A Word About Line Jumpers

[MouseEarsJenny]

Seems to me if a real row resulted that brought the issue to a CM attention, then the "cuttee" would be the victor over the "cutter".

Slightly OT, but that's not always the case. We queued up for a U2 concert at 4AM and waited in line all day long - we were 54 and 55 in line (someone was using the old sharpie on the hand system). At 6:30 PM, a couple strolled up from the parking lot and tried to get in front of us. My husband told them off (not loudly or profanely, just "Don't think you have the right to get in front of the 6000 people behind us who've been waiting since early morning" kind of thing) and then alerted security. Security just said that if we didn't quit arguing, we'd all be sent to the end of the line. Fortunately, another security guard sent them back a few minutes later, but they cut in again about a hundred people back.

We even had the markers on our hands and the word of the people we'd gotten to know in the previous 14 hours - when you draw the attention of a CM at Disney, it'd just be your word against the cutter's word, right?

 

[fan1080]

I get tired of the parent swap off style of line cutting. This is so common at Dumbo...parent 1 lines up with child while parent 2 waits back in line so the child ends up riding twice. Things like that are why the line is crazy long. A mom proclaimed to me so proudly in line at Dumbo how they were doing this (her husband was on the ride at the time with their kid, she was right in front of me waiting for round 2). I just said...darn wish my kid could ride twice but we're here alone.

Dumbo, or any other 2 seater ride that is more child oriented is a different beast.

It's acceptable because Disney will not fill that empty seat next to the lone adult with a kid they do not know. Therefore, they allow parents to do the "parent swap" at those types of rides. The seat will go empty otherwise so they might as well allow the kids to right with each parent.

I think it's a great idea myself. It has absolutley no affect on the wait times for these rides.

 

[WriteDisney]

Ahhh.. I like the line jumping threads.. Always interesting..

I have to say that as a general rule I would be against any line jumping whatsoever, if you get out of line, you should have to go to the end and start over. If you were in line with your party and they are ahead of you, they should move back to be with you. It really is only fair to everyone else.

BUT... if I was really in WDW right now on vacation, I think it really would take an extreme scenario to get me upset. I would just let people past me, no problem at all.

If it was a parent and child wanting to move forward, I wouldn't think twice and just let them through. Two people getting to their party, probably wouldn't bother me at all to let them go. Some of the scenarios on the thread might be extreme enough for me to be upset, but I would probably just let it go and move on. We've been trying to go when it isn't that crowded though, so that cuts down on wait times, and we don't run into too many line jumpers in those scenarios, and since wait times are shorter, I'm less bothered by things.

 

[fan1080]

when you draw the attention of a CM at Disney, it'd just be your word against the cutter's word, right?

No, Disney's policy is not to allow line cutting. When a line cutting situation is brought to their attantion they will remove the line cutters.

Two situations from our trip this past March:

1. 2 teenage boys jumped the RnRC line to join their friends right in front of us. A lady behind us didn't like it too much and asked them to leave the line. They refused and actually became very rude towards her. After about 10 minutes of these teenage boys tossing out vulgarities she had enough and went to get a CM. The CM told them they had to leave the line, to which the very polite teenage boy said, "you are a female and too small to remove me from the line, can you call someone bigger to remove me?". lololololol

They finally left after they realized the CM was not going to allow them to stay. The boys who were already in line left a little while after too. I guess they just felt a little too embarrassed to remain. the crowd cheered as they all left, including the two who left a little while after the first two.

2. At TSMM, CM's were announcing that those who get in the standby line while someone from their party was getting fastpasses, the person getting the fastpasses would not be allowed to re-join their party. More than a few times the CM's stopped people from re-joining their party.

CM's do enforce the rules, but some are better at it than others.

 

[Finally08]

Dumbo, or any other 2 seater ride that is more child oriented is a different beast.

It's acceptable because Disney will not fill that empty seat next to the lone adult with a kid they do not know. Therefore, they allow parents to do the "parent swap" at those types of rides. The seat will go empty otherwise so they might as well allow the kids to right with each parent.

