"No flash photography please"

lugnut33

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
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I was listening to audio from the Pirates ride at Disneyland and 2 times I heard the castmember come on the loudspeaker telling guests "No flash photography please". I have never heard that announced at WDW during any ride. Why don't they do it?

Of course, I also thought, what's worse to the story, some flashes going off or a castmember talking on the loudspeaker?
 
I have heard this several times on this ride, though I dont know why they bother. People dont listen anyway.
 
Is this something they only announce at Disneyland? I've been on PotC so many times with people taking flash photos and I never recall hearing anything. In fact one time my DW and I had the whole ride to ourselves, and I snapped a few myself (I know, shame on me), and no one said anything to me about it.

Are they just more strict in California?
 
I get really upset when people take pictures on rides and don't understand why people just can't follow the stinkin' rules!!
 

I hate it when people flash during rides. It is so rude. It is announced at both parks.
 
Are you kidding? It seems to me on just about any ride (at WDW) that has a "live" CM they made an announcement about no flash photos and silence the cell phones.
 
I've heard them do it on PotC @ WDW several times. Considering the outdoor setting amid the ships and Tortuga, it sometimes feels like the voice of God thundering down from above, even if it is just a 16 year-old CM named Stevie.

As a PP said, most guests don't listen and think they're above the policies. They feel that every ride and every moment is all about them and what they want, and give little or no consideration to others. These are the same people who use flash photography on Pirates as well as talk on their cell phones during Philharmagic. It's up to us, as fellow guests, to tap that person on the shoulder and kindly, however forcefully, insist they turn off their devices. Most guests think they're above the CMs because CMs are bound by customer service and regulations, etc. But if they feel there's another guest behind them without any fear, they will obey. Trust me, I've tapped a few shoulders in my time, and it works. It always works. ;)
 
I don't recall on PotC, but I know that on HM the Ghost Host actually tells you not to use flash photography "because we ghosts are frightfully sensitive to light". However, you're not always going to get on the ride at a point where you'll hear that announcement clearly (your vehicle may have just passed it or not gotten to it yet), so maybe that's why you've never heard it. I'm assuming that what happened in your case is that a CM monitoring the ride saw the flash and that's why the announcement was made.
 
I have heard it many many many times on POC at WdW.I also heard it on Soarin:confused3 Apparently the man next to me had issues with taking flash photos of a movie screen:confused3
 
A CM told a guest in the boat in front of us TWICE not to take flash photos. Of course, the guest completely ignored it. :(
 
as mentioned, they do announce it at WDW, however it's really up to the CM to mention and enforce it (and often Cast Members confuse no flash photography with no photography and I've even heard worse mixups).

I think the only attraction that clearly spells it out (because it's part of the spiel) is Turtle Talk.
 
I wish CMs had announced it on our trip last fall. Our POTC ride went something like this:

Yo-ho *FLASH!*
Yo-ho *FLASH!*
A pirate's life for me! *FLASH!*

Everybody in the boat was ready to throw that bozo overboard ;) Here's to better luck this year!
 
Oh, people! In Pirates in particular, you're all forgetting the people who simply must take 6 pictures of Capt Jack at the end! We always joke that it's not REALLY Johnny Depp, you can put the cameras away.

I just returned in September and did notice and above average quantity of cameras and cell phones during Hall of Presidents and Amercian Adventure.

Ress
 
On our last trip the woman in front of me was taking flash photos in PotC, which was annoying enough, but then apparently something behind her caught her fancy and she turned around and took one and the flash was literally a foot from my face, I was so mad I said something to the cast member at the end of the ride and they took us out back and through the cast entrance and let us get on the next boat. I would much rather have a "reminder" than to have some rude person ruining the ambiance of the ride.
 
Just last week my ds(8) and I went to ride pirates. We were seated in row 5. There were 4 adults in front of us, a woman and 3 special needs gentleman. During the entire ride the woman kept sticking her camer right in front of my face to take flash pictures. It was so annoying. She was blinding me and ds every 10 seconds. I was so tempted to pull out my camera and start flashing her but I didn't want to cause trouble since she was apparently the caregiver to the 3 men.
 
