Line jumpers / cutters >:-(

[WonkaKid]

Yesterday we'd been in line for POTC for about five minutes when someone cut in behind us, claiming to be with us. The woman they'd cut in front of -- the cuttee -- asked us if they were. We told her they were not. The guy quickly changed his story -- no, he was with someone in front of us. I didn't say anything at the time because I didn't want to get in an argument with the lout (he and his gf looked pretty seedy). However, at one point when the line curved around, I leaned over and told the cuttee that I'd be informing the CM at the loading point (LP) about the cutting, hoping/presuming that he'd be pulled out of line.

When we got to the LP, we told the cast member about the cutting and that the cuttee -- a person we didn't know -- would confirm our story. She quickly conferred with another CM. I thought they were going to pull the guy or least question him. At first it appeared that they had. We saw towards the end of the ride that he'd gone through the entire ride. As we climbed ashore, I got the cuttee's attention and we both -- again -- reported him to a CM. That's when we learned that, unless a CM sees someone cut, there's little that they can do. We even pointed the cutter out to another CM outside of the ride -- still nothing.

I was told that my last option was to raise a complaint at City Hall, which I later did. There it was explained to me again that, without a CM seeing the cutting, there was nothing that they could do -- even with two independent witnesses. Essentially it was our word against theirs. They gave me a front-of-line card, which made me feel a little better. However, I really do think that DL should be more vigilant about such behavior. It's really upsetting and counter to the whole Disney experience.

The CM at City Hall -- who was very nice and professional, of course -- also told me that they have 60,000 cameras around the park for guests' security. That number sounds high to me. I suspect that he meant that there are cameras giving them views of 60,000 angles. He said that there is no part of the park that they can't see. They can follow -- and listen to -- anyone throughout the entire park. Interesting.

In any case, I thought this would be useful to other board members. If you see someone cut, record it on your camera and show it to a CM, perhaps try to deal with it yourself or know that there's little to nothing that a CM can do to help. FYI.

Rob (after three days at the park)

 

[rondesj]

This happens at at parks and I get pretty frustrated about it. they do not want to cause a seen in front of every one, but they should so that these louts know it will not be tolerated

 

[rondesj]

Thank you wonkakid for helping me get to the golden 50 posts needed.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I was pleasantly surprised to not see line cutting this year on any attraction. The only cutting I experienced was in line at one of food carts for Hot Cocoa before the fireworks one night. The girl standing behind me, miracuously ended up in front of me when it came my time to order.

 

[WonkaKid]

Hmm. I guess I was surprised because I'd never seen line jumping at DL before. People had always been well behaved. First time for everything.

 

[nana50]

The worst line cutters are usually for the matterhorn. The line is long and far away from the front so people climb over the chain all the time. Pisses me off to no end. It is usually teenagers, but sometimes a family. Way to teach values there people.

 

[PinkBudgie]

To "cheer" you up I will tell you about a time I saw line cutters get caught.

At Screamin some teen boys were exiting the ride. They noticed they could just hop over the railing and be in the FP line, past where the tickets are collected so they could be almost on the ride again. It was behind the building so they thought CMs couldn't see.

As soon as they started over, a voice from above warned them not to climb over the railing. They stopped, looked around, and decided the "voice" must be talking to someone else. So they kept going. Again the voice warned them to stop and described what they were wearing.

Well by that time they were sure it wasn't them because there was no way they could be seen back there. They waited in line but when their turn arrived, a CM was there to escort them off the ride. Don't know what happened after that but they didn't get to go on it again. That made my day.

I just wish more CMs would be that attentive. I have a feeling some CMs don't want to be bothered so they pretend not to see.

 

[Goofy_Mom]

I sometimes have to get it the line with my DD, she's 9 but small and other older kids try to sneak past her all the time.

We were line for Astro Orbiter July 2009. In front of us were two little boys whos' attached was to the parade and not the line. Rather than be pushy, I let them enjoy the parade - there wasn't a big gap yet and the line was still a bit long. The teenagers behind us decided to walk by us and the little boys. I just looked at them and said "no, I don't think so" and did the come here motion with my fingers. They looked like they weren't going to comply at first, but I think the don't mess with me look on my face changed their mind (I'm 5'8" with a solid build). Then they started talking crap, I just looked at them and said "they're kids, how old are you?" They shut up real quick.

 

[bumbershoot]

I let them enjoy the parade - there wasn't a big gap yet and the line was still a bit long. The teenagers behind us decided to walk by us and the little boys.

If I decided to stop in line to look at something, I would have let people past us. I've done it, too. The psychology of lines causes us to feel anxiety when there's a gap widening and no one is moving. It's no wonder they felt that they should be able to go in front. Same nonsense happens at TSMM while people are staring at Mr Potato Head. When DS is entranced by him, we let people go by! No need to hold others up just b/c my kid wants to stop!


