So here's the secret to everyone fully enjoying a day in a theme park — don't be that jerk who ruins someone else's visit.
One of the many ways that people kill the buzz for everyone around them in a theme park is by abusing single riders lines. Single rider lines can be great for theme park fans. But providing a separate line for people visiting alone, they allow park employees who are loading attractions to fully fill ride vehicles when there's a empty seat in some row — without having to stop the flow of the regular line to find that odd, single rider.
This way, the entire line moves more quickly, as the attraction puts through more people per hour by sending all its ride vehicles at full capacity without slowing down the line. And in return, people who are visiting alone often get on the ride more quickly.
But it's this return benefit that opens the door for abuse. Many visitors have figured out that single rider lines act as a "bonus Fastpass" — an extra opportunity to skip the long stand-by waits for popular attractions. So entire groups go through the single rider queues, to get that time-saving benefit.
If those groups are cool and go ahead and split at load to ride one at a time, then it's no harm, no foul. But it's the groups that insist on riding together, even after going through the single rider line, that deserve the scorn of all theme park visitors and employees.
As a former Disneyland cast member wrote on Reddit, "The only time single riders bugged me was when... a group of people waiting in [single rider] only to refuse to get on the ride unless they were going on with their party. I had mothers swear that little Timmy met all of the requirements to be a SR but they had to go on together because insert bs reason here."
Another visitor noted, "My friends and I usually do single rider for Radiator Springs, and every time there's usually a single parent with their kid(s) in the single line as well, who always insist to the CM that they have to sit with their kids. That is definitely annoying and disrespectful. It's single riders, not single moms.
"I never usually mind being split up from friends, since it's not like we'll be talking to each other once it starts (unless we want to sit together to get a photo from the ride). Honestly, as long as you don't smell, I'll sit next to anyone on a ride."
So here is our plea: Don't be that dolt who cheats the single rider line. If someone in your group wants to pull this trick, speak up. The single rider line is for single riders. You can hang together as a group in the queue all you want, but when it comes time to ride, you ride alone.
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USH has an entirely different set-up. The Single Rider lines are advertised, but there is prominent signage at the entrance explaining the terms of the line. If you get to the front and don't want to split up, employees will have you stand to the side while they continue to pull from the line until you decide to split up or leave. I once saw a group get so irate that security had to come and remove them to the cheering of everyone else in the line.
As for restricting them to solo visitors only, I may *wish* that were the case, but there's no legitimate argument for it! :)
We're all aware that you could lie/cheat/steal our way into better positioning at the parks. We're not idiots too stupid to come up with an idea on how to cut lines. The vast majority of people are just respectful to the thousands of other people at the park to wait our turn.
Point of message: You're not clever. You're jerks.
Who in their right mind..leaves a place like New York City, to go on vacation that costs thousands of dollars..
To get crammed into a theme park.
Would you go to a dance that was overcrowded?
To a movie theater full of kids shouting, and caring on..
or even a cruise that had poor accommodations.
In this new world order the quality has dropped out for profit..
This is a ridiculous suggestion. If the queue is designed to quarantine single riders, they should be used to keep the lines moving and increase capacities of attractions. Just because the flow of the line doesn't allow a single rider near the front to use an empty seat on the next train, doesn't mean there's not a single rider somewhere in the line that would have a more pleasant park experience if they could get on a little faster. An empty seat is a wasted opportunity, and parks should do everything within reason to ensure attractions run at peak capacity whenever possible. The single rider line also makes it easier for groupers who can have flexibility in loading the trains efficiently. If the standby line is moving slowly, and people are taking their time letting CMs know how many are in their party, single riders are right there typically ready to go at the point of a finger. Many park rides load in 30 seconds or less, so it's critical to ensure peak capacity that guests are moving efficiently into the per-load and load areas.
I use single rider lines whenever possible. It really irks me when there's not a single rider line, and I see multiple cycles run with empty seats while I'm standing in the line too far back to notify the loader that a single rider is available. By having separate lines, the single riders are able to identify themselves sooner and put them in a position where they can be seen and quickly tapped by the loader to fill empty seats.
I really like the way Universal manages their single rider lines. If the single rider line gets too long, they close it until it dies down. They'll also close a single rider line if they feel it's being abused on a given day. People who abuse single rider lines are taking advantage of the system, but I feel the parks go out of their way and continue to encourage the behavior by allowing groups in the single rider line to ride together. It should be very simple - If you're in the single rider line, and unwilling to take the next available seat, you should be directed to the back of the standby line, no exceptions. It's the "nice" cast members that give in to these abusers that propagates the activity. If you get lucky and get directed to the same ride vehicle as the person you're standing in the single rider with, great, but don't complain when you end up next to a stranger. It goes back to park etiquette and enforcement of park rules - to me using the single rider line with a group that insists on riding together is equivalent to line jumping, and should be treated as such.
