Hi again!

We have a very ambitious 4.5 year old who is only 40" tall (without shoes). She would really love to do the Grizzly River ride, (and perhaps others in California Adventure) but the height restriction is 42". Any suggestions? How strict are they about heights?

Thanks again!
Denise

Hi again!

We have a very ambitious 4.5 year old who is only 40" tall (without shoes). She would really love to do the Grizzly River ride, (and perhaps others in California Adventure) but the height restriction is 42". Any suggestions? How strict are they about heights?

Thanks again!
Denise


Platform shoes. :D

She'll be older and taller one day. What is the rush?

If she's not tall enough, I wouldn't do it. When you get there, check her height against the measurement at the ride, maybe she'll make it, if not, just wait until she is tall enough.

Height restrictions all depends on how close to the height she is and which ride. We managed to get my youngest into Star Tours and she was an inch under the bar. I was going it alone with my two girls one trip. My youngest barely made the height for Space Mountain and I would have preferred not to have done that. Her expression was so worth it, but the girls sat behind me and I had no control over holding them in. I was so freaked out all through the ride until I turned to see her face. She looked like Pluto with his ears sticking up in the old Disneyland videos when they ended the ride. We all laughed so hard but I would no way recommend it. We had to pry her hands of the bars to get her out. She loved it. All I can say is play dumb, wait in line and try. Faster rides, don't go it alone with two kids. Big mistake.

The height restrictions are in place for your child's safety. It is really worth placing a child in danger for a ride?

Fat heels on shoes and a ponytail on top of her head.

The height restrictions are in place for your child's safety. It is really worth placing a child in danger for a ride?

What she said.

I'm a huge believer in not doing anything to try to cheat the system. Height restrictions are in place because rides are designed for a specific height. That means that children who are too short may not properly fit into the safety harnesses.

Second of all, I don't want to teach my child that it's ok to lie and cheat to get something he wants. (I use "he" because I have three hes.) Especially for safety issues. If it's ok to cheat the height restrictions on a ride, then what other safety laws might it be ok to cheat because it's going to be fun and he doesn't want to miss out?

There's something to be said for teaching a child that it's ok to have patience and that things that are worth having are worth waiting for.

As the song says:
Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn

Adrienne

Hi again!

We have a very ambitious 4.5 year old who is only 40" tall (without shoes). She would really love to do the Grizzly River ride, (and perhaps others in California Adventure) but the height restriction is 42". Any suggestions? How strict are they about heights?

Thanks again!
Denise I think it's best to wait until they are the correct height. Who wants to worry about their child not fitting into safety straps the correct way?!

In my experiences, they did check my youngest son again before boarding any ride to make sure he was the correct height. I saw children that were turned away. Better to not go through the line and have them turn your child away right before boarding. I think that would be much harder on your daughter then just telling her before she goes that she will won't be able to ride Grizzy quite yet. I'm sure that she will have so much fun that if she is warned in advance, it won't be that big of a deal. We have had to do that with our middle son in the past when he was too short but really wanted to do certain rides. He still had a great time!

even if they are the right height they are likely to be tested numerous times. My son was exactly 40" and he was tested 3 times on thunder mountain at WDW. I would say do a little height dance and hope that height is achieved. If they don't look the height you will probably not get in and then you have a crushed child who doesn't understand.

Make sure she stands as big and tall as she can when they check her! When we went in 2003 my 5 1/2 year old was just tall enough to ride Indy. They checked her when we entered the line and when we were boarding. I told her to be sure to stand up as tall as she could- amazing what a difference posture makes!

Your willing to put your child's safety at risk for some fun? 'shakes head' :(

I meant to step in here and post a pre-emptive warning when I moved this thread to the right forum, but I was hoping that it would prove unnecessary.

It seems I was wrong.

Folks, please feel free to share your opinions on this topic and disagree all you want, but realize that it has proven to be a hot button issue in the past. We have locked previous thread that have headed down the road to the Land of Personal Attacks, and we're willing to do so again if needed.

