If You Love To Wait in Line, You’ll Love These 10 Disney Rides with OUTRAGEOUSLY Low Capacity

Do you love to wait in line? If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Whether you know it or not, there’s one number that will make or break your day at any Disney Park: capacity. Tens of thousands of people visit each Disney Park, every day… and at some point, it will feel like most of them are in line ahead of you. That’s when capacity matters most. That’s when you’ll want to be in line for a Disney attraction with OUTRAGEOUSLY high capacity – “people-eaters” that can handle massive crowds with ease. Now, let’s take a look at the other side of the coin…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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Disney’s 10 Most Outrageously High-Capacity Rides

Safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. Any Disney Cast Member can recite these Four Keys to exceptional guest service… And while the first three are deeply tied to Disney’s identity, the last – efficiency – is certainly not least. An estimated 60,000 people per day visit Magic Kingdom, and at some point, you’re likely to end up at the back of a line behind many of them. That’s when a very important number – capacity – matters.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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6 Pairs of “Cloned” Disney Attractions You May Never Have Noticed Are Nearly Identical!

If you think cloning is a divisive topic in the fields of genetics and biology, you haven’t broached the subject with theme park fans! In fact, what theme park enthusiasts call “cloning” has a long and storied past with Disney Parks, at least dating back to the design of Magic Kingdom. There, many of Disneyland’s classics were merely “copied and pasted,” albeit in entirely new contexts and often with the kinds of minor (and sometimes major) changes dictated by hindsight and budgets.

Today, cloning is a touchy subject because – by and large – Imagineering fans are torn between two extremes. In short, everyone wants “their” resort to keep its coolest rides exclusive, but to get the coolest rides from every other resort! It’s why Disneyland fans bristle at the thought of Cars Land being “soullessly copied” to Florida, but relish in recieving Runaway Railway; why Disney World loyalists would sooner die than see Pandora plopped down in California, but really, really want Indiana Jones Adventure.

Image: Disney

For today’s Imagineers, “cloning” takes many forms. Often, it involves multiple parks sharing research and development costs to set functionally-identical rides down into several resorts at once. Even then, by the way, they may still be presented very differently, attuned to their location in each park. (Look at Toy Story Mania, STAR TOURS, Web-Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, and Little Mermaid dark rides.)

Sometimes, cloning is kicked off when a ride is a surprise hit, spreading one-by-one to other resorts who want a piece of the pie. (See, Big Thunder Mountain, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Soarin’, or Frozen Ever After).

Image: Disney

Adding to the confusion, sometimes rides that are clones aren’t really clones at all (like how almost every Disneyland-style park has a Buzz Lightyear dark ride and a Winnie the Pooh dark ride, but none are actually identical to each other).

And even when attractions are “cloned,” they’re very rarely clones at all (though maybe it’s a little too nuanced to point out how Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was painted entirely differently in Orlando to compensate for Floridian sun.)

In other words, all “cloning” is not equal. But one of the strangest “clone” relationships you’ll find in Disney Parks are clones that most guests – even those who’ve ridden both – would never think are duplicates. Below are six pairs of attractions that are practically identical on the inside but so different on the outside, you may not even notice it. Though these rides technically are (more or less) bolt-for-bolt duplicates of one another, their dressings make these clones disguised in plain sight…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room: The Full Feathered Fabled Behind Walt Disney’s Tropical Serenade

Aawwahhhh! My siestas are getting ‘chorter and ‘chorter!”

…But if we at Park Lore are going to keep up with our ongoing dream to tell the in-depth and complete histories behind the best (and worst) attractions on the planet, there’s no time to waste. And today, our Modern Marvels series gains a new tropical tale: the story of a genuine Walt Disney original and fan-favorite for more than five decades, the venerated and beloved Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

Continue reading “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room: The Full Feathered Fabled Behind Walt Disney’s Tropical Serenade”

The Best Walkthrough Attractions at Theme Parks Around the Globe

From gliding through the skies to churning beneath the waves; off-roading troop transports to effortless Doom Buggies; spinning SCOOPS to flying benches… we celebrated the most spectacular ride systems ever developed in our special Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World feature… 

But in all the decades of innovation that have created new ways to whisk guests away into haunted mansions, ancient temples, comic book cityscapes, and underwater caves, there are still spectacular attractions scattered around Disney and Universal parks using a much simpler mode of transportation: your own two feet.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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11 Disney Classics Where NOTHING “Goes Horribly Wrong!”

