Should harsher punishments be given to those found with a selfie stick?

[ShareBDwithMickey]

Where were they confiscated? We saw some confiscated during security checks at the entrance & I suspect this is were the 1000 taken today were found, therefore no harm no foul.

Its not actually that easy to find out about this unless you are an uber planner especially for overseas visitors. Perhaps getting that information detailed in the holiday brochures would be helpful?

 

[JasonDeyoung]

They do have signs posted right in the middle of the walk way entering each park before the band scanners and security checks stating no selfie sticks. Granted most ppl ignore every type of "this is not allowed" sign Disney post

 

[Wrangler-Rick]

I was there a couple of weeks ago and when they caught folks at the bag check with the selfie sticks; they did take them. However, they were using a claim check system to allow the owner to retrieve them when they were exiting the park....

 

[Kate Alan]

When I was there last week, I had someone try to use one right before our car blasted off at RnRC in DHS. CM came up, pointed out that selfie sticks are banned and they could see what he was trying to do via security camera and that the ride was being held for launch until he put it away (which he did with much complaining that someone at the park entrance told him it was fine to bring it in). When our ride was over there were a couple CMs waiting to confiscate the stick and give him another lecture.

 

[drew81]

Instead of punishment for selfie sticks, can we talk about a punishment for guests walking in between parade floats narrowly escaping a serious injury?

 

[DisneyJunkie]

I'd go with throwing a life-time ban on them after having them doused in water from Splash Mountain first.

 

[NintendoDS]

I think that if someone sneaks it through the main entrance and uses it on a ride (especially if it is a thrill ride or coaster), they should either get a warning or be ejected from the park for the day.

 

[fillerup]

Yes

These are the same people that will be lined up at City Hall complaining that they can't get into any restaurant and can't get on any attractions without a 3-4 hour wait because they failed to do any planning whatsoever.

Yeah, I can see how behavior like this must inevitably ruin your visits to a theme park.

 

[Tom]

I do not consider Disney as having taken ample steps to ensure guests know about this new rule. Signs can be overlooked even by those with all intentions to follow the rules, especially when entering a Disney park with the rest of the cattle herd, and while trying to keep track of your party, get bags ready, have bands ready, etc.

I imagine my mom, who's 60 and hasn't been since 2008, being expected to know about this ban (not that she'd ever be so narcissistic to have one). She doesn't read Disney websites. She doesn't watch the nightly news every day. She would just be one of the many naive people going to the park, not reading little signs or bothering with fine print.

If they are offering to stash them for the day, that's plenty fair. But on the flip side, if a guest is found to have intentionally snuck one in and/or is being negligent with one, I fully support removal from the park.

 

[marissieviolissie]

But if so many people don't read fine print, signs, websites etc. ..how should Disney then communicate?

In my country we had a website for car rental that asked their customers how to make sure people knew they needed a creditcard when picking up their car. It was stated everywhere on the site when booking with a red lettertype. (You could pay online without cc)
It was in the rental agreement. It was again stated in the reminder people got for their pickup times.
And still people called the agency complaining they didn't know they needed a creditcard. (Or thought their debitcard was what they meant)

So is their a foolproof way of making sure people know? I'm pretty sure there isn't, apart from the post with the big "no selfiesticks allowed" right when you enter the "Magical gate". And even then.....

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Meh, selfie sticks were quite low on my list of undesireable behaviour. Except when they bring them on coasters...

 

[AndyS2992]

During my two week trip in September I think I saw two selfie sticks the entire time, one at AoA and one at Disney Springs. I might just have been lucky but I don't think it the problem is as big as people make out.

One somewhat worrying thing I did see however was during my ride on Space Mountain, some kid was waving around one of those flashing Lightsaber things the whole time, very dangerous.

 

[copcarguyp71]

I heard from a bus driver they are starting a P.O.N (prisoner of narcissism) camp in which violators are forced to sew curtains and bed linens for DVC properties until they can purchase their freedom back from TDO.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Where were they confiscated? We saw some confiscated during security checks at the entrance & I suspect this is were the 1000 taken today were found, therefore no harm no foul.

Its not actually that easy to find out about this unless you are an uber planner especially for overseas visitors. Perhaps getting that information detailed in the holiday brochures would be helpful?

I noticed in Europe that there are thousands of street vendors selling the sticks. They are everywhere. No one seems the least bit bothered by them. They didn't cause me any problems either. I guess I just don't know what the fuss is all about.

 

[copcarguyp71]

I am quite honestly more perturbed by the sea of tablets lifted above everyone's heads at Wishes than I am by the Narcissisticks,

 

[fillerup]

Slightly OT but is it true that they've now banned mono-pods? You know, the camera accessory that absolutely can't be used to take selfies.

