Poll: Lines at theme parks.

In My Humble Opinion
1

When is it acceptable to jump in front of others in an amusement park line? I was taught growing up that when you arrive at the line, you get in line at the end. My experience at various amusement parks this summer leads me to believe that a great many people do not follow this basic rule.

Here are some situations in which I’ve seen people get in line someplace other than the end of the queue. For each, please indicate whether A was, or would be, justified in going ahead of others to a place further up in the line.

  1. A arrives at the queue, but doesn’t want to wait, so he/she goes past those in line to the front.

  2. B is walking through the empty queue maze to get to the end of the line. A is impatient, and moves past B to get to the end of the main line first.

  3. The line queue is roped off for roughly 100 yards past the regular entrance in anticipation that lines will be excessively long later in the day. Groups B and C walk to the entrance of the rope queue and enter there. Group A ducks under the rope at the regular entrance, ahead of B and C.

4: A arrives at the line and goes past others to join B, who arrived earlier and is already in line. This one has many variations, so I’m going to list the most common:

4a: A (one person) joining a group of people.
4b: A (one person) joining one other person.
4c: A (a small group) joining another group.
4d: A (a small group) joining one person.

5a: A gets in line with a group, but leaves to do something (use the bathroom, get a snack), then attempts to rejoin the line at the same point.

5b: A gets in line alone, then leaves, asking B to save his spot, then attempts to rejoin the line at the same spot later.

In California, at least, the legal answer is simple. Line-jumping is illegal, and you may not hold a place in line for someone else. Knott’s Berry Farm has signs posted all over the place to this effect.

My opinion is this: You get in line at the end of the queue. You do not go past others to join your group. If your group wants to ride together, everyone should get in line at the same time. If part of the group is already in line, you either ride separately, or the front group moves back to join the back group, not the other way around. If you get out of line, you get back in line at the end.

I don’t confront those who are attempting to line jump, nor would I try to block them from the line. That isn’t my place, and is likely to eventually lead to a physical confrontation. Waiting a minute or so extra in line isn’t worth getting into a fight over. I will, however, report them to ride operators, who routinely ignore me and do nothing.

Six Flags Magic Mountain (and Six Flags parks in general) is by far the worst for line-jumping and other rude behaviors. Universal Orlando, the Disney parks, and both Busch Gardens parks seem to have the most polite patrons. The Paramount and Cedar Fair parks seem to fall somewhere in the middle.

My answers to my poll would be that in none of the above situations is it acceptable to get in line in front of others.

2

Never acceptable. If you get out of the line, tough. If you can’t wait like everybody else, also tough.

3

4a, 4b, 4c, and 5b are acceptable in my opinion.

4

I have been queuing for over 30 years and never experienced queue jumpers other than people joing a group, which is perfectly acceptible if they are queuing for a group activity.

eg people wouldnt join friends in a queue if they were going on a ride, but would for movie tickets or a seat at the theatre. Thats seems to be the norm.

5

A single person joining another person or group in line wouldn’t upset me.

Nor would it bother me if a person ducked out of line to take a small child to the bathroom and then wanted to rejoin the rest of their group.

6

Only one reason I find acceptable. A was in line with a group, and somehow got separated from the rest of the group- maybe he was distracted and didn’t move forward with the group, maybe he was buying food or a beverage from an in-line vendor. Something like that. Not leaving the line and coming back, not entering from the back and joining your friends who are already in line. Of course, I won’t know if it’s this situation ( which I don’t really consider line jumping) or 4a unless I see the person come in from the end and pass everyone.

7

Looks like I’m the odd one out here, but I agree with the ones I left listed above, as long as no rudeness is involved.

8

I’m mostly with Burnt Sugar except in the ducking under the ropes bit. But I especially excuse the ones where someone leaves, then rejoins their group. I see no reason why anyone should be expected to go to the end of the line just because they had to step away if the rest of their group is still in line. Hell, I’ve had solo-people in line ahead of me who had step away, and let them back in front of me.

9

I especially don’t see a problem with letting somebody out and back to deal with the needs of small children - if there’s a group and one child needs to potty, I mean, these lines can be long. I have no problem with them leaving and coming back as long as their group members save their place (I might think twice if it’s just the one adult and child leaving, but if they asked me I’d probably save their place anyway but not think I had a moral imperative.)

10

Line jumping drives me nuts, but I’m a reasonable person and can make some exceptions like a person joining a group or a potty break, etc. I am, however, rude enough to call people on it when they line jump.

I ususally say “You know, you can be put out of the park for line jumping.”
Usually the line jumper(s) melt away.

Recently, I had a group of kids try to blend in with a similar looking group of kids in lineas if they were joining the group. They asked what time it was and just melted right in. I asked the group who was already in line “Hey, are these people with you?” They said “no” and added group quietly dispersed.

Also recently, I saw a lady with two kids in line on my right send one kid to the car that was in line for my kid and myself. Since it was a two seater ride, we had to sit out. I called her on it by saying “You know, you can be put out of the park for line jumping!”