If you’re a big theme park fan, chances are that you’ve found yourself in more than a few messes in your day… To name just a few, perhaps you’ve had your journey through the streets of New York co-opted by supervillains, ruined a run-of-the-mill temple tour by looking into a lost god’s cursed eyes, stumbled upon an…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.

This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.

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Coffeeland: 8 Ways Disney and Universal Parks Disguise Starbucks in Plain Sight

If you were to ask his friends and family what Walt Disney was, you might get any number of answers: an animator; an artist; a dreamer; an optimist; a futurist… But that’s not all…

According to the fantastic Eat Like Walt by Marcy Carriker Smothers, Walt was also a restauranteur – a man experimenting right at the height of mid-century middle class American dining, introducing the idea that food and fun could go together; that food was full of color and fantasy; that food could be an integral part of the story of each of Disneyland’s themed areas.

Image: Disney

However, there was one area where even Walt wasn’t willing to mess around: coffee. As the story goes, Walt decreed back in 1955 that Disneyland would always offer a cup of coffee for ten-cents and not a penny more. And in fact, coffee in the park did cost only a dime until Walt’s death in 1966. Those days, of course, are long gone…

Continue reading “Coffeeland: 8 Ways Disney and Universal Parks Disguise Starbucks in Plain Sight”

Off The Rails: 13 Totally Trackless Dark Rides from Worst to Best

For the better part of a century, designers have been racing toward the next best thing in ride system technology… From simple carts powered by electric bus-bars, to high-capacity boat-based dark rides; from the continuously-moving Omnimover to the debut of Disney’s Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV) in 1995 that makes guests the center of the action… At each step of the way, evolutions in ride system technology have changed the ways that designers can tell stories.

But when we looked at the Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World, one cutting edge technology stands out as the way of the future: rides untethered by tracks entirely. A new generation of trackless rides allow vehicles to do what once seemed impossible: to make choices; to diverge down new paths; to spin and dance around one another in precisely-calibrated near-collisions; to become alive.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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From Atom to Zurg: 10 Microscopic Ways Imagineers Have Made Guests SHRINK

Disney Parks are big places. In the shadow of Cinderella Castle, Spaceship Earth, Grizzly Peak, or the Tree of Life, it’s only natural that guests might begin to feel small. But some Imagineering experiences around the globe take that to the extreme!

In fact, it may feel that a day at a Disney Park simply isn’t complete without suddenly becoming the size of a toy, rat, or ant at least once. But just how small can you get? Join us as we progressively shrink down through ten miniaturizing Disney Parks attractions that make guests smaller, and smaller, and smallerWhich of these attractions succeed most at transporting guests to an oversized world? We’ll leave that for you to decide… Just let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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Artificial Worlds: The Rise and Reign of Screens and Simulators at Theme Parks

Back in the first half of the 20th century, the business of entertainment was quite a bit different. Back then, mere “amusement” was enough to draw people to leisure gardens, carnivals and traveling fairs, seaside boardwalks speckled with thrill rides, and rudimentary roller coaster parks. But when Disneyland opened in 1955, entertainment changed.

After being swept up into its “worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy” – immersive, cinematic lands built not by carnies, but by filmmakers – guests began to have one simple, timeless, reverberating request: “take me somewhere.” And in the decades since, designers have chased that very idea, looking for increasingly elaborate ways to make guests feel as if they’ve become part of another world, from Peter Pan’s Flight to Pirates of the Caribbean; Haunted Mansion to Indiana Jones Adventure…

But there’s only one kind of attraction that can take guests somewhere without really going anywhere at all: simulators. Today, a growing chorus of critics say that Disney and its contemporaries may rely too much on the transportational power of these increasingly-elaborate attractions, and in an age where guests are increasingly surrounded in screens at home, legitimate questions must be raised: is it time to sideline the simulator? Can physical sets ever make a comeback in the digital age? Or has the reign of these technological giants just begun? Let’s start at the almost-beginning…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Gold and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Gold and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


Log In or Join Now