Cat in the Hat Not Spinning?

[natespf]

Hey I forget, but didn't the original design for the trolly have a lower height requirement?

 

[mahnamahna]

the Peoplemover does a good job of being open-air and not having a height requirement. I dont know how practical it would be to redesign the seats on the trolley but considering you arent tall enough to ride the kid-oriented nursery-rhyming ride until you are tall enough for Spiderman, Transformers, Men in Black, and the Simpsons is kinda outrageous.

Also, Cat in the Hat can maintain spinning without being restrictive. It doesnt need to be violent.

Agreed. Universal needs to figure out a way to get both rides to having no to very small (32") height requirements. Cat needs none because its IOA's marquee family dark ride

 

[Nitro_230]

the Peoplemover does a good job of being open-air and not having a height requirement. I dont know how practical it would be to redesign the seats on the trolley but considering you arent tall enough to ride the kid-oriented nursery-rhyming ride until you are tall enough for Spiderman, Transformers, Men in Black, and the Simpsons is kinda outrageous.

Also, Cat in the Hat can maintain spinning without being restrictive. It doesnt need to be violent.

The peoplemover is also enclosed by a floor and railings the entire path. A child removing themselves would be less deadly. The individual lap bars are there because if the train stops for any reason they do not want people able to move around with nothing to stop their fall. And the individual lap bars can not hold very small children in, hence the height restriction.

As for Cat, the base issue is not the spinning, it's small kids getting out of the lap bars. The spinning makes it worse because if it spins when the child is out of the lap bar there is a greater risk for injury (that is why the stopped the spin while they worked on the solution). But reducing the spin alone doesn't solve the fact that despite children under 42" needing to ride with an adult in the same seat somehow these kids keep ending up free of the lap bars.

 

[TylerDurden]

^Theres no reason a railing couldnt be installed along the Trolley tracks a la Peoplemover. Also, the Fatasyland dark rides all have similar vehicles/restraints as Cat in the Hat so I dont get the problem there if its not the spinning.

In any case, little kids (who make up a key component of the money-spending and highly-attractive "family" demographic) need more to do at the resort.

 

[wdwparksfan]

Going to be hard to explain to children that they are not tall enough to go on a ride they have already been on.

 

[Nitro_230]

^Theres no reason a railing couldnt be installed along the Trolley tracks a la Peoplemover. Also, the Fatasyland dark rides all have similar vehicles/restraints as Cat in the Hat so I dont get the problem there if its not the spinning.

In any case, little kids (who make up a key component of the money-spending and highly-attractive "family" demographic) need more to do at the resort.

Adding a floor and railings to trolley would kill the openness of the ride. Again, Audrey Geisel wanted things to feel open. The idea is that kids are out in the middle of things not behind walls and railings. Her contract really is the basis for the JK/WB contract, she has a lot of control and she exercises it.

I'm aware the Fatasyland dark rides manage to do it, I don't know what kind of issues if any they have. I just happen to know that on a good day only one or two people jump out of cat, and there are only three or four issues with parents removing their children / allowing their children to remove themselves from under the lap bar.

I'm 100% with you that there's not enough for little kids to do, and I'd love to see more rides designed from the beginning with little kids in mind. Just between the safety limitations and the contract these two rides aren't it.

 

[Spideyfreak]

^Theres no reason a railing couldnt be installed along the Trolley tracks a la Peoplemover.

How are you going to support it and the catwalk system? From what I understand, it was a bitch to get the current ride system to work with the pre-existing supports in the first place.

 

[KRAKENvsMANTA]

The fact that there's a height requirement for Cat in the Hat is completely ridiculous. Especially after the fact that they've significantly reduced the spinning aspect. As it's been mentioned already, if it's truly the lap bar/restraint system, then why isn't there similar issues occurring frequently at WDW, where many of their rides have a similar system? And if incidents are truly occurring that often, I have to wonder how liable Universal is for dumb instances where kids are climbing out? Aren't all the safety warnings/signs there for that exact reason? I just feel Universal took the easy way out here and slapped a height restriction on a child's ride just to cover their own ***.

 

[darkridelover]

Let it go! It's not gonna change back. 36" pretty much encompasses almost all children that would remember riding the ride anyway. We're talking 4 and 5 yo's can still ride the ride so who cares. It's not that big of a deal.

 

[TylerDurden]

Let it go! It's not gonna change back. 36" pretty much encompasses almost all children that would remember riding the ride anyway. We're talking 4 and 5 yo's can still ride the ride so who cares. It's not that big of a deal.

You dont have kids I take it? Its a pretty big deal if part of your family cant ride anything, especially with passes as expensive as they are. Not to mention it affects more than just the kids who cant ride...it means parents have to split up to take the other kids on rides, deal with restless kids, etc. Its not the end of the world but its something that Universal ought to consider.

