Walt Disney World is a magical place full of wonder, discovery, and delight for all ages. It’s one of the most popular travel destinations on the planet, with an average attendance during peak season of over 100,000 guests a day across its four parks. That is a lot of people all sharing the same place. Particularly in the busiest spots in the resort, things can get pretty crowded.
It also means that it’s not uncommon for unknowing guests to get an unexpected conk on the head or whack to the ankle in the bustle of the crowd.
There are many objects that Walt Disney World visitors carry on a regular basis that the average person would never think twice about. However, with Disney’s insane attendance, we found five normally-harmless objects that have surprising potential to become weirdly dangerous at Walt Disney World. Have you ever had a close encounter with one of these?
1. Umbrellas
Image: William Warby, Flickr (license)
Florida is one soggy, soggy place. If our frequent 100% humidity levels aren’t enough, Orlando receives an average of 117 days of rain a year. When Florida’s blue skies turn angry, many prepared guests quickly and sensibly pull out their umbrellas. This wouldn’t be an issue if only one or two guests thought of this, but once rain starts falling, Disney pathways seems to immediately sprout umbrellas in every direction like fields of be-spiked daisies.
Navigating that many umbrellas in a busy crowd can feel a bit like running a gauntlet of giant sea urchins. It’s not that guests carrying umbrellas mean harm. It’s just that unless a guest is particularly attentive (or really tall), it’s nearly impossible to keep track of how close the guest behind you or next to you is. Combine the myriad distractions of Disney magic with hundreds of guests all carrying giant spike wheels on their shoulders and you have a likely recipe for some bonked heads and poked eyes.
Want to make things easier on your fellow guests? If you decide to bring an umbrella to Walt Disney World, try to bring as small a model as possible, and step out of the crowd to open it. Large umbrellas are more likely to be a hazard, and the non-collapsible Mary Poppins varieties will just prove unnecessary luggage as you traverse the parks. A better option than umbrellas is to visit your local Walmart or outdoors store before your vacation and pick up a set of camping ponchos. They’re much cheaper than Disney’s and most are so small that they can fit into your pocket.
2. Strollers
There is possibly no subject that gets Walt Disney World regulars up in arms faster than stroller shenanigans. We’ve explored the subject of crazed parents going Mad Max on their fellow guests with their little ones’ carriages more than once. Strollers scuffles and injuries are a moderately common occurrence in busy Disney crowds, but the fault isn’t entirely on parents with stroller age kids. Indeed, stroller safety in Walt Disney World goes both ways.
On the one hand, most Walt Disney World visitors have had a sour encounter with an agitated or aloof parent who decides to use a stroller to plow through a crowd with abandon. We’ve heard reader stories of parents whose children or family members were injured by weird incidents of stroller aggression, and I personally recall being shoved off the monorail once during loading by a parent who decided to use their stroller powers for evil instead of good.
However, we also get to hear the other side of the story. It is not always easy to bring a small child to Walt Disney World, and politely navigating a stroller through crowds is no simple task. The most common complaint is guests either cutting off strollers, or worse, stopping suddenly in front of one—then getting upset when parents couldn’t screech to a halt quick enough. While most Disney guests are amicable and polite, things can sometimes turn ugly in these situations and leave a dark cloud over a park day.
If you will be needing a stroller at Walt Disney World, try to bring or rent a small, light model. If you have two children of stroller age and can have two adults push them, opt for two smaller strollers instead of a more cumbersome double wide if you can avoid it. If children are old enough to walk, encourage them to do so (this can also help them burn off some energy). Every family is different, however, and these options aren’t always possible, so try to be courteous to families trying their best to traverse crowds with strollers. If you run into a nasty stroller driver, don’t let their bad behavior burn your last nerve towards other parents just trying to get to the next section of the park. As in most things, the best recipe is for courtesy to always go both ways.
3. Selfie sticks
Image: Aaron Yoo, Flickr (license)
Selfie sticks have become such a popular part of social media culture that many guests arrive at Walt Disney World completely unaware they are banned within the parks. This tends to come as a surprise to guests who get stopped at bag checkpoints, but there are actually good reasons for this.
