Disney World Bans Selfie Sticks On Rides
If you want a picture of yourself partying it up at Disney World, you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way: by sticking your arm out at an awkward angle and trying to hit the shutter button before you drop your phone.
The park has banned selfie sticks on rides, and is cracking down on guests who don't listen. Hit the jump for more on the Disney World selfie sick ban.
Disney World officially banned selfie sticks last month, but some park customers have been slow to get the message. So as reported by the Orlando Sentinel (via Mashable and WDWNT), Disney has started posting "No Selfie Sticks" signs around Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Reminder at the front of Big Thunder that no selfie sticks are allowed ~@DallasORL pic.twitter.com/wgB6vVY6wj
— Park Pass (@ORLParkPass) May 19, 2015
To be clear, guests are still allowed to use selfie sticks around the park, and are even permitted to bring them on rides as long as they're safely stowed away. They just aren't allowed to use them on the rides.
While some of the cultural hand-wringing over selfies has to do with the perceived narcissism of Millennials (just ask Megatron over here), Disney's concerns are practical. For obvious reasons, waving a three-foot stick around on a moving vehicle filled with other people is just a phenomenally terrible idea.
The no-selfies signs went up after staffers at Disney World's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, apparently a popular destination for the selfie stick-wielding crowd, were forced to stop the ride several times due to misbehaving guests. Similar signs have been posted at Disneyland's Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.
Disney isn't the only major destination to crack down on selfie sticks. They're forbidden at many museums, festivals, and sporting events, for reasons ranging from their "nuisance value" to their potential to knock over artwork or distract racehorses.
Fortunately, there are plenty of other ways to capture the moment. Like just sucking it up and shelling out for one of those hidden camera reaction shots. I hear you can do wonderful things with them nowadays.