3. RECITE the ride

Image: Disney

Irritation level: 8/10

This is another Disneyland-specific problem for the most part, and you had to know it would end up on this list. Recently, a Disney Parks fan on Twitter incited some anger after suggesting that he and other guests should be aloud to recite the Ghost Host's famous Stretching Room spiel on the ride if he wants to; after all, Disney Parks are about happiness, and if the way he expresses his happiness is by shouting along to the Ghost Host's narration, he and any others should be welcome to do it and anyone who says otherwise is just humorless.

Naturally, that's pretty objectively wrong. Yes, Disney Parks should be happy places, but for everyone. Your "right" to show off that you know the Ghost Host's spiel doesn't supercede the group's "right" to experience the attraction unimpeded.

This is another place where "group think" comes in. If one person in the Stretching Room begins speaking along, others feel that they, too, need to "show off" that they're frequent visitors by joining in, thus leaving everyone in the room with the impression that they should do it first next time, and perpetuating a horrible cycle. Instead of joining in, locals should actually feel empowered to shush the person on behalf of first-timers. It's the reason that the Haunted Mansion's intro act in California has lost its emotional grip. First-timers (and even returners) want to feel the tense and harrowing sensation of the stretching room, not listen to a bunch of locals prove how often they visit. 

2. BE RUDE to Cast Members

Image: Disney

Irritation level: 10/10

There's no one more dedicated to making your day pleasant than Disney's front-line team. We all can imagine how, when mom and dad's dreamy ideals of a perfect family trip meets the realities of huge crowds, ungrateful kids, long lines, scalding temperatures, 100% humidity, and high prices, they're likely to be irritable. For those already predisposed to look down on service workers, Cast Members are an easy target to take out the frustrations of a day. Of course, despite how dad may feel in that moment, it's not a Cast Member's fault that your bright idea to visit during spring break turned out to be a lot of people's bright idea. 

None of this is news to most of us. What we may be guilty of is of forgetting that Disney's exceptionally high standards are just that. Sometimes, we may take for granted that Cast Members are doing above and beyond what we'd normally expect in the service industry. Maybe we're guilty of leaving a spilled popcorn on the ground because "Disney" will clean it up, or taking for granted that "Disney" won't let us cross the street during a parade when we know we can make it between those floats. 

So even those of us who would never be rude to service workers may find ourselves forgetting a "thank you so much!" or an "excuse me!" to Disney Parks Cast Members as they control traffic, take tickets, sell from vending carts, and clean up our messes. It's important that we all consider not just the active ways people are rude to Cast Members, but the dismissive or passive ways they're (sometimes literally) stepped all over. 

1. FLASH photos on rides

Irritation level: 10/10

Please... please... don't take flash photos. Like, ever. Don't take flash photos of people. Don't take flash photos of buildings. Don't take flash photos on dark rides. And since the purpose of a flash is to release a bright burst of light that bounces off of the subject then returns to the camera's lens, why are you taking a flash photo of fireworks? Unless you are a photographer who knows how flash works, don't use it; it's 2019, and you don't need it.

But since we're talking about Disney rides, there is, bar none, nothing more distracting or irritating than continuous double-flashes of an iPhone's LED camera bursting out of the Doom Buggy four down from you for the entire length of the ride; nothing worse than a flash glowing against the mist of Pirates' battle scene from the row behind you.

And yes, we could make the recurring and sound argument that many others use to try to dissuade you from using flash: that Disney's dark rides are already lit by theatrical lighting; that modern cameras are more than equipped to take pleasant photos under Disney's show lighting, and that using a flash actually results in worse photos (see above), because they inherently distort the careful lighting and scenic work Imagineers designed. But since that advice is often repeated and doesn't stop people from taking flash photos, how about this: just don't take photographs – flash or otherwise – on rides at Disney Parks.

We guarantee you that every square inch of every single ride has already been captured by professional photographers and is available to you online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Flash or no flash, you are never going to go back through the washed-out, blurry photographs you took on Peter Pan's Flight or the shaky, hand-held video you took of fireworks, so just don't take them! See the ride through your own experiences, not through your phone screen. Take family "selfies" out on the park's paths if you must, but don't try to photograph Disney's rides. You know how, in a theater, when someone a few rows ahead suddenly lights up because they NEED to check their phone? That bright screen suddenly turning on in a dark ride is just as awful. Don't do it. 

And if your friend or relative takes out their phone to take a photo on a ride, please, for the rest of us: be a hero and kindly ask that they put it away.