Rant: The End of Line Jumping

Everyone is saying it's a SF problem. The worst line jumping I have ever seen was at PKD this spring. I told one of the ride ops at Volcano and he did nothing about it. I was really PO'd

If parks would stick undercover security in the lines to watch for this type of behavior it would more than likely end quickly. Catch 'em, yank 'em, kick 'em out, give 'em a trespass letter and as word spread around schools the problem would end. All the parks need is one undercover guard, with a radio in line walking the queue with everyone else. If a line jumper is spotted, the guard radios for a uniformed guard, uniformed guard yanks the person out of line when they reach the front and escorts them out of the park. The out of park escort is the key though.

If you really want to take things to an extreme, hang a sign over their head that says line jumper as they are escorted out of the park.

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coasterguts said:

If you really want to take things to an extreme, hang a sign over their head that says line jumper as they are escorted out of the park.

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...Kinda like the Scarlet Letter... I like that idea!!

But nowadays, someone would find something wrong with that and sue ...

I have had a few instances where line jumpers get angry and try and make me feel like I am the bad person. Jeff Johnson has the best comments for line jumpers I have heard, including

linejumper: "Um, excuse me sir."

Jeff: "What did you do? Fart?"

Works every time.

Out of all the times I have been line jumped, only one time did it get physical, and this was in one of the shortest lines for any coaster I know. Sea Dragon at Wyandot Lake. Remember that, Rideman?

Last year, while in line for Boulder Dash, a friend and I were line jumped many times. We said stuff to every single person but they all just slithered past us.

I had heard a girl up front asking her father to join them. He tried to slide his way past my friend and I but we both told him there was no way he was going to get past us. He gave us this sob story about having to get his change back from a vending machine and needed to get in front of us.

We didn't let him through. Then something happend. The man had a change of heart and thanked us for stopping him. He said he respected us for standing up to other people and proving to him that line jumping is bad. At first, I thought he was just trying to butter us up so we would feel bad, but that didn't happen. We eneded up talking to the guy for the remaining time spent in line.

By far, the worst cases of line jumping I have seen have been in lines for SFNE's Superman. We stopped counting line jumpers at 20. The problem with that line is no matter where you stand in the mail line portion, there is no area the ride operators can tell is this is going on, at least from what I remember.

Another bad place for line jumping is Six Flags America. There was a "incident" in line for Batwing that was historic. A woman line jumped. A ride operator saw this and got on the P.A. and pointed her out. The woman then hid down in the crowd, changed her shirt inside out, then proceeded to board the train. As the train was just getting to leave the station, the ride operator noticed the woman on the train and said,

"You just stole a ride from me, you b***h."

Over the P.A..

Everyone I was with couldn't believe it. She let the woman ride anyway. While it certainly wasn't a good thing, I couldn't stop laughing. It was just one of those random momemts that just make you shake your head back and forth.

-Sean

Wow...that's hilarious, Sean. Although it doesn't surprise me as, in my experience, SFA is the worst park for line jumping (and unprofessional employees). She changed her shirt right in line? Not that that surprises me, either, but that must've been somewhat of a spectacle.

I haven't been to SFNE, but I've counted a good 20 jumpers in a day at SFA.

All i know is that when Geauga Lake was a "Six Flags Park" they had line jumping, and now that it is back to Geagua Lake and a Cedar Fair run park they got rid of line jumping and if there were a line jumper park security would get them, I love Cedar Fair, now theres some people who can run a park right!

My favorite moment:

Getting a group of male teens REMOVED FROM KNOTTS for jumping ahead in the Xcelerator queue.

Second favorite:

Getting dirty looks the rest of the day from the group of girls they were trying to hook up with in line every time we saw them in the park ;)

I wish that more parks would do what I witnessed at Cedar Point last year in line for Mantis. They had somebody up at the station spotting for line cutters and then announcing over the PA system that someone had been spotted cutting. They then gave them two options, either get out of line and move to the back or continue up to the front where they would then be escorted away from the ride. The funny thing is, whenever the spotter announced that they had busted one person, like five would jump out of the line because nobody knew if they had been the one that had been caught.

My wife and I usually don't say anything if it's happening infrequently at a park but if it get's bad, we'll take action. There have been a few times when we have been with other enthusiasts that are a lot less tolerant of it than we are and will rip into someone in a snap. Most of the time it is young teenagers, who take their scolding, and then look at you like you just ruined the rest of their day.

Oh god, first season of Hypersonic, that's just hell. Plus we had a huge group of 10 18 year olds trying to jump the line, but they got cursed out by a fellow enthusiast infront of me (thank you lone enthusiast!). For me, I could care less about people cutting in line on ride, I care more about people cutting in line for FOOD, especially at school. Our school makes SFGAdv look like it's filled with church groups.

