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What thing annoys you the most in a theme park?

That thing that happens frequently.

From Daniel Etcheberry
Posted October 26, 2012 at 5:50 PM
I get very annoyed by people who walk backwards and hit me. There are lots of them.


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Tim Odom
Posted October 26, 2012 at 6:45 PM
My biggest annoyance is people who stop for no discernible reason, in the middle of a walkway.

From Karly Tenney
Posted October 26, 2012 at 7:33 PM
PDA! PDA! PDA! Ewwwww! :((((:((((

From Tom Cunningham
Posted October 27, 2012 at 2:48 AM
"Move forward,Move up,Please fill all available space"

From Mike Gallagher
Posted October 27, 2012 at 4:11 AM
Karly, what's wrong with using a Palm Pilot or Blackberry in an amusement park? ;)

From Dominick D
Posted October 27, 2012 at 5:13 AM

For those who don't know, the people chanting are Brazilian Tour Groups. Brazilian Tour Groups are tour groups with teenagers from Brazil going to Central Florida. For those who have encountered them, you know how annoying they are. They cut in line, push you around, and they love singing songs and chanting. Keep in mind these are JUST Brazilian Tour Groups, I have nothing against Brazilians.

From Bryce McGibeny
Posted October 27, 2012 at 5:36 AM
Those Brazilian tour groups ruined the Tower of Terror pre-show for me. :(

From Ashleigh Noad
Posted October 27, 2012 at 5:55 AM
Yet another thread where the tour group issue is going to be discussed! Not all Brazilian tour groups are bad, it really depends on their leaders.

At Disney, it was much better this year because of the increased presence of 'Supergreeters'. However, I really think the Supergreeters need to be involved in other activities of the theme parks rather than predominantly attractions and food and beverages. Particularly, Merchandise sales. Brazilians are buying so much and are so important to Disney's sales figures, it would really help with the language barrier difficulty in addition to pure financial sense.

Also, it isn't just Brazilians. In general much more South American tour groups are coming to the parks. In one of my shifts, I kept having guests coming up to me to complain about those 'darn Brazilian tour groups' chanting whilst waiting for the parade on Main Street - except they weren't Brazilian. They were Argentinian. I noticed a whole-load more Argentinians this year than I have ever done previously. I think Disney has set a precedent with the supergreeters for other parks to follow, and it is definitely a step in the right direction.

For me, the biggest annoyance is line-cutting. It is a touchy subject, especially those with young children (which obviously I can make exceptions for). I don't believe anyone should have to not wait in line for any reason - even worse when during the summer, I spotted two ICPs at Disney's Animal Kingdom park, flashing their work IDs to the ride attendants to cut the line. Why should workers get any more special treatment than others? Fortunately, it didn't work for them.

From Dominick D
Posted October 27, 2012 at 7:20 AM
^I've only seen about 5 tour groups that weren't rude. Yes, not all are bad, but the majority is.

From Orrin Carstarphen
Posted October 27, 2012 at 7:28 AM
Actually the thing that annoys me the most is the parents that push their small children to the point of exhaustion and then yell at them when they are crying because they are SO tired. I have seen this time and time again especially at WDW. A vacation is SUPPOSED to be relaxing.

From Daniel Etcheberry
Posted October 27, 2012 at 4:39 PM
When rides break down also annoys me.

From Andy Milito
Posted October 27, 2012 at 10:11 AM
People who stop to look at EVERYTHING in the queue. That's one reason I'm not big on interactive queues.

From N B
Posted October 27, 2012 at 3:41 PM
Dom, for once, I am in total agreement with you. We try to figure out when Brazilian tour season is and plan around it. They can clog up a queue for hours.... another reason why we stay on site and skip the lines.

I once saw the MIB queue go from the loading area to the outside chains with nothing but Brazilian teenagers. Of course, we passed them more than half a dozen times while having a heated family competition. :)

They seem to go away after dark at USF, for the most part. Not sure if they stay late at the Disney parks.

From Dominick D
Posted October 27, 2012 at 3:50 PM
N B, last weekend was a Brazilian holiday and the parks were swamped (went to Universal last weekend, and Disney had higher waits then usual)

From Amy Smith
Posted October 27, 2012 at 4:57 PM
Tour groups! From a guest perspective, they inflate the wait time of any attraction they enter by around 30 minutes and they can be loud and annoying and send 50 people to cut in front of you to join up with their 1 friend at the front of the line.
From an employee perspective, sending every. single. member. of your group to ask the same. exact. question. because you think the answer will somehow change between person 1 and person 100 and then completely ignoring what you were told anyway is the most annoying thing you can possibly imagine. (Sorry, I know this is meant as a guest perspective thread but this has happened with increasing frequency lately. I have to wonder if this is on some "50 ways to drive a theme park employee bonkers" list somewhere like the "50 ways to get kicked out of Walmart" list. Okay, rant over).

From Daniel Etcheberry
Posted October 28, 2012 at 4:38 PM
I also get annoyed when couples in front of me on the queue get romantic; I was once at the Disaster queue, and the couple in front of me were kissing and touching each other in a way that was not appropiate since there were children.

From Anthony Murphy
Posted October 28, 2012 at 4:14 PM
Talking during preshows

Making faces during on ride photos (I feel it ruins the picture for the others on the car/boat/elevator car)

From Brian Emery
Posted October 29, 2012 at 7:14 AM
The Most annoying thing is when someone sits beside you and narrates the entire ride.

I was on Test Track and we used single rider line… This was this really annoying woman and her husband. She was sitting to my left as I was in the end seat.

