No one goes to Disneyland or Disney World to expend the day wait in line , but when a queue is well - designed , hold off can be part of the experience . Disneyknows this easily than anyone , and the parks ' Imagineers have developed several tricks over the years to make farsighted look time as painless as possible .

According toPopular Science , hacking the layout of the credit line itself is a unsubdivided way to act upon the rider ’s linear perspective . When a queue consist of 200 people zag - zagging around rophy in a large , undefended room , it ’s easy for waiting Guest to feel overwhelmed . This intention let rider to see precisely how many people are in line in front of them — which is n’t necessarily a good thing when the railway line is long .

Imagineers prevent this by keep rider in the dark when they figure the queue . In Space Mountain , for model , rampart are build around the twisting path , so riders have no approximation how much farther they have to go until they ’re deep into the construction . This end people from give up when they first get in line .

© Jorge Royan, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0

Another exercise of deception ride designer use is the " Machiavellian kink . " If you ’ve ever been pleasantly surprised by a line that moved faster than you expected , that was designed . The foretoken list wait times at the commencement of drive waiting line purposefully inflate the numbers . That path , when a time lag that was supposed to be 120 minutes goes by in 90 , you feel like you have more meter than you did before .

The final magic is something Disney parks are famous for : By incorporating the same storey of production blueprint found on the ride into the queue , Imagineers make waiting in line an piquant experience that has entertainment value of its own . TheTower of Terrorqueue in Disney World , which is pose after a decrepit 1930s hotel lobby down to the gossamer and the empty umber cup , feel like it could be a movie set . Some drive line even use particular effect . While waiting to rideStar war : Ride of the Resistancein Galaxy ’s Edge , guests get to find out holograph and animatronics that set up the story of the ride . This strategy exploits the so - calleddual - task paradigm , which makes the melodic line palpate as if it ’s going by quicker by move over rider mental stimulation as they waitress .

Tricky drive conception is just one of Disney ’s secrets . Here are morebehind - the - scenes factsabout the beloved motif parks .

[ h / tPopular Science ]