Go pro works great but you really need to practice with it before your trip. Practice helps you get a good sense on how to position the camera and how much area will be in the field of view. Selfie sticks short and long do well but when extended can be pretty shaky. Go pro hero 3+ silver and subsequent models have good setting capabilities. Day time 1080p 60FPS and night time 1080p 30 FPS give good results(a little grainy at night but ok). Hero 4 has even more advanced capture settings. The waterproof case is obviously great for wet rides but diminishes audio capture alot. The audio quality even without a case is ok but not great.
You can invert the camera capture mode for some neat shots, Time Lapse, multi shot mode, edit for slow motion are some of the neat features. You can use an app on your phone to view, preview and control your shots which works good but there is a time lag. They also sell a preview back and a remote control but they are expensive.
This link on youtube is one of many that give good tips on how to use the gopro.
https://www.youtube.com/user/micbergsma
I don't think its good option to totally replace your good quality video camera especially for those special moments but its great for the action shots and diffrent perspective shots. Numerous accesories are great but they can get expensive.
I didn't get too many sneers or comments while using the camera and selfie stick but I sure have seen plenty of snide comments on these boards. That's not a big deal since I'm much too beautiful and intelligent to let it bother me. Ha Ha!! Common sense and common courtesy should dictate how you use it. Obviously don't put your camera and selfie stick in someone else space, don't hold it up high to block someone view (Parade or fireworks), etc, etc. I did hold the camera up high on the extended mount to capture video of the parade but I did so holding it in front of a lamp post so not to block anyones view.
Make sure if you use a selfie stick on a ride, keep it with inside the area of the ride car. I rested the the camera on the inside lip of the ride opening (front car of rocknroller coaster). When the CMs did their checks they made me move it. Basically I moved it back 1 inch and it was ok. That's no problem I had it resting there just for stability but that was not allowed.
Here's our video from our October 2014 trip if you'd like to see how this version worked 
