To text on rides/in performances, or not.

[Penelope2000]

Hi all,

There is a very long thread on "what to not do at Disney" with many different subjects. I was really interested that some people think texting is fine on rides and in performances, (as long as the phones are on silent,) as the light from the screen really bothers others (like me.) I am trying to see if I'm just being overly sensitive, or if more out there find those screens fairly distracting. I'll post a poll. What do you think?

 

[ILoveMyGirls]

unless it is an emergency, it is rude to use your phone during performance that are in the dark as the light was the phone has hit me in the face and messed up my eyes prev.

unfortunately, people have become obsessed with letting everyone know what they are doing 100 percent of the time. it is a problem with society and the current tech. that is avail.

 

[DVCGeek]

I think it is fine to text (silently) in line or maybe during an outdoor [or brightly lit] production / attraction, but I do NOT find it acceptable to do something with a lot of light when the venue is dark and that may distract others. That said, I am sometimes guilty of using the backlight of my watch (its pretty dim and a soft blue) to read a program from time to time.

 

[JacksLilWench]

IMHO, it's not just distracting to the people around you, it's incredibly rude to the performers themselves. Maybe this comes from being a stage performer, but I just can't stand myself when I see that happen. Not only that, but I also don't see why anyone would want to spend their vacation worrying about what's going on back home: you're on vacation!! The only thing you need to worry about is what to ride next, lol!!

 

[Penelope2000]

I'm sad to have had to post this poll, because I agree with everyone who has posted so far. I've been to at least 5 different performances this year where people were texting around me in the dark, and I was beginning to wonder if it bothered me because I'm over sensitive.

Why do people do this? I was thinking, maybe I need to just be more focused on my self and my family. But the flickering little light out of the corner of my eye would just get to me. I would be saying "Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it..." in my head, and I should just be able to enjoy the performance. I once politely asked someone to if he could please turn his phone off during the movies because the light was distracting, and got a dirty look. What should we do?

 

[RockAndRollBallerina]

IMHO, it's not just distracting to the people around you, it's incredibly rude to the performers themselves. Maybe this comes from being a stage performer, but I just can't stand myself when I see that happen. Not only that, but I also don't see why anyone would want to spend their vacation worrying about what's going on back home: you're on vacation!! The only thing you need to worry about is what to ride next, lol!!

Took the words right out of me. I'm a dancer who spends a good portion of the year on stage myself. It's very disrespectful and rude to those people who spent a lot of time learning to do a show and having had worked very hard on the final product you (the audience sees.) I cant tell you how many times in recent years I have seen people who in the front row even who cant drag themselves away from their phones to enjoy the performance.

Add to that if someone from home is calling me on my vacation there had better be a legit emergency or something urgent they need to tell me.

EX: Death of a family member, someone is in the hospital in critical condition, my house has been broken in to, one of my pets dies while i'm away, a natural disaster happens back at home, and or my house goes goes up in flames.

Other than that my phone is on me in the parks for incoming emergency calls only. I'm on vacation and I will not be texting and concerning myself with what is going on back at home. The purpose of a vacation is to get away from home which includes texting people back at home.

While I understand that people see things differently, this is just my opinion.

 

[DVCGeek]

I use my phone to coordinate meeting back up with people during a trip all the time; DW doesn't like to spend as much time in the parks as I do, so she'll call me when she wakes up or I'll call her when I get back to the resort and see if she wants anything from the restaurant on my way to the room. I'll also usually call 'home' to ask how the cat is doing and to let my parents know our flight got in, etc. But those are things I initiate or at least are from someone on the trip with me (DW)...

But as for getting calls from 'real life' while on vacation, I agree that it usually isn't fun and should have a good reason. Worst time for me was in 2008 and is one of your examples. I was in the queue line for Stitch's Great Escape when I saw my parents calling. I thought it was odd, and let it go to voicemail. After the attraction ended I walked into Tomorrowland and was down near where the Skyway used to land and called them back; my grandfather died. They scheduled the wake such that my parents could pick DW & me up from the airport from our scheduled flight and take us to the funeral home, so it didn't directly impact our vacation, but it was rather surreal! (He had been going downhill with Alzheimer's for a while and had been in a nursing home for over a year, so it wasn't a total shock; we all knew it was coming and he didn't recognize me, often not my dad, and sometimes not even my grandmother any more near the end...)

 

[maxiesmom]

I think it is fine to text on a ride, as long as it is not a dark ride. And as long as you are not a loud texter. Some phones just seem to have louder keys than others.

Texting on Small World? Fine. Texting on Haunted Mansion? Not fine.

 

[CanadianPaco]

Texting on Small World? Fine. Texting on Haunted Mansion? Not fine.

POTC - not fine!

 

[klacey1]

In line is fine. During any show or ride, absolutely not. During a ride it's distracting to other riders and during a show it's incredibly rude to the performers (and other watchers). The light/ "click clack" of the keys is incredibly distracting.

