Arts & Entertainment Stroller Size Matters, No Smoking At Disneyland When you next visit Disneyland Resort, here are a few handy tips! Mind your stroller size and keep your cigarette butts out of the park! Reply Disneyland Resort is attempting to wrangle more crowd control. (Ashley Ludwig, Patch Staff photo) ANAHEIM, CA — Disneyland Resort is making some changes over the next few months, and most of it revolves around crowd comfort and control. With crammed walkways on the busiest park days, the resort has bought into smoking areas and stroller width to reclaim some more space. Starting May 1, wide strollers and children's push wagons will no longer be allowed and Disneyland is nixing smoking areas. Walt Disney Co. has been a crowd-control pioneer dating back to Disneyland's earliest days. Despite regular price increases the throngs of fans continue to grow, challenging the resort managers to devise new ways to squeeze more people into the same space safely. The park will ban strollers wider than 31 inches and prohibit the ubiquitous wagons that many parents use to push children through the resort, in an effor to ease pedestrian congestion. (The park already bans pull wagons.) At the moment, the park allows strollers as wide as 36 inches. Outside of the security screening areas, visitors will have some way to measure their strollers -- probably with lines painted on the sidewalk, 31 inches apart, park representatives said. What do you do if you arrive and your stroller is too wide? The park rents strollers for $15 a day. Four designated smoking areas will be removed at the resort to clear walkways and improve traffic flow, a move that will make both Disneyland and neighboring California Adventure Park smoke-free for the first time in resort history. One smoking area, a collection of benches near Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, is located along one of three walkways that will serve as entrances into the new Star Wars land. The park has no other idle space where the smoking area can be moved, Theiler said. Another smoking area in the California Adventure Park, near the Silly Symphony Swings, one in the esplanade between the two parks, and a fourth in the Downtown Disney shopping district will also be eliminated.<doc-sep>Email Share Pin 757 Shares With all the exciting new additions coming to Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort, there are bound to be a few changes. Both domestic Disney Parks are making a few updates to their rules, which include removing smoking areas and banning stroller wagons. Check out all the new changes below: Strollers Starting May 1, the Disney Parks will adjust their guidelines on stroller sizes, which will require that they be no larger than 31 inches (79cm) wide and 52 inches (132cm) long. Luckily, many strollers on the market, including jogging strollers, fit within these guidelines. However, the popular stroller wagons are a different story. Even though wagons themselves are not permitted in the parks, starting May 1, stroller wagons will no longer be allowed inside the parks. These updates are to help with guest flow and make congestion in the parks a little easier to handle. Walt Disney World currently offers stroller rentals, including both single and double strollers. Disneyland will soon offer double strollers for rent as well. Smoking Also starting May 1, smoking areas will no longer be found inside Walt Disney World or Disneyland theme parks, water parks, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, or the Downtown Disney District in California. This also includes vaping, so no vaping will be allowed in the parks, either. Designated smoking areas will instead be located outside the entrances to the areas listed above, and at Disney Springs in Florida. For guests who have room or dining reservations, smoking areas will also be available at Disney Resort hotels. Loose Ice Starting today, if you’re bringing a cooler or cooler bag to carry snacks and drinks to the theme parks or water parks, loose or dry ice will no longer be permitted in the parks. A way to keep your items cool is to use re-usable ice packs instead, or visit any Quick-Service location for complimentary cups of ice for your cooler. To learn more about these changes, visit DisneyWorld.com/RulesFAQ and Disneyland.com/RulesFAQ.<doc-sep>Disneyland visitors bound for a galaxy far, far away will need to double-check the dimensions of their two-seat strollers because the Anaheim theme park plans to tighten size restrictions ahead of the grand opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure will limit the size of strollers to 31-by-52 inches and strictly enforce an existing ban on push-or-pull wagons beginning May 1 to help improve traffic flow and reduce congestion in the theme parks. Strollers are currently restricted to 36-by 52-inches at the Anaheim parks. Walt Disney World theme parks will implement the new stroller size restrictions in conjunction with the Disneyland Resort. “What we want guests to know is the majority of strollers will still be allowed in the theme park, including double strollers,” said Disneyland Vice President Kris Theiler. Disneyland will