How strict are they on height?

[Forensicmom]

My youngest DD is very short for her age (7). She is currently 43 1/2 to 43 3/4" tall. We're hoping she can grow the last 1/4 to 1/2" to be able to ride a few more rides.

If it's really really close, will they let her go? Or are they extremely strict about this?

What does everyone else do to "help" their kids?

 

[mesaboy2]

They are pretty strict. Ways to artificially increase height are frowned upon here and against board policy. The best legal "tricks" I know of are to go early in the day and to encourage them to stand up straight.

 

[aripantaloon]

This has been asked here countless times. Yes, they are strict on height since the restrictions are there for safety reasons. You can't really do anything to help your kid actually grow. Some say to have them just stand up nice and straight, go to those rides in the morning when you are just naturally taller, and don't try and duck when they put the bar over your head; try to touch the bar.

 

[wendyt_ca]

We saw several kids turned away for being too short and them stopping kids they could tell were too short and making them check. They are pretty strict.

 

[katieam1]

My youngest DD is very short for her age (7). She is currently 43 1/2 to 43 3/4" tall. We're hoping she can grow the last 1/4 to 1/2" to be able to ride a few more rides.

If it's really really close, will they let her go? Or are they extremely strict about this?

What does everyone else do to "help" their kids?

I think they are pretty strict with it. We had my Daughter who was almost to the mark but just was a half inch too short and they would not let her on. I honestly prefer it that way because over the summer near my home town someone got through a guideline set up at this theme park and they were killed so I tend to just say I am glad they are stricted. For my daughter though they gave her a fast past for the next time she comes to ride that ride with no wait. They said just present it and it will be good. It says something like I am now tall enough to ride so it was cute.

 

[2girlsR2good]

Before anyone jumps on you for trying to "help" (and they will) I'll sympathize. I have a 7 year old who ranges in height from the 3rd to the the less than 1 %ile for height. To make it worse, she's a twin, very skinny, and her sister is average, meaning she towers over her, everyone assumes they are big/little sister, DD gets called out for stuff like going off the diving board at the pool, unthinking camp counselors move her to the preschool group without even asking her how old she is. . .

Disney CMs are strict. You will not get into a ride by "almost" making it once they measure you. When DD was trying to make the 40 inch mark a couple of years ago, it was tough. We were measured at every ride and in the mornings she made it a couple of times, but if she didn't, then none of us rode. At Hollywood Studios, she couldn't ride Star Tours and my husband really wanted to go, so he took her sister on and I bought her a Yoda "judge me by my size do you" pin and an ice cream. There were a few tears then. Our last day she was dressed as Ariel and had on her Ariel shoes while we went to Big Thunder Mountain. She didn't even get questioned--completely unintentional on our part. I wondered if we should have just put her in heels the whole time, but then I knew that would have hurt her feet and also been sending her the wrong message.

I think that at 43 3/4, regular supportive play shoes will probably give her the extra quarter inch, won't they? I'd go on the height restricted rides first thing in the morning when I hear you're taller, and practice standing straight and proud to extend to her full height. If she feels embarrassed, she might slump.

We're going to have the same issue for our December trip. We'll stick with the family rule that either we all ride, or none of us do. I wouldn't do that with different age kids.

 

[sukhakuli]

My 3 year old is right now 39.5 inches tall. We're really hoping for an extra half inch so she can ride Soarin'! Please, please, please, please...

They are pretty strict about it. If they hit the bar, then can go, if they don't they can't. It's really black and white. We had an issue with a cast member at Soarin' at DCA accusing us of putting our dd in big shoes so she'd make the height limit. He was really rude about it, and we offered to take off the shoes so he'd see that she'd make it without them. She was like 3 inches over the bar. But he wouldn't let us do it, and then waved us through, and while we walked through he said to us that he knew we put her in big shoes just so she would make it. Poor thing, she just had big feet at the time. You know how sometimes kids feet will grow before the rest of them, and they were new shoes so they looked a bit big. It really made me mad at the time, lol. I'd never try to get around the height rules.

Practice with her about standing up straight, a lot of kids tend to slouch. Also, I have noticed that the height bars are not at a uniform height, so she might make some, and not make others. Good luck.

 

[Laketravis]

Last year my small-for-his-age five year old barely made the 40" mark. I don't believe he was ever turned away for any 40" height required attraction, but a month later it was hit-or-miss for the 42" mark at Six Flags.

This year, in anticipation of his wanting to ride some 44" height requirement attractions (Space Mountain for sure), I made a "Disney Stick" for him.

Looks just like a DW 44" measuring stick. I took great pains to make sure it is exactly 44" from the ground to the top vertical bar, as I've read on other posts how a 1/4" could be the difference between life and death.

He's been practicing every morning, standing up as straight as he can in his Sketchers as I swing the bar left to right across the top of his head.

Some mornings I can see daylight between the bar and the top of his head, other mornings I've scraped skin and hair off. Every morning, he drinks his milk and eats his breakfast because he knows it helps him grow.