Here is my Test Track ride: Annoying woman narrating the ride. “Now here we go, Now we are going fast, now we are going slow, Now we are turning, now we are testing the brakes, Now we are going onto the heat test, we don’t like that, now we are going into the cold, we like this one, now we are going outside, now we are going fast……….”

Ugggggggg……I was ready to kill her….
So during the picture on Test track, there I was flipping them off in the photo…… Hahahaha – I wonder if they figured out why I did that…

From Rob P
Posted October 29, 2012 at 7:01 AM
People.

From Derek Morse
Posted October 29, 2012 at 8:43 AM
Overall, I'd say ignorant people. Seems like a lot of families who travel a great distance to theme parks, especially Disney, act like they are the only ones in the entire park, and tend to run into people and stand around in the middle of high traffic areas. Also, people that talk during shows or pre shows annoy me to no end.

From N B
Posted October 29, 2012 at 4:24 PM
I have to say that when we ride MIB, we are a bit loud and obnoxious, but that is only when they give us two empty seats and we have the vehicle all to ourselves.

When we get paired up with single riders, I always ask them if they have ridden before and pre-aplogize for how competitive we are. So far, we have been highly entertaining and made them feel like part of the family, high fiving them after we completely destroy the other teams average score.

From Dominick D
Posted October 29, 2012 at 5:16 PM
I love snickering at the other vehicle when my side wins (which is always), but my past few rides they've only been running the outside track.

From Dominick D
Posted October 29, 2012 at 5:17 PM
^I love snickering at the other vehicle when my side wins (which is always), but my past few rides they've only been running the outside track.

From Jennifer Blair
Posted October 30, 2012 at 12:30 AM
The thing that has always annoyed me is when I stand in line and the person/people behind me feel they should be pressed against me the whole time, as if that will get them on the ride any faster. To make this worse is to make this a family with wrestling children who continuously shove and push you as well as each other while the mom lightly mutters "oh no, stop."

From Alan Hiscutt
Posted November 9, 2012 at 7:18 AM
Waiting for 20 minutes for food only to find out it has cheese on (Dairy allergic children) and having to wait another 20 minutes and AGAIN to find that cheese has been added. I mean I said No cheese, The order slip says No Cheese, the cashier even called out, Order 144, No cheese. Really is it that hard?

From Mike Gallagher
Posted November 9, 2012 at 8:07 AM
That reminds me of the time that I ordered a plain cheeseburger at McD's and received a bare hamburger.

Me: There's no cheese on this.

McJobber: You said you wanted it plain.

Me: By definition, a CHEESEburger has cheese on it. If I didn't want cheese, I would have ordered a hamburger..which is what you gave me ANYWAY. Now take this back and put a slice of cheese on it, wouldja?

McJobber: I'll have to check with my manager.

Me: Please do. But have that conversation in front of me. I think it'd be very entertaining.

I received my cheeseburger and an apology from a manager.

From Christopher Sturniolo
Posted November 9, 2012 at 8:18 AM
Things that annoy me:

The aforementioned Brazilian tour groups
People making up the strangest names for attractions
Ex: Test Track-Race Track
Hall of Presidents-All the President's Men
Cinderella Castle-Enchanted Castle
Soarin'-Flying Over California
And the worst one of all...Spaceship Earth
THE GOLF BALL!!
I know they're just ignorant of the name (bc they don't go there annually like I do), but it gets on my nerves.

But my biggest pet peeve is when I'm in a normal aquarium and a little kid sees a clownfish or blue tang... (you put two and two together)

From Andy Milito
Posted November 9, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Mike, I could easily see you doing that :P

From Tony Duda
Posted November 9, 2012 at 5:05 PM
Mike, reminds me of the scene in 5 Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson.

From Mike Gallagher
Posted November 9, 2012 at 8:30 PM
Never seen the movie, but I've seen the clip.

From chris cona
Posted November 10, 2012 at 6:41 PM
What really annoy be are the crazy moms who crash into you with the strollers. And drinking in parks. I understand epcot and at dinner but not in the theme park like animal kingdom and hollywood studios doesn't make any sense why they should be carrying a beer around in their hands in a family park.

From Dominick D
Posted November 10, 2012 at 7:46 PM
Ok then Chris, I guess you also shouldn't drink in IOA, USF, Seaworld, and Busch Gardens ;)

From Mark Fairleigh
Posted November 15, 2012 at 9:55 AM
Definitely, the cart-as-a-battering-ram thing. Drunks, not drinking, bothers me...but I'm resigned to the fact you're just gonna have some during Food & Wine, especially on weekends, so plan around it by going to another park or see it as an excuse to spend more time in Future World.

From Russell Meyer
Posted November 15, 2012 at 10:43 AM
I'm annoyed by people that stop in the middle of the walkway to snap a picture. As a photographer myself, I can appreciate wanting to capture a specific angle of your subject, but a little recognition of where you are, and a willingness to either step to the side until crowds pass or just take the picture from a different angle.

In our recent trip to IOA, I was stunned by the number of Ansel Adams's walking over the bridge out of Harry Potter Land towards Jurassic Park seeing the Hogwarts Castle and stopping, pulling out the camera in the middle of the walkway for over a minute trying to snap a picture. Harry Potter land is already a bottleneck and people were making it worse by stopping in the middle of the easiest way out.

From Jay R.
Posted November 15, 2012 at 6:52 PM
I've been guilty of this :-(.....but I can understand how the "posing during ride photos" can be annoying.

That said, because of the large number of AP's at DLR, there are many times when you get an entire photo of strangers posing.....and it looks pretty cool!

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