I think it's a great idea myself. It has absolutley no affect on the wait times for these rides.

Ah but if they didn't allow that, do you think both parents WOULD line up and ride? My dh wouldn't fly in an elephant alone if he were with us, he'd wait off to the side and snap photos. That's what I would do too if dd chose to ride with him instead of me...therefore, that is one less elephant being taken by my party.

 

[fan1080]

Ah but if they didn't allow that, do you think both parents WOULD line up and ride? My dh wouldn't fly in an elephant alone if he were with us, he'd wait off to the side and snap photos. That's what I would do too if dd chose to ride with him instead of me...therefore, that is one less elephant being taken by my party.

I see no reason why any park, especially Disney, would force their guests to choose who can and can't ride with their children.

All parents should be given the opportunity to ride with their kids. Making guests wait twice through the line in the Dumbo type situations does nothing but make wait times for those that are doing it longer. It has no real affect on the number of guests who ride in a particular day.

 

[diskids2]

People do this stuff because they know most people won't say anything to them. If I were in that Test Track stand by line, I would have opened my big New York City mouth.

Me too!

 

[Mcbruns]

Not very magical I like to spread out in the queue myself.So if someone tries to snake past, and is obviously line jumping, they have to forcibly move me.

I tried this a few times last week. Worked a little. It's wasn't the line jumping this trip, but the people who are behind me and feel the need to touch me while waiting. Eww... We experienced this at every park last week -- even Sea World.

Ok - that was my vent. I feel a little better.

 

[bcrook]

No, Disney's policy is not to allow line cutting. When a line cutting situation is brought to their attantion they will remove the line cutters.

1. 2 teenage boys jumped the RnRC line to join their friends right in front of us. A lady behind us didn't like it too much and asked them to leave the line. They refused and actually became very rude towards her. After about 10 minutes of these teenage boys tossing out vulgarities she had enough and went to get a CM. The CM told them they had to leave the line, to which the very polite teenage boy said, "you are a female and too small to remove me from the line, can you call someone bigger to remove me?". lololololol

They finally left after they realized the CM was not going to allow them to stay. The boys who were already in line left a little while after too. I guess they just felt a little too embarrassed to remain. the crowd cheered as they all left, including the two who left a little while after the first two.

2. At TSMM, CM's were announcing that those who get in the standby line while someone from their party was getting fastpasses, the person getting the fastpasses would not be allowed to re-join their party. More than a few times the CM's stopped people from re-joining their party.

CM's do enforce the rules, but some are better at it than others.

Those are awesome stories!

I always get burned at RnRC and Dinosaur and sometimes at Test Track. Whenever people are dumped into a holding room to watch a pre-ride video or show. The inconsiderate ones butt their way to the doors and rush in when the doors open. Maddening. Two young boys (about 10 or 11) tried this on Test Track last time I was there, and everybody gave them the stinkeye, and they slinked back to the end of the line. Just a little justice.

 

[MineMail]

Well, those of you from New Jersey know that those two rules I outlined above are the exact rules enforced at Six Flags Great Adventure (I assume other six flags as well??? ). And yes, if you leave for ANY reason, (getting a drink, go potty, etc.) you have to go to the END of the line.

Oh, of course six flags has tons and tons of line cutters who violate the rules, and lately they haven't been strictly enforced ...

Lately? The line cutting rules haven't been enforced at Great Adventure since two years after the park opened. lol That's actually THE WORST park - even in the kiddie rides section, people cut the lines all the time. I've seen the security people walk away to avoid the confrontation.

Compared to GA, WDW has no problem with line cutting, lol.

 

[SnowandMittens]

On the other side of things, as someone who does "fill in all avilable space" when the CM asks me too, I've had some VERY rude people who told me we were cutting.