add a 21- by 38-inch Joovy Caboose Too double stroller to its rental inventory while working with vendors to develop a new tandem design for the parks. The new stroller restrictions are part of a Disneyland initiative dubbed Project Stardust, which seeks to relieve pedestrian pinch points throughout the park ahead of the massive crowds that are expected to descend on Galaxy’s Edge starting May 31. Project Stardust — a mash-up of Star Wars and pixie dust — takes a comprehensive park-wide look at operations, infrastructure and crowd management with an eye toward improving efficiency, traffic flow and access. While strollers are a rare sight in the Star Wars galaxy, they’ve become an increasing issue at the parks as they crowd attraction entrances and clog pathways. Strollers have grown in size and become more prevalent at Disneyland since the original and oldest Disney theme park opened in 1955. Today it’s common to see large stroller corrals in Fantasyland and near It’s a Small World. Project Stardust will create less-intrusive stroller corrals throughout the park designed to improve traffic flow. Sign up for our Park Life newsletter and find out what’s new and interesting every week at Southern California’s theme parks. Subscribe here Beginning May 1, stroller sizes will be checked at security areas near the Disneyland parking lots and garages as well as the Harbor Boulevard esplanade entrance.<doc-sep>Disneyland Resort is too popular for its own good. Raising prices, charging extra for high-demand days and adding blackout dates for annual passholders haven’t been enough to thin the throngs that increase every year. Now with the expected onrush of fans for the May 31 opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — the biggest expansion in the park’s history — Walt Disney Co. managers are going even further to squeeze more people into the same boundaries. They’re coming for your cigarettes and your wide-load strollers. Disney is eliminating the last smoking areas inside Disneyland and California Adventure as of May 1. The Burbank media giant also is banning strollers wider than 31 inches, which includes some double strollers by well-known brands such as Baby Jogger, and children’s push wagons. (Wagons that are pulled, such as the classic Radio Flyer, already are banned.) Advertisement Disneyland has been a crowd-control pioneer since the park’s earliest days, when it used stanchions and tape to create the kind of line switchbacks that are now common at airports and other queue-heavy spots. The Anaheim parks, hemmed in on all sides, don’t have much ability to expand, so new ways must be constantly devised to eliminate bottlenecks. The latest restrictions join a series of policy changes and park upgrades in anticipation of the $1-billion, 14-acre land, which features two rides, four eateries, one space-themed cantina and five retail shops. The Star Wars land is being replicated at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., which will have an Aug. 29 opening. For the first three weeks after the Star Wars land opens, only visitors with reservations will be allowed. Guests at the three resort hotels during those three weeks will automatically receive reservations. Everyone else can make no-cost reservations online. But many of the details for the opening of the land have yet to be unveiled, such as when the resort will begin to accept reservations and whether those reservations will be taken on the Disneyland website, on the Disneyland app or both. Disney representatives also declined to discuss the capacity of the new land. How to avoid long lines at Disneyland » After the first three weeks, Disneyland will employ a “virtual queueing” system, in which parkgoers will get a boarding pass and will be called to enter the land when there is enough room, representatives said. They offered no other details on how that system would work. To ease pedestrian congestion, the resort will slice 5 inches off its current stroller-width limit of 36 inches and will prohibit those ubiquitous wagons that many parents use to push children through the parks. Advertisement Outside the security screening areas, visitors will have some way to measure their strollers — probably with lines painted on the sidewalk, 31 inches apart, park representatives said. If their strollers are too wide, visitors can rent strollers for $15 a day. Owners of offending strollers might be able to stow them in lockers that cost as much as $15 a day, otherwise they would probably need to trek back to their cars. “We are not trying to be so restrictive,” said Kris Theiler, vice president of the Disneyland park. “We want to find a compromise.” A replica of the Millennium Falcon will be featured at Stars Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. (Disney Parks) Advertisement Four designated smoking areas will be removed at the resort to clear walkways and improve traffic flow, a move that will make both Disneyland and neighboring California Adventure Park smoke-free for the first time. One smoking area, a collection of benches near Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, is along one of three walkways that will serve as