Let's talk about one of the more disrespectful, selfish things that people can do when they visit Walt Disney World, or any other theme park for that matter.
Line jumping.
We're not talking about the sanctioned line jumping of skip passes, such as Lightning Lane. Sure, some fans might see upcharge front-of-line passes as disrespectful to other guests, too, but that's another topic for another day. Today, let's focus on old-school, "push your way to the front" line jumping.
Visitors try to jump the queues at every theme and amusement park, but I am going to single out the Disney parks today for the simple reason that those are the parks where I see line jumping the most. Other parks either seem to have more unyielding guests who find ways to, uh, dissuade potential jumpers... or don't have queues long enough to bother jumping. (I will leave to the audience to decide which parks fit which categories.)
Some line jumping deserves a pass. Many of us who have raised kids know that little ones can pick the most inopportune times to announce, with great urgency, "I gotta go." If one parent take the child out to the toilet and wants to rejoin the rest of the family later, I don't want to be the one to get in their way.
Unfortunately, the selfish among us know that and take advantage. Of course, they rarely have a small child with them, but the story's the same - "I'm just catching up with my family." If there's just one person trying this, that's plausible. But when it's a group of multiple teens or young adults, sorry, but everyone knows you are trying to cheat the line here. If part of your group went ahead of you, they can step aside and let the rest of us pass until you catch up.
So what do you do in this situation? In a perfect world, parks would employ enough experienced and empowered queue monitors to eject any wanna-be line skippers without other guests having to get involved. Since that rarely, happens, other fans basically have two choices: ignore it, or get in their way.
Having grown up with both a sense of outrage for rule breaking and a desire to avoid social interactions at all costs, this one's a doozy for me. That's why I was so attracted to the idea of virtual queuing. As Syndrome might say, "if everyone jumps the line, then no one can." But Disney's implementation of virtual queues instead just puts dedicated fans at risk of not being able to experience the ride they want most. So, the sooner that Disney-style VQs go away, the better, as far as I am concerned.
Which brings us back to the question at hand. What to do about line jumpers? When answering, I would ask that you pick your initial, gut reaction to someone trying to push past you in line.
Creative solutions welcomed in the comments, of course. And please tell us which parks, Disney or not, are doing a good job of policing their queues.
* * *
To keep up to date with more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
And to help support Theme Park Insider while saving money on discounted theme park tickets, please follow the ticket icon links our Theme Park visitors guides.
It’s worth reporting to an employee. I’ve seen security at HHN kick someone out for doing a Chat & Cut, if anyone’s familiar with Curb Your Enthusiasm
There's really no fixing this. Universal has come closest at HHN by distributing numbered tickets in queues and collecting them at the end, but that's obviously not feasible for every ride every day.
yeah, I'm not getting into a fight (verbal or otherwise) at a theme park because I'm gonna have to wait an extra 45 seconds in line. I think it's tacky, but I'm not interested in a confrontation over something like this.
I've seen it happen so many times, often just best to ignore them, figure karma hits them later.
Does this only happen at Disney ?
I’ve never seen this at Disney, but plenty of times at Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks. The funnest one I’ve seen is a kid at SD Legoland, cutting everybody over and over at the Driving School ride. The kid would get off, and then just say “Excuse me” passing everybody up in the queue and right at the front and get on again and repeat the process. By the time I got to the front, I pointed out the kid to a staff member what he was doing, and they just didn’t seems to care. So when my son got off the ride, I told him what to do and cut everybody and sure enough he was caught. I had to go and get him and was warned by that same staff that he was line cutting. I apologized, but sure enough that same kid was right next to him and ask the staff, “Where are his parents?”. Finally, other parents jumped in saying the same thing I reported to that staff member, which finally put a stop to that nonsense.
Spring breakers and cheerleaders are the main culprits. See it all the time, March thru April.
It’s amazing to me how many people simply let this happen just to avoid conflict. If we all banded together and put an end to this by shaming the person and calling them out, it would stop. But people don’t want the stress or pressure of that. So it falls on the cast members. I for one just hate it.
