The Happiest Place on Earth it may be, but even Disneyland's atmosphere could be just a little bit happier if people followed a few rules of common courtesy. Before I go off sounding all Disneyland elitist, I will say that I would never claim to be an expert on manners. I am no Mary Poppins; I have no idea what the proper way to serve tea is, I couldn't hop into a chalk painting in a ladylike fashion if my life depended on it, and I have no tape measure that labels me "practically perfect in every way." However, even I, "not even close to perfect in any way," can spot a lack of common courtesy when I see it.

Because Disneyland is such a popular tourist attraction (and so much more, of course!) thousands upon thousands of people flock to the little city within a city every day. This makes for a huge mass of people pushing and shoving to get the most out of their vacation, which in turn seems to make people do things they just wouldn't do in normal situations. Take for instance, the stroller-mobile. Since Disneyland is a place "where parents and children can have fun-together," there is an endless supply of cute little ones looking around in wide-eyed wonder, many of them too young to walk. This makes strollers an undeniable must-have for parents, which leads, inevitably, to the sore and red ankles of many an innocent passerby. So many times parents are so intent on getting to the next attraction, the next ride, that they completely forget about others around them, and even the child riding in the stroller gets pushed to the wayside. I may not have a Mary Poppins solution to this problem, but a little common courtesy would go a long way to solving both this and many of my other park pet-peeves.

Before you go and get the idea that I'm some sort of Daisy Downer who can only see the bad in the wonderful Disney parks, I'd just like to say that I am a Disney fanatic; if anything, I'd like to see these park faux-pas corrected so other people can learn to love Disneyland just as much as I do.

This leads to my first big park "faux-pas," as those most frequently guilty of it are the Disneyland fanatics, the obsessive fans that take a sick day to visit the park because it's "a low level crowd day." It is because we, as Disney obsessives, have gone to the park so many times, that we often don't realize a lot of people are there on their first visit. This, unfortunately, often leads to what I like to call "Speaker Envy."

There are a large number of people (myself included) who know every attraction spiel by heart, from the "Remain Seated Please" of the Matterhorn Bobsleds, to the "Hang on to your hats and glasses!" of Thunder Mountain Railroad. This is where "Speaker Envy" comes in. As Disneyland old-timers, people find it very hard not to repeat the spiels right along with the recorded voice. This seems to happen most often in the Haunted Mansion elevator scene. You know, the "Is this haunted room actually stretching or is it your imagination?" track. Speaking along with this famous dialogue is a park faux-pas for many reasons, ranging from "it's really rather annoying" to "I can't hear what the real speaker is saying!" My solution? Whispering the spiel to myself. Sure, I might look like a crazy person, but isn't that better than being "that annoying girl" who ruined the show for a first-time visitor?

And last, but certainly not least, is a blunder made by first time visitors and old-timers alike, and seems to be the hardest park gaffe for people to resist. I think we can all relate to floating down the happy neighborhood of Brer Rabbit, or the international waters of It's a Small World, and suddenly being blinded by a bright light, only to find out that it's not part of the attraction, but our log (or boat) neighbor, taking a picture. No matter how many times we guests are told "No flash photography please!" it seems to be an irresistible urge to us as humans to capture the magic of each ride, no matter how much we are inconveniencing those around us.

You might be saying, "Well DUH!" right about now, but it's amazing how many times I've been riding Pirates and missed everything from "Dead Men Tell No Tales" to the last lift, because someone in my boat decided (despite the repeated request over the loudspeaker to refrain from taking flash pictures) that they would capture every moment of the ride on film. As a scrapbooker I know it's hard to resist the urge to capture each moment of a memorable vacation, but I believe the answer to this faux-pas lies in another modern technology, and that is the video camera. Not only do video cameras capture the whole trip without the annoyance of a flash, but when you get home you often find funny surprises caught on tape, like the couple behind you in the Indiana Jones queue waving to the camera while you go on listing your top five favorite rides.

In the end, it might seem like I have had one too many "spoonfuls of sugar," and have gone on a Dear Abby power trip, but I think it's safe to say that if everyone at Disneyland took the time to think about the other people on the boat, teacup, bobsled, jeep, or rocket around them, the Happiest Place on Earth would continue to live up to its name. Not only will everyone enjoy the park much more, but we'll make Mary Poppins proud knowing that Disneyland is no longer practically perfect in every way, but is instead supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

If you have any park pet peeves (like wannabe columnists who write "rules" for people to follow in theme parks ;) I'd love to hear them. After all, what you find grating and poor show, may be something I am totally oblivious to, so let the emails fly!