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2022: General Discussion

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Yeah we noticed this on our visit last weekend. We wanted to get the little one measured to see if he was 1.4m now as it seemed he was just on the mark. We were told the only place to do this and give him a wristband would be the host outside the Smiler. Being able to do it by guest services would be useful
 
GaryH said:
Yeah we noticed this on our visit last weekend. We wanted to get the little one measured to see if he was 1.4m now as it seemed he was just on the mark. We were told the only place to do this and give him a wristband would be the host outside the Smiler. Being able to do it by guest services would be useful
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Thorpe and Chessie you can get measured at guest services, so I assume you could at towers as well if you wanted.
 
djtruefitt said:
Thorpe and Chessie you can get measured at guest services, so I assume you could at towers as well if you wanted.
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You always used to be able to get height-checked at Guest Services. There was a strong argument behind this too - it's better to measure children at the start of their day... as when walking round all day your spine shrinks slightly. So by catching them when they enter the park means they can be correctly wristbanded if they meet a height restriction. It saves a lot of arguments & tears for ride hosts later in the day!

The height restrictions are a bit arbitral too, as you have to let the child wear shoes when being measured - shoes which they can then take off on rides like Nemesis. So you can get girls wearing wedge shoes that boost their height artifically where as boys trainers are generally less substantial.

Also worth noting that in the USA [certainly in Florida] the height restriction on most B&M rides is 1.37m - boy did that used to cause arguments! The parents could never accept "different countries, different restrictions".
 
Kraken27 said:
You always used to be able to get height-checked at Guest Services. There was a strong argument behind this too - it's better to measure children at the start of their day... as when walking round all day your spine shrinks slightly. So by catching them when they enter the park means they can be correctly wristbanded if they meet a height restriction. It saves a lot of arguments & tears for ride hosts later in the day!

The height restrictions are a bit arbitral too, as you have to let the child wear shoes when being measured - shoes which they can then take off on rides like Nemesis. So you can get girls wearing wedge shoes that boost their height artifically where as boys trainers are generally less substantial.

Also worth noting that in the USA [certainly in Florida] the height restriction on most B&M rides is 1.37m - boy did that used to cause arguments! The parents could never accept "different countries, different restrictions".
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Pretty certain wedge shoes are asked to be removed if spotted. Also wearing the shoes or not won’t make a difference on the ride as to how well restrained someone is, they are left of for measuring just make it easier.
America of course uses feet and inches, hence the difference in measurements, many of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach coasters have odd restriction too as they’ve been converted from inches too.

I do recall some of the weird stores of pushy parents in Disneyworld, including one who put choc ices in the kids shoes to try and give them the extra inch. Unsurprisingly the kid was then measured without shoes!
 
When I was young, I remember they used to give you a wristband on the first ride you were measured on if you met the restriction.

For instance, when I was first measured at above 1.4m at age 10, this was on
Air, so the Air ride host gave me an “I’m above 1.4m” wristband to prevent the need for any further measurements. Do they not do this anymore?
jon81uk said:
Pretty certain wedge shoes are asked to be removed if spotted. Also wearing the shoes or not won’t make a difference on the ride as to how well restrained someone is, they are left of for measuring just make it easier.
America of course uses feet and inches, hence the difference in measurements, many of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach coasters have odd restriction too as they’ve been converted from inches too.

I do recall some of the weird stores of pushy parents in Disneyworld, including one who put choc ices in the kids shoes to try and give them the extra inch. Unsurprisingly the kid was then measured without shoes!
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So the advice there is to probably try not to do anything to boost your height in shoes, because if the park finds out, they’ll measure you without shoes, which will actually make you shorter than you’d be under regular theme park measurement circumstances.

This might actually work against you; for instance, I think I was only just above 1.4m in shoes when I first hit the threshold, so I would probably have been below without shoes, which would have meant no thrill rides until 2014 for me had I tried anything to boost my height!

I am always surprised by the lengths people go to to try and get above the height restriction. I’ve seen girls wearing high heels to try and measure above 1.4m before, and I’ve seen kids with tissues and the like in their shoes before!
 
Kraken27 said:
You always used to be able to get height-checked at Guest Services. There was a strong argument behind this too - it's better to measure children at the start of their day... as when walking round all day your spine shrinks slightly. So by catching them when they enter the park means they can be correctly wristbanded if they meet a height restriction. It saves a lot of arguments & tears for ride hosts later in the day!
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That's an odd one though, as it's the height you are when you ride a ride, not earlier in the day, that's important. Yes people shrink slightly during the day, which means that yes quite feasibly you could be tall enough to ride something at the start of the day, and not at the end.

