Parents Who Try And Cheat The Height System

[Becky2005]

I have short kids (they take after me.) I swear DD who is now almost 3 is going to be 6 before she can ride anything with a height requirement (including goofy.)

That's like my DD, she got it naturally. We went to a local amusement park when she was young & I had to explain that it was height that determined what rides you could ride NOT age. As her brothers are tall for their ages and she's in the 10% for height for her age.

She was a bit upset that her little brother was getting to ride things that she wasn't able to ride the year before (and it was even close at that time if she could get on bigger rides than him). She got over it pretty quickly though once she got the idea that age had absolutely nothing to do with it, it all went by height. It has never phased my kids regarding the height issue.

I'm pretty sure Primeval Whirl has a thing you can measure yourself before you get in line because my now 7 year old did that. He is a pretty timid kid but for some bizarre reason he decided he wanted to go on PW, this would not be a ride I would picture him on. I told him he was too short to go on it (several inches actually at the time!!!!) but he went up to the measure thing himself, I guess to make sure he really was too short. He was fine once he saw that he really was too short and went off with his dad while DD & I rode. My older DS would have made it height wise but didn't want anything to do with it.

 

[TheGoofster]

by the time we go to WDW in Dec. I doubt that my daughter will be at the 44" mark (She'll be 7 1/2), which is really a shame because she wants so badly to be my roller-coaster buddy. But one thing I would never do would be to try and fool the CM. If she can stand up straight and make the mark that would be great, but if not, then we will just have to hit only the rides that she does reach. Her safety is a whole lot more important to me than her being happy for a few minutes because she got to go on a ride.

 

[Katy Belle]

I'm always nervous that even with meeting the height that my skinny child would slip out I would never cheat the system, I'm too nervous!

At Universal in December we stood in line for about 30 minutes with a family. Their daughter was several inches shorter than my son. My son was about 1/2" taller than the requirement. The whole time I was wondering what was going to happen to this little girl. I even asked the mom if she was sure the girl was tall enough. She assured me she was. OK. We get to the front and they measure her...she's about 4" too short! They would not let her on. He mother begged and pleaded, the girl was quiet. The whole family left. By the way...it was Dueling Dragons!

At a water park last summer(not Disney) my DSIL and DBIL who have bad judgement in general, took their DS on a water ride that he was 2" too short. He was fine. So they will do it again

 

[SueM in MN]

I'm pretty sure Primeval Whirl has a thing you can measure yourself before you get in line because my now 7 year old did that.

I am pretty sure that all the attractions with height requirements have one of those measuring sticks before you ever get into the line. Plus, a sign somewhere near the line entrance that tells what the height requirement is.

I won't guarantee that all do, but I noticed them a few years ago and all of the attractions I can think of with a height requirement do have one.

PW seems to have a really high limit. The ride is not that intense, It must be because of the way the restraints are. I know DD could handle the ride, but it will be a long time until she will be able to ride it.

Sometimes it does seem like the height limit is oddly high for the rides, sometimes too short. For example my DD has been tall enough to ride dinosaur for a few years now. She is not going on that ride any time soon. It will freak her out.

PW is kind of deceptive. It looks pretty tame, but because of the way it moves, you can get thrown around a lot. I've said before it's like combining the teacups with a roller coaster - which the Tag Fairy used for my tag - Thank You, Tag Fairy

We had a bad experience with Primeval Whirl. I don't go on spinning things, so my family 'rider swapped' me so that I could be there to help get our youngest DD who is disabled onto the ride. We had watched for a while and it looked pretty tame to us. Besides, she was going to sit with her older sister and dad, and has been on the teacups and on Barnstormer so we thought it would be fine.
It wasn't. As the ride went around the tracks and I could get glimpses of their car, I could see my DD slipping down further and further in the restraint. By the time the ride ended, she had slid down far enough that the hip bar was under her arms.
My older DD said that the way the ride randomly turns, it was very hard to stay in position in the ride. She needed to brace herself with her feet and hang on to avoid sliding all over. She felt bad because she could not help her sister at all. DH couldn't help because he was not close enough and was sometimes thrown in the opposite direction by motion just as he was trying to help pull younger DD up.
Older DD has ridden again a few times, but won't ride any more because she got thrown around so much. Younger DD is a daredevil and would probably ride again, but no way are we letting her on.

Anyway, my older DD was about 5 foot 4 at the time and youngest DD was just overr 5 feet. Because she was not able to brace her feet on the floor (because of her disability), she was not able to stay in place. Any child whose feet didn't touch the floor would have many of the same problems.