 

[Penelope2000]

Hi, I'm the original poster. I'm sadly relieved that it bothers some of you as much as texting during rides/performances bothers me.

While I am going to thoroughly enjoy myself during our trip in a few days, I am bugged that there will probably be people texting during some of the performances. In the grand scheme of our vacation, and of life, it is such a small thing. But it impacts memories. I'm going to nicely ask (in a whisper) people to please stop texting, as the screen is distracting from the performance. Is this ok? I never see anyone else asking. Maybe if we all asked people would stop doing it.

 

[maxiesmom]

Hi, I'm the original poster. I'm sadly relieved that it bothers some of you as much as texting during rides/performances bothers me.

While I am going to thoroughly enjoy myself during our trip in a few days, I am bugged that there will probably be people texting during some of the performances. In the grand scheme of our vacation, and of life, it is such a small thing. But it impacts memories. I'm going to nicely ask (in a whisper) people to please stop texting, as the screen is distracting from the performance. Is this ok? I never see anyone else asking. Maybe if we all asked people would stop doing it.

Honestly? I would be a bit leery asking someone to stop. You never know what kind of reaction you will get from them. It may not be a nice one.

Maybe if it is bothering you so much you can ask a CM to tell them to stop. but I don't think Disney has a rule on texting, so I am not sure if they can even do that. I think your best bet is to just try and ignore it as much as you can. While it may be irritating, getting into a fight over it with someone else is not worth it.

 

[KingRat]

Politeness aside, let's be real: you pull out your phone on a ride, and you could lose it like that ::snap of fingers::.

 

[dancer4life22]

delete

 

[WildGrits]

I posted that it doesn't bother me. But it has been since 9/07 since we have been in the world. I'm sure it has gotten worse since the popularity of Twitter and Facebook because I have grown friends who seem to post about the most foolish crap.

To the stage performers who posted, I have a feeling that even before cell phones, those types of folks weren't paying attention.

 

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

the hole being connected all of the time is what annoys me. unless it is an emergency why do people have to be on their phones texting, calling, checking email. Drives me insane.
this isn't a problem just at Disney. I see people on the park bench on their phones doing their thing while their kids are off playing by themselves. Or at the kids baseball games. At dinner. People need to learn phone ettiquite.

I don't have an issue telling people to knock it off. I have told people to stop taking flash photos on rides where it is stated at the start to not to. POTC, HM. I am a big girl and can handle myself.

I say it is rude on rides no matter what kind and DEFINATELY at any kind of performance. Respect the performers.

 

[IZLove13]

People who text on dark rides are SO ANNOYING. I would also expect that it would be really bad on HM, where it would ruin the illusions. Flash pictures are also really bad.
I don't text on rides. I don't. I might text in line while I'm waiting and I want to send pictures to friends or just tell people how my trip is, but I can't even imagine why someone would text on rides. First of all, you paid this money, you waited forever in this line, and there's a lot of rides that only last a few minutes. For example, I saw someone text on Peter Pan on our last trip. I was just sitting there thinking, okay, you waited half an hour for this really short ride and you're just wasting time TEXTING? Wouldn't you rather ENJOY the ride while it lasts and not wait in line forever to text? I would just LOVE to know what goes through their minds when they do this.

 

[Disneyadore]

I do text and if others do it doesn't bother me. There are worse things than texting that I have to accept to from strangers in WDW.

If and if I use my phone its because my son or mother is trying to contact me. They call every day.
As we come a different time zone we usually have contact around 16.00 pm.
And sorry if others have a problem with me but my child and mother triumph over strangers.

 

[DisneyBum303]

I'm not interesting enough to constantly text. This is what my tweets would look like:

10:53 am Walking to Space Mountain.

10:55 am In line for Space Mountain.

10:56 am Still in line for Space Mountain.

10:57 am Still in line for Space Mountain.

10:58 am Still in line for Space Mountain.

 

[TexasErin]

It gets on my nerves LIKE YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE!!!! But so does flash photography on dark rides. Can I please, please ride POTC without some selfish dufus taking a picture? AARRGGHHH!

I did ask a lady on Ellen's Energy Adventure to stop texting. We had just gotten to the part where you are first loaded and then the lights went out. The woman, of course, had to sit down by me. I waited a couple of minutes thinking maybe she was just finishing up. But she kept going. I finally said, "Excuse me, but that is kind of distracting." Then she snapped at me, "I'm just turning it off." Uh, hello, no, you were sitting there still texting- I have eyes. So she turned it off, but then I was too ticked to be able to enjoy the ride, LOL. Really, I didn't want to say anything at all, but then I didn't want my ride to be ruined by me focusing on the distraction and my admitted self-righteousness over phone use on rides.

But, you know, it happens everywhere. When we saw Eclipse, which is rather dark, somebody kept texting on their phones which was distracting. And I kept thinking as expensive as movies are, why would you not want to watch the movie?