Lifestyle tips

I did Orlando last summer - I have a large upper stomach, around 64", and generally a huge upper body.

I had almost no problem at Disney at all - rode almost every ride not aimed specifically at children and it was fine. The only issue was I had to squeeze a little into the Space Mountain rocket seat, but the restraint fit fine. The employees are super accommodating as well - I wanted a front seat the second time in Space Mountain to give my legs more room to spread and they were totally great about letting me do that. I have actually heard that the language used to communicate your plus sized needs is "Pooh Size" - as in, "Can I sit anywhere or is there a Pooh Size seat?" Didn't have to use it myself but I've read that elsewhere.

Universal is another story - I didn't fit on any of the rides I tried the test seat. The Harry Potter ride was actually due to my arms preventing the upper restraint from lowering. I tried the Dragons ride and the Hulk ride before giving up trying to fit anywhere in Universal ride wise. The only one I fit on was Jurassic Park, and I had to really squeeze the bar down so it would restrain the others in my row. I would absolutely test the seat before getting in line.

Some of the parks have a model seat outside of the ride that you can sit in to see what the restraints are like. Pretty useful and can save you a long line before finding out you can't ride. If I remember correctly, Islands of Adventure has them.

I went to the four Disneyworld parks and both Universal parks when I was on holiday in the US about two months ago. I'm about 5'9" and 260 lbs with most of my weight on my belly. Every single ride at Disneyworld was a comfortable fit.

Universal, I had heard a lot about people not fitting into the rides, but again I was able to ride everything. I asked for the modified/larger seats on every ride where they were available and had no problems. We did seaworld orlando as well, and all the roller coasters there were fine too.