Selfie Sticks in the Magic Kingdom
We are heading back to Walt Disney World very soon! This will be the second trip in 2015. We are going back on a hotel discount by using Disneys bounce back program. This promotion provides a 15% discount on any moderate hotel stays to those that are staying in the park. You can find the discount information in the mini-magazine when you check into your Disney hotel. Make sure to read the entire brochure, you can miss a great savings opportunity!
To get in the Disney mood, I changed the desktop picture on my laptop to the picture of the Haunted Mansion taken from Frontier-land. It also gives me the right frame of mind to think about what I may need to bring on this trip.
I am pretty disappointed that Disney has a complete ban the use of Monopods (Selfie sticks). I remember having my xShot in Disneyland back in 2009. While walking down Main Street, people around me were watching and wondering what camera device I was using. I was able to take really good pictures of the Haunted Mansion exterior as the ride was closed. I used the xShot to take pictures over the fence.
I fully understand Disney not allowing Selfie Sticks on the rides as they could be extremely dangerous. However, prohibiting people from taking Selfie pictures around the parks with their own cameras seems weird. Perhaps the Selfie Sticks were cutting into the sales of Disney Photo passes.
You can find full coverage of the Selfie Sticks from: MarketWatch.com, Orlando Sentinel and the BBC.
Disney provides a handy list of all the things you can't bring. It's a good list to review for packing because you don't have issues at the park security gate. Many of these same restrictions apply to Universal Studios and Knotts Berry Farm.
I'll be having both my Olympus XZ-2 iHS and iPhone 6s Plus to take pictures and videos. The Olympus XZ-2 iHS takes much better photos/videos in the dark.