Has anyone else experienced this? Yesterday on 3 separate rides people were yelling at rides ops because they were pulling kids off to measure their height. Now I don't have kids but I was so upset at these people yelling, there's a reason they do this and it's called safety. These people would be the first to file a law suit if something happened to one of their kids. I just don't get it and think it's wrong, these ride ops work hard and don't deserve it.

If they thought it was important to check, why didn’t they do it on the way in from the queue?

^ Because not every ride has a line separator who can check them on the way in. I imagine this is due to staffing levels. Sometimes, ya gotta make lemonade out of lemons.

And yes, I've seen the yelling. That's one of the ugliest and nonsensical things I've ever seen at a park. Imagine how much more upsetting it would be to have an incident because a child was too short. Makes that 10-second check seem a little less torturous, I hope?

There is no reasonable argument against height checking, period.

I think some of the height requirements seem too short for some rides.  The Monster for example I think does not have a height requirement and I have seen new borns on that ride. 

^ Here is one for you...  

What if this child has an appropriate color wristband for the ride, and has a Drivers License that has the Orange (54") color band? I mean, it's still rude to argue and I'm not saying that I support that. But, what if...

^ Here is one for you...  
What if this child has an appropriate color wristband for the ride, and has a Drivers License that has the Orange (54") color band? I mean, it's still rude to argue and I'm not saying that I support that. But, what if...

Maybe they should quit selling that stupid license thingy and prioritize safety vs money.

Put numerous height stations in at the front gate and get all the kids wristbands. Other parks do it without issues at the entrance, not one random location in the park.

It's all about ignorance.  Most people don't do their research and show up to the park surprised that their 47" tall child can't ride a lot of the bigger rides.

Does the park have a kids admission.  I have seen it where at the front gate the measure tall enough to have to pay for the adult mission and then when they go to ride they measure smaller than they did at the gate.  Then as a parent I would be upset at front gate employees and not the ride ops.

1 minute ago, fyrfyter said:

 

Maybe they should quit selling that stupid license thingy and prioritize safety vs money.

Put numerous height stations in at the front gate and get all the kids wristbands. Other parks do it without issues at the entrance, not one random location in the park.

 

I agree. I hate seeing them. 

 

Only reason I asked is because I had to wait for a parent to finish yelling at a ride OP for said above reasons. 

I think it rude for a parent to not get the wristband. That is the first place I go with mine. Then we are good the rest of the day. Not that hard and I am not holding up a line. Common curticy.

It is rude. I have been on the receiving end of rude parents who are upset about heights at Coney (where we do not have color coded wristbands for heights).  At Coney, we have wristbands to serve as an identification that you have paid to ride the rides.  Pass holder must get a wristband (a policy that has been in place for three years now).  Over the weekend, we had a guest (a season pass holder) say that one of our operators was "harassing" them, but not letting them ride the Python.  Held up operations, and resulted in them wanting to get their pass refunded (which didn`t happen).  The back of the passes say that a wristband is required to ride the rides.

40 minutes ago, fyrfyter said:

 

Maybe they should quit selling that stupid license thingy and prioritize safety vs money.

Put numerous height stations in at the front gate and get all the kids wristbands. Other parks do it without issues at the entrance, not one random location in the park.

I buy the license just because of this reason, it is kind of a funny self-satisfying loop.

They make everyone go to one of two places to get measured to get a license, which means the line is long at that location, which makes me want to buy the license to not bother with the line.

 

I did have my first situation on Viking Fury where I didn't take the time to get my daughter measured for a wrist band, so they took her off the ride, which I expected, and measured her and gave her a wristband right there. Haven't seen a ride just give them out, normally they measure them and put them back on the ride.

58 minutes ago, fyrfyter said:

If they thought it was important to check, why didn’t they do it on the way in from the queue?

 The lines that does have one they use it as a break session it seems.

45 minutes ago, sixohdieselrage said:

^ Here is one for you...  

What if this child has an appropriate color wristband for the ride, and has a Drivers License that has the Orange (54") color band? I mean, it's still rude to argue and I'm not saying that I support that. But, what if...

Not sure if you were asking me or @flightoffear1996 this. If you were asking me: If there's conflicting information about how tall the child is, then they need to be checked. Conflicting info is a failure on the system's part that unfortunately becomes the guest's problem, but that isn't a reason to unload both barrels on the ride ops. They didn't invent the system.

Take the problem to the people who can actually do something about it. In the meantime, have some perspective on the fact that height checking, in the long term, is a very brief activity with important consequences. It's not like they're asking you to prepare your taxes before riding.

1 hour ago, teenageninja said:

It's all about ignorance.  Most people don't do their research and show up to the park surprised that their 47" tall child can't ride a lot of the bigger rides.

I don’t think so. I think people are well aware that there are height limits. One thing I’ve seen has been a kid being measured and rejected after the kid had ridden earlier in the season or even in that day. I think that’s fair enough grounds for a parent being upset and/or annoyed. 

A former area supervisor (that you know too) has told the story several times about an upset family whose kids were rejected from riding FOF because they were too short. The kicker? They had ridden earlier that day. The final blow? They had purchased the photo to prove that they had ridden.  He was left with nothing to say except that the ride ops hadn’t done their jobs earlier in the day.

