I've got large shoulders & traps as of late. Last year at that point OTSR started to be interesting, this year will be even more interesting. Which is crazy because I'm skinny, smaller sized waist (34-36--depending on if I enjoy Hot Head that day lol), but the shoulders I feel are going to get crushed. Wicked Twister is def not friendly to any body type unless you're a twig tbh. One reason I still favor B&Ms, they got their restraints right.

This is definitely the most difficult ride for challenging shapes to fit into. I never have a problem but the belt is the shortest, followed closely by Raptor. I really enjoyed this ride this past weekend.

If it makes you feel better, I'm 5'10 about 195lbs and a 33" waist and I have had trouble with WT in the past. I feel they shorten the seat belts every off-season to the point of it being ridiculous.

But it is most likely your shoulders now if you added muscle mass in that area while working out.

This is not really the best strategy to sell more Dippin Dots.

I really wonder what the cost per rider is to operate Wicked Twister. It does not have great capacity, and every couple years, stories like this come out about negative changes to the restraints.

Raptor now has a couple of the modified seats with the double-buckle seatbelts for larger guests in Row 4, so I'm willing to say that WT is likely the least accommodating coaster at CP, even moreso than MF and TTD nowadays.

I have to believe they shortened the belts on WT again. I've always had some slack when I pull the restraint down, and in the past, have even been able to use the "rear" buckle if I pull down far enough. When I went on Saturday, I pulled the restraint down to the position I normally would have, and the belt didn't reach. I tightened the restraint a bit farther, and was able to get it to click with no problem. But the restraint was pretty snug on me, and I'm a tall guy, on the skinny side.

The ride ops were dealing with guests of size on basically every train while we were in line, and it was killing capacity. I'm not 100% positive the belts are shorter, but I very much believe that to be the case. And if the belt is tight for me, there will be a ton of people struggling to get into those restraints this season.

I agree! I noticed a lot of people getting kicked off WT opening weekend, at least one per train and they weren't even fat, just big as in muscular and tall. They were even skinner than one of the crew members. They really must have shortened the belts.

I've seen people fit the test seat and then not fit on the ride... Doesn't that take the point of a test seat away???

Take this from a ride op who has worked Wicked Twister...Row 8 on the right side is the most restricting seat. Always opt for a seat usually on the lake side. Front row on the lake side is the one of the most forgiving seats.

Amusement parks in general make me laugh. They constantly sell you so much free style soda and offer all day drink deals and sell mostly unhealthy food around the park. Elephant ears, hot dogs, greasy burgers, etc. then.....they shortened the seat belts at some of the major rides so people who are calorie-sensitive cannot ride!! I am a small person, but I feel for the folks who are just a TAD over average size who actually aren't that big anyway and they get kicked off rides left and right.

just my 2 cents.

I have never had trouble fitting until last year when I just barely got the front buckle fastened (I remember almost being able to fasten the back buckle years ago). This year I had to be pinned in by the ride op since I could not get the restraint down far enough. I was pinned in at the thighs. I am only 5'7" and have a bit of a gut, but my gut wasn't the issue as it was not in the way, it was smashing into my thighs which are not large. My shoulders weren't in the way either. I am a couple pounds lighter now than I was last fall so it seems the belts may be a bit shorter. My son is 5'11" and thin and he can barely get the belt fastened in the front buckle. He used to fasten it to the back buckle years ago, but for the past several years he has to fasten it to the front one. We almost always sit in second to last seats as this is where you get the best view IMO. Just my 2 cents.

Count me in as one who wouldn't miss Wicked Twister one bit if the park decided to remove it. I honestly believe this was very much a Kinzel ego purchase so he could get a one up on the Impulse that was at what was then Worlds of Adventure. While I liked it when it opened (as well as Superman/Steel Venom down the road) over the years I find that the ride actually gives me significant motion sickness. I would also venture to believe it is probably the most "forgotten" coaster in the park.

A TAD!?!? Sorry you're mistaken. In 2007 my first year at CP I was FAT, 5'11" 285. I could still, barely, fit on everything. Almost doing the walk of shame on MF was the reason I got healthy, down to 185 now.

Shorten all the belts and let people know they are fat, take some personal responsibility.

First, congrats on the weight loss. The problem here doesn't always seem to be weight though. Most of these posts are from people who aren't fat, but tall or muscular. So to say cp should fat shame people is not a great argument.

I've had issue with Intamin restraints and my thighs. I wouldn't consider myself very "muscular" at all, but I used to do a lot of running, so my thighs and calves are a little bigger than average for my build. (6'1" 200lb)