I've seen line jumping in nearly every park, even in Magic Kingdom. What is most annoying is when you point it out to a member of staff and they do absolutely nothing - Magic Kingdom, Dorney Park, SFMW, and Canobie Lake all just looked at me spaced out when I pointed out people who had just cut line.

My recent favorite is on Medusa at SFMW where some kid tried to meet up with the rest of her family. I stopped her and said she was cutting line and she said "I'm not cutting line, my parents are up there." I pointed to the sign in front of her which said you cannot rejoin the line or have people save places for you. Her parents told her to come on up, and they insisted she wasn't line jumping, even after I pointed the sign out to them.

The mother then said "my son's deaf and dumb, you can't expect him to wait down their on his own."

"If your son's deaf and dumb you shouldn't have left him on his own in the first place." I said.

The scene continued and escalated somewhat until she said "well F*** you then." Then someone else who was with them, came down and took the girl and pushed by. So I walked up to the ride op who was at the fast pass entrance and told him and he did a big fat nothing.

Best of all, we achieved cult status in the park, and several people shook our hands and congratulated us on standing up to line jumpers. But that doesn't come close to the cult status I acheived at SFWOA, but that's a different story.

I am always *impressed* by the parents who encourage their children to line jump.

Shoot, if the rest of the "riff raff" are THAT unimportant to ya, why not skip the bathroom stop that broke up your "oh so close knit family unit" altogether, and just pee on the rest of us who are patiently waiting for our TURN to ride, in line. Really, why would WE mind? ;)

It really IS out of hand, and getting WORSE, and the parks refusing to do ANYTHING about it are NOT helping the situation...can't even *imagine* what MY mother would've done to me if I had done something like that....would NOT have been a pretty sight!

Fear not folks, some parks are doing something about it.

Last Friday I was at SFGAm and decided to end my day and use my last fastlane on Raging Bull. I entered the line right in front of two Bull employees on their day off, apparently after a group of 4 girls in their late teens/early twenties had line jumped in front of them. They tried to phone up to the loading platform but it didnt work so they left the line and went up to the platform using the employee only ramp.

10 mins later I get situated in my comfy row 8 seat only to find that the lap bars wont come down. I then look to the exit ramp and see the two employees standing there with a security guard. The guard walks into the station and starts to talk to the four girls in row 3 or 4. Tempers flare and 10 mins later they finally get off the ride. As we are going up the lift hill I find the two guys next to me were with the girls and couldnt believe their friends and or sisters were going to be kicked out over this.

It gets better, as we deboard the security guard is still there with the girls waiting for the rest of their party. As we are going down the ramp I hear that the girls are going to be photographed and then escorted off the property and would not be allowed to even re-enter the parking lot for the rest of the day.

What a great idea about the parking lot rule, because that way the rest of the party gets punished as well since they cant let the ones kicked out just sit in the car and wait. Heres hoping other parks follow SFGAm lead.

When I was in high school, I was waiting in line for the awesome Indy 500 ride at Americana. I was there with my church. I was watching the ride, and all the sudden a guy I knew came out of nowhere and jumped in front of me in line.

Before I could say a word, a park employee kicked us both out of that line for the rest of the day. I was so pissed, but he didn't apologize or anything. Hmph.

At SFGAm on Saturday I saw people being held back by the ticket collecter at both Superman and Raging Bull because their numbers were higher than those behind.

Everyone talks about the kids or tough guys line cutting, but I have to tell you that I have had two VERY bad experiences at SFGAm where the parents were the instigators and forced (taught) the kids to line jump. BTW, both of these incidents occurred last summer, and I am happy to say that I have been more fortunate there this year.

We were waiting in line for Raging Bull on a busy and hot Saturday and the park had decided to add the third train to the track. So needless to say that the ride was going to be down for a few minutes, and the line was not moving. SF has this really dumb idea that most of the population are pretty intelligent and can follow instructions on signs. At Raging Bull, they have a distinctly painted yellow line up the main staircase that leads to the station. On the right side of the line, is supposed to be those that are waiting for the front row, while on the left, those waiting for every other row. After being at the park only once, I knew that no one really followed the signage, and people just sort of crowded the stairs until they divide at the top to get into their respective rows. Well, since the ride was down, everyone on the stairs was just sitting down. It’s not like the line was moving anywhere for a while. So a family of 5, the three boys were probably all over the age of 13, decided to step over us, and several others on the stairs to be in the “line” for the front row. We politely said we were all waiting for the ride, and they said “too bad”. Well, the mom of the family did not quite move as fast as the father and the boys, and so my husband and I stood up, and moved to the front row side of the yellow line. The boys in the family kept calling to their mom to move up in line with them. The line started to move again and the family still had yet to reunite. As we got up the stairs, almost to the top, I turned to the mother and quite loudly told her she could go ahead of us since we were not as rude as her and the rest of her family. She was humiliated and actually apologized. Humorously, the same family ended up in line behind us for Viper, and my husband and I held hands and spread our arms out in the walk up to the station to make sure that this family stayed behind us. A great example of family values, although I do them credit for being able to read the sign and follow the instructions for the yellow line procedure.

