It's a Small World in Disneyland is Too Small for Many

Forty-one years after Disneyland opened the "It's a Small World Ride," the attraction is finally getting a major renovation. Theme park officials announced in late October that an inch of water depth would be added to the water channel taking visitors through the ride and engineers would work on creating more buoyant boats.

The problem? A lot of boats are bottoming out as the ride is occurring. Disney says this is due to a build up of fiberglass from workers that have had to repatch and repatch over problem areas on the ride. In fact, the problem is so common, that Disney has built a staircase near one of the corner turns where the boats come to a standstill from hitting the bottom of the channel. As is common, some of the visitors are asked to leave the boat via the staircase to lighten the load.

As always, Disney is very diplomatic about the whole thing. The media is speculating, however, that the changes are more than likely the result of a need to accommodate for the ever-expanding waistlines in America.

Airlines have done it. Retailers have done it. So, it was only a matter of time that Disney would start making adjustments for an increase in weightier visitors.

And to add to our weight issues, customers asked to depart from the ride a bit prematurely are given a free food coupon, which is probably the last thing they need considering Disney fare isn't exactly for the healthy-minded.

The whole announcement of the renovation is just a little bit sad and rather than facing the fact that more and more Americans are just fat, some will want to believe the Disney, fairy-tale rendition of the problem. That is, it's an operational reason as to why the boats keep hitting the bottom and therefore not able to make the turns in the ride. But come on! The ride has been around for four decades and the technology hasn't been able to alleviate this problem. Deep down inside, we all know the real, weighted issue of why Disney is redoing its classic ride - even if the company won't outright admit it.

Disney need not be diplomatic or nice about it either, which is what it is doing to save some visitors from embarassment.

Whatever the truth behind the renovation (probably a little of both), come January the ride will be shut down for about 10 months worth of construction. Then, when the renovation is complete, It's a Small World will be able to cater to the same small world again only with much larger people.