I don't even need to hear any stories (though I have heard quite a few) to know who's doing it; it's the selfish dirtbags who think they're all slick and that rules don't apply to them or the airheaded, ignorant mothers who try to pamper and spoil their kids as much as humanly possible yet are still somehow surprised and insulted when said kids get reprimanded by others.
I think that's actually a very good suggestion. It cuts down on the abuse by forcing even single riders to wait through some portion of the standby line and still places them at the ready to fill empty seats. There are some rides where the single rider is setup this way (Apollo's Chariot at BGW and Green Lantern at SFGAdv), though in both of those examples, I think the single rider line could be positioned slightly sooner in the standby line. However, eliminating single rider lines altogether I think is foolish, particularly if you already designed the queue to incorporate them. It puts extra pressure on the loaders to organize guests into the pre-load filling as many seats as possible. Calling down the line for different party sizes (like they do on Splash Mountain and BTMRR) causes enough confusion, particularly if the FastPass line also merges at the load platform. If you compare the the ease of load between BTMRR and Everest, you can see how efficient the process is with guests already arranged by single riders and other sized parties.
You suggestion to move the single rider entrance down the standby line is a good one, but I think the easiest way to combat abuse is for CMs to enforce the rules and send parties who insist on riding together out of the single rider line to make their way to the back of the standby line.
BTW, requests for certain seats out of the standby line are typically honored by CMs, but require the guest to wait at least one full load cycle. Most of the queues have a space for guests to stand while they're waiting to be queued in their desired seat.
"Being separated isn't that big of a deal."
On some rides it's actually cooler to be in different vehicles than your travel companion like Men in Black and Radiator Springs Racers, while others like Mission: Space and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, you can't see or touch the person next to you during the ride anyway.
It sounds a little complicated, and could I suppose be open to abuse. But it actually worked incredibly efficiently, and seemed to encourage honourable behaviour in guests, getting them working together rather than against each other. It also allowed station staff to focus on getting the trains checked and out, rather than organising people into rows. I wish more parks would adopt this system if they don't want to go the full single-rider route.
Same thing was happening on Silver Bullet: four seats in every row, and rarely more than two people in them. So freaking inefficient! I finally just called out to the ride operator and asked if they would take a single rider. He made me come all the way around through a side gate, but I got on the ride right away in a seat that was mere seconds away from going out empty.
Doing away with single rider lines because of a few abusers would, in my opinion, be the worst possible solution to this problem.
What is not mentioned here is that single rider lines do every park guest a service. There are going to be single riders at theme parks whether single rider lines existed or not. Those singles are going to want to ride just like everyone else. If they're standing in line with everyone else, they're going to get queued in the order they reach the front of the line, meaning they could end up on a ride vehicle that will then have an empty seat, and probably could have ridden on a cycle 3 or 4 times before when there was an empty seat based on the randomness of group sizes waiting in line. By individually queuing single riders, parks not only make wait times less for the singles, they reduce waits for everyone else, because that single rider is taking an empty seat, and not creating another empty seat by their place in line around lots of even-numbered groups.
Also, single rider lines can be terribly unpredictable since their movement is left to chance. If lots of even numbered groups go through on an even seated ride vehicle, the single rider line won't move. If the grouper is very good at their job, they'll even group odd numbered groups together as they pre-load instead of automatically tapping a single rider every time. When TSMM at DCA had a single rider line, CMs would never select a single rider to fill an empty seat on a row with a child. Single rider lines are not always faster, and I can attest that when we were at USF, it took me 45 minutes to ride Escape from Gringotts through the single rider line when the standby wait was posted at 30.
And to those who want to get rid of single rider lines just imagine all those people are now in the normal line.
We start with the most annoying, most aggravating, most senseless single rider queue that exists and then go up to the best experience. Yeah I had a little bit of time on my hands. You obviously have some if you’re reading this.
1.) Hannah Montana’s Rock’in Roller Coaster (Disney Hollywood Studios)
Not only does DHS have very few rides at the current moment, but on any given day the wait time for this coaster exceeds 60 minutes. Is it worth a 60 minute wait? Absolutely not. Hey, you’re by yourself, why not try the single rider line? Sure, that sounds good. Yet you end up standing in a long line of families and couples that thought they were beating the system by going single rider. When you finally reach the loading area of the ride you’ll see that a roller coaster that only sits two people per a row is not very effective for the single rider scene. You’ll be amazed with how many groups of people come to visit the park in even numbers. Then you will be baffled as the couple or the family standing in front you realizes that their party is going to be split up and they thought they had entered the regular ride line entrance. You will feel cheated when the cast member sets them all aside to sit together. On top of that they get a requested front row seat.
I’m looking forward to riding this one again in the future once the economy fails or Star Wars is finally opened, whichever happens first. The lines will be shorter then.
