Seven Dwarves Mine Train....NOT for Big people

[Roakor]

While I don't hold anything against Disney for the height/weight restrictions for the ride, it would be nice if they would put a trial car out front. That way you can see if you fit before waiting in line.

 

[Otterhead]

I'm 6'2", my boyfriend is 6'3" and 275 lbs, and my friend is 350lbs. None of us had any trouble on the ride at all.

 

[Chef Mickey]

I'm a full 6'4 and didn't have too many issues. At least it wasn't ask bad as the jerk on Thunder Mountain where i always bang my knee.

 

[DisneyJayL]

Finally got to ride it. My knees haven't forgiven me yet.

 

[Blackburn23]

So I am 6-0, 240 (down 20 lbs since New Year by the way!!!)

Anyways, rode it with my little 3 years old (30 lbs) beside me. Had no issue with the height or anything. My issue was that they wouldn't let me spread my legs at all!!! Both had to be under the lap bar and as you other fellas know, the legs can only go together so far....... Will say my scream was a bit higher pitched than usual.

However, I LOVED the ride and listening to my little girl giggle the entire time was well worth it. Cant always be comfortable on a short ride like that so no complains overall.

 

[Weather_Lady]

While I don't hold anything against Disney for the height/weight restrictions for the ride, it would be nice if they would put a trial car out front. That way you can see if you fit before waiting in line.

This is an excellent idea!

 

[Gabe1]

You can call it "height discrimination," but it's not actionable, legally-speaking. Height is not a disability and it's not a protected category for purposes of human rights laws, so while it's unfair, it's not unlawful.

I sympathize with anyone whose natural, God-given physique makes it challenging for them to function in a world dominated by relatively shorter or thinner people, although I think WDW does a better job than most of providing ride vehicles that accommodate the vast majority of shapes and sizes safely. If your height makes riding 7DMT uncomfortable, just try to think of that pint-sized lap bar as karma's answer on behalf of all the folks who've ever had to sit behind you in a theater, stadium or concert. In the grand scheme of things, with the comparative advantages and disadvantages of being tall, I think it all evens out for everybody.

While I don't disagree with any of your comments and I myself are vertically challenged I don't believe it addresses the 'whys' of engineering an attraction marketed for families that possibly parents cannot ride with their younger children. Why design it that way? To what end? Fact remains in the 21st Century Disney designed a brand new attraction vehicle that would cause difficulties, pain and sometimes bruising for those guests of size-vertically or horizontally. It isn't as if people of size in all shapes and forms are a rarity in the Parks any more than those guests like me that are vertically challenged.

Reality, Disney should hire engineers/imagineers brighter and more talented than what was designed. That entire expansion only has 2 rides and were promoted as family friendly. Ha!

Here is hoping for all the people of size that Disney has designed and is building a few new cars for the trains to fix their blooper like Universal did for their blooper with Potter vehicles.

 

[Weather_Lady]

While I don't disagree with any of your comments and I myself are vertically challenged I don't believe it addresses the 'whys' of engineering an attraction marketed for families that possibly parents cannot ride with their younger children. Why design it that way? To what end? Fact remains in the 21st Century Disney designed a brand new attraction vehicle that would cause difficulties, pain and sometimes bruising for those guests of size-vertically or horizontally. It isn't as if people of size in all shapes and forms are a rarity in the Parks any more than those guests like me that are vertically challenged.

Reality, Disney should hire engineers/imagineers brighter and more talented than what was designed. That entire expansion only has 2 rides and were promoted as family friendly. Ha!

Here is hoping for all the people of size that Disney has designed and is building a few new cars for the trains to fix their blooper like Universal did for their blooper with Potter vehicles.

I guess I was assuming that by the time you develop a ride vehicle and restraint system that is safe and effective to contain and restrain small children, it's just not going to "fit" larger adults (and vice versa -- I've spent many a "grown-up-sized" ride with my super-skinny 8-year-old where I had to serve as his "secondary restraint system" because he was sliding all over the place, even with the ride restraint system properly lowered and engaged). But that's just my guess. Some of the engineers on here might want to weigh in (no pun intended) on this question, though...

 

[Goofyernmost]

I guess I was assuming that by the time you develop a ride vehicle and restraint system that is safe and effective to contain and restrain small children, it's just not going to "fit" larger adults (and vice versa -- I've spent many a "grown-up-sized" ride with my super-skinny 8-year-old where I had to serve as his "secondary restraint system" because he was sliding all over the place, even with the ride restraint system properly lowered and engaged). But that's just my guess. Some of the engineers on here might want to weigh in (no pun intended) on this question, though...