The attendant let her take the ride (which I wasn’t completely happy about) and we went the next time. The reason this kind of line jumping makes me angry is that we are usually one adult and three kids in two different lines and want to time our ride so we can all go together. Anyway, I wonder if she tried it again that day.

Moslty we avoid going to the parks on really busy days.

Has anyone been to a park with “passes” or timed tickets? I don’t know how I feel about those as our park doesn’t offer them.

11

I was wondering about those too - the “line-beating” passes or fast-tracks or whatever you want to call them. It seems that eventually, enough people would buy them that you’ve got a line there as well?

12

We tried this out at Dismal World in Orlando a coupla years ago. They inhibit the secondary lines (of FastPassers) by giving you a narrow time window in which to use it.

Works like this: Pullin + kids want to ride Space Mountain (w/o standing in line).
1.

13

Crap. My return key was tied to SubmitReply somehow.

One more time:
Works like this: Pullin + kids want to ride Space Mountain (w/o standing in line).

  1. Approach FastPass kiosk near ride
  2. Swipe parkpass
  3. Retrieve my fastpass ticket (which has a 1/2 hour time window printed on it,
    usually hours in the future)
  4. Repeat with kids passes (the time window will remain very close for all of us)
  5. Present selves at the ride during the indicated time.

When we did it this way there was never more than a minute or two wait (ie. till the next ride-car or whatever).

14

I’ve only used the FastPass feature at Disney-Orlando, but I love it. Like pullin said, when you have a FastPass, you only have to wait a few minutes if you return during your allotted time. Sometimes we’ve had to wait in the regular line because the FastPass was only available late enough in the day that we didn’t want to return to that part of the park but on they whole, they’re very effective. They’re not available on every ride but usually the most popular ones.

I made the mistake of going to Universal Studios-Orlando one year over the New Year’s weekend. Lines for the most popular rides were upwards of 2 1/2 hours long. If you stayed in line, you would only be able to ride approx. 3 rides and spend 7 hours just standing. Not a very good value for $50. That’s the atmosphere that breeds the rude line-jumpers.

I also think that the parks are missing a marketing opportunity by not providing pay-services to to the people in queue. Soft drinks, ice cream, and novelties, are an idea. How about jugglers and clowns to entertain the impatient children. I think there would be less cranky kids and parents at the end of the day.

15

I hate it. Really hate it. I’m not normally a confrontation kinda girl but if someone jumped the queue in front of me (especially if the queue was quite long) then evil looks and announcing my disapproval in a voice loud enough for them to hear to anyone else who saw it would be occuring.

I might be slightly kinder to parents with young kids, if the child was ill or needing the toilet… then fair enough assuming they ask politely would I mind… If it was just a kid being just plain naughty then I’d still have no sympathy I’m afraid.

16

The Fast Pass system at the Disney parks is indeed wonderful, especially now that you can get more than one Fast Pass at a time. It greatly increases the number of rides you can get in, especially during the busiest times, such as during Christmas break (Mrs. Six and I almost always go to Universal Orlando or Disneyland for winter break).

Universal Orlando has an even better system, called Universal Express. Like with Disney, you get a separate ride line that is usually only a few minutes compared to an hour or two at the most popular attractions. There are no reservations or return times; you just show up at the ride and get on. You have to buy it extra if you’re staying off site, and it’s only good once for each attraction, but for a single day that’s more than enough. If you’re in one of the Universal hotels, your room key acts as an Express pass (if you’re going for more than one day, this is reason enough to stay on site), and you can ride any ride you like as many times as you like. You can easily hit every attraction at both parks in a single day. When Mrs. Six and I go, we stay for four days, going to Islands of Adventure one day, Universal Studios the next, park hopping the third, and going to Busch Gardens the fourth.

Six Flags Magic Mountan allows you to buy Fast Lane passes. You get four passes for $15. They aren’t good for X and Deja Vu, which can develop very long wait times early in the day. The only ride they’re really helpful on is Goliath, which has a pretty fast turnover anyway.

The worst ride lines in the country are X at SFMM and Top Thrill Dragster (a 420 foot tall rocket coaster) at Cedar Point. Both rides have long lines, low capacity, and break down frequently. By noon on a Saturday, X can have a six-hour ride line.

17

Fastpass & similar systems are the greatest theme park invention ever!

18

Furry Mongoose you only would excuse a kid that has to go to the toilet? As “The Great Carsoni” would have said “May you get caught in a line with a diarrheic camel!”.

19

All of 4 and 5a seem reasonable to me.
What I usually say if people skip the queue is:

“Ho, what the f*ck is this? We’re in Britain, and in Britain we queue”

That usually does the trick.

20

4a and 4b are okay with me. 4c usually is, unless the group joining the line is much larger than the group already in line (not sure why, it really makes no sense that I have that distinction). 4d is rarely okay with me.

5a and 5b are okay if the reason is something they couldn’t have expected before getting in line (e.g. an adult should know to hit the potty before getting in line, but a small kid not so much). That said, I never know the reason someone has left a line and come back so I assume it’s a legitimate reason.