entrances to the new Star Wars land. The park has no other unused space where the smoking area can be moved, Theiler said. “We have no great options to relocate this,” she said. Another smoking area in the California Adventure Park, near the Silly Symphony Swings, one in the esplanade between the two parks, and a fourth in the Downtown Disney shopping district will also be eliminated. Advertisement Once all four smoking areas are removed, park visitors who want to smoke will have to either use the smoking areas near the three resort hotels or go to open areas beyond the security screeners near the edges of the resort. Inside Disneyland, a walkway to enter from the center of the park into Adventureland and continue toward the Star Wars land will be widened and the queueing area for an eatery along the walkway will be relocated to make more room for pedestrians. The Disneyland Resort plans to add 5,500 parking spaces with the opening at the end of July of a new structure called Pixar Pals. (Walt Disney Co.) The resort is also adding thousands of parking spaces, but most of those won’t be available for use until June at the earliest. Advertisement Also, the most anticipated attraction, an immersive experience called Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, will not be ready for the public until later this year, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told shareholders this month. The second attraction in the new land, the interactive Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, will be in operation when the land opens. In 2016, Disney adopted demand pricing at Disneyland, California Adventure and its other U.S. theme parks to better control crowds, charging less on low-demand days and boosting gate prices on high-demand days. Disneyland raised prices to shorten waits. Here are the results. » Advertisement In January, Disneyland unveiled several other low-tech fixes to ease congestion, such as shrinking or eliminating tree and flower planters, moving lines and designating areas for stroller parking. Despite all of the efforts, Disneyland representatives concede that queues for the attractions in the new land probably will be long. The park has already begun discussing plans to make the idle time in the lines less frustrating by adding snack vending machines and interactions with costumed actors and others. “We are going to be working really hard to deliver for the guests,” Theiler said. Advertisement Among other fixes to improve traffic flow:<doc-sep>
(KGTV) - Some new rules are now in effect at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California. NO SMOKING Starting May 1, 2019, smoking areas will not be available inside Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks. The no-smoking rule also applies to Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Walt Disney World, Disney water parks and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Disney officials said there will be some designated smoking areas just outside of the entrances to the theme parks and the other areas listed. Smoking areas are also available for guests who have room or dining reservations at a Disney Resort hotel. STROLLERS Strollers are very important for a family headed to Disneyland for the day. They can serve as a napping area, a way to store all of your stuff and a spot for the little ones to rest their legs while you're making your rounds on the Disneyland property. Starting May 1, 2019, the guidelines for stroller sizes are changing and strollers can't be any bigger than 31 inches wide and 52 inches long. Many strollers sold today, even the double jogging strollers, fit within these guidelines. For example, the BOB Revolution Flex stroller is 25.4 inches wide and 43 inches long, and the Revolution Flex Duallie (double stroller) is 30.5 inches wide and 45 inches long. Wagons are not permitted in the parks, but as of May 1, 2019, stroller wagons will also no longer be allowed. Disney Parks Blog says this will help ease congestion to make the parks more enjoyable for everyone. And as always, you can rent a single or double stroller during your time at the parks. LOOSE ICE If you bring a cooler to store snacks and drinks for your day at the parks, loose or dry ice are no longer permitted. Disney Parks Blog suggests keeping your snacks and drinks cool with reusable ice packs instead. You can also visit any Quick-Service location for complimentary cups of ice for your cooler. Even better, you can always request complimentary cups of ice water to stay hydrated while moving through the parks. To learn more about the rules and new regulations, click here. The rule changes come weeks ahead of the highly-anticipated opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which is considered the biggest expansion in Disneyland Park’s history. Galaxy’s Edge opens to Disneyland visitors on May 31, but those interested in accessing the new area can make an online reservation on May 2. One thing guests should know: Disney is placing a 4-hour limit on visits to the new Star Wars-themed land. RELATED: What to know before heading to Disneyland's 'Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge'