Wicked Twister troubles

XS Nightclub you are giving me hope I might actually get to ride MF this season. Today was my first ride on Magnum and it was very, very close. Also fit the big boy seats on Rougarou easily for another first. Getting close on the Maverick test seat.

Congrats cargo! Keep up the good work !!

I think I like WT this year more than ever. It's just a short, punchy ride that's a real adrenaline burst. But the loading problems are the worst I've seen. On Saturday, there were literally about 3-4 guests on each train that couldn't fit. Some were pretty obvious in line they were never going to make it, others didn't look that large but still couldn't do it. But when I see some of the XL kids having issues, it just makes me shake my head at the parental responsibility that has clearly been neglected. A heavy parent doesn't need to condone a heavy teen, or even pre-teen. Diabetes on the rise, for sure. Even though I have the all season drink pass and stick mainly to the Minute Maid light options via Freestyle stations, I'm sure most people are just loading up on the sugary drinks, which is certainly not going to help their seat belt issues.

While I can agree parental neglect can play a role if you have children of your own you must realize there is only so much you can control and it gets less and less each year. Kids have this pesky thing called free will. My dad is a type 1 diabetic and we had absolutely no junk food in the house. Didn't stop me from finding it and getting heavier than I should have been.

I am struggling right now with my 14 year old that is 5' 1" and 77 lbs, his BMI is around 14.1 which is in the "you are dead" zone. Ever tried to make someone eat? Short of a cattle prod it doesn't work. He has started some counseling but so far I have had to resort to protein powder mixed with heavy cream 1-2 times a day. (That stuff is heaven).

Today around 10:15am or so we were waiting in the WT station and I watched 2 cycles of the ride loading during that time. I watched the worker checking the belts. He would unbuckle it from the front clasp & attempt to buckle it into the rear clasp. I saw him try this and fail on at least six seats, some of them smallish looking people.

Of course, some riders just buckle it into whatever slot they find first, but others may have tried rear one first.

I don't know, I think the belts are probably shorter. I wouldn't expect them to lengthen them any time soon.

Maybe the Intamin package on Jason McClure's Twitter contains longer belts for Wicked Twister.

^ you know, reading this whole thread, I was gonna say the exact same thing.

Have the seatbelts managed to stretch a little, or are they still about the same?

They're the same length as they were last year and the year before.

Miss_Maverick07 said:

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.

This is where the frustrating thing is and I appreciate that someone gets it. Many people who have trouble with size are not as "fat" as others who fit. If a woman starts out at her ideal weight being a short person who wears maybe a size 4 she can become morbidly obese and still fit in a size 14/16 jeans and probably most rides. Those who started out tall and "well built" (tallest kid in class until middle school and wearing a size 14/16 senior year at our IDEAL weight according to charts), get a bit squishy in older age go up to an 18 or even a 2O we are not as "fat" as the 5 foot 2 woman in a 14 but we barely fit in things and have to buy our clothes in the crappy clothes department and the shorter girl doesn't because she started out smaller and had more room for error right from the start. I don't expect the park to make everything bigger for me but it's frustrating that people automatically assume if you're on the borderline for size it's all in your eating habits. Some of us started much closer to the border than others.

I was as at Dorney 2 weekends ago and I was able to fit on Possessed, a similar ride, just fine without any issues and room to spare. They are certainly doing something to WT to make it harder to fit in.

Gonna be interesting to see if I can ride Possessed when we go to Dorney Park in September... I don't get the inconsistencies with ride types, especially in the same chain.

They changed Iron Dragon's height requirement to stay consistent throughout the chain for their suspended coasters. Think we'll see a change in chest/hip size requirements for all of the impulse coasters?

I had no trouble at both Dorney and Valleyfair. Wicked Twister, however, is a firm nope.

WT is the only coaster I have been close to doing the 'walk of shame'. Near the end of the 2015 season, I had gained a bit of weight due to being less mobile because of a hernia, and while snug, I could always buckle the harness/belt myself.

Fast forward to 2016, I had my surgery, and lost all the weight I had gained, plus an additional 20 pounds for good measure. Probable the least I've weighed in almost 10 years. Millennium Force- I actually had a good 3+ inches of belt after buckling up. (Wow, there's so much room for activities!) Wicked Twister- The ride op gave a push on the harness, and click, but much tighter than I had remembered.

2017 gave WT another try. The test seat- no problem. The real seat- not even close. Luckily a taller ride op was there, and after a couple big pushes, I was set. Mind you, I'm now 10 pounds less than last year, and nearly 50 less than 2015.

Regardless of other's experiences, IMO, WT belts are much shorter than they were in 2015.

I got walked off WT on Tuesday. :( I fit on everything else I rode... Dragster, Skyhawk, Maverick, MF... but not that. I'm not that fat either! (In retrospect I should have tried the tester seat, but frankly I was afraid of taking a nasty spill on the midway if I slipped while hiking myself up into it- it's fairly high off the ground.)

Trying the test seat may not have helped, last year I had someone fit the test seat and still have to take 'the walk' after not fitting in the actual ride seat...