Remember how we mentioned umbrellas being weirdly dangerous in a crowd? A thousand waving selfie sticks create a similar danger that Disney recognized early on. While the average selfie stick isn’t quite as pointy as an umbrella, complaints quickly rose when huge numbers of selfie sticks started obstructing guest sightlines. The bigger issue, however, became the use of selfie sticks on rides. Cast members had a bear of a time keeping guests on dark rides from using the pesky things, causing myriad attraction delays, but the real danger came when a guest tried to use a selfie stick on Disneyland’s California Screamin’. A flying selfie stick on a roller coaster like Space Mountain or Rockin’ Roller Coaster could easily cause serious injuries, so Disney made an across the board policy to ban selfie sticks.
Moral of the story? Don’t be that guy who tries to sneak a selfie stick into Walt Disney World. If you really want to up your smartphone photography game, invest in a set of convenient smartphone lenses.
4. Scooters
Image: Arctic_whirlwind, Flickr (license)
Mobility scooters are a necessity for many elderly and disabled guests visiting Walt Disney World, but similar to strollers, they carry their share of controversy. While the average stroller can only do so much damage, stories unfortunately abound of guest issues with mobility scooters. It is hard enough to navigate Disney crowds in a normal situation, but things can turn gnarly quickly when guests stop suddenly in front of a motorized vehicle, even a slow one—or worse, when a scooter driver decides they have no more flips to give and ascribe to the aforementioned battering ram method.
There’s no easy way to use a mobility scooter in Walt Disney World. The best advice is to try to visit during the off season when crowds are lighter. Scooter users will have far more freedom of movement to enjoy the parks and collisions will be far less likely. As with strollers, guests on both sides of the equations should do their best to keep cool heads and stay courteous and drivers should be extra careful not to follow anyone ahead of you too closely. If you are walking and you see guest on a scooter is stuck in the crowd, don’t cut them off. Try to yield to help them through when possible. You might be the polite relief they’ve been waiting for!
5. Fish and chips
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
This one almost didn’t make our list, but it was just too hilarious to ignore. This item actually applies to a wide range of snacks guests might be carrying throughout Walt Disney World, but we’ve seen no more notable example than at the café’ seating near the Rose and Crown in Epcot’s UK pavilion. Indeed, we can think of no more perilous snack you can enjoy at Walt Disney World than waterside fish and chips—and no, we haven’t completely gone bonkers.
Picture if you will that you sit down by the edge of the beautiful World Showcase lagoon to enjoy a sumptuous basket of fish and chips. The sweet scent of fried cod and steaming potatoes fills your nose. You sense something is off, however—like somewhere, unfeeling eyes are watching. You look about and see nothing, so you dip your crispy fish into some tartar sauce and go to take a bite.
At that moment, you’re blinded by a flash of white feathers. Greedy claws seize your precious fish fry and wrench it from your buttery fingers. In an instant, the thief has swooped over the edge of the lagoon while his watching cohorts mock you with a chorus of laughing calls: “Mine! Mine-mine! Mine! MINE!”
Sorry, mate. You’ve become another victim of Walt Disney World’s resident seagulls.
Sure, seagulls seem cute enough at first with their goofy calls and shimmery white coats. Don’t be fooled though. We can’t emphasize this enough—never, EVER feed them anywhere in Florida, for once these little beasties catch the scent of an easy meal, there’s no getting rid of them for anyone nearby. Disney does an admirable job keeping their resident population of avian street urchins in line, but Orlando’s seagulls have long learned that guests hypnotized by delicious nosh make easy targets, and your fleshy hands are no match for Mr. Gull’s hungry scissor beak. I’m not saying to skip the UK’s amazing fish and chips. Just be careful where you decide to dine and watch your meal carefully. You never know when those adorable little feathered psychopaths might be watching.
What other innocuous objects have you found to be weirdly dangerous at Walt Disney World?