 

[Teknik_DC2]

Let it go! It's not gonna change back. 36" pretty much encompasses almost all children that would remember riding the ride anyway. We're talking 4 and 5 yo's can still ride the ride so who cares. It's not that big of a deal.

Please tell that to my 2 1/2 year old who hasn't been to the park in 10 months and rode Cat in the Hat about 5 times on that trip. He is now to small to ride it.

There was almost nothing more heartbreaking to my wife and I to see our son after having to do child swap on 95% of the rides in islands of adventure light up upon seeing the ride enterance and saying "cat in hat" over and over and over again and having to tell him he can't go on it again until he is taller.

You may not think it's a big deal but it's huge when your a parent and a ride your child loves is no longer accessable to them. Sorry but my child remembers that ride and was very sad that he couldn't do it.

 

[Cole]

Please tell that to my 2 1/2 year old who hasn't been to the park in 10 months and rode Cat in the Hat about 5 times on that trip. He is now to small to ride it.

There was almost nothing more heartbreaking to my wife and I to see our son after having to do child swap on 95% of the rides in islands of adventure light up upon seeing the ride enterance and saying "cat in hat" over and over and over again and having to tell him he can't go on it again until he is taller.

You may not think it's a big deal but it's huge when your a parent and a ride your child loves is no longer accessable to them. Sorry but my child remembers that ride and was very sad that he couldn't do it.

Aww that sucks man I definitely know how you feel. My 7 year old little brother was around a inch too short to go on forbidden journey and it broke his little heart. He eventually rode it the next year but it was devastating that he couldn't go on a ride based on a movie series he followed so closely. This ride really does need something to shorten the height limit because you are all right it's unfair to children, I was going to take my 3 year old brother this year but I'm just going to have to wait until he's older :'(

 

[Frank Drackman]

The spinning is very tame now, it seems it is now just turning to put the show in the correct view.

 

[IAmFloridaBorn]

The spinning is very tame now, it seems it is now just turning to put the show in the correct view.

Agreed. The spinning has definitely relaxed. I actually enjoy the Suess ride now.

 

[mahnamahna]

Honestly, if Universal allowed lap sitting, Cat in the Hat would be fine. E.T. should also allow lap sitting IMO, considering how tame it is - no different than PPF. Seuss Trolley is open-air so I understand a height requirement, but lap sitting should allow it to be 32" or 34". Maybe tinker the ride vehicles? It's the tamest outdoor ride in all of IOA and it has a 40" height requirement... no, just no

E.T. and Cat would be all-ages at Disney since lap-sitting is permitted. Makes no sense that Universal is so adamantly against it.

 

[Skubersky]

Honestly, if Universal allowed lap sitting, Cat in the Hat would be fine. E.T. should also allow lap sitting IMO, considering how tame it is - no different than PPF. Seuss Trolley is open-air so I understand a height requirement, but lap sitting should allow it to be 32" or 34". Maybe tinker the ride vehicles? It's the tamest outdoor ride in all of IOA and it has a 40" height requirement... no, just no

E.T. and Cat would be all-ages at Disney since lap-sitting is permitted. Makes no sense that Universal is so adamantly against it.

My wife lost her hat on ET yesterday going up the hill into the cityscape so I don't think lap sittin would be a good idea! ;-)

When the park opened there used to be spaceship-shaped alternate vehicles on ET that had no height requirement, but they were eliminated during an early refurb.

 

[BrianC]

Universal, please clean up and do some painting! Took this last week.

 

[anihilnation]

I for one greatly dislike Cat now that the spinning is so lame, on the other hand I can understand the reason behind it, though I wonder, who was bothered by the original spinning grownups are the little kids? Whenever I have been on t he ride and their was a little kid on it, they always seemed to enjoy the spinning ...

 

[Spideyfreak]

Honestly, if Universal allowed lap sitting, Cat in the Hat would be fine. E.T. should also allow lap sitting IMO, considering how tame it is - no different than PPF. Seuss Trolley is open-air so I understand a height requirement, but lap sitting should allow it to be 32" or 34". Maybe tinker the ride vehicles? It's the tamest outdoor ride in all of IOA and it has a 40" height requirement... no, just no

E.T. and Cat would be all-ages at Disney since lap-sitting is permitted. Makes no sense that Universal is so adamantly against it.

Honestly, this would be incredibly dangerous to the little ones. Without a restraint (even lap sitting), one can easily be ejected from the front row of Cat if it spins at full speed.

ET needs individual restraints because the RVs are about 14 feet off the floor at one point and open sided.

 

[Cole]

Does anybody have a video of the cat in the hat not spinning? Sounds incredibly surreal

- - - Updated - - -

When the park opened there used to be spaceship-shaped alternate vehicles on ET that had no height requirement, but they were eliminated during an early refurb.

I'd love to see a picture of this if anybody has one