Fat Profiling

[FireDancer]

I know what you mean about Cedar Point Frank. Many of their big rides are restrictive. I understand that, but so far, from what I've been hearing and reading, FJ is even more so and with more than just weight. Apparently, you can't be too tall, too broad shouldered or too big chested either. So for someone who is able to ride almost all other rides, why would they even think they couldn't ride FJ? I think this is what is going to upset people if can't be corrected. My BIL is an example. He is 6' 4", but muscular. No one would call him fat. He does have a large upper body and broad shoulders. He goes on every ride at Cedar Point and Universal, but so far it sounds as if he won't fit in the FJ ride vehicle. I completely understand ride technology and safety issues, but if you have no reason to have any clue you won't be able to ride FJ, I wouldn't blame him at all if he was upset if he couldn't ride...especially if his main reason for going to UO was for FJ.

I don't think the ride engineers purposely designed a ride to exlude 20 or 50% of their audience, but considering that they are after all engineers, I would think they would think to design something that would limit as few members of their audience as possible.

Perhaps the solution is to have a chair that is the same as the FJ ride chair outside of the park so you can try before you buy.

Does anyone know if the ride vehicle really is that restrictive or if it is just speculation and/or US trying to pre-warn guests and going overboard? I have yet to hear from anyone that can go on all the rides at CP for example say they couldn't fit in the FJ seat.

 

[fall08CP]

I don't have all that much interest in Universal Studios or Harry Potter , but as a bigger gal who has fought weight all my life , I find it really offensive that Universal will take my money to get into their park , but they don't care whether or not I can ride the rides.

I understand completely where you're coming from, but the HP area doesn't cost extra, so they're not taking any more money than they did before

I've never been to Universal myself, but are there several rides with such restrictions or is this the only one? I agree that it's a terrible shame, but they also take the same amount of money from pregnant women, elderly, and sickly who cannot experience all of the attractions. I'm just happy to be able to enjoy many attractions with no requirements at all

 

[WaltD4Me]

Perhaps the solution is to have a chair that is the same as the FJ ride chair outside of the park so you can try before you buy.

Does anyone know if the ride vehicle really is that restrictive or if it is just speculation and/or US trying to pre-warn guests and going overboard? I have yet to hear from anyone that can go on all the rides at CP for example say they couldn't fit in the FJ seat.

I think this is a soft opening and UO is discovering some issues. I'm excited about WWofHP, so I've been reading just about everything I can from the reviews and it seems this seat is more restrictive that most rides. I don't know if this will continue though. The ride was breaking down alot and they might just be trying to figure out the problem. One guy did say he was able to ride it one day, but not the next and that he has no issues riding Hulk or any other Universal rides. Many people commented on not fitting with very broad shoulders or large chests too.

I have to agree with Pete about rushing the opening. I think they should have defintely being doing soft openings long before now, but it probably wasn't ready. I think they better figure it out quick though or the Grand Opening is going to be a disaster.

 

[lady danger]

I don't think the ride engineers purposely designed a ride to exlude 20 or 50% of their audience, but considering that they are after all engineers, I would think they would think to design something that would limit as few members of their audience as possible.

Especially when this is such a high profile attraction and the only new ride for that area. The difference between this and Cedar Point is that a lot of CP rides are for a particular audience (people who love hardcore thrill rides). Cedar Point is known nationally for having one of the largest (if not The Largest) collection of really intense rollercoasters in the world. Most people, even larger sized rollercoaster enthusiasts, know that there is some trade off between having something be bigger, faster, and more intense and having it be more universally accommodating for riders. It's an unfortunate reality, but one that's pretty easy to grasp. Cedar Point wants to maintain its status as the rollercoaster capital, and so it's going to keep putting out more rides that are more and more restrictive. Fair enough, especially since the intensity of their rides rule out a large segment of the population that do meet their size, height and health restrictions. It's just the nature of that genre.

The Harry Potter fandom, however, attracts people of all heights, BMIs, ages, states of health, and tolerance for thrill rides. One would think that if you were to only to create one new ride for a land you want to appeal to fans of with as wide of a range of backgrounds and profiles as possible. Obviously, just about any ride they create is going to have some sort of restriction, but to make it so narrow excludes an unusually large section of their target audience. That's not smart business, especially when it's possible to create a good ride without relying on technology that would force so many restrictions into place. It's really hard to honestly market the WWoHP at families when the one original ride could end up excluding half or more of the family. Again, I think I'd feel differently if this ride wasn't their show piece or if they were building another rollercoaster, but that's not what this is.