We've got 4 weeks until we get there. I'm pretty sure he won't have any issues making it onto Space Mountain. If he does, it will have to be because an inch at DW is longer than an inch as measured at Home Depot.

At least, that's how I'll explain it to him.

 

[woodduckmn]

Buy shoes with thicker soles and that will get the height.

 

[mesaboy2]

Buy shoes with thicker soles and that will get the height.

Amazing.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Do not put Mickey Bars in the shoes. They will freeze the feet and become extremely messy!

 

[mattsdragon]

And before you ask. . .yes, if they are in question, they will make your daughter take off her shoes, hat or put her hair down.

They're on to that.

It got really bad the time I watched them take a power sander to the callouses on a kids feet.

 

[MikeSF]

Amusement parks of any kind are fairly strict, if anything because it comes down to a black and white decision making process. The top of her head crosses a line, she's in, or if her head touches the top of a stick they're using, she's in... if she doesn't she's out.

That said looking at this
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/height.htm
The three she may/may not make it for are Space Mountain, Expedition Everest, and Mission Space. Which IMO isn't that many rides she might miss out on, and are some of the more hardcore ones at that so you might be getting a favor.

 

[MikeSF]

And before you ask. . .yes, if they are in question, they will make your daughter take off her shoes, hat or put her hair down.

They're on to that.

It got really bad the time I watched them take a power sander to the callouses on a kids feet.

Thanks man, you made my day with that

 

[mattsdragon]

Thanks man, you made my day with that

NP Bro,
I live for humor, and these threads get nasty.

You would think that we were a society of ruffians and visogoths with as many bad parents as there on on the DIS.

That is at least the implications, inferences, and well, I can't think of another "i" word.

Saying something funny beats the popcorn smiley.

 

[kohlby]

If that height is without shoes, then there's a good chance regular sneakers will make her tall enough. I do not do any trick other than doing the rides earlier in the day. Prepare your child for not making it. My daughter was barely 40" with shoes at Disney - though under 40" at home. She surprised us when she was tall enough for TT. But on the third time in a row, she measured tall enough outside the ride but too short inside the ride. The same person had measured her 15 minutes before but refused her. (She was only 3.5 years old so the standing up straight thing likely played a part). For our next trip, that same child is now on the 44" line with shoes. Though she does make it with shoes at home while the 40" she did not make with shoes at home. It doesn't really matter about home though - it matters at Disney. I think there's only three 44" rides anyway, so it's not a big deal.

 

[Forensicmom]

THanks for the responses. So, if I'm understanding this right, most of the employees will measure you WITH shoes? But some will make you take your shoes off?

My daughter is a hair shy of 44" WITH her regular shoes. I know I read before that there were 3 rides that had the 44" restriction and only one at 48". I know it will be iffy for Space Mountain and Expedition Everest but I can't find the other one. Rock n Roller Coaster is out of the question anyway.

She's 7 and the youngest of 4. There's no way I'm going to make everyone skip those few rides in the chance that she's turned away.

I'm hoping she's able to ride because she is looking forward to it so much. She's a thrill seaker anyway. She was VERY upset if she gets up there and can't ride, and then a 3 year old was allowed to go. Someone posted on here that their 3 year old was almost at the mark.

 

[mesaboy2]

THanks for the responses. So, if I'm understanding this right, most of the employees will measure you WITH shoes? But some will make you take your shoes off?

If a CM thinks you are doing something to artificially increase their height, such as platform shoes, high heels, or stilts, they may very well ask to measure barefoot. Otherwise, they'll just measure with shoes on.

They don't want to turn anyone away and they want everyone to have a good time. On the other hand, they have a job to do. If she is that close, I would explain to her that it is possible she may not get to ride.

Also, know that there are often two measuring points at each ride, one at the entrance to the queue and another just before the load area. It is the second one that counts.

 

[MikeSF]

She's 7 and the youngest of 4. There's no way I'm going to make everyone skip those few rides in the chance that she's turned away.

Are you willing to let the other ones go by themselves?

I think your best course of action (other than hoping she has a growth spurt) is to plan out other rides nearby that she might like, so when your other children (and husband??) go on one ride, you two go on another, possibly one she would enjoy. Or if you want don't want to make it seem like she's being excluded, find out what she wants to go on, then have the others decline and hit up the other ride.

Did a DL trip with my family due to a wedding in SoCal, we had 1 baby, 1 toddler, 1 preteen and 1 teen with 8 adults. Not everyone was going to ride on the same stuff, and its a bit silly to except the entire family to go on everything all at once. So we often swapped off rides based upon who wanted to do what (and the pre-teen was a short one too), kept everyone happy (for the most part... since it was smack dab in the middle of the busy season) and had a great day.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

If it's really really close, will they let her go?

Nio.

Or are they extremely strict about this?

Yes.

What does everyone else do to "help" their kids?

Nothing.