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Parks that staple you and parks that let you go loose

snes2

Roller Poster
I was in Six Flags New England last year and I'm aware of the incident that happened a few years ago on Superman, but I've never had restraints pushed so hard upon me like that in any park before. I even got winded on Harley Quinn Spinsanity with the restraint pushed down. I feel a slight sense of spite not being able to experience the airtime on the likes of Superman and Wicked Cyclone with having no room to leave the seat.
In contrast I was at SeaWorld Orlando last year too, on Mako it only needed a few clicks of the restraint and you were good to go leading to amazing rides where you were out of your seat more than in it.
So what are your experiences of being loose or being stapled in?
 

Kw6sTheater

Hyper Poster
More often than not I've been stapled on Goliath at Over Georgia, I got one lap with loose restraints and that's what puts it at my #8 overall. The Lightning Rod staff are your enemy if you want to get one of those glorious airtime-filled rides, as they will ensure that there is literally no room at all between the lapbar and your thighs. They even tell you that there can not be any room, but I have only been able to cheat my way out once out of the 9 laps I've ever had on Lightning Rod.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I will definitely give SeaWorld Orlando another vote for parks that let you go loose; my first ever ride on Mako was with a really loose lap bar that actually made me a tad nervous!

As for parks that staple you, I don't know whether anyone else would agree with me, but I'd say Alton Towers like to staple people on Wicker Man. I'm quite skinny, so I wouldn't say I've ever been stapled, but I know many other people who've reported being stapled on Wicker Man. I certainly wouldn't say Alton lets you have a loose lap bar from my experience, though. Although the presumed reason is understandable.
 

iac17

Mega Poster
Loose : KK ,I got a ride on Storm Chaser with a 3 centimiter gap between me and the restrains.

Staple: Holiday park , The day i went the ride ops where di**s if they saw you trying to get air on Expedition Ge-force they pushed harder. i wasn't able to enjoy the ejector becouse of them
 

Pear

Strata Poster
I got stapled to hell on Karacho and Silver Star when I went for some reason.

Both SWO and BGW seem to be nice on letting you get some space. I've easily gotten 2 click on both Mako and AC before.
 

Lucy

Hyper Poster
Personally, I've found it's not always a particular park that tends to staple you into rides but more to do with the staff on a ride. Although I do recall having an uncomfortable ride on Galactica at AT (when it was Air) which spoilt that particular go as I'd waited for the front!
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
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I got stapled to hell on Karacho and Silver Star when I went for some reason.
The ride-op when I rode Karacho was nothing short of vile. He was stapling so hard, I've never felt anything like it. Actually told him "no" when he went in for a second shove on my restraint, and he seemed to get the message. ****ing terrible. No way that would fly with an inspector watching.

Not had an issue on Silver Star, mind. They were too busy making sure every green for the dispatch to bother taking the time to staple!
 

streetmagix

Mega Poster
Walibi Holland are happy to give you a loose restraint. Especially noticeable on Goliath. On some rides I could have probably gotten my fist between the T-Bar and my legs. They tended to simply pull the t-bar rather than the normal push and then pull.

I found that Portaventura tends to staple people, especially on Shambhala. I think it needs a lower click as I've been stapled and rejected from Shambhala but I've been fine on Silver Star and Mako.
 

MLDesigns

Hyper Poster
^oh lord. Every B&M hyper I've ridden require 3 clicks for a green light, except for Silver Star with 4. 3 clicks is a little tight on my legs. Silver Star had me looking like the Michelin Man but I got that cred. If Shambhala requires MORE than 4, then there goes my chances of getting on that
 

iac17

Mega Poster
The ride-op when I rode Karacho was nothing short of vile. He was stapling so hard, I've never felt anything like it. Actually told him "no" when he went in for a second shove on my restraint, and he seemed to get the message. :emoji_zipper_mouth:ing terrible. No way that would fly with an inspector watching
I got the same treatment on G-Force
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
At Liseberg, I found staff on Helix and Balder really liked to staple - they were literally lunging whilst pushing restraints down. Yet, staff didn't check bars at all on Lisebergbanan, regardless of how loose bars were, which I regretted a little on those final brakes..

Like DelPiero, I usually have a knack of being able to stick my stomach out enough so if staff are stapling, I at least have a normal amount of room.
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
I got stapled so hard on Mumbo Jumbo at Flamingoland. Not only did they staple the lap bar, they also yanked down on the shoulder restraints which really hurt my shoulders. By the end of the ride I concluded that that was the worst coaster experience I have ever had.
 

streetmagix

Mega Poster
At Liseberg, I found staff on Helix and Balder really liked to staple - they were literally lunging whilst pushing restraints down. Yet, staff didn't check bars at all on Lisebergbanan, regardless of how loose bars were, which I regretted a little on those final brakes..

Like DelPiero, I usually have a knack of being able to stick my stomach out enough so if staff are stapling, I at least have a normal amount of room.


Liseberg is WEIRD. I noticed on several rides people stapling themselves into the seat. Like, full force pushing down. At least 2 or 3 people per cycle. Even after the ride ops had checked the bars. I've never seen anything like it. They added seatbelts to Helix because 'guests felt unsafe' several years after it opened. So weird.
 
From my most recent trip to Portaventura it depended on two different factors, ride ops and time of day. I managed to ride Shambhala 26 times over the 2 days so it was easy to tell which staff gave you some grace and which ones wanted to staple you in. Not being sexist, but in general I did tend to find that the female staff members didn't push nearly as hard on the restraints as the male staff members, so it was easier to get more room.
Later in the day they also introduced a dispatch timer to try and get the ops dispatching a train every minute. This lead to a much more lax approach when it came to stapling, so in the evening when it was nice and dark I managed to get more room on the restraints as well!

Other than that, Thorpe (not that there is any airtime there anyway) and BPB are both pretty good for giving room from experience. Alton ops are easily the worst i've experienced (not even just from a stapling perspective). Those are the only parks I can really comment on though where i've paid particular attention. I've only really started doing so this year and those are the parks where i've had enough re-rides on things to judge them fairly.
 

Snoo

The Legend
Ride Ops and Restraints mean everything. I've had generous ride ops and strict staplers on the same ride at a park before. Hell, in the same day between shifts. It can also not even matter as some restraints, such as the Intamin T-Bar, almost always staple the man bits.

Not even counting the fact that I have huge thighs which people always think "this is too loose.. let me get him a bit tighter" which caused immense pain. I've had to loosen a number of restraints in the past by request because they have forced restraints down on me on top of the "that is leg.. you aren't getting it tighter" and they try and get it tighter.
 

Y. Kim

Mega Poster
STAPLE: UNIVERSAL Studio Singapore
!!! Always stapled in USSingapore. Got 3 rides on Revenge of the mummy, pushed to the row I don't want and STAPLED. Even they staple me on Madagascar ride.

Not much stapling: When T Express operating 3 trains and have 90+ min wait
Ride OPs should dispatch a train in 60 second so as to keep the capacity 1440pph
Ops pull down the restraint and there's 2cm space between the lapbar and thighs and they let riders pull down more if they want.
So they barely staple riders , check restraints quickly and I can usually get a good air on 1st hill.
 

FistedColossus

Hyper Poster
When whoring Taron on Sunday, they eventually realised I was expanding the beer belly to get airtime. Last few rides I watched as the ride op instructed the staff to staple the **** out of me.

But those staple-less rides were absolutely ****ing awesome.

I last rode Shambhala about 3 years ago and only just managed to squeeze in, genuinely don't think I'd fit on it now. Stupid skinny Spaniards.
 
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