World of Innoventions

Height restrictions keep kids safe, but they can be frustrating. If you have ever taken kids to the parks, you know what I mean. Every cast member measures a little differently, so sometimes you make it all the way to the loading zone and then get turned away. Other times your kids are just slightly too short, and you wish they would have worn taller shoes. One of the most difficult things, in my mind, is planning trips and figuring out how long it will be ’till your kids can meet height restrictions. Especially when some can ride and some can’t, the younger ones want to know how much longer ’till they’ll be big enough. I don’t know any parents that have memorized a growth chart and can say, “My child will grow 1 inch in the next 9 months, so we should plan a trip then.” When we plan trips with our kids, we just keep measuring them and telling them to eat a bunch in hopes they’ll be tall enough for more rides. Fortunately, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has released data that sh...

Have you ever thought one of Disney’s darkrides looked darker than normal? Maybe things were hard to see, or they didn’t glow the right way. I’ve heard this blamed on an old paint job or lights that need replacing. The blame always seems to go to the maintenance team. But normally, the too-dark-darkride has nothing to do with maintenance. It has a lot more to do with queue design and time of day. Theme parks are not built for the slow days. The walk ways, ride capacities, queue sizes, restaurants and show offerings are designed around keeping crowds entertained and busy. So are the visuals in the rides. Imagineers expect that guests will be waiting in line for each ride. Particularly for dark rides, they build indoor queues. This keeps the crowd entertained while they wait, but it also give you a gradual transition while your eyes adjust to the lower level of light. Take the Disneyland Haunted Mansion as an example. When the queue is full, you start off in the bright sun, and make your...

   Everyone needs some Disneyland tips these days. It's getting harder to avoid spending all day on your phone at in the park.  Genie+ , posted wait times, mobile orders, virtual queues, show times, park tickets, dining reservations, Photo-Pass, and customer service are all handled through the  Disneyland App . It's becoming a frequent complaint from park goers. And since the Disney apps are not well optimized for battery usage either, so many guests have to take battery packs to extend life. Some of it is unavoidable, but here are some tips you can use to reduce the time you spend on your phone. Prioritize experience over recording. There are Point of View (PoV) videos of full ride throughs and shows all over YouTube. You can find a video of just about anything you'd like to see, and it'll be higher quality than you can get. Focus on enjoying the experience, not recording it. Set alarms for Genie+. People using Genie+, the service that gets you into most of the Ligh...