Not to mention, it's not all that bad to begin with and if it does exclude someone it is a special situation and let's face it, you cannot possibly build something with unique design and purpose and have every possible scenario covered. You can in many, but, not all. I cannot ride Space Mountain anymore, not because I don't fit, but, because my knee will not allow me to get out of it without creating a laughing situation for observers. Some cannot ride Mission: Space because they get motion sickness! Some cannot go on Stitch because of a ridiculously overdeveloped gag reflex! Some cannot go to a circus because of a fear of clowns. Some cannot experience Swiss Family Tree House because of a fear of dozing off due to boredom. Some cannot ride Everest because they have enough intelligence to tell them that riding backward on a roller coaster is against all that is holy and smart enough not to do it to begin with. Same thing applies to ToT.

P.S. The only one of those things that actually applies to me is the Space Mountain one. I feel the need to let everyone know how unwhimpy that I am.

 

[thomas998]

If you are big, or tall....and you don't like to ride in pain. Don't try to ride the Seven Dwarves Mine Train Coaster (SDMT).

I got on the ride via fastpass. I sat in one car. I am 6'4" about 275 so I am a big ex football player.
I sat on one seat and put my left leg down on the other seat. Then I lowered the lap bars, one over my right leg and torso, the other on my left leg.
The Disney CM said, I had to have both legs under one lap bar.
Then they moved me to the left sat for balance.
When they lowered that left lap bar over both of my legs....HOLY HELL!!!!
That hurt SO badly. And in the 3 minute ride...my legs actually turned purple.

I have to proclaim height discrimination. Just because I am genetically a big guy...why must I be punished by Disney.
You would think they would make this ride for everyone, especially since it is a NEW ride.

But there you go. If you are a tall person....try it at your own risk.
I even talked to a guest who was 5'10" and he said it was tight for him as well.

If this does not belong here....well I didn't see a thread that had this topic so I went with it.
I don't want to hear it because I really don't care if this is in the wrong place. Thanks.

Well you beat me by 20 pounds... but I felt your pain. Unfortunately for you I think they pushed the lap bar down to far. I felt scrunched up but not in pain... Was only glad I was riding alone behind my kids because there was no way you could comfortably have to adults sitting side by side... then again on roller coasters I prefer to be crammed in tight rather than risk flying out like the poor woman did last year at Six Flag Over Texas.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

6'4" here, and not very thin, no problems. Bit snug but still comfortable enough even with mom sitting beside (she also had no issues either). The vehicles on the old Snow White ride were far worse for my long legs. I've since lost a lot of weight so i'll probably fit even better on Mine Train than last year.

 

[Gabe1]

I guess I was assuming that by the time you develop a ride vehicle and restraint system that is safe and effective to contain and restrain small children, it's just not going to "fit" larger adults (and vice versa -- I've spent many a "grown-up-sized" ride with my super-skinny 8-year-old where I had to serve as his "secondary restraint system" because he was sliding all over the place, even with the ride restraint system properly lowered and engaged). But that's just my guess. Some of the engineers on here might want to weigh in (no pun intended) on this question, though...

I guess I was assuming that by the time you develop a ride vehicle and restraint system that is safe and effective to contain and restrain small children, it's just not going to "fit" larger adults (and vice versa -- I've spent many a "grown-up-sized" ride with my super-skinny 8-year-old where I had to serve as his "secondary restraint system" because he was sliding all over the place, even with the ride restraint system properly lowered and engaged). But that's just my guess. Some of the engineers on here might want to weigh in (no pun intended) on this question, though...

However we are not speaking to a high speed coaster here we are discussing a coaster designed for families. They had to know the dimensions from back of seat to front where knees would hit and they had to know the width of the space between the bars. These are engineers that design rides, their expertise. I genuinely understand some rides will not accommodate all but Disney is very aware of people of size in their parks and designing a family coaster that makes many squished doesn't strike me as a magical decision. IMO if Disney is going to spend that kind of money on the FLE, only have 2 rides, I would not go with a design for a family coaster that limits what type of families will fit into the crown jewel of the expansion. I still hope they take their cue from Universal and go back and redesign a car or two that will accommodate guests of size.