Can you honestly tell me that in the day and age of understaffing and far too many associates that are more concerned with saying “funny” things on the microphone than doing their jobs that this doesn’t happen far, far more often?

2 hours ago, sixohdieselrage said:

^ Here is one for you...  

What if this child has an appropriate color wristband for the ride, and has a Drivers License that has the Orange (54") color band? I mean, it's still rude to argue and I'm not saying that I support that. But, what if...

I see your point completely, none of the 3 had a wrist band that I could see or pulled out a driver license so I'm assuming there was none, but no matter what I think it's just wrong to yell at the staff like what I saw.

2 hours ago, Tera Ryzing said:

 The lines that does have one they use it as a break session it seems.

Sorry I just don't agree with that, they work really hard, I know I could never do that job on my feet for 10 hours or more.

1 hour ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I don’t think so. I think people are well aware that there are height limits. One thing I’ve seen has been a kid being measured and rejected after the kid had ridden earlier in the season or even in that day. I think that’s fair enough grounds for a parent being upset and/or annoyed. 

A former area supervisor (that you know too) has told the story several times about an upset family whose kids were rejected from riding FOF because they were too short. The kicker? They had ridden earlier that day. The final blow? They had purchased the photo to prove that they had ridden.  He was left with nothing to say except that the ride ops hadn’t done their jobs earlier in the day.

Can you honestly tell me that in the day and age of understaffing and far too many associates that are more concerned with saying “funny” things on the microphone than doing their jobs that this doesn’t happen far, far more often?

The one think I forgot to mention....none of these that happened were the parents yelling, it was other people. On Diamondback I said something loudly to my husband as the guy in front of us was one of them, boy did i get a dirty look. I'm not saying all situations are the same but I just was appauled at the behavior of some "adults".

35 minutes ago, harmony29 said:

Sorry I just don't agree with that, they work really hard, I know I could never do that job on my feet for 10 hours or more.

I always thought being the greeter would be the most hot, boring thing you could do as a rides kid.

7 hours ago, fyrfyter said:

If they thought it was important to check, why didn’t they do it on the way in from the queue?

Many separators and greeters only have one of those height sticks with the colored tape on it. That's good enough in most cases, but if it's really close (say a millimeter or two), you might need the thing with the swinging horizontal bar to be perfectly precise. That thing is usually only available in the station.

6 hours ago, flightoffear1996 said:

Does the park have a kids admission.  I have seen it where at the front gate the measure tall enough to have to pay for the adult mission and then when they go to ride they measure smaller than they did at the gate.  Then as a parent I would be upset at front gate employees and not the ride ops.

There is a kids admission, and the cutoff is 48 inches. Which is also the cutoff for most of the "adult" rides. So I can definitely see the possibility for upset parents here.

 

EDIT: Also, a difference in measurement can sometimes be the kid's fault. Kids are usually just told to "stand straight", but there's a significant difference in height between a kid standing straight in a casual posture and a kid standing ramrod straight with feet together, knees locked, head up, holding a deep breath. I myself can gain about half an inch via the latter method.

9 hours ago, TombRaiderFTW said:

Not sure if you were asking me or @flightoffear1996 this.

Was asking you. But they replied the second I clicked the "post" thingy. 

 

I fully agree with what you are saying. Again, just a circumstance I saw that I wanted to ask about. 

11 hours ago, fyrfyter said:

If they thought it was important to check, why didn’t they do it on the way in from the queue?

Even if there is a greeter/separates at the entrance doing their job line jumping is an issue.  The ride ops have a responsibility to make sure if it is questionable.   

There needs to be a better system especially in the case of paying an adult admission due to height and then being told you are not that height but I have no idea what that system is.

Height checking is always one of the worst struggles of being a ride operator. Height checking across the park is very inconsistent. It really all depends on how the crew works on each ride. 

As some as said previously, some rides don't even have a greeter. This leaves the separator - already in charge of ensuring the trains are being filled among other issues like unruly guests (sitting on railings, etc.) and checking Fast Lane wristbands - having yet another responsibility. Once children get past the separator, it is all up to those on the floor to check heights. The driver and ops on the floor are all told they too have responsibility for height checking, mostly through a quick eye scan. It is assumed separator/greeter did their jobs, but if something looks off, it is their job to take the child off and recheck.

That is when things can get messy. Sometimes, these kids were checked by separator/greeter incorrectly and end up being too short. That leads to freaking out over "well, he was fine over there!" Sometimes, as was also mentioned before, it is found that the child had been on plenty of rides earlier in the day but is actually too short. 

This does not even add in the fact that kids might be checked at the height checking stations, and that adds yet another layer to the possibilities of a mistake.

At the end of the day, I do believe guests have the right to "yell" if any of that^ above happens. If your kid is too short right from the get-go, and an op catches that for the first ride of the day, guests have no right to be upset. But if there were multiple mistakes made throughout the day, I understand the frustration. Height checking definitely needs to be more consistent across the board. 

Sorry. I could vent about this for hours.

