There was a nice explanation from a Disney staffer on Reddit last week that casts this in a non-ridiculous light:

https://np.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/3bjjiy/disney_confirms_selfie_stick_ban_at_theme_parks/csmvru7

Amy, your argument about dad not being in pictures with his family doesn't hold up. Any cast member will gladly snap a picture when you ask. Even the cast members that are photographers will take the picture, with your camera and they are every where. My middle daughter's fiancé proposed in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle, and a cast member took the best pictures (talk about cheap engagement photos!). So yeah, use the cast members, they're more than willing to be apart of your day.

The Reddit user said the rest of it much better than I could. My youngest daughter works at California Adventure, and I was going to post the same information. Thanks for sharing that link Jon. I'm glad Disney banned the selfie sticks. Can't tell you how many times just this summer someone has walked into me trying to get a scenery shot on Paradise Pier or in front of Tower of Terror. A freaking scenery shot - not a family photo! Bottom line, it's the Mouse's House, and he makes the rules. Don't like that selfie sticks are banned, by all means stop coming. No, really, please stop coming.

Let me just add, I don't want some idiot who thinks s/he's a special kind of snowflake and the rules don't apply to them, to take unnecessary risks with my life. Yeah, it really is a safety issue on the rides. So no matter how annoying I find selfie stick users to be, the bottom line is they don't get to put me, my grandchildren or anyone else in danger so they can get a picture.

"there are fines for doing dangerous things with selfie sticks, like sticking them into the mechanics of the roller coaster"

Maybe for an encore they could chuck one into a passenger jet's turbine.

Given that Disney will not go to court -- if you threaten to sue them, they will settle with you -- it makes sense that they ban selfie sticks. Even if they did go to court, as you pointed out, Amy, even an idiot who's entirely at fault can win a class action lawsuit.

The way you deal with this guy's behavior, Disneyland, is that you say there are fines for doing dangerous things with selfie sticks, like sticking them into the mechanics of the roller coaster. Of course, this is really about the litigiousnes

Of course it's about litigiousness.

If his actions caused someone else serious injury or even death, how much of the settlement would he have paid?

1%? less? and who would have picked up the rest? yes, that's right, DisneyCorp. Our park, our property, and our liability insurance: no selfie sticks.

Also: had he managed to seriously injure or kill himself, who would have been on the hook for it?

I don't like 'em.

I haven't stopped to figure out exactly why. I'll mull it over. People taking selfies without them just don't bug me the way selfie-stick users do.

And, cameras these days have timers on 'em. Outside of Disney-like environments, you can usually find a railing or a stump, set up the focus, set the timer, and run back to be in the pic. That's what we do, anyway. That, or ask some random person that looks safe and approachable to take a pic of us, if we're in more of a crowd.

The problem - others will put their own wants before the well being of others.

I walk through Wall Street in NYC on my way to work. Morning time isn't bad; but, man, the afternoons are tourist crazy. They will back right into you because they are so focused on faming their picture that they don't pay attention to their surroundings. I've nearly been hit by idiots swinging those selfie sticks around. Idiots!

While I have no desire to go to a Disney park I can certainly understand why they have decided to ban the selfie stick.

It would be better if they just banned stupid, selfish people; but, then their parks would be half empty.

(after some guy stuck his out while on a ride, which is prohibited in the park).

And which prompted snickering by some nearby women about the size of his selfie stick.

I'm with Disney on this. They do NOT want to be known as the park where X people died because of _____, so yeah, when they think things are dangerous they ban them, and they mean it. After all, say they say they'll fine you for tossing it in the ride machinery. Then someone does it, and people die. A fine isn't bringing those people back or eliminating the bad press.

No difference in this, than in 6 flags telling me I can't bring my own food in even though theirs sucks.

Disney employees gets weeks of customer service training before they ever hit the park. They're awesome, and will do just about anything a guest asks. Use them!

Last year while on vacation I was hit twice in one day by selfie sticks. Just people not paying attention. One knocked my sunglasses off. The other just hit my shoulder from behind and didn't do anything but scare me. I totally understand banning them.

Selfie sticks are here to stay, exactly for the reason AA notes--they allow the whole group to be in the picture, and also they allow the subject to have total control over the image. And no, self-timers are no alternative in the great majority of situations, because there is no good surface for the camera and accurate framing is not possible.

In Rome this spring--where there are literally thousands of guys selling them on streets and in piazzas--I noticed something else beneficial about the sticks. Because there is no claimed space between photographer and subject (as there is when Goofy or Dad takes the pic), there is no longer the problem of an outsider walking through the picture. Before the selfie stick, that caused a lot of crowd-flow headaches in crowded places around the city.

"there are fines for doing dangerous things with selfie sticks, like sticking them into the mechanics of the roller coaster"

Okay, when will you get this?

Mo4 had said the same thing I have, but it's not getting through:

Fines and/or other punishment after the fact does not and never will "undo" an injury or death.

Prevention is the single most effective strategy in safety engineering.

As an amateur photographer, there several ways to put yourself in a picture with any decent camera without endangering anyone. The simplest is to ask someone to take the photo. The second requires learning more about your camera. All decent and above cameras come with a self-timer; use it. Put the camera on a tripod, compose the picture, set the self-timer, and move into the picture. The third is to use a wireless shutter release, which are available for DSLR models, and a tripod.

The main problem with selfie sticks isn't the potential damage or harm they might cause, it's the utterly annoying nature of the self-absorbed, "everybody look at me" mentality that causes people to buy them in the first place. The number of times people use selfie sticks to get dad in the picture can be counted on one hand compared to the endless array of selfies taken by vain attention whores trolling for Facebook/Instagram "likes." As such, scorn and sneering should be the norm when encountering someone using a selfie stick.

I'm old fashioned: Disney's game, Disney's rules.Presumably over time they'll act rationally and balance out the various interests given the culture we have.

..."The reality is, humans are highly innovative and will find many creative ways to idiotically endanger their lives."...

That may be. But Darwin Award winning idiocy should be practiced deep in the woods, preferably alone, or with a small, select group of like-minded idiots. Doing so at a theme park packed with children? Not so much. Those who "idiotically endanger their lives"... do not have the right to idiotically endanger the lives of others. The freedom of my libertarianism ends where it impinges on the freedom and safety of the person standing next to me.

To those who would complain that it's "so unfair" that they can't sit down next to me at the bar, light up a Camel, lay it into the ash tray next to my dinner and drink like an incense stick, and then proceed to yak endlessly on their cellphone about their COPD, while sucking down oxygen from the tank tucked under my stool, I heartily raise a finger to them.

Hint: It's not the pinkie.

"Put the camera on a tripod, compose the picture, set the self-timer, and move into the picture. The third is to use a wireless shutter release, which are available for DSLR models, and a tripod."

In a crowded urban space, the method described above (as compared with using a selfie stick) would be expensive and cumbersome (purchasing, carrying, and setting up the tripod) time-consuming, would possibly inconvenience others by interrupting the pedestrian flow in the space, and the photographer would have less control over the image.

Except for those things, it would work just as well!

After mulling it, I came to the same conclusion as FrancisChalk - that sums up my vague dislike of them. Well said.

And.. Shoveltusker, when I'm in such a crowded place, I'll usually find some sane/safe looking person, and entrust them with my camera for long enough for them to compose a pic of me and whatever cool thing is behind me. It's a chance to find a little humanity in the zoo of a crowded urban space. If nobody looks safe, then, well, a regular arm's length selfie is good enough for the memory.