Although I have a heck of a time getting a decent shot, I DO listen to the rules and disable my flashes on those rides. (besides, I was terrified of the reaction of other guests after reading some of the threads on this board! LOL)

Hall of Presidents, I wish they would ask those with the noisy SLR cameras to find a way to silence their shutters. It was really hard to follow along when all I heard directly behind my head was *click* *click click click* *click click*. Then of course, the photographer had to share his shots with his companion on occasion and that caused whispers. It was really frustrating!
 
Funny, I made an effort to listen, really listen to the announcements on the rides because this is the second started thread within the last month or so about flash photograpy especially on POTC, never heard it...once!:confused3 I tend to believe that folks are getting on the ride are not knowing they shouldn't take flash photos. Music is loud, folks are watching expressions on kids face about being at Disney, wondering where they might have left their camera or 2 year old, mother wondering what pictures she should include in the scrapbook. I'm glad that no one on here has every done anything that might have irritated someone else.:littleangel: It's funny, ive been to Disney dozens of times, many times more than that when you include the day trips, trips to DTD, hour long trips I have made to Disney while on Business in orlando and never onece did I get home and felt that my trip was ruined by a flash or thousands of flashes or even a cell phone call at philharmagic. more interesting to me that even a poster on this thread that knows the policy snapped a photo on an empty boat, maybe the folks in the boat behind her saw her and they started shooting flash phots also.........maybe ourselves the ones who actually are griping about the behavior are the ones snapping the pictures? maybe some of the pass holders and the vet Disney goers are the ones that feel above?:confused3

my wife's big Nikon camera does fine without the flash, however I would believe at times that her putting the camera to her face might block someones view of something, whats next? no cameras....alot of this for us would be corrected if we could purchase postcards of the ride....but alas all I can find is more PVC pirate figures....I contend on this thread and all the other complaint threads that I have read, that just short of harm, have never remotely come close to ruining my days at Disney
 
more interesting to me that even a poster on this thread that knows the policy snapped a photo on an empty boat, maybe the folks in the boat behind her saw her and they started shooting flash phots also.........maybe ourselves the ones who actually are griping about the behavior are the ones snapping the pictures?

I believe that was me, and I'm not a "her." :rotfl:

Actually when I say the ride was empty, I mean empty, which is why I took my chance to get a picture of the pirate ship that I always wanted. ;) This particular day we snapped several pictures of popular rides with the wait time sign at "0" minutes. It was one of the best days I've ever had at MK because the park was literally empty!
 
I figure if the guest doesn't understand English, they can't follow the rules.

On our last trip someone in the boat in front of ours had a video light going. It was the one on the camera so it wasn't very bright. (just like the user :lmao: ) She was moving around like an erratic lighthouse. It was actually a little funny seeing the light drop down the first hill, swinging to the left then right and toward us.

I was mostly thinking what a goofball.
 
I believe that was me, and I'm not a "her." :rotfl:

Actually when I say the ride was empty, I mean empty, which is why I took my chance to get a picture of the pirate ship that I always wanted. ;) This particular day we snapped several pictures of popular rides with the wait time sign at "0" minutes. It was one of the best days I've ever had at MK because the park was literally empty!

passenger, go ahead and take your shots, I would never allow your flashes to stand in my way of enjoying Disney, heck I might bum a few from you:hippie:, I just feel that either we have the rule or we don't...stealing a car with no one around is still a crime, and there are many, many of us that could care less if you take a bunch of flash photos even with a crowded boat!.......alot of folks griping about the flashes, and I know your not one of them, and maybe they themselves might bend the rules from time to time. If everyone is taking pictures knowing the policy but also thinking that they are not bothering anyone then maybe that is the explination for the flashes......I'm just saying....lastly we cannot make everyone happy, as I pointed out in my post my Wife's camera is both big and on the motor drive mode its very loud, It would be most annoying for the cast members to always have to announce..."No cameras with very bright intense spotlight flashes and no SLRs with very loud mechanical noises especially the shutters are permitted on this ride"

There is a movement here to make everyone happy, it just isn't possible.....September 16th, we were riding POTC, we had just printed from this board our copy of Disney secrets and read that if you yelled or spoke the name George 3 times in the scene where the buildings are on fire then "something might happen", George was the name of a mechanic that died and his ghost is believed to still be there, anyways after saying George 3 times someone behind us asked us to be quite....WTH:scared1:
 



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