Rant: The End of Line Jumping

That's it, I've had it. Line jumping has got to stop. It was a recent trip to Knott's that was the last straw. After dinner, we get in line for Xcellerator, when twice, some punk 12 year old kids tried to weazel their way past everyone else. They blew by me before I knew what happend. Thankfully, and individual stopped them a bit ahead, as everyone else smiled and walked by. Then, the punks tried again after someone let them back in line. I made a wall between the rails in the que. "Man, move! Why you gotta be touchin' me!? Mind your own business!" I stuck the pacifier in his mouth and ignored him. Still, he continued to alienate those around him, complaining that I wouldn't let him through.

This isn't a Knott's issue (although SF parks seem to be the worst of it). It's an issue that seems to be more frequent everywhere. It amazes me how one idiot can irritate an entire line of people. It also amazes me how many people let them get away with it. Why? Why are people so passive when a person thinks they're better than everyone else, and therefore doesn't need to wait in line? Worse yet, the most apathetic seem to be the parks themselves. They may threaten to kick people out of the park for line jumping, but I personally have never seen it enforced. Hopefully someone else on this board has.

I guess the purpose of this, besides the needed to rant, is to encourage everyone to be a bit more hard-nosed about dealing with line jumpers. We as enthusiasts have gotten a bad rap at times with the parks, and to some extent the GP. Maybe this is one way we can put ourselves in a positive light, as well as make the day a little more enjoyable for those who obey the rules.

I can tell you why most people don't bother---the impact of waiting an extra 30 seconds is less of a downer than to have to deal with confronting someone. I will sometimes let someone pass because I just don't want to spend the energy on it. I'd rather enjoy the day. More often than not, though, I'm the "jerk" who won't let anyone cut.

What can I say? I'm good at being a jerk.

It is a guilty pleasure of mine to shout out line jumpers (muhahahaha). The thing is I always have my "boiz" with me in case they want to start something....WHAT!... ;)

Sure yelling at them may be be a little harsh (yeah, I call them names and such) But atleast it draws attention to park security and it embarasses the hell outa them.

I'd love to confront people like this, but the reason I don't is that to do so would risk being involved in a scuffle and be kicked out of line or out of the park.

I have stopped kids before, but half the time, it's burly steroid-men who are doing the line-jumping (because they're used to getting whatever they want in life). And since i'm 5'10'' and 140 lbs., I just let them by.

Here's a little tip:
Try to trip them. Even if you don't get a full "nose-to-the-pavement" outcome, watching these morons trip over themselves is a riot. Especially the dorky goth kids who wear their pants about 8 inches past their ankles. No offense to you goths out there; you're not all morons or anything. You are just different, which is something I can tolerate. Unlike idiotic line-jumpers.
Wow, we can get some good rants going on here!

Real goth kids don't wear big pants, especially the girls.

Anyway, I don't allow it, but in all honesty I don't see it that frequently at my home park. Maybe it's because the lines are generally moving anyway, and someone waiting an hour for Millennium Force isn't going to allow it.

The worst I've seen it anywhere was at SFGAdv.

Six Flag parks are the worse. I think a lot it has to do with staffing issues. I remember when they used to have people sit up in little towers watching for line jumpers. With short staffs these days they just can't do it. I wish they could but SFGADV is the worse followed by Dorney park. I've never really had a problem at Cedar or Busch or any of those parks. I think some parks need to do a complete over haul of staffing and SF needs a better recruitment program.

Id like to see more parks inforce thier policy against it. There are signs all over SFGAm saying they will kick you out of the park if you linejump. Ive never seen this done though, usually security just warns them and they are on there merry way. If people saw others getting kicked out for it, it might discourage them from doing it in the future.

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Jeff said:
Real goth kids don't wear big pants

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That's a T-Shirt just waiting to happen. :)

I spend a lot of time at the parks each year and can probably count on one hand the number of times a line jumper has (or has tried to) get past me.

The worst place I've seen it was SFA and even that was just 2 instances in one day. To me it was very annoying, but from the sound of some of these stories, that would be nothing for certain parks/visits.

I know I shouldn't let line jumpers bother me, but I can't help it. It flat-out pisses me off. I'll usually make the typical 'wall' between the queue railings, but only until the morons try to start something. Then I concede, just because it's not worth it to get my 5'9', 250lb behind kicked. I do it more to make a point that these idiots are annoying everyone in line (as if they care).

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Den said:

And since i'm 5'10'' and 140 lbs., I just let them by.

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Well dang Den, no wonder you are Mr Johnny Lightfoot on DDR. Some if my Mom's Fried chicken will take care of that ;)

I've never had an encounter with the swarthy older gentlemen types. But I guess I would still call them out. No one wants to be shown up by a youngster anyhow.

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TTDTom said:
Here's a little tip:
Try to trip them. Even if you don't get a full "nose-to-the-pavement" outcome, watching these morons trip over themselves is a riot. Especially the dorky goth kids who wear their pants about 8 inches past their ankles.

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Wow. That gives being "hard-nose" about it a whole new meaning! I do think that is a bit harsh though, Tom. Although, I wouldn't stop you from doing it!

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Especially the dorky goth kids who wear their pants about 8 inches past their ankles.

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Or those who wear their pants 8 inches below their butt crack. Actually, it would be a riot no matter how or what they wear. I mean, harsh-- very harsh, why would you ever do that ;-)

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Lord Gonchar said:
The worst place I've seen it was SFA and even that was just 2 instances in one day.

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My worst experience with line jumpers was also at SFA, just last year. Read my trip report here: Fed Up

I'm actually more of a hard-@$$. Well, not really at all, but I would like to trip some jerks up at school that I don't like. Mua-ha-ha-ha.
Btw, Jeff, I know that "real goths" don't wear long pants, that's why I was referring to dorky goths in particular. ;)

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Antuan said:Well dang Den, no wonder you are Mr Johnny Lightfoot on DDR. Some if my Mom's Fried chicken will take care of that

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My low weight is not because of lack of eating, or even eating well. I eat junk and lots of it. In fact this week alone I've eaten two meals at Pizza Hut, two meals at KFC, one meal at McDonalds and one at Bob Evans. And the one time my wife and I "cooked" this week, it was tacos. :)

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Damn you and your metabolism! I had to go on the Atkins diet to lose 25 pounds.

Den, sounds like you and I have about the same metabolism. I eat a lot of junk, too, and never gained weight...until a little over a year ago. And I have a couple years on you, so watch out. Once you turn 30, things might change. ;)

I actually had good luck with SFWOA employees when I was in line for X-Flight back in 2002. James K and I were entering the queue past an employee. Some kids ran by and jumeped ahead of us and we joked about them line jumping (they were just passing us to join the end of the line 3 or 4 queue rails ahead), and the the employee asked if we wanted them thrown out.

We declined.

(and is that a run-on sentence?)

FYI, we discussed this very topic at length months ago. See here:

http://www.coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=33262

D'oh... I've got a year and a half of bad eating to savor! ;)