On TT, the group in front of us refused to fill in the room that they make you watch that viedo in... so the CM behind us (we were at the end of the group) told us to go around the back and stand at the oppisite door. So we did. And you should have heard the family in front near the screen... they were swearing and calling us names and my Dbf and I just pointed back to the CM who said, "Ma'am, they are following instructions and if you do not control your language or volume, you will have to be escorted out."

I was pretty annoyed at them... espically since we had to ride with them...

 

[WDSearcher]

when you draw the attention of a CM at Disney, it'd just be your word against the cutter's word, right?

Sometimes. There are times when a CM has been called, only to have the person who was accused of cutting talk their way out of it, pointing the finger at the OTHER people and saying that they were, in fact, the people who cut in line and that no one else would let them in and so they called a CM and accused everyone else. In a situation like that, it's hard to determine who is telling the truth and who is not.

But the thing is ... most true line cutters have this bravado about them that makes them rude and loud and almost braggy about what they did. If a CM comes over, the cutters generally do not become meek or try to talk their way out of it. They, if anything, become more defiant, figuring that the CM won't start anything in front of Guests (which is often true; the CM has to decide if it's worth it, at that point ... it's a really hard judgement call if you're a 19YO CM in your first job and it's you against a group of five or six people, KWIM?).

At any rate, you can usually tell the true line cutters (as opposed to the "I really had to pee ... I'm sorry ... can I please rejoin my kids?" people).

One fun story ... I once saw a CM called over to deal with a line cutter -- a blatant line cutter .... he and his friend had been jumping lines all over the park, apparently. This was in a line that was really difficult to jump out of or hide in, and the other guests in line had literally trapped these two guys to keep them from escaping. The CM confronted them, with another CM, and the guys were all "what are you going to do, call security?", with the appropriate sneer. These guys were taller and bigger than the two female CMs and they did their best to intimidate them.

Well, the CMs did call Security, and I was hoping they'd send someone truly intimidating (this was not the time for the 65YO grandfatherly guy). Well, out walked this HUGE Hawaiian man in a Security costume -- he must have been filling in from the Poly that day. This guy had arms the size of tree trunks. He walked out, looked at the two guys (both college age -- maybe 23-ish) and said, "You'll need to come with me, please." Softly ... politely ... but very very firmly. He took each one by the shoulder and walked them backstage to Security. The looks on their faces were PRICELESS! One guy turned white. I thought he might faint or cry or something. The entire queue line started cheering.

 

[grimley1968]

Not very magical I like to spread out in the queue myself.So if someone tries to snake past, and is obviously line jumping, they have to forcibly move me.

Good point. For this reason, I actually prefer the queues that have narrow paths, so that I can put hands on both chains/bars. At that point, line cutters have to either a) get my attention to get me to move so they can "catch up" to their party when they were never in the line to begin with or b) forcibly move me if I'm ignoring them. If someone asks me to move so they can catch up to their family, I reply by saying the rest of their party can just as easily wait for them while letting others pass them in line. IMO, there's really no acceptable response to this except for the rest of the party let others pass them to let the straggler in their party catch up.

Fortunately, it's been my experience that more parties let others pass so that stragglers can catch up, rather than the stragglers cutting line to do so. But those line cutters sure stick out like a sore thumb when they do it, and someone else calls them on it.

Even if someone has a good reason for leaving and returning (diaper change, etc.), there's still no reason the rest of their party can't simply let others pass by them in line and let the straggler catch up, rather than the straggler having to cut in front of 50 people.

Lots of people somehow change diapers, get drinks, etc. without ever cutting lines.

 

[fonsy]

I get tired of the parent swap off style of line cutting. This is so common at Dumbo...parent 1 lines up with child while parent 2 waits back in line so the child ends up riding twice. Things like that are why the line is crazy long. A mom proclaimed to me so proudly in line at Dumbo how they were doing this (her husband was on the ride at the time with their kid, she was right in front of me waiting for round 2). I just said...darn wish my kid could ride twice but we're here alone.

I don't think anything wrong with this. The other parent is waiting in line like everyone else, just waiting for the child, not cutting in front of someone.

