INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Disney Theme Parks Banned Smoking And Large Strollers This Month, So Far It’s Going Well

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 03:14 PST, May 5, 2019

Walt Disney World and Disneyland are about five days into new rules that forbid smoking, ice, and certain strollers inside of its theme parks, and so far, the new rules seem to have gone off without a hitch.

Back in late March, as The Inquisitr reported at the time, the Walt Disney Company announced that new rules would be going into effect in its U.S. theme parks. Specifically, the company banned guests from bringing in ice and dry ice, although ice will still be served throughout the parks. The company also eliminated all smoking areas from within the parks, instead, requiring guests who wanted to light up or vape to go to designated areas outside the parks. And finally, the new rules banned strollers over a certain size, including so-called “wagon strollers.”

The new rules come as both Disneyland (California) and Walt Disney World (Florida) are planning to open up new Star Wars-themed additions to their parks. Those additions are expected to bring in a major influx of guests to the already-crowded parks, and the company decided to tighten up some rules to improve the overall guest experience. And with regard to the strollers, limiting their sizes will, theoretically anyway, improve the flow of crowds and help reduce bottlenecks.

The rules went into effect on May 1.

So far, so good, Yahoo News reports.

No one expected the ice rules to make much of a splash. Few guests opt to bring in ice from outside that, really, the new rule is just a matter of tightening up a loophole. In case you were wondering, part of the reason for the new rules is the fact that spilled ice creates a slipping hazard. The other reason is that guests throw ice into landscaping, and ice — dry ice especially — is bad for the flowers and plants.

With regard to smoking, it does appear that a few people are inconvenienced by it, as social media has no shortage of pictures of rulebreakers trying to sneak a puff when they think no one is looking (or smelling).

As for strollers, families with small children are the bread and butter of Disney theme parks, and many of those families bring kids with strollers.

Obviously, that’s going to be a problem, as not every parent is going to accept the fact that their stroller is too big. Fortunately, though, save for a few isolated incidents, it does not appear that there has been a wide-scale revolt of parents inconvenienced by the new stroller rules. There have been some complaints, but at the time of writing, the rules haven’t proved so onerous that Disney has its hands full of angry parents complaining about the stroller rules.

The Star Wars additions are scheduled to open at California’s Disneyland on May 31, and at Florida’s Walt Disney World in August.

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