It's A Fat, Fat World

by Lisa P | More from this Blogger

02 Nov 2007 06:05 AM

The It's a Small World ride opened in 1964 during the New York World's Fair. The beauty of it is that nothing has changed about the ride since then. The tragedy of it is that the average American weighs a whole lot more now than they did back then. Why a tragedy? Because our fat American butts are bottoming out the boats and holding up the ride! The ride was designed with an eye for most men to weigh 200 pounds or less and women who weighed 135 or less. We all know that the average American woman doesn't weigh 135 any more!

It is because of our new super sizes that the ride has to be closed and rebuilt next year. Apparently the cast members (employees) who work the famous ride have been taking a good deal of heat about the ride for some time now.

In an effort to make sure boats aren't overweight enough to bottom out and get stuck in the ride, they have to guess riders' weight and leave empty seats in boats that they guess are a bit heavy. This causes a good deal of flack from those folks waiting to get on the ride with rude comments like "There were three seats open on that boat! We could have got on that one but you made us wait!" Many visitors aren't even that nice about it.

Then there are the folks who cause the boats to bottom out and the ride to back up in the first place. Yes, even they, the ones whose fault the backup is in the first place, give the cast members a hard time. It seems that our sensitivity has grown along with our waistlines. When heavier than usual passengers are helped off their stuck boats at the nearest emergency exit platform they either take it in stride, with a little embarrassment or they get nasty. While I might be mortified that my removal would cause the boat I was on to bob up and continue along the ride, I hardly think the cast member helping me disembark would be to blame!

If you're planning a trip to Disneyland in 2008, you can forget about riding the classic ride. Disneyland's It's a Small World ride will be in dry dock for 10 months beginning in January 2008. It will be refitted with more buoyant boats and the flume will be made deeper to accommodate our expanding ballast. It will not reopen again until November 2008.

While you're waiting for it to reopen, this may be a good time to visit the Families.com Weight Loss Blog.

Don't be the reason the ride stops!

Learn more about Lisa P

Lisa used to be a freelance writer and Community Manager for Families.com, but she has finally made the jump to novelist.

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