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Height Requirements And Leniency

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Willemgorman1

TS Member
I know this may be a stupid question and i imagine some people will come at me for asking this. On Sunday i’m visiting alton towers and my brother is coming too. We think he is 1.2m exactly but if for example he was 119.5cm would the staff let him on wickerman and thirteen. Some people may say the obvious answer and put no, it is a safety precaution but has anyone has an experience similar to this.
 
It might be an idea for him to have a look at his shoes and see if he’s got a pair with a big sole or large air bubble that will boost him up by an extra centimetre. Don’t forget though that your spine can naturally compress as the day goes on so at the start of the day you can be a cm or so taller than at the end of the day.
 
I think the level of leniency would be quite low.

In the event of an edge case, I assume that Alton Towers would err on the side of caution rather than let someone slightly below the height restriction slip through the net. These restrictions are there for safety reasons, after all.

But I would bear in mind that if you’re measuring your brother at 1.2m barefoot, he will be a couple of centimetres taller in shoes. Your average pair of trainers probably adds 2-3cm, so even if he’s 1.19m barefoot rather than 1.2m, that would still make him 1.21m or 1.22m in shoes.
 
Willemgorman1 said:
I know this may be a stupid question and i imagine some people will come at me for asking this. On Sunday i’m visiting alton towers and my brother is coming too. We think he is 1.2m exactly but if for example he was 119.5cm would the staff let him on wickerman and thirteen. Some people may say the obvious answer and put no, it is a safety precaution but has anyone has an experience similar to this.
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You can get him measured at guest services and if tall enough they'll give him a wristband to show ride staff. That will save him from being measured at every ride.
 
Willemgorman1 said:
I know this may be a stupid question and i imagine some people will come at me for asking this. On Sunday i’m visiting alton towers and my brother is coming too. We think he is 1.2m exactly but if for example he was 119.5cm would the staff let him on wickerman and thirteen.
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No, I was expected to (and did) turn away many a kid who was only millimetres under the height requirement. The policy was very strict and no leniency was allowed at all.

Shaggy_Dog_ said:
Don’t forget though that your spine can naturally compress as the day goes on so at the start of the day you can be a cm or so taller than at the end of the day.
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This is true. Also a tip, when measuring is to stand back against the ruler, feet flat on the floor, head level and breathe in deeply. That can sometimes be enough to get those last few mm.
 
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My son was just over this visit, about 123cm. We got him a wristband at guest services but he was double checked for a wristband and height at the start of the wickerman queue, and just before the bag drop was pulled out of the queue again as his wristband “looked like it had been tampered with” to be measured again, i reckon they suspected we found or “borrowed” one as it was a bit torn. They were also double checking heights on the Flavio ride in David Walliams World.

They take no prisoners, last year he was 119cm and absolutely no chance.
 
In a former life, I remember a naughty uncle who had two packs of playing cards and three sets of foam shoe insoles for occasional use with short nephews.
Never had a problem, nobody fell out, but they weren't my kids, so if they fell out I could just walk away...
 
When I was a ride op at Legoland several years ago I was told by managers to always height check kids with the wristbands on. Apparently the system is there to give kids under the height a hard no at the start of the day so they don't waste any of their time in queues. The wristband itself is meaningless if acquired
 
ben199 said:
When I was a ride op at Legoland several years ago I was told by managers to always height check kids with the wristbands on. Apparently the system is there to give kids under the height a hard no at the start of the day so they don't waste any of their time in queues. The wristband itself is meaningless if acquired
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The risk is that it will annoy any families with children who are measured over the limit at guest services but under the same limit at a ride, I have seen this both on park and in reviews. As well as the spine compressing through the day, it is also possible there is a slight discrepancy between height poles or the height check is conducted on an uneven path.
 
ben199 said:
When I was a ride op at Legoland several years ago I was told by managers to always height check kids with the wristbands on. Apparently the system is there to give kids under the height a hard no at the start of the day so they don't waste any of their time in queues. The wristband itself is meaningless if acquired
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Funny as we were told the opposite. Once the wristband was issued you didn't check again, unless the child's height was suspiciously well below the requirement.
 
Willemgorman1 said:
On the topic of height restrictions, i sometimes wonder why they don’t have any rides with a 1.3 height restriction.
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Not sure why but they just don't seem to do 1.3. Both Spinjam and Twistatron are 1.3 on the fair circuit, but are 1.4 at Towers.
 
Alsty said:
Funny as we were told the opposite. Once the wristband was issued you didn't check again, unless the child's height was suspiciously well below the requirement.
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Any doubt = check when I was a ride host on, for example, Oblivion.
The problem was more what do you do with the wristband on a child who is clearly below 1.4m but has a 1.4m wristband?
Good luck trying to get it off.
 
Staff are trained to only permit those at or over the height restriction, if it gets out that they let someone under the height limit, they will get disciplined and instantly taken off of the ride, and depending on how serious the offense is, potentially even straight-up sacked.

A lot of coasters with 1.4m height limits are not actually the hard height restrictions, and are often a few centimetres over. Most of the 140cm height limits at are actually 137cm according to manufacturer brochures, this is why similar ride models sometimes have lower height limits, however because of operational/insurance procedures they are 1.4m most of the time, so on the off-chance someone is a centimetre or so off the mark, nothing will happen.

Ice Breaker at SeaWorld Orlando is also a prime example of a manufacturer getting it wrong as well, it's always better to be safe than sorry.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Most of the 140cm height limits at are actually 137cm according to manufacturer brochures, this is why similar ride models sometimes have lower height limits,
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137cm is 54 inches, or 4ft6in.
That’s why the manufacturer brochure says 137cm, it’s converted from American.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach still has the conversion from imperial measurements as their restrictions, the Big One restriction is 132cm and Revolution 127cm for example.
 
I have found the measuring at chessington to be a bit wonky. Definitely something they need to address. Being turned away for being too small is one thing but it is a bit unfair to be turned away from a ride because their measurement is off. 120cm is 120cm it doesn’t change.

Regarding the original post, I do have experience of this. I have a child who is just about 1.20m on a good day. When we went to towers in March we approached Wickerman expecting her to be turned away but she just about made it and was given a wrist band, a more strict host might not have given her one at all. Anyway I explained to her that there is a chance she will be remeasured and possibly turned away later on but this never happened she was just asked to show her wrist band and waved through on 13 and a later ride on wickerman. I’m not expecting the same experience next time we visit as she really is on the cusp. Measures 120cm with a tape measure at home but only when standing straight kind of thing.

Another example, today at Drayton Manor every ride host had a measuring stick and was measuring every child. She got on Bounty fine but had to sit in a double seat with me on wave swinger. I’ve told her that this is likely to be an issue until she grows a few more cm and why so although it’s going to be a bit frustrating for her it is what it is for the time being. She’s as understanding about it as you can be at nearly 8 years old.

My suggestion is to approach wickerman and see what happens, they normally have a host next to the measuring board at the entrance who does the measure and then will issue a wrist band if they meet the limit. Guest services is usually manic in the morning so this is your best bet of getting confirmation before queueing. This doesn’t guarantee that your brother won’t be measured again, it’s more of a guideline for hosts, along with their personal judgement based on their training, some will choose to re-measure and some won’t.

Ultimately they have safety guidelines to follow and jobs and potentially lives are on the line if they mess up, so I completely understand the caution.
 
Slightly off topic but at Dreamland on Saturday, a child who was a long way off the minimum height requirement for the Scenic was measured, clearly falling a lon way below the height stick, then told they were "just about tall enough".

This would never happen at Towers, mind you. Rightly so.
 
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