ANAHEIM (CNS) - Wide strollers, children's push wagons and smoking areas were officially nixed at Disneyland today in an effort to ease the crowding expected when the theme park opens its much-anticipated Star Wars land in two months.
The park now bans strollers wider than 31 inches and prohibits the ubiquitous wagons that many parents use to push children through the resort. The park had previously banned pull wagons. Previous rules allowed strollers as wide as 36 inches.
Outside of the security screening areas, visitors can measure their strollers to see if they meet the new restrictions. If the strollers are too wide, they will have to be taken back to cars or hotel rooms. The park rents regulation-sized strollers for $15 a day.
Four designated smoking areas are also being removed at the resort to clear walkways and improve traffic flow, a move makes 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, will serve as an entrance into the new Star Wars land.
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 are also being eliminated.
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.
The new restrictions, which were announced in March, join a series of policy changes and park upgrades at the Anaheim resort in advance of the May 31 opening of the $1 billion Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge -- the biggest expansion in the park's history.
The 14-acre land, featuring two rides, four eateries, one space-themed cantina and five retail shops, is being replicated at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with an Aug. 29 opening.
For the first three weeks after opening, only visitors with reservations will be allowed into the Star Wars land. Guests at the three resort hotels during those three weeks will automatically receive reservations. Everyone else can make no-cost reservations online.
The park will begin accepting reservations at 10 a.m. Thursday at https://disneyland.disney.go.com/destinations/disneyland/star-wars-galaxys- edge/ . Details on the reservation process are expected to be posted online at 8 a.m. Thursday. Visitors were urged to create a Disney online account before trying to make a reservation.
Park visitors staying at one of the three Disneyland Resort hotels between May 31 and June 23 will be automatically given reservations to the Star Wars land.
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, according to park officials.