AIBU to take my DD on these theme park rides?

[Iamthewalnut]

My DD turns four this weekend. We’re hoping to take her to a theme park. For children shorter than 90cm in height entry is free, but they can only go on 8 rides. For children 90cm or taller, entry is £18, but they can go on 17 rides. It probably isn’t too outing to say the theme park is Gulliver’s Kingdom. www.gulliverskingdomresort.co.uk/rides

DD was born 14 weeks premature and is tiny for her age. Bear in mind the average 2.5 year old girl weighs 13kg is 90cm tall. My DD, at 4, weighs 11kg and is 88cm in her bare feet…but bang on 90cm wearing her trainers. (This was confirmed two days ago when she was weighed and measured at an appointment with her pediatrician)

Am I being unreasonable booking a paid ticket for her as 90cm and over so she can go on all the rides?

I’d hate for us to pay for her, get all the way there and then she’s not allowed on. Does anyone know whether the height limit is with shoes on or off?

The other option is booking an under 90cm ticket with free entry for her but then she’d be really limited with what rides she could enjoy and likely not happy seeing kids half her age go on rides that she couldn’t, plus it wouldn’t make the 2 hour journey there worth it.

Its risky OP. Imagine your DDs disappointment after standing in a queue for ages (went to a theme park a couple of weeks ago and wait times there were an hour) only to be turned away. Also a waste of money on the more expensive ticket. Its impossible to know how rigorous an individual attendant is going to be either. Just because some people have encountered lax ones, doesn't mean you will.

I had a similar concern when we went to Lightwater Valley and thankfully someone talked some sense into me by pointing out a death / serious injury that had occurred at the park a couple of years previous, to a small child on a roller coaster. The safety limits are there for a reason and should be respected for that.

We have just come back from Gullivers Land (not Kingdom, but same company).

The ride operators will have no idea what ticket she came in on. They have sticks and will measure for each ride. Put insoles in her trainers to boost her up a bit! If you have a buggy still, put her in it to go in and then use it to push the picnic/coats/random belongings around once you're in there!

For those talking about safety guidelines, I absolutely agree for most theme park rides. However, most of the rides at Gullivers are very very tame and there is little chance of anyone falling out of them, particularly with an adult next to them making sure they're sitting properly etc.

Update -

Thanks for all the input and opinions.

To answer a few questions, it's Gulliver's Kingdom in Matlock, not the on in Milton Keynes.

Thanks for the suggestions of other theme parks such as Alton Towers (where I went myself as a child many times and loved it) The reason we were looking at Gullivers is because we don't have a car at present. Matlock is reachable by train whereas other parks aren't.

DD has no concept that she is too short and is limited in her capabilities to tell me what she wants - she is deaf as a result of her extreme prematurity and only received cochlear implants 1 year ago due to surgery delays caused by the pandemic. Therefore she is only just beginning to acquire speech but gets very excited whenever she sees a themepark on TV, jumping up and down, pointing and squealing.

We hired out a softplay and threw her a birthday party with all her friends last weekend which she loved, but we wanted to do something special on her actual birthday too.

However, on balance, DH & I have decided to wait until summer to take her to Gullivers - hopefully by then she'll be able to appreciate it more and we won't have the height restriction conundrum.

She sounds like a lovely happy fun loving girl. ❤
Have a lovely time when you decide to go.