Line Cutting PSA

Well. I guess that was aimed at me, so here goes.
The point of my post, sir, was to pry the details of Mr. Gator's success with handling line jumpers. Your gentle joke seemed like a tease begging someone to ask. I don't really care, and if it's none of our business or not worth sharing then say so. Or say nothing and that's fine too.

If you take offense with me observing that you, wherever you may be from, say and spell things in a certain way then I dont really get it, but allow me to apologize and add that perhaps you should lighten up.

Now. What I take offense to is you stepping in here with the name calling. Certainly not what I would call classy or well done either there, chap.

Cheerio.

I think Lord Gonchar hits the nail on the head: line-jumping is sufficiently infrequent an issue that parks don't feel the need to actively police it. I've stood on line for rides for decades, and the number of line-jumping situations I've encountered can be counted on the fingers of one hand. (Unless you're Jimmy Darling.)

Apologies to you both. It was way past my bedtime and I obviously read things the wrong way. It wasnt my intention to come across as having to have the story pried out of me, it was more about the fact that Gator and Mike dealt with some line jumpers with good humour. Something I was sadly lacking last night...

Thank you for that, and I apologize for jumping back at you.
For the record, I am also Scot by lineage and bedtime crankiness is part of my make up as well. So is morning crankiness. And afternoon, for that matter, especially if I don't get my nap...

I have been to a few NFL games where they displayed messages on the video boards asking people to call out drunk, irate or belligerent fans by texting their seating location to a number. Perhaps similar signs placed in the queues concerning line jumping be a good deterrent. (Or a PSA on FunTV)

Since Billy seems to be notably absent....

Can we get a group hug? ;~P

James Whitmore said:

asking people to call out drunk, irate or belligerent

I've tried all of those before. My boss wasn't too pleased.

RCMAC said:

...I apologize for jumping back at you.

Absolutely no need, I deserved it! Impressed by your thrawn Scottishness at pulling me up on it lol The trouble with being a grumpy Scot is that it doesn't improve with age ;)

slithernoggin said:

I think Lord Gonchar hits the nail on the head: line-jumping is sufficiently infrequent an issue that parks don't feel the need to actively police it. I've stood on line for rides for decades, and the number of line-jumping situations I've encountered can be counted on the fingers of one hand. (Unless you're Jimmy Darling.)

I find this is something I always see, multiple times every ride, every time I visit SF Great Adventure, when I was at Magic Mountain I saw none of this. Maybe I live in a rude region.

While unsuccessfully Googling around for photo to post in this very thread yesterday, I saw a few signs that asked people in line to call security to report line jumping.

And like Gonch's said, it probably isn't a big issue at a lot of parks. I want to add that when it is an issue, the results are not just people getting a ride faster than they deserve, but also altercations, fights, arguments, ect, like in the video.

Weather or not it is a big problem probably depends on where the park is and what kind of cliental it gets, I would think.

Cameras, and posting security's phone number could also help to discourage smokers who disregard the no smoking in line rule.

Deterrence is the key though. Get people to think they might get caught, and some people will choose NOT to do it.

Makes sense.

But here's what makes more sense:

The cost of those additional deterrents is most likely greater than the cost of the incidents. If it weren't, the additional deterrents would be in place.

There have been many studies over the years where police cars with mannequins in them, or surveillance cameras that don't actually function cause decreases in speeding or shoplifting or what have you.

Anecdotally, I haven't experienced much line-jumping, and I have been around for a while and visited a fair number of parks. Logically, parks choosing not to aggressively police line-jumping suggests that it's not a significant issue. Most people already choose not to do it.

Line Cutting has been going on since amusement parks opened it's doors to the public. I remember back in the 70's when SFOG used to allow the inner city kids there for free who would line cut and made the whole experience intolerable. They should kick every line cutter out of the park even if they are saving spots. I can understand if they paid for the fast passes to get access to the ride faster but not when people on in the other line waiting thier turn.

I see line cutting all the time, and I've even seen blatant cases in front of the guards that watch the lines, and the guards have done nothing. There might be signs posted and rules in place, but most parks don't do anything about it.

I'd think they'd want to police this to improve the guest satisfaction, but if the people in line come to expect it, and if they don't say anything about it, why would the park do anything about it? As much as I'd like to see more enforcement, I think you guys are right: the expectation of most people is they CAN jump in line for whatever reason, and the parks are not usually doing anything about it because it is usually a non-issue.

The onyl way that this will change if we hit them in the pocketbook by not going to the amusement parks period that condone this activity. Once they see the number of people not going then they will do something about it. There are a few who will go the amusement parks even if they were charging $100 per day at any cedar fair or six flags park. I have better things to do with my money than go to a place where the park's management see line cutting as common place.

But that's the thing: I don't think line jumping is "common place". If there was extensive line jumping going on, a park would take the steps necessary to solve that issue in the interest of guest satisfaction.

Whether you're talking a chain that continually surveys guests, or a small local park where senior management is regularly present on the property, parks and chains pay close attention to feedback from their guests.

We all tend to pay more attention to things that support something we already believe to be true. The driver who hates bicyclists remembers the cyclists who ignore stop signs, but not the much larger number of cyclists who do stop at stop signs, for example.

If someone believes that line jumping occurs frequently, then anytime they see an additional instance of line jumping it serves as proof of that frequency, without comparing it to the other side of the "ledger" -- the number of people in the park that day who did not line jump.

Slither, if someone leaves the line then guess what. They get in the back of the line and wait like the rest of us. LIne cutting happens more than you think.

Lord Gonchar said:

The cost of those additional deterrents is most likely greater than the cost of the incidents. If it weren't, the additional deterrents would be in place.

If it needed it, it would be there already?

They did the numbered tickets for Kingda Ka's opening season and it ran into a couple of problems. 1) It's pretty hard to enforce in a reasonable manner. Say someone walks up to the platform and is way out of order or doesn't have a ticket, but still insists that they waited through the line like everyone else. Are you going to boot them and make a huge scene? 2) It's basically giving people permission to save spots. Have a group of 4 get tickets. Have one of them hold all the tickets while the other 3 ride something. Have those three return in 1.5 hours and take their tickets. You're pretty much saying, "If you have the ticket, you have the spot" which really isn't the message you want to be sending.

Screamlord said:

LIne cutting happens more than you think.

It may happen more than I think, but it clearly doesn't happen enough to cause many parks to actively police it. These businesses depend on providing a good customer experience.