Hi,
I just wanted to post and let you know what some of my park peeves are. In case you are wondering, park peeves are like pet peeves except they occur in theme parks rather than in your everyday life. I first heard the word used by the DIS Unplugged podcast team.
Anyway…
1) Heeleys — you’ve seen them, the shoes that have wheels in the heels. This is a major park peeve of mine because I have been struck by young, unsupervised, and oftentimes rude, children rolling around crowded theme parks wearing these shoes. Disney tried putting a ban on Heeleys (and other shoes with wheels) in order to cut down on the amount of complaints and minor injuries, but it never worked as well as they thought it would.
2) Another park peeve that is about equal with Heeleys in my opinion, are strollers being used as battering rams to push through the crowds. Not only are people wearing sandals, flip-flops, and Crocs, but there are elderly people and young children being struck by these as well which is dangerous.
3) ANGRY people! Goodness me, you are in a theme park named “the most magical place on earth” and you are yelling at eachother, swearing like it’s going out of style, and allowing your children to throw tantrums that are not only embarrassing to you, but those around you as well?!?! I for one think this absurd and people who behave this way should be politely asked to leave the park by a Cast Member (CM.) A few tips I can offer to avoid situations like these (yes, I’ve been there as well) are…
a) take a nap/pool break in the late morning/early afternoon and return to the theme park around 3-4 PM or later. This will not only allow your party to rest up to return to the park, but have fun in the pool, catch up on the news, watch some TV, or post part of your live trip report.
b) keep your party hydrated and well fed. I find that the two things that make my irritable are being dehydrated and hungry. It’s easy to avoid situations like these as well; just go to the nearest snack cart or counter service restaurant and ask for a cup of water. These are FREE!!! This makes more sense than paying $2.50+ for a bottled water. Also, popcorn or a soft pretzel is usually enough to keep you full until your next meal.
(both of the above tips seem to work best with young children, teenagers, and the elderly)
That’s all for now, but feel free to leave a few of your park peeves in a comment and I’ll follow up in a later post.
~Simon