I don't think the creators went out of their way to exclude anyone obviously, but I think it shows poor design when these sort of factors are not considered early in the design phase.

 

[lugnut33]

Wide shoulders - check
Big Chest - Check
Gut - Check
Universal Orlando - Not going.

And neither will my wife and kids. I just prefer to not deal with it.

 

[Joshua_me]

This is SO offensive all the way around....

I'm 6'2" and bounce between 230 and 240. I don't *think* I'm that overweight, my waist size starts with a "3" and I wear "normal sized" clothes...

But, I wouldn't even take the chance of riding this ride... How absolutely *mortifying* it would be to be pulled out of a line queue because I was too fat....

Universal has a real problem here.....

 

[Goobergal99]

WOW!!! MY hubby is 6'2 and weighs 130 and he is not fat!!! if this is true that is just terrible!!

 

[DiRTyBuNNy]

Count me out...I'm 6'4" and ~260 so I'm trying not to be excited about something I won't be able to ride..oh well..just means I can waste all my time with the mouse..

--DB

 

[WaltD4Me]

Especially when this is such a high profile attraction and the only new ride for that area. The difference between this and Cedar Point is that a lot of CP rides are for a particular audience (people who love hardcore thrill rides). Cedar Point is known nationally for having one of the largest (if not The Largest) collection of really intense rollercoasters in the world. Most people, even larger sized rollercoaster enthusiasts, know that there is some trade off between having something be bigger, faster, and more intense and having it be more universally accommodating for riders. It's an unfortunate reality, but one that's pretty easy to grasp. Cedar Point wants to maintain its status as the rollercoaster capital, and so it's going to keep putting out more rides that are more and more restrictive. Fair enough, especially since the intensity of their rides rule out a large segment of the population that do meet their size, height and health restrictions. It's just the nature of that genre.

The Harry Potter fandom, however, attracts people of all heights, BMIs, ages, states of health, and tolerance for thrill rides. One would think that if you were to only to create one new ride for a land you want to appeal to fans of with as wide of a range of backgrounds and profiles as possible. Obviously, just about any ride they create is going to have some sort of restriction, but to make it so narrow excludes an unusually large section of their target audience. That's not smart business, especially when it's possible to create a good ride without relying on technology that would force so many restrictions into place. It's really hard to honestly market the WWoHP at families when the one original ride could end up excluding half or more of the family. Again, I think I'd feel differently if this ride wasn't their show piece or if they were building another rollercoaster, but that's not what this is.

I don't think the creators went out of their way to exclude anyone obviously, but I think it shows poor design when these sort of factors are not considered early in the design phase.

Excellent points and very true.

I was thinking about it too and another issue is you are going to be drawing HUGE Harry Potter fans, people who are coming to Universal just for or mainly for the HP experience. Considering the size of the land (small) and only FJ as the only unique ride (the other 2 are really just rollercoasters with some theming) if they can't ride FJ what else is there really?

 

[lady danger]

Considering the size of the land (small) and only FJ as the only unique ride (the other 2 are really just rollercoasters with some theming) if they can't ride FJ what else is there really?

Shop and consume HP-branded treats that might make ineligible folks increasingly less likely to be able to ride Forbidden Journey? Seriously, I can't get over the irony that the main ride is unfriendly to larger patrons, yet it sounds like a lot of the food and beverages featured in the WWoHP are decidedly not health conscious. I know it's all about moderation, but there's something almost funny about wagging a finger at guest size from one hand, and tempting them with high calorie delights with the other.

Regardless, I agree that because of Universal's decisions with this ride, there are likely to be a lot of the same HP fan they're trying to attract unlikely to return after one visit. And some may likely be discouraged from coming at all.

 

[JamieSimms91]

Well Im 6"3 almost 6"4, and im angry about this, Im not overweight, im thin, but how come their can accommdat people with these references on the ROTM (Revenge of the mummy).

I'm a Harry potter fan, but im not to excited to be visiting this themed area, I not such a fan of IOA, but i like the studios more.. But hollywood rip ride rocket is the same.

 

[mdvlprof]

This is driving me bonkers, lol. I know you mean something, but I can't figure it out. How does 20% of the people work out to about 50% of the people?

