Large crowds are the bane of a theme park vacation. Over the years Disney has taken many steps to help control crowds. One of the most successful tricks was the addition of Fast Pass. Most people don’t see Fast Past as being a form of crowd control but that’s exactly what it is.
It’s been a long time since Fast Pass was rolled out but that doesn’t mean Disney has stopped working on the problems that large crowds create.
“The best method of crowd control is to fit more people into rides or attractions. Due to the state of the economy we’ve been unable to build a lot of new attractions. Instead we had to figure out a way to get more people onto existing attractions,” stated king of all things Disney, Mickey Mouse.
Mickey went on to explain that the Imagineers have come up with a method to fit 300% more people on ride. The plan is simple – shrink the people.
Starting in December of 2010 Disney will be rolling out dozens of Professor Wayne Szalinski’s shrinking machines.
All of the major rides will be retrofitted with the shrinking machines. This change is expected to reduce the wait for rides like Soarin and Space Mountain to walk on status.
“On some rides we had to make adjustments. For instance we lost a few test subjects on Muppets 3D. We forgot that it’s not a good idea to spray someone with a drop of water that’s 10 times bigger than they are,” explained Professor Szalinski in an interview.
The in depth testing also revealed that some rides cannot be fitted. Rides like Splash Mountain and Kali River Rapids would result in massive fatalities if the shrinking ray were used.
The updates are expected to greatly reduce the wait times in all of the Disney Parks.
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