39.75 Inch Tall Kid???

mgraef

New Member
Original Poster
My son is just shy of 40 inches. I am not going to stuff his shoes or anything like that, but with shoes he is over 40" inches. I am into the safety of my child and I am not going to pick a fight with a CM.

My question is are the measurements at exactly 40" for applicable rides, or does Disney bump up the measuring bars to account for shoes?

Last year I measured my son at home for Kali RR at 38" and he "passed" at home but was about a milimeter short at the park.
 

Lucky

Well-Known Member
Their height bars seem a little high to me too. If it's borderline and the CM says no, I would not argue either, but you might try again a little later. A different CM might view it a little differently.
 

raven

Well-Known Member
It all depends on your concern for the safety of your child. I would say if he measures 40" and you are going on the attraction with him, it would be no problem. But if you are sending him by himself and he is just shy of 40", I would keep him safe before anything else. Just my thoughts.
 

Since1976

Well-Known Member
My son is just shy of 40 inches. I am not going to stuff his shoes or anything like that, but with shoes he is over 40" inches. I am into the safety of my child and I am not going to pick a fight with a CM.

My question is are the measurements at exactly 40" for applicable rides, or does Disney bump up the measuring bars to account for shoes?

Last year I measured my son at home for Kali RR at 38" and he "passed" at home but was about a milimeter short at the park.


Why *not* stuff his shoes to gain an extra 1/4"? His safety is not going to be endangered by such a small deviation from the posted height requirement -- that number is often padded by a couple of inches anyway. And yes, CM's do usually include the height of one's hair when they measure (within reason -- I don't think Marge Simpson could get away with her super hive...).
 

3fordisney

New Member
I don't think the measuring bar takes into account shoes. My son was about 41 1/2 inches tall last year with out his shoes on (maybe a hair taller, can't remember exactly). He met the height requirement for the rides requiring 42 inches, even though bare footed he wasn't 42 inches. The shoes made up the difference and he got to ride those rides without any problems. The CMs did check him at those rides and we didn't have a problem at all. If your trip is a few weeks off and your son is like mine, he might grow more and meet it without his shoes. They grow like weeds!!!:)
 

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
If he is 39.75" without shoes there won't be a problem. Most shoes will give about 1/2 to 1" of a lift and they are measured with shoes on. The key is to make sure he stands up straight. Our youngest had a short lived habit of scrunching down to try and fit under the stick. We told her she need to bump her head on the bottom of the stick to ride. She got the idea pretty quick.

If a CM says no don't argue just try again later. If your child is close to the mark it is left up to the judgment of the CM who is only concerned about your child's safety. Also don't be surprised if your child is measured multiple times.
 

mgraef

New Member
Original Poster
We are skippin' Stitch regardless, I was thinking more along the lines of Soarin' which he has been talking about for months. I have promised that we will go right to Figment if he cannot get on Soarin'. I am sure he will like it even if it is painful for me. But it is not about me, is it?:king:
 

Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
We are skippin' Stitch regardless, I was thinking more along the lines of Soarin' which he has been talking about for months. I have promised that we will go right to Figment if he cannot get on Soarin'. I am sure he will like it even if it is painful for me. But it is not about me, is it?:king:

If I remember correctly, Soarin' just requires children under 40" to use an additional centre strap that the regular belt goes through. This may have changed though, since the on-line restrictions just say they have to be 40" or taller...
 

danpam1024

Well-Known Member
If he doesn't make it this year, just another reason to come back next year!:p
My son just passed 40 in this month without shoes Hooray!!!!:sohappy: 38 days and counting!:D
 

Buried20KLeague

Well-Known Member
Oh if I could count how many times I heard that over the years....and how many times I saw kids get hurt.

J

Totally don't agree here. A child 39.75 inches is at absolutly miniscule percentage higher risk of injury as a 40 inch child.

Plus, these rides are built with a buffer in them. Rides that have a 40 inch requirement are probably engineered for safety of a 37 inch person, or something similar. They don't design rides to border on safety using the height requirement number.

Let kids be kids. Find me even one 39.75 inch kid that got on a 40 inch ride and was injured based on that .25 inch difference. Come on people. Be reasonable.

Try to get him on. If it's that close, and a cast member doesn't let him on, wait till later when someone else is height checking. If the kid wants to go on a ride, try to make it happen without worry or prejudice as long as you aren't breaking the rules. Nothing wrong with that. And you'll be thankful down the road when he's talking about that trip you took to disney and he wanted to ride "so and so" and had to be height checked 3 times, but finally made it on, and it was the best ride of his life.
 

danpam1024

Well-Known Member
Totally don't agree here. A child 39.75 inches is at absolutly miniscule percentage higher risk of injury as a 40 inch child.