State your case, make your points, but keep it civil.

AVP

Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn

Adrienne

Well stated.

Our son has just about hit the 40" inch mark, he makes me measure daily, and is already planning his rides for our May trip but the bottom line is, the height restrictions are set for a valid reason and IMHO they should be obeyed.

Denise, believe me, I can completely understand you wanting to allow your daughter to have all the fun she can possibly have (and someday, 2 inches later, she will) but for now I think attempting to work around the rules, although your intentions are good, would set a bad example and more importantly, could possibly endanger your daughter.

Last May, we visit WDW yearly, our very brave 3 year old came up short on almost everything (THANK GOD for Goofy's rollercoaster) he was pretty upset a few times but the cast members turned his lack of riding into a positive...ie..next time, if you drink your milk and eat your veggies type thing, you'll be big enough to ride. Well, we're less than 6 weeks away and he should be good to go!

Good luck with whatever decision you decide.

Bob

the one problem with boosting a kids height to get into GRR is that even with my two kids (we jst got back from a trip) they both met the height requirement 43, and 49 inches... but the seatbelts still didnt get tight enough...there was at least 6 inches of slack..I could fit my entire arm in the slack that was created when the seatbelt was cinched tight. We only took them on this once because even though they were tall enough, they werent big enough, and i just didnt feel safe.

Platform shoes, stuffed shoes, standing on tip-toes, and the pony tail are all things a good CM will notice and make you remove to measure height. Don't try it, the consequences of getting caught, especially if you put up a fight about it, are not worth it.

Denise, how long until your trip? Any chance she'll have a growth spurt before that? A growth spurt and shoes and she might be up to 42"

I know I'm in the minority here, but at WDW last summer, we put Olivia in shoes with a really thick sole. No problem. (Have also done this at DL and Legoland)

The safety restrictions are not so rigorous that there is no margin for safety. They have to factor in things like shoes and such when they are determining height requirements. I mean, I wouldn't put lifts inside my kid's shoes but if they are wearing a normal shoe that just happens to have a thicker heel, I don't see any big deal.

I've never seen anyone remove their kid's shoes so I assume that the naysayers don't insist that their kid be one inch over the height restriction without shoes.

I don't think ponytail would work because they just get scrunched down but IMO, hey it's worth a try.

I would try to prepare your daughter though in case she doesn't get on (something along the lines of, "I'm not sure you're tall enough we'll just have to wait and see when they measure you.").

As a side note, at Legoland where some of the rides require kids to be a certain age, they ask the kid how old they are-- not the parent.

IWe have locked previous threads that have headed down the road to the Land of Personal Attacks

Wow, I didn't know there was such a place. Is this near the Troll Bridge? ;)

To sorta help put it in perspective from the Cast's standpoint - so there's no thinking a CM is "mean" for not letting your child ride, especially if you made it past another CM already and get stopped by another later:

Every CM at an attraction has the responsibility of height check, not just the one at the entrance or the loading platform, though this is commonly where you'll find height markers. If a child under the hieght "gets through" its everyone's fault. So, everyone has to be vigilent even if their fellow CMs are not. Any CM can stop another if they question their judgement on the issue, and when in doubt the proceedure is to err on the side of caution (aka: not let the kid with giant platform shoes whose head barely touches the bar ride.) For example, even CMs watching attractions on monitors are trained to stop a ride if they see a child/person who appears to be too short seated on the attraction - this can mean preventing the vehicle-start from the tower or bringing a ride to stop mid-journey if they really feel the child probably wasn't tall enough (sometimes its really noticeable, if it's close, they'll ask if the child was measured by the load CMs.)

So, hopefully this helps belay fears that anyone is trying to ruin anyone's vacation. They're just doing their jobs. Go easy on them, there's always a few years down the road to ride again.