Also interesting how parks differ in their approach. I know Legoland have ditched the wristbands - it's always the operator (or a host) at a ride that has final say as to whether someone does or does not meet a height restriction. The wristbands are for guidance only, and could (in theory) be ignored by the ride team. I know this happened a lot at Legoland, leading to discrepancies and arguments which no doubt led to the demise of the wristbands there. I guess at the other parks a wristband was taken as gospel truth? Which again seems odd.
 
Matt N said:
I am always surprised by the lengths people go to to try and get above the height restriction. I’ve seen girls wearing high heels to try and measure above 1.4m before, and I’ve seen kids with tissues and the like in their shoes before!
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A wodge of McDonalds paper napkins under each heel in the show was a favourite in my days at Towers. Also had parents offering you money on the Nemesis entrance to turn a blind eye - oblivious to the fact the child would most likely get pulled for a height check in the station & be refused.
 
Matt N said:
When I was young, I remember they used to give you a wristband on the first ride you were measured on if you met the restriction.

For instance, when I was first measured at above 1.4m at age 10, this was on
Air, so the Air ride host gave me an “I’m above 1.4m” wristband to prevent the need for any further measurements. Do they not do this anymore?
Click to expand...
Yes they still do the wrist bands at towers, but ultimately it’s up to the discretion of the ride hosts, they can still decide to height check you even with a wrist band although most don’t in my experience. My friends son hit 1.4, but wasn’t allowed on oblivion as when they height checked him at the ride he was just below despite having a wrist band. My friend didn’t kick off just accepted it as one of those things.

I’m waiting for one of my kids to hit 1.2. They have a few cms to go, it’s absolutely painstaking for us all as they’re so desperate to get on the 1.2 coasters at towers, but safety is paramount and we have to just wait it out. Doesn’t really set the best example to your child either by trying to get round the height limits. They don’t exist for the fun of it, my kids know it’s all about safety so although it’s frustrating to be just below the height limit, they just have to be patient (and eat their veggies to grow big and strong).
 
Or just go on a corporate day, my son was just over 1m40, asked at guest services who said they couldn’t check and the ride operators would, he wasn’t checked once (of course half the big rides were closed anyway)
 
BigT said:
www.staffordshire-live.co.uk

Alton Towers visitor leaving queue ended up dangling from fence

The man had apparently had second thoughts about going on the rollercoaster and was trying to get out the queue
www.staffordshire-live.co.uk

Seems a little over reaction with the air ambulance but the local papers are all over it.
Says it was an enthusiast.🤔 come on then own up.🤣
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Serves him right. Clearly he was climbing the fence as a shortcut rather than walking through the queue. If he had walked back through the queue like any other sensible person, it wouldn't have happened. No sympathy.
 
I agree, no sympathy. I have on occasion changed my mind in that Rita queue and thought about going over the fence to save myself some time. Then the sensible part of my brain told me that I'm in a busy place with people watching and that I could fall and hurt myself or whatever. I therefore decided to just carry on waiting and took my ride on Rita. If people are willing to chance going over the fence then they have to accept any negative outcomes. Please tell me someone got a picture of the perpetrator hanging upside down :)
 
BarryZola said:
I agree, no sympathy. I have on occasion changed my mind in that Rita queue and thought about going over the fence to save myself some time. Then the sensible part of my brain told me that I'm in a busy place with people watching and that I could fall and hurt myself or whatever. I therefore decided to just carry on waiting and took my ride on Rita. If people are willing to chance going over the fence then they have to accept any negative outcomes. Please tell me someone got a picture of the perpetrator hanging upside down :)
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Just more proof of the first thing they tell you in Towers induction training... "guests leave their brains in their car / on the coach when they come here".

You'd be amazed how many guests used to think the actual ride area was a thoroughfare for exiting the queueline quickly when rides went down. Air back in 2002 was horrendous - hence why all the much higher queue fences were quickly added to cage people in. (Admittedly, the reliability of Air back in 2002 left rather a lot to be desired).
 
Many years ago (and for legitimate work reasons) I climbed one of those wooden fences in the Nemesis extended queue line and promptly got my foot completely wedged between the spiky bits. I had to remove my shoe to get off the fence 😂... so yeah, don't do it kids.
 
I remember a certain bit of low level fence on thirteen that saved a long walk from the exit line back to the single rider queue, it saved a five minute walk if you were "going again" on walk ons.
The top of the fence got rather polished from abuse, then they shoved a couple of extra feet on the fence to stop it.
hopped loads of fences over the years though to avoid cattlepens on quiet days, nothing over three feet now though.
 
It would appear that all of Spinball Whizzer's queue line games have now been removed:

Could we be seeing these refurbished and replaced? Or are these a permanent removal?

I reckon they could come back myself, but who knows...
 
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