"Does this only happen at Disney?" - It would probably explain the weekly brawls that are posted on YouTube.
Now ask people their opinion on the “pin traders” benches…
@NB - Universal doesn't have a "line jumping" problem because there are not actual lines going into their attractions. Unless state-of-the-art productions like 'Fast & Furious Supercharged', Jimmy Fallon's "Yelling at His Staff" show or the (kind of) new (yawn) Minion Mediocrity have suddenly doubled their wait times to ten minutes.
@TH lmao come on man
I've done all three, depending upon my mood. It is truly a drag on your day no matter what, because a confrontation leaves as bad of a taste in one's mouth as stewing in silence when it's really blatant. I tried to avoid my son learning of Gadget's Go Coaster because of the long waits, and he was already going upside down so it was already pointless. We had the same kids "excuse me" their way through the line twice, so I notified the CM. They clearly asked the line for confirmation, because everyone suddenly raided their hand. On the other hand, a woman at Knotts actually reported ME to security because I wouldn't let her cut.
TH, you're right. Universal really needs to step up their attractions to match the uber-popularity of Carousel of Progress, The Seas With Nemo & Friends, MuppetVision 3D, or Triceratop Spin.
@ J.Trex - I couldn't agree more!
The carnivores in Animal Kingdom need something to eat. Maybe there's a common solution between that and line jumpers.
What is more annoying is a family of 10 piggy-backing on a member of the family in an electric scooter who goes via the disabled queue, gets out unsupported on a roller coaster and the other 9 go with them cutting out 2 hours.
@ProfPlum - I'd agree that it's annoying, but that annoyance should be directed towards the parks and staff, because if they created/administered rules correctly, that wouldn't happen.
I really despise people that think their time is more valuable than others and seem to think rules don't apply to them. However, the last thing I'm going to do in a theme park is to escalate a situation even if backed by other guests who are similarly offended. I tend to take the passive-aggressive approach by making a clearly audible comment noting the rule-breaker's clear obliviousness to the situation. I might also speak up to a ride op or queue staff if the line cutters are still within range of being disciplined.
As far as where this behavior occurs, I've seen it everywhere with lines of all lengths. It doesn't matter if it's Disney, Universal, Sea World, Legoland, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, or an independent operator, people seemingly have the nerve and feel they can circumvent societal rules to benefit themselves anywhere and everywhere.
How are you supposed to tell a cast member about the problem if there aren't any around? Do you follow the line cutters all the way to the front of the ride where the ride attendants are? Or do you leave the line, find a cast member who cares enough to follow you, and then walk through the line looking for the offenders? Or do you wait until you make it to the front of the line to tell the attendants after the offenders are long gone? There isn't a good process for dealing with this.
You would think that technology could help in terms of scanning mobile devices or magic bands (or using cameras with facial recognition) of those entering the queue and identifying those who are moving beyond their ordered position using strategically placed checkpoints.
As for taking kids to the restroom, that is a legitimate problem. I wish there was some type of hall pass or escort back to your place in line. I'm the type that refuses to leave and find my way back to my spot even under those circumstances, but I'm sympathetic to those that are.
Brofessor, if I know the line is long, I usually carry an empty Gatorade bottle or something similar and just let the child pee into the empty bottle and toss it into the garbage. Just have the family crowd around the child in a corner for some privacy. Saved me many times from losing my spot and wasting hours.
I'm too afraid of retaliation to call someone out for this. Also, some parks, most notably Six Flags, appear to be indifferent to it. The one park I visited which does a good job of enforcing rules about line jumping is Canada's Wonderland. On one visit a man got out of the queue to use the "washroom" and attempted to get back in the queue with his friends. Park security wasn't having it and sent him to the back of the queue.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
I’ve only gotten the one where 1 person(Either themselves or with a child) tries to catch up to a family ahead. I have yet to get the ones with the group that tries to cut.