2.) Hollywood Rip Ride and Rocket (Universal Studios Florida)
This coaster is still a definite must ride for me. I try to ride it early in the day when the crowds and wait times are much lower. I can only deal with hearing “chill man! Walk slowly to the ride vehicle.” And “be sure to put your smokes in the locker” for so long until I burst out screaming. Later in the day the single rider line is pretty useless though. This coaster has the same issue as Hannah Montana, there are only two seats per row. You fall under the same conundrum where somehow, someway every tourist in Orlando has come in pairs. So you wait, and wait, and wonder if maybe the regular line would have been more feasible to stand in because it is constantly moving. The only problem is if you’re standing as a single rider in the main line, you are going to be paired with a single rider in the single rider line, therefore you’re allowing them to be able to ride the ride quicker because you stood in the regular line. Did I mention you have to put all your earthly belongings including your smokes in the locker before entering the queue?
3.) Test Track (Epcot)
Test Track has one thing going for it. It has a wait time clock for the single rider line. Most of the time the wait is ridiculous. Why? Because a family of 15 thought they were beating the system by getting into it. Due to the lack of available rides at Epcot, you almost always have to fastpass this one. One good thing about it being in Epcot though, there’s alcohol. That helps in dealing with the screaming kids while standing in line for TT.
4.) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Universal Islands of Adventure)
For the most part, this one is okay. There are two issues I have experienced with it. The first is witnessing a group going through the single rider line, then ducking into the regular line before the Sorting Hat. Trust me it happens. I have sadly seen it more times than I like to count. The second thing is that usually the single riders get placed on the far right seat of the ride. This is actually kind of cool because some of the effects are timed to that position. The bad thing for me is that for reasons I can’t explain I always get really dizzy when sitting in that position. I can sit in the other three and feel fine (maybe a tad dizzy after the ride, but nothing bad). I have had experiences sitting on the far right where I didn’t think I was going to survive the journey back to the castle. I felt like I was going to be puking in the corner of the gift shop on my way out. That would make for a magical day for everyone.
5.) Transformers (Universal Studios Florida)
It depends on the time of day, but this is the ride that will attract large families and couples to journey into the single rider line. There’s usually a cast member standing in front of the single rider entrance. They will explain the concept of single rider to them, but yet they get in the line and they complain when their party is going to be split up at the loading bay. I have also seen people numerous times being “rewarded” by being able to sit next to each other even though they went through the single rider line. To me this just reinforces a bad behavior that will continue to grow.
6.) Escape from Gringotts (Universal Studios Florida)
This is another single rider queue that will back up to excess with families trying to beat the system if the wait time is long for the regular line. What is really bad about it is that it consists mainly of a claustrophobic brown hallway. That you seem to stand in forever. And ever. And ever. Then you approach a staircase that appears to go up forever and ever.
7.) Expedition Everest (Disney’s Animal Kingdom)
This one is slightly hidden and most people don’t understand why the people are waiting in a line. This line isn’t too bad. It only has two main issues. It is kind of short, there’s not a lot of room for a single rider line. The second issue is that sometimes you will find yourself standing in the blazing sun for what feels like an eternity. Other than those two problems, it’s not too bad. The train does have two seats per row which would seem like a problem, but the trains are longer than HMRRC and HRRR which helps.
8.) Spiderman (Universal Islands of Adventure)
My only beef with Spiderman is that it’s not always open. I don’t know what criteria are used to determine when it should be open and when it’s not. Yeah, the cast members will put the couples and families in the same rows sometimes, but by this point I just deal with it.
9.) The Revenge of the Mummy (Universal Studios Florida)
My main complaint for this one is that you end up walking so quickly from outside to indoors that your eyes don’t have time to adjust to the darkness. I have seen a couple of people get lost in this one because of this. Fortunately I have been through it enough times that I know the way, even up the stairs.
10.) Incredible Hulk (Universal Islands of Adventure)
We have now reached the point in the list that I don’t have any issues with the single rider line. Hulk good. Hopefully Hulk will stay good.
11.) Men in Black Alien Attack (Universal Studios Florida)
The best thing is you skip all the preshow nonsense. I have to admit it is okay to see every once and a while. The hallway that leads to the actual queue is really odd with the way the airflow rushes through there. On a really hot day it can be refreshing. This is quite possibly the best single rider queue. You hop on with a random group of people. If you know the game well you’ll end up being this mysterious person that gets the highest score in your car. Hopefully the people playing with you can shoot decently so that you have a chance to get the good ending (which is not often). After it’s over, you walk through the baby swap to do it all over again. It’s like your own person video game.
So that was my review of single rider lines for Orlando. I probably missed a few, but if I did it’s because they’re not any good. Or I really did forget one or two. In that case I can write a longer manifesto next time.
To colandoj - The rebranding for Hannah Montana will happen once all the other updates are in place for DHS (wink, wink).
If the riders insist they ride together, then by all means they can return to the beginning of the line and queue together.
Unless they enforce the basic rule, there will always be people who abuse it.
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