Taking On Theme Parks in a Fat Body: What No One Told Me

Like most kids, I grew up dreaming about Disney.

I would dance around my living room blasting The Lion King soundtrack like I was auditioning for something bigger than my little house in St. Louis. My toys were Disney, my clothes were Disney, my birthday parties were Disney. Every Christmas, I sat in front of the TV watching those Disney World commercials, waiting for the moment my parents would surprise me.

That moment never came.

And as I got older, I started to believe that even if it had… I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it anyway.

The First Time My Body Felt Like a Barrier

In middle school, I earned a perfect-attendance trip to Six Flags.

At that age, I knew I was bigger than other kids, but I had never really thought about what that meant outside of being “the fat one.” That trip changed everything.

I fit on the rides, but it didn’t feel good.

The seatbelts were tight. The bars pressed into my stomach. I remember pulling and adjusting, trying to make everything work without anyone noticing how hard I was trying.

Nothing dramatic happened. No one told me to get off a ride. No one made a scene.

But I felt it.

That quiet realization that my body might limit me.

And once that thought existed, I couldn’t unfeel it.

After that, I stopped going to theme parks. I didn’t want to risk being embarrassed. I didn’t want to find out, in front of everyone, that I didn’t fit.

So I avoided it altogether.

The Years I Put My Life on Hold

By the time I could afford to travel on my own, I was over 500 pounds.

I had fully bought into the idea that travel wasn’t for people like me.

So I made a mental list of things I would do “one day.”

Everything lived in the future version of my life. The version where I was smaller.

I didn’t realize how much I was holding myself back. I thought I was being realistic.

When Disney Became Real

When my dad offered to take our whole family to Disney, I was excited in a way that felt almost childlike again.

And then the fear hit just as fast.

Because now I had to face the thing I had been avoiding for years.

I didn’t trust my body to handle the trip. I didn’t trust that I wouldn’t be embarrassed because I couldn’t fit on any rides.

So I did what I thought I had to do: I tried to lose weight as quickly as possible.

It wasn’t healthy. It wasn’t sustainable. I relied on extreme dieting and stimulants to suppress my appetite. I pushed myself hard because I believed that shrinking my body was the only way I would be able to enjoy the trip.

Even after losing a significant amount of weight, the anxiety didn’t go away.

I worried about the airplane seat.

I worried about the walking.

I worried about the rides.

Instead of just being excited, I was preparing for everything that could go wrong.

The Trip That Changed Everything

My first flight ended up being fine.

I used a seatbelt extender. I sat next to my niece so I didn’t feel like I was invading a stranger’s space. It was manageable.

Then we got to Disney.

The first ride we went on was the teacups.

I remember sitting down and bracing myself, waiting for that moment where something wouldn’t work.

But it did…I fit.

Later, we got in line for a roller coaster. I stood there thinking I would just ride along for the experience and then step off at the end.

I sat down anyway.

The lap bar came down and locked.

No one had to push it. No one had to adjust anything. It just clicked into place like it was supposed to.

I don’t think people understand how big that moment was for me.

As an adult, I had never experienced that.

And then it kept happening.

Ride after ride, everything worked.

I was still in a plus-sized body, still close to 300 pounds, but nothing stopped me. I didn’t have a single walk of shame. I didn’t have to sit anything out.

I spent that trip doing everything I had once convinced myself I would never get to do.

Not Every Park Feels the Same

The next year, I went to Universal.

This time, I approached it differently. I had learned enough to know that not every park is built the same.

I started researching before the trip.

I learned about test seats.

I looked into ride restrictions.

I tried to find people in bodies like mine sharing their experiences.

That last part was the hardest.

I couldn’t find anyone who looked like me.

I found videos, but the people were smaller. Their experiences didn’t fully answer my questions. I still didn’t know how my body would fit.

So when I got there, I tested everything I could.

Some rides worked. Some didn’t.

I learned which seats were more forgiving and which rides had different configurations depending on where you sat. I paid attention to the small details that no one really explains.

It wasn’t perfect, but it also wasn’t a failure.

I still had a great time.

Why I Started Sharing My Experience

After that trip, I posted my first test seat video.

I didn’t overthink it. I just wanted to show what I had learned.

The response was immediate.

There were negative comments, of course. That part wasn’t surprising.

But what mattered more were the messages.

People were asking me questions.

People were telling me they had never seen someone talk about this openly.

People were saying they felt less scared.

That’s when I realized how many people were sitting in the same fear I had lived in for years.

Not traveling because they didn’t know what to expect.

Why This Matters

If you’ve ever avoided a theme park because you’re scared you won’t fit, I understand that feeling.

If you’ve ever talked yourself out of a trip before even trying, I’ve been there.

If you’ve ever told yourself you’ll go “one day,” I know how easy it is to keep pushing that day further away.

You’re not alone in that.

What you’re feeling doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from not having clear information, from not seeing people like you represented, from not knowing what your experience will actually look like.

Where Veronications Comes In

This is exactly why I do what I do.

I help people understand what to expect before they even leave their house.

I talk about ride accessibility, seating, walking distances, and all the small details that can make or break a trip when you’re in a bigger body.

I answer the questions people are sometimes too uncomfortable to ask out loud.

And I make sure that when you walk into a theme park, you’re not walking in blind.

Because the truth is, there are far more options than most people realize.

You just deserve to know what they are ahead of time.

You Don’t Have to Wait Anymore

I spent years thinking I had to wait until my body changed before I could experience certain things.

I don’t believe that anymore.

There are ways to navigate these spaces as you are.

There are ways to prepare so you feel confident instead of anxious.

There are ways to enjoy theme parks without feeling like you don’t belong there.

And if you want help figuring that out, that’s exactly what I’m here for.

Because you deserve to have fun without fear sitting in the back of your mind the entire time.

And you deserve to experience these moments now, not just in some future version of yourself.