Plus, these rides are built with a buffer in them. Rides that have a 40 inch requirement are probably engineered for safety of a 37 inch person, or something similar. They don't design rides to border on safety using the height requirement number.

Let kids be kids. Find me even one 39.75 inch kid that got on a 40 inch ride and was injured based on that .25 inch difference. Come on people. Be reasonable.

Try to get him on. If it's that close, and a cast member doesn't let him on, wait till later when someone else is height checking. If the kid wants to go on a ride, try to make it happen without worry or prejudice as long as you aren't breaking the rules. Nothing wrong with that. And you'll be thankful down the road when he's talking about that trip you took to disney and he wanted to ride "so and so" and had to be height checked 3 times, but finally made it on, and it was the best ride of his life.


As you are doing this, how do you explain it to your child?

"Rulles are meant to be broken"
"Ignore the safety concerns. Take the risk"
"We don't care what is best for you. As long as you have fun, it's okay"

I'm sorry. I don't agree with your opinion at all. :(
 

Buried20KLeague

Well-Known Member
As you are doing this, how do you explain it to your child?

"Rulles are meant to be broken"
"Ignore the safety concerns. Take the risk"
"We don't care what is best for you. As long as you have fun, it's okay"

I'm sorry. I don't agree with your opinion at all. :(

You're taking what I said out of context. If you'll read my post, I specifically state that there's nothing wrong with trying to get him on if you aren't doing anything wrong. That you're not "cheating" if you will.

If it comes down to .25 of an inch, like it or not, whether or not your kid gets to ride is going to be the choice of the height checker at the time. That's all there is to it. Maybe one CM is in a crappy mood and won't let them ride (it's happened to us), but the next might consider them to meet the requirement. My explaination to my girls - and yes, I've had this exact situation happen for the past two years - is that they're so close to the limit, that some checkers consider them tall enough, others don't. And so if one says they can't ride, and they want to check back later and try, we do that. I see nothing wrong with handling it this way, especially since I respect the CM's decision and move along. I don't believe that that is instilling in them some sort of "rage against the machine" attitude.

And of course. I ALWAYS tell my kids I don't care what's best for them. In fact, I'm encouraging them to wrestle alligators in the swamps of Louisiana. SAFETY BE DAMMED!!! :rolleyes: Come on, give me a break. We're talking about a possible .25 inch difference in height, and a kid that does nothing but talk about how much he wants to ride a certain attraction. Does that mean that there's something wrong with my parenting skills if as a result of that I might get his height checked on more than one occasion to attempt to get him on the ride he's so desperately talked about?? Especially if I'm not cheating in any way, and I'm respecting those CM's that deem him unable to ride?? I would argue that it's quite the opposite... That I'm doing my best to give my child the experience they want, within the confines of the rules. Consider it "testing weak spots in the fence" to check him more than once if you like, but it's natural that you'll get different opinions with different checkers. Nothing wrong with trying.

And my comments regarding safety of rides was merely to illustrate that kids are plenty safe at the 40 inch requirement. I was in no way suggesting it should be your goal to begin attempting to smuggle your kids onto rides at 37 inches... Just that they are engineered to a safety point somewhere below 40 inches, so you should feel comfortable right at that height mark. As I said in my earlier post, find me one instance of a child injury on a ride specifically because they were .25 inch under the mark.

Think about it for a second... There's probably up to an INCH of varyance in kids' height just based on the shoes they're wearing that day!!!! So a ride with a 40 inch limit is really what... 39 inch tall kids? 38 1/2?? If he wears shoes with bigger soles to get him over 40, he'll instantly be let on the ride, but is that extra .25 inch of sole going to protect him in any way from any injury possibly sustained? I don't think so. This varyance, along with insurance reasons, is why these rides are engineered for safety at a level below the posted height requirement.
 

Buried20KLeague

Well-Known Member
NOTE: Sorry about the double post (now triple). :lol: I had another thought I wanted to add, and went to edit the first post and it made a whole new one... And now I can't edit either one.

My apologies!!
 

Jorden

Member
Again it varies CM to CM but at Mission: Space (44") if the kid dosn't bump his head or if I can slip a launch ticket between his skull and the bar easily thats how I decide if he/she is too short. Just make sure he knows he has to bump his head and you should be fine.
 

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