I'm not saying to "plan" your potty breaks. However, I don't think that needing to use the restroom while in line entitles you to return to your former place. What is 100 people in that line left to go to the bathroom and then all pushed past you. If you make the expection for 1, why not for everyone?



I quoted someone else who said people should "plan" their potty breaks. It is highly unlikely 100 people in front of me in line will all need to go at the same time. I think it is just basic courtesy and compassion to allow that 1 person, be it parent/child or Dad with the upset stomach to have their spot back. Most rides load more than 1 person anyway, so my letting them back in line didn't extend my wait anyway. It is just the nice thing to do.

My thoughts exactly.

Ahhh..

BUT... if I was really in WDW right now on vacation, I think it really would take an extreme scenario to get me upset. I would just let people past me, no problem at all.

If it was a parent and child wanting to move forward, I wouldn't think twice and just let them through. Two people getting to their party, probably wouldn't bother me at all to let them go. Some of the scenarios on the thread might be extreme enough for me to be upset, but I would probably just let it go and move on.

I agree with you that you shouldn't let something like that ruin your trip, or upset you that much. I'm not talking about the extreme scenarios or truly line cutting. I'm just very understanding, I'll do it out of courtesy and compassion for other families if in reality they won't make me waste anytime.

 

[grimley1968]

One fun story ... I once saw a CM called over to deal with a line cutter -- a blatant line cutter .... he and his friend had been jumping lines all over the park, apparently. This was in a line that was really difficult to jump out of or hide in, and the other guests in line had literally trapped these two guys to keep them from escaping. The CM confronted them, with another CM, and the guys were all "what are you going to do, call security?", with the appropriate sneer. These guys were taller and bigger than the two female CMs and they did their best to intimidate them.

Well, the CMs did call Security, and I was hoping they'd send someone truly intimidating (this was not the time for the 65YO grandfatherly guy). Well, out walked this HUGE Hawaiian man in a Security costume -- he must have been filling in from the Poly that day. This guy had arms the size of tree trunks. He walked out, looked at the two guys (both college age -- maybe 23-ish) and said, "You'll need to come with me, please." Softly ... politely ... but very very firmly. He took each one by the shoulder and walked them backstage to Security. The looks on their faces were PRICELESS! One guy turned white. I thought he might faint or cry or something. The entire queue line started cheering.

Good story!

 

[claryche]

Some of these comments scare me. Because just recently one of my friends mentioned that won't I be happy the next time we go to Disney, because my DS is now potty trained. And I said yes, I will be, but then knowing my luck we will be in line and he will have to go. And then I followed it up by saying, but I'm sure people would let me leave the line and come back. I was thinking after all it's Disney, surely people will let me back in line. Because they all understand that no matter how many times you take a child to the bathroom, if they don't want to go they won't. And then they will want to go when you don't want them to go. However, from these comments, now I'm worried that people would get all upset with me.

I really don't see an issue if there is an emergency to leave the line for you to be able to come back. Otherwise, we could end up with this worse case scenario. Let's say my DH, DS and I all go before getting in stand by line for TSM, with a 60 minute wait. Then 55 minutes into it, my DS decides he has to go. So some people on here would say, we all have to leave line. SO let's say we do that and now the wait is 90 minutes. Now who wants to be in line with a 3 year old for what would now be 2 hours 25 minutes. I sure don't. And I'm sure the people around us sure wouldn't want to be in line with us either.

I do not like line jumpers. But like other things in life, it's not just black or white. There are shades of gray. So I'm hoping the next time we are at Disney, that we are in line with people who understand the gray times and will understand if I have to leave with my DS, but also won't say they have family to meet up with and don't.

And one last comment, just to get even more people upset with me probably. The whole Dumbo thing makes sense to me. We have never done it that way, but if the line is really long and my DS wanted to ride with me and his dad, then we might would try that method. But like stated, me waiting in line to ride by myself or me waiting in line to ride and my DS happens to be with me after his ride, is the same. And last time I checked Disney is for everyone. They don't have a sign that says Dumbo is only for people with kids. So what's the difference between me doing this method or another adult riding dumbo by themselves, because they want to do it.