Sometimes parents just sneak their kids past the greeters... or tell them they are doing a parent swap. Then in the station it's like a big surprise that they aren't allowed to ride. It DOES happen.

I always thought being the greeter would be the most hot, boring thing you could do as a rides kid.

It really is. Unless you like getting sunburnt, in which case, it’d be the perfect job for you.


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19 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I don’t think so. I think people are well aware that there are height limits. One thing I’ve seen has been a kid being measured and rejected after the kid had ridden earlier in the season or even in that day. I think that’s fair enough grounds for a parent being upset and/or annoyed. 

A former area supervisor (that you know too) has told the story several times about an upset family whose kids were rejected from riding FOF because they were too short. The kicker? They had ridden earlier that day. The final blow? They had purchased the photo to prove that they had ridden.  He was left with nothing to say except that the ride ops hadn’t done their jobs earlier in the day.

Can you honestly tell me that in the day and age of understaffing and far too many associates that are more concerned with saying “funny” things on the microphone than doing their jobs that this doesn’t happen far, far more often?

I'm not saying that things like this don't happen.  There are a lot of things to watch in the station and if it's hard to get an idea of if they are tall enough from a glance or scan.  Spieling probably doesn't help the cause, but I'm not sure it's the biggest reason for things like this happening.  More often than not, in these situations, they are very close to the height.  Staff rotates, one person has a different eye and catches the kid who shouldn't have been riding.  Not to mention you get people who sit at greeter and screw around, people who don't care.   It's not a great situation to be in, and they have reason to be upset.

What I was trying to get at, though, is that a majority of the people who are upset that their children can't ride things whine and complain "I spent all this money and my kid isn't tall enough to ride x,y,z."  My brother in law is a prime example, he tried to sneak his daughter on Diamondback even though she was about 2.5" too short.  People ignore the rules.  People stuff their kids shoes with paper towels, they tell their kids to step on their tippy toes.  Hell, in your FoF example, the woman should have parented better.  There was a failure on the ride ops as well.

You also see things like parents ripping their children's wrist band off and trying to get them on a ride that they are close to being able to ride.  Kids ripping the wrist bands off themselves, because they are irritating to their skin, etc.  People who refuse to let their kids be wrist banded.  It's a combination of factors and not necessarily limited to one or the other.  There isn't a good solution except height checking every single person, which we know isn't going to happen.

I work at Mystic Timbers which is a 48-inch ride. We have huge stacks of the purple wristband, that I try to put on kids if they make the height. I have had numerous times of parents yelling at me because " You are letting all these people in front of us" ... all because I was checking her height. The only negative thing is, we only the 48-inch wrist and nothing else.

5 hours ago, Bansheeback said:

It really is. Unless you like getting sunburnt, in which case, it’d be the perfect job for you.


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TBH depends on which greeter.... Banshee greeter= sunburn (happened to me on Saturday)  but Mystic greeter isn't horrible on slow days but Saturdays it's a rough hour.

I think it has more to do with Kings Island becoming not just being a fun place to spend the day from time to time, but rather viewed as a make-or-break, highly structured experience that many parents feel their children must (and will) experience at all costs; fun and relaxation be d%$ned (It's no longer a vacation.  It's a quest). 

 

50 minutes ago, KIfan73 said:

I think it has more to do with Kings Island becoming not just being a fun place to spend the day from time to time, but rather viewed as a make-or-break, highly structured experience that many parents feel their children must (and will) experience at all costs; fun and relaxation be d%$ned (It's no longer a vacation.  It's a quest). 

 

It's called Fear of Missing Out or FOMO.  

On 6/12/2018 at 2:09 AM, jdawg1998 said:

Height checking is always one of the worst struggles of being a ride operator. Height checking across the park is very inconsistent. It really all depends on how the crew works on each ride. 

As some as said previously, some rides don't even have a greeter. This leaves the separator - already in charge of ensuring the trains are being filled among other issues like unruly guests (sitting on railings, etc.) and checking Fast Lane wristbands - having yet another responsibility. Once children get past the separator, it is all up to those on the floor to check heights. The driver and ops on the floor are all told they too have responsibility for height checking, mostly through a quick eye scan. It is assumed separator/greeter did their jobs, but if something looks off, it is their job to take the child off and recheck.

That is when things can get messy. Sometimes, these kids were checked by separator/greeter incorrectly and end up being too short. That leads to freaking out over "well, he was fine over there!" Sometimes, as was also mentioned before, it is found that the child had been on plenty of rides earlier in the day but is actually too short. 

This does not even add in the fact that kids might be checked at the height checking stations, and that adds yet another layer to the possibilities of a mistake.

At the end of the day, I do believe guests have the right to "yell" if any of that^ above happens. If your kid is too short right from the get-go, and an op catches that for the first ride of the day, guests have no right to be upset. But if there were multiple mistakes made throughout the day, I understand the frustration. Height checking definitely needs to be more consistent across the board. 

Sorry. I could vent about this for hours.

I disagree with one part of your statement. An adult should never yell at a worker simply because they are upset at something so minor in the grand scheme of things.  An adult should act like an adult, especially with an impressionable child right beside them.