He means that there are plenty of rides that large people can't ride at CP, too. Not all rides are made to hold every single person on the planet.

The young will grow and the fat can lose weight, but the too short and too tall are just out of luck. It sucks, but that's the way it is.

1 in 5 should be in quotes. More like 50%, not only 20%.

 

[FireDancer]

WOW!!! MY hubby is 6'2 and weighs 130 and he is not fat!!! if this is true that is just terrible!!

6'2" and 130? I'm 5'6" and 136.

 

[mefordis]

Ah, I get it. I know you don't want to visit but you are the ideal passenger at 5'6" and 136 lbs!

My dh is 6'3" and 210. I wonder if they'll let him ride it. He doesn't have a gut or anything.

This. I have a friend who used to work at Cedar Point but was too large to ride some of the coasters there. I was too short for much longer then most of society to ride a lot of them. They have reasons for both minimum and maximum heights/sizes for safety. I doubt it is to purposely exclude anyone but at some point there is a trade off that has to be made. Do you change the geometry of the ride so that you can alter the restraint system or settle on a compromise that balances the two?

I have no desire to go to WWoHP so I have no dog in the hunt but it seems from many posts like people are under the impression that the engineers sat around and designed a ride to purposely exclude either 20% or 50% of their possible audience. I just doubt that is the case.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

WOW!!! MY hubby is 6'2 and weighs 130 and he is not fat!!! if this is true that is just terrible!!

Is that a typo? Should that be 230lbs? Because 130lbs at 6' 3" is incredibly underweight.

 

[disneysteve]

I have very mixed feelings about this. I think the problem is arising partly due to the public's demands for ever-increasing thrills in theme park rides. People just aren't attracted to calm boat rides like small world or no-thrill rides like Dumbo anymore. They want to be twisted, turned, flipped, scared and more. The problem is, not everyone is physically cut out to ride those types of rides. I'm not an engineer but is probably pretty tough to design a seat and safety harness that would properly secure both a normal-sized rider and an obese rider without being too loose for one and too tight for the other.

 

[DisneyKevin]

I'm not an engineer but is probably pretty tough to design a seat and safety harness that would properly secure both a normal-sized rider and an obese rider without being too loose for one and too tight for the other.

Like car seat belts?

 

[mefordis]

Well, to that point and slightly OT, I remember being at UO a few years back and there was a small 4 year old riding Jurassic Park next to his dad who had a very large belly. I was scared to death that poor boy was going to slide up through the huge gap between the seat and the safety bar! Luckily it didn't happen but I was distracted the entire ride, ready to grab him if he flew up out of his seat when we went down the big drop.

The problem is, not everyone is physically cut out to ride those types of rides. I'm not an engineer but is probably pretty tough to design a seat and safety harness that would properly secure both a normal-sized rider and an obese rider without being too loose for one and too tight for the other.

 

[WaltD4Me]

I have very mixed feelings about this. I think the problem is arising partly due to the public's demands for ever-increasing thrills in theme park rides. People just aren't attracted to calm boat rides like small world or no-thrill rides like Dumbo anymore. They want to be twisted, turned, flipped, scared and more. The problem is, not everyone is physically cut out to ride those types of rides. I'm not an engineer but is probably pretty tough to design a seat and safety harness that would properly secure both a normal-sized rider and an obese rider without being too loose for one and too tight for the other.

I'm a little disappointed the ride isn't a bit more family friendly. HP has a very wide age range of fans. Seems like FJ is very intense and more for young teens, a couple people mentioned 12 being an average good age. IMHO FJ could have been a very, very cool ride without being quite as scary/intense as people are saying. Yes, I know people want thrills, but in the case of HP, I think people would have been okay with amazingly cool, but not quite so scary. I'm hearing raves about the que line...why couldn't that have been expanded into the ride? Other than Flight of the Hippogriff, there isnt another ride for Dad and his 9 year old HP fan son to ride together. I think that's disappointing.

 

[DisneyKevin]

Is that a typo? Should that be 230lbs? Because 130lbs at 6' 3" is incredibly underweight.

My best friend all through life was 6'5" and 135 lbs. He has a 39 inch inseam.

He was always described as thing...not underweight.

While the average weight for someone 6'3" might be higher...it's just that. It's the "average" weight. Some will be higher and some will be lower.

I think the words "incredibly underweight" are a judgment call that is just as bad as "incredibly overweight". Using phrasing like that tends to make people feel bad about themselves.