This incident sounds quite like Grant's posting above... on another hot and crowded Saturday, we had another friend along on the visit that insisted on going on water rides (we typically do not ride them). A small boy and girl (neither older than 10) decided to cruise their way through the Splashwater Falls line. They were the quiet type and not the troublesome “brats” with which everyone usually associates this type of behavior. Everyone around us decided that after already waiting forty-five minutes and being at least another fifteen from the front of the line, that allowing more people in front of us would not help the situation. So at least 10 people in the back of us, ourselves, and several people in the front of us spaced ourselves in the cattle maze and would not let the two move a head of us. All of sudden, out of nowhere, there was some shrilly screeching and then curses were being shouted left and right. We all looked ahead and there was the scariest woman we ever saw turning red in the face and flailing her arms around saying how dare her children be kept from her. We all just shrugged and let the two go ahead as not to freak out this woman anymore. Someone did confront her though and screamed something about her kids needed to use the bathroom and she got in line for them to hold their places. I think anyone would have had to be crazy to mention the rules to this woman, and explain that this was unacceptable. I actually had a different thought process though, in that maybe the “mom” was trying to be nice and get her kids a place in the line so they could use the facilities, but if I were a parent, I would not let my kids even go to the restrooms alone and then hope that they would find me in line. I have seen so many missing children, and frantic parents at that park, not to mention news stories in general about kids disappearing. I think that this “family” needed to follow the posted rules, at least for the safety of their family and then for the courtesy of others.

I guess line-jumping could be looked at in terms of the age-old question of nature versus nurture. In these two cases though, it was the nurturing of the "line-jumping is OK" mentality from the parents to the kids.**

**Please note though that this is not to incite angry comments from those of you who are good parents and teach your children well. *** Edited 7/15/2004 8:26:02 PM UTC by ltlbat***

Vater,

Yep, she did change her shirt inside out while in line. She ducked down to do it.

I just thought of another story. I was at CP at opening one morning about a month ago. I went right over to TTD and waited for it to open. In front of me was a group of kids, and a couple of teachers.

Within a matter of about 10 minutes, more and more people started to join the group in front of me. Once we were allowed to enter the main line, the teachers motioned over to about 7 other people to join them in line.

I calmly asked them what was going on. Everyone in the group turned around and just looked at me like I insulted them. One of the teachers said everyone had been waiting in line from the start. I told them that I just sat there and watched 7 more people join the group. At this point, the line was all the way back to Corkscrew. The group wasn't willing to go to the back of the line and told me not worry about it since it didn't pertain to me.

As it turns out, the female teachers all had their purses with them and were declined entry into the main line. They weren't happy about it. The ride operator motioned to me to keep the line moving. As I was walking through the entire group, one of the teachers said, "Um, why does he get to go in front of us?"

I just smiled and continued to walk into the line. Once I rode, I saw them still arguing down by the locker area.

Some people just don't get it.

-Sean

Bill, back "in the day" our parents could tan our hides out in public and it was respectable. Heck, I remember other parents would silently cheer other parents on like "that little brat is getting what he deserved......".

Now it's called "child abuse" or something like that. Now they just send them to counseling, label them "ADD", and pop a few pills down their throats.

The parents have no respect for other people so why should the kids? You can't blame the kids for all of it.

As far as line cutting I have seen it get worse and worse at a few parks, and more controlled at others. As much as I love Great Adventure, is has ALWAYS been bad about tolerating line jumpers and it's getting worse.

People just have NO respect nowadays. The sad thing is I see more and more adults doing it than the kids.

-Tina

*** Edited 7/15/2004 10:01:15 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

^ Couldn't agree with Tina any more. Word for word, she nailed that one.

(well, except for the SFGAdv stuff, I don't love the park :) )

*** Edited 7/15/2004 9:53:31 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

Maybe *love* is a bit much for the entire park. I really like GreatAdv, LOVE Nitro and Medusa.....;-)

-Tina