 

[fan1080]

If a CM comes over, the cutters generally do not become meek or try to talk their way out of it. They, if anything, become more defiant, figuring that the CM won't start anything in front of Guests (which is often true; the CM has to decide if it's worth it, at that point ... it's a really hard judgement call if you're a 19YO CM in your first job and it's you against a group of five or six people, KWIM?).

I would think (hope) Disney trains their CM's on how to deal with these situations. CM's have the resources (security, just like in your story about the big security guard) to do their job effectively. They are not required to get in a physical confrontation with guests, that's the responsibility of security. Therefore, CM's should in no way feel awkward in dealing with these situations, it's part of the job.

 

[vt_disney_fan]

Why couldn't your party have let the 30 people go in FRONT of them? I'm sorry, but I dont agree with ANY line cutting. I have my fair share of intestinal issues and have experienced them at Disney, in line, many times. When I return I often find my family waiting for me at the ride ENTRANCE and we all get in line together at the START.

I didn't say they couldn't have, but I wouldn't have asked them to do that. In fact, I didn't ask to go up to where they were - I was encouraged to do so, after some nice people saw us conversing and realized we were together. Sounds like maybe you might have objected... but like I said, I'm not worried, was just curious.

You can't. But that "special rumbling" does not make that person "special" in that they get to cut back into line.

Perhaps you're confusing a sense of entitlement with the fact that I was just happy people didn't mind. I never said I was "entitled" to get back in line - I was fine staying where I was, even though I would have LIKED to be with my family. I didn't consider myself "special". However, I was thankful for those who didn't mind me re-connecting with my family, and I'm glad they were in line rather than you so I could.

I guess we are "special" too because in 35 trips to WDW, going as a 2 year old up to a 24 year old, we have never had a reason to jump a line.

You may get the reward for "most rule-abiding guest" at WDW - we'll vote later.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

Good point. For this reason, I actually prefer the queues that have narrow paths, so that I can put hands on both chains/bars. At that point, line cutters have to either a) get my attention to get me to move so they can "catch up" to their party when they were never in the line to begin with or b) forcibly move me if I'm ignoring them. If someone asks me to move so they can catch up to their family, I reply by saying the rest of their party can just as easily wait for them while letting others pass them in line. IMO, there's really no acceptable response to this except for the rest of the party let others pass them to let the straggler in their party catch up.

Fortunately, it's been my experience that more parties let others pass so that stragglers can catch up, rather than the stragglers cutting line to do so. But those line cutters sure stick out like a sore thumb when they do it, and someone else calls them on it.

Even if someone has a good reason for leaving and returning (diaper change, etc.), there's still no reason the rest of their party can't simply let others pass by them in line and let the straggler catch up, rather than the straggler having to cut in front of 50 people.

Lots of people somehow change diapers, get drinks, etc. without ever cutting lines.

I completely agree with you!

There are tens of thousands of people that visit WDW annually that find ways to go to the restroom, change diapers and deal with emergency illnesses without line cutting. It it a very cut and dry...black & white scenario to me...

You leave the line, you forfeit your place.

If your party wishes to wait and let other guests PASS them until you return that is acceptable.

Does 1 person jumping in front of me affect my vacation directly? No. But allowing that 1 person sets a precedent for bad behavior, lack of common courtesy and sense of entitlement that leads to the idea that line jumping for "A...B...or C reason is acceptable..."

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

You may get the reward for "most rule-abiding guest" at WDW - we'll vote later.

Cool! I'd be more than happy to recieve such an "award!"

I'll take it along with...

"Guest who respects that a line is a line"

"Guest who doesn't pool hop"

"Guest who buys new refillable mugs each visit"

There are a great number of topics here on the boards that will merit discussion like these. I'm going to keep my opinion and you can keep yours! Because differences of opinion are what makes the world go round