 

[thomas998]

While I don't disagree with any of your comments and I myself are vertically challenged I don't believe it addresses the 'whys' of engineering an attraction marketed for families that possibly parents cannot ride with their younger children. Why design it that way? To what end? Fact remains in the 21st Century Disney designed a brand new attraction vehicle that would cause difficulties, pain and sometimes bruising for those guests of size-vertically or horizontally. It isn't as if people of size in all shapes and forms are a rarity in the Parks any more than those guests like me that are vertically challenged.

Reality, Disney should hire engineers/imagineers brighter and more talented than what was designed. That entire expansion only has 2 rides and were promoted as family friendly. Ha!

Here is hoping for all the people of size that Disney has designed and is building a few new cars for the trains to fix their blooper like Universal did for their blooper with Potter vehicles.

My guess on why they don't design for the average person of today is probably because most engineering text books were written based on an average human from the 1940's much as the seats on an airplane are designed for average adults of that same era. If you went to a different standard and something happened you would probably be sued sideways. Just imagine they enlarge the seat area to provide better legroom and some kid flys out and dies, the lawyers would be all over the fact that the seat was larger than any other ride ever made so Disney would be blamed for making a ride that was unsafe.

As much as I would like more leg room on some of the rides I don't think I'll ever get it so long as lawyers are lurking about ready to sue at moments notice.

 

[Gabe1]

My guess on why they don't design for the average person of today is probably because most engineering text books were written based on an average human from the 1940's much as the seats on an airplane are designed for average adults of that same era. If you went to a different standard and something happened you would probably be sued sideways. Just imagine they enlarge the seat area to provide better legroom and some kid flys out and dies, the lawyers would be all over the fact that the seat was larger than any other ride ever made so Disney would be blamed for making a ride that was unsafe.

As much as I would like more leg room on some of the rides I don't think I'll ever get it so long as lawyers are lurking about ready to sue at moments notice.

Don't buy into that, with the lap bars and seat style within Thunder, BarnStormer and Splash should be shut down for fear of a kid flying out or being sued. As for text books excuse, engineering for rollercoasters seem to have managed evolve and move past the 1940's when designing coasters. Even my friend who is 6'7" and well over 300 pounds fits on Everest so it appears rollercoaster engineers can move past the 1940s or at least the talented engineers can.

 

[Goofyernmost]

However we are not speaking to a high speed coaster here we are discussing a coaster designed for families. They had to know the dimensions from back of seat to front where knees would hit and they had to know the width of the space between the bars. These are engineers that design rides, their expertise. I genuinely understand some rides will not accommodate all but Disney is very aware of people of size in their parks and designing a family coaster that makes many squished doesn't strike me as a magical decision. IMO if Disney is going to spend that kind of money on the FLE, only have 2 rides, I would not go with a design for a family coaster that limits what type of families will fit into the crown jewel of the expansion. I still hope they take their cue from Universal and go back and redesign a car or two that will accommodate guests of size.

The thing is that I don't believe that it affects anymore people then any other ride does, except for different reasons. Those are uniquely designed ride vehicles and not being an engineer myself, I don't know what load balances, center of gravity issues, car sizes or anything else that might be necessary to accommodate the smallest to the largest and still maintain the rides integrity. I just don't think that it is reasonable to either assume that they didn't know what they were doing when they designed it or that reasonable compromises weren't made in it's design to accommodate the vast majority.

I'm a big guy, not tall, but, big and I had no problem at all. Tight, yes, but not a problem. People with long legs have problems in a great many rides at Disney and other places. I have relatively short legs, but, I do run into situations where my knees are left with no room at all and are pressing against the seat in front of me. Pirates is a good example of that. I'm not overly wide across the hips, but, there are times that I feel shoehorned into some of the theater seats. I have no idea how some of the wider folks are able to fit in them at all. But, they do! How, I do not know.

If I had to take a wild guess I would think that 99% of Disney Guests can fit into 7DMT, some tightly, but, it's only a two minute ride, it's not like one is stuck there for hours on end. Now when I think about some of the other attractions I can see where a much higher percentage cannot go on them due to heart conditions, high blood pressure, motion sickness, claustrophobia, mobility problems and the list goes on.

One of the ones that used to be a problem is not as much anymore are rides like ToT when it was just one big bar that came down to lap level. They weren't thinking about sizes when they designed that at all.

BTMR was one where when I went on with my kids and later grandkids I had to look and see the ratio of right and left turns so I could decide what side of the kids to sit. If I was on the wrong side I would be forced by centrifugal force over toward them pinning them between me and the wall. And the single lap bar wasn't anywhere near close to the lap of the kids. It is an impossibility to design a one size fits all for an action ride and I think that 7DMT reached a very good compromise.