 

[ShareBDwithMickey]

I noticed in Europe that there are thousands of street vendors selling the sticks. They are everywhere. No one seems the least bit bothered by them. They didn't cause me any problems either. I guess I just don't know what the fuss is all about.

Not withstanding the annoyance factor for some people, they were simply becoming a safety issue on rides as a select minority were completely incapable of using them safely, putting both their & more importantly other peoples lives at risk.

Imagine being smacked in the head by a high speed phone & selfie stick on test track, space mountain or one of the roller coasters & yes people were stupid enough to try to use them there! Or the level of damage that could be done to a child. Imagine the potential if one fell on the tracks of some rides, yet alone more than one.

Once it became a safety issue Disney had no option but to act & a blanket ban is the easiest to administer as its black & white.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Not withstanding the annoyance factor for some people, they were simply becoming a safety issue on rides as a select minority were completely incapable of using them safely, putting both their & more importantly other peoples lives at risk.

Imagine being smacked in the head by a high speed phone & selfie stick on test track, space mountain or one of the roller coasters & yes people were stupid enough to try to use them there! Or the level of damage that could be done to a child. Imagine the potential if one fell on the tracks of some rides, yet alone more than one.

Once it became a safety issue Disney had no option but to act & a blanket ban is the easiest to administer as its black & white.

I'm not against the banning, I just haven't encountered any occasion when they were a problem for me. I do understand the safety related reasons, it's just the ones about people taking pictures of themselves in the (on land) parks that always had me puzzled. To my puny little mind, it seems like they create less of a problem then the old way of asking someone to take your picture. Anyway, it is a rule and hopefully Disney will continue to enforce it and avoid any injuries on the rides. Believe me I do know what level of stupid that humans can achieve! We didn't get to the top of the food chain without being achievers. It's sad to think that we only made it to the top by knowing how to load a gun, but, alas that is probably true.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Right about now there are probably 10,000 to 20,000 people in airplanes or their cars who have never been to Disney. Likewise it probably never occurred to them that they needed to research park rules.

There are multiple things you have to consider.
1.) The truth is there are gusts out there that know the rules of self sticks outside of WDW for places like Museums, but decide not to follow the rules and we don't really know how many people are aware of the rules as a result. Case in point is I witness a guess taking out a self stick on Main Street back in early September. We don't how many people were able to get a selfie stick past where you enter the park it between the final days of June of this year to last week. I can't say what I witnessed was a fluke before Disney tightened their security more.

A guest sneaking in a selfie stick actually could affect a lot of guests if the selfie stick is taken out during an attraction and that attraction would cause on an evacuation of a ride due to safety concerns. That in return means some of the guests might be affected by missing out on their next fast pass plus attraction depending on how much time it takes the ride to get evacuated.

2.) There are signs that have no self sticks allowed before you enter the area for checking for security checking for stuff. The best way to put though it guests are known known not to read signs.

3.) While not everyone lives in a city or town that selfie sticks or banned in at a building or an event, guests need to do research to a point on stuff like ADRS or look at the main page of Walt Disney World. The main page of the WDW site has a lot of stuff you can click including Park rules. Rather or not the guest that never went to WDW bother doing any research is on them.

Proof of Disney having a link of Park Rules on their page: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ . All you need to do with that link is look under the held section and click on park rules.

 

[ShareBDwithMickey]

There are multiple things you have to consider.
1.) The truth is there are gusts out there that know the rules of self sticks outside of WDW for places like Museums, but decide not to follow the rules and we don't really know how many people are aware of the rules as a result. Case in point is I witness a guess taking out a self stick on Main Street back in early September. We don't how many people were able to get a selfie stick past where you enter the park it between the final days of June of this year to last week. I can't say what I witnessed was a fluke before Disney tightened their security more.

However, not withstanding what people should do, we all know they don't. Otherwise people wouldn't complain about not being able to get walk up ts reservations. They wouldn't say things like I didn't expect it to business on Christmas day. They wouldn't complain about how using fp+ isn't advertised, they wouldn't complain about being unaware that they couldn't stay in the park for hard ticket events without purchasing said tickets etc etc.

There are still significant numbers of people who think you can turn up at Disney without doing any planning (mostly 1st timers to be fair) & those same people wouldn't think to see if there are any rules they ought to be aware of before they arrive.

Also having the selfie stick warnings up once you've got to the park entrance, even before security, doesn't leave you with many options as most people won't go back to their cars or hotel to get rid of the offending item & lockers to store them are only available after security, to the best of my knowledge.