The Worst

1. Height Sign Drama

In case you were wondering, the appropriate way to approach a height sign is to ask your kid to walk up to the sign and see if he bumps his head on it. If he doesn’t, you smile, give him a high-five for making it under the stick, and walk away. Everyone’s happy. No harm done.

The wrong way to approach a height sign is to see that a few wisps of hair touch the sign, cheer uproariously, and try to charge into the line. When you’re stopped because wisps of hair don’t count and your kid is actually too short, it’s also inappropriate to begin yelling/arguing/crying about how your entire day is now ruined, your child’s whole trip will be miserable, and everyone is going to be upset for the rest of their stay. The vast majority of kids aren’t upset at all until their parents lose it, and beside the fact that it’s annoying to have guests yell at you for following safety rules, it’s also really sad to see a kid’s day ruined because his parents were so set on getting him on that one ride.

2. Blatant Disregard for Safety

Some parents seem to think that the safety of their children should no longer be part of their responsibility when they get into the parks. It’s not at all uncommon to see a child swinging on a chain, climbing a statue, or doing something else completely dangerous while a parent looks on. Worse, when the Cast Member asks them to stop for their own safety, parents often like to chime in “I told you,” just to confirm that they did in fact know it wasn’t safe, but decided not to do anything about it.

3. Backstage Trash

On stage areas are usually fairly pristine, but unfortunately it’s not because we can magic away all that trash. Some empty cups and crumpled napkins aren’t bad, but there’s just nothing pleasant about the grease traps and food disposal behind some of the restaurants.

4. Various Bodily Fluids

You knew this was going to be on here, and still you’re grossed out. Yes, it happens. All the time. It’s hot, the rides throw you all around, and those giant pixie sticks guests suck down really are just three feet of flavored sugar. What do you expect? In addition to the obligatory vomit, consider the fact that many of our most charming little guests don’t have full bladder or bowel control yet and…well, you can imagine.

5. Unavoidable Disappointment

You thought this would all be about how bad the guests can get, right? Unfortunately one of the hardest things to see is a nice guest that you just can’t help. They missed Jasmine’s last appearance of the day. The ride they were most looking forward to is down. We can’t always fix things, even when want to and even when the guest deserves it.

Sure, there are some standout occurrences on both ends of the spectrum. You might put your favorite celebrity on your attraction, or you might have a guest nearly come to blows with you because his kid treated a chain like a swing and split his lip (I’ve personally seen both). But most days balance out with a few angry parents, some magical moments, and a whole lot of repetition.