 

[Gabe1]

The thing is that I don't believe that it affects anymore people then any other ride does, except for different reasons. Those are uniquely designed ride vehicles and not being an engineer myself, I don't know what load balances, center of gravity issues, car sizes or anything else that might be necessary to accommodate the smallest to the largest and still maintain the rides integrity. I just don't think that it is reasonable to either assume that they didn't know what they were doing when they designed it or that reasonable compromises weren't made in it's design to accommodate the vast majority.

I'm a big guy, not tall, but, big and I had no problem at all. Tight, yes, but not a problem. People with long legs have problems in a great many rides at Disney and other places. I have relatively short legs, but, I do run into situations where my knees are left with no room at all and are pressing against the seat in front of me. Pirates is a good example of that. I'm not overly wide across the hips, but, there are times that I feel shoehorned into some of the theater seats. I have no idea how some of the wider folks are able to fit in them at all. But, they do! How, I do not know.

If I had to take a wild guess I would think that 99% of Disney Guests can fit into 7DMT, some tightly, but, it's only a two minute ride, it's not like one is stuck there for hours on end. Now when I think about some of the other attractions I can see where a much higher percentage cannot go on them due to heart conditions, high blood pressure, motion sickness, claustrophobia, mobility problems and the list goes on.

One of the ones that used to be a problem is not as much anymore. Rides like ToT when it was just one big bar that came down to lap level. They weren't thinking about sizes when they designed that at all.

BTMR was one where when I went on with my kids and later grandkids I had to look and see the ratio of right and left turns so I could decide what side of the kids to sit. If I was on the wrong side I would be forced by centrifugal force over toward them pinning them between me and the wall. And the single lap bar wasn't anywhere near close to the lap of the kids. It is an impossibility to design a one size fits all for an action ride and I think that 7DMT reached a very good compromise.

We will have to agree to disagree. I will remain in the camp that a ride meant for families should be designed to accommodate families of size too. I have no stake in this in actuality being pint sized and and having a 6' DH that does fit and adult children that will fit and are slender. I have empathy for the families that are turned away cause as I know from experience my kids when small wouldn't ride initially a coaster without a parent security blanket besides them.

 

[The Duck]

I have large thighs and extremely arthritic knees (I walk with a cane) so I'm not even going to attempt it.
I have no problems on BTMRR, Everest, Splash or Space Mountain but every picture that I've seen of the 7D lap bar makes me cringe.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I had my picture taken with Cindy Williams, "Shirley", a few years ago when I was in Las Vegas. She was so nice. Talked with me like I had known her for years. She didn't have to try very hard though because I loved her before I met her and nothing happened to change that. She, in fact, is the only celebrity that I ever made an attempt to meet. Now if Sandra Bullock would just show up within a reasonable range of me... my life could be balanced.

 

[Redsky89]

I'm 5'10 and about 175 pounds. I think its quite uncomfortable for my legs. I have broad shoulders also so whoever is sitting next to me is in for a tight squeeze.

 

[jloucks]

If you are big, or tall....and you don't like to ride in pain. Don't try to ride the Seven Dwarves Mine Train Coaster (SDMT).

I got on the ride via fastpass. I sat in one car. I am 6'4" about 275 so I am a big ex football player.
I sat on one seat and put my left leg down on the other seat. Then I lowered the lap bars, one over my right leg and torso, the other on my left leg.
The Disney CM said, I had to have both legs under one lap bar.
Then they moved me to the left sat for balance.
When they lowered that left lap bar over both of my legs....HOLY HELL!!!!
That hurt SO badly. And in the 3 minute ride...my legs actually turned purple.

I have to proclaim height discrimination. Just because I am genetically a big guy...why must I be punished by Disney.
You would think they would make this ride for everyone, especially since it is a NEW ride.

But there you go. If you are a tall person....try it at your own risk.
I even talked to a guest who was 5'10" and he said it was tight for him as well.

If this does not belong here....well I didn't see a thread that had this topic so I went with it.
I don't want to hear it because I really don't care if this is in the wrong place. Thanks.

6'3 250, I was ok, but just an inch or two can make a huge difference! The Flashback at Six Flags (Arlington) almost crippled my spine. The overshoulder solid restraint compressed it so much as it came down I almost cried.

...then it started moving.

No Beuno.