OP, it's good that CMs can't do something about things they don't see. After all, that guy could have followed you to the next line, and told the CMs that YOU had cut, right?

Most people if experimenting with cutting in line...if called on it, they'll stop. Those that do NOT slink back...those are people I'm not going to bother with any further, because they are showing that societal expectations and public embarrassment don't bother them. It just doesn't bother me THAT much to make a big stink, when it just means I got on one family later. I do worry about parade seating and that sort of thing...but the line cutting stuff doesn't stick with me.

 

[Mom2aJessieGirl]

We were in line for Autopia when the CM decided to hold us back to re-route the ropes. My sister, BIL and DD4 all heeded the instructions by the CM, but a few college age kids decided to hop the chain and squeeze in front of us.

We discreetly tattled on them to the CM re-routing the chains. She pulled them out and made them go to the very end of the line. I felt a very odd sense of satisfaction! I still can't believe that was the only time I witnessed cutting the entire week we were there!

 

[greens_in_WA]

We had a good one too. When Nemo was still new, and the wait was an hour +, there was a family that kept going back and forth, leaving as few as one person behind, while they all went off and did whatever, while we waited with our antsy kids... who I think were 2 & 6ish at the time..... It was a very LOOOOONG wait. Now if the family had been taking a little one to the bathroom no big, but they were gone for 90% of the wait. Sure enough the Grandpa waited for them to rejoin him close to the boarding area. Thankfully, a CM saw the family trying to rejoin (cut) with Grandpa and said no way. We'd waited so long I'm sure my dh would have said something and embarrassed the poo out of me i the CM hadn't handled it.

 

[Princess Row]

Heres a good one for POTC ride:

This past March I was in the park with my mom and a friend of mine and we got into the left hand side of the line for POTC, another lady entered at the same time of us into the right hand land and looked up and realized her side the line was much longer so she proceeded to jump over hte rail into our line. My mom and I both saw and let it go....we figured it was one person so we would just let it be. WELL THEN! Her WHOLE family about 10-15 people come through the line and I said you just cut in front of us and she said no i didnt and I said yes you did, i just watched you and she said well this is my family you B****. Being a teenager I was highly offended and felt that she shouldnt be using this sort of language with me or anyone for that matter, after all she was the one who had committed the crime. Then I got into her face and screamed that she had cut us. She pushed me out of the way and my mom then told her she needed to get out of the line because she wasn't at all acting in anyway she should be. With everyone watching what was going on she proceded to scream horrific names at me that I have never been called and I'm in high school. She told my mom her child neeeded to grow some respect for their elders and I needed to understand that since she was over weight and heavy I needed to respect that she needed to be first. HER SON then proceded to get in my mothers face calling her a B**** and me some names. He was even younger than me. Talk about respect huh? So my mom notified the cast member at the line and he pulled us out of line in front of everyone else and put us on the loading dock at which they STILL yelled names at us. He set the other family aside and made them wait till a good chunk of people were let on because we refused to be in the same boat with these awful people. Oh it was an experience to never be forgotten and I'm sure karma came around later for them all.

 

[DisneyMax74]

lol We had some lady and her husband totaly just try to push their way past us in line for Toy Story. It was quite annoying but pretty funny too.

We were in line with our daughters when we noticed that the lady behind us was actually pushing her way to being even with us in line and when we went around a corner she actually tried to pass us. We got back in our spot ahead but at every single chance, every gap there was she tried to squeeze herself and her husband past us. Finally my wife had, had enough. As Im sort of laughing to myself about it, she boldly just flat walks in front of this lady, got our girls in front of her and wouldnt budge.

This lady tried several more times to pass us in corners and even in strait sections, she would try to get past us. It wasn't like she was trying to join a group ahead of us, she was just trying to pass us up. If she had been attempting to join her group ahead of us we would gladly let them by.

Finally she decided she wasn't getting past my wife (who doesnt take up much space lol shes just very determined) she moved over behind me and tried to get past me. By this time I was pretty irritated yet bemused by it all so I just made sure she didn't butt past me either.

It was all very funny and quite bizarre.

 

[WonkaKid]

OP, it's good that CMs can't do something about things they don't see. After all, that guy could have followed you to the next line, and told the CMs that YOU had cut, right?

Under those circumstances, I would agree. However, there were two people that didn't know each other -- me, the cuttee and her entire family -- complaining of the cutting. One witness / complainant: kind of a case of one word versus another. Two independent complainants? That's another story.

 

[Littleprincess2010]

All these stories of being sworn at and people cutting in line are kinda bringing me down. Please tell me this isn't the norm at Disneyland, we really want to have a good time but Im worried about having an exerience like one of the previous posters, those stories are all really horrific given that you were at a family oriented park (Not to mention its Disneyland for crying out loud!!).

 

[PinkBudgie]

All these stories of being sworn at and people cutting in line are kinda bringing me down. Please tell me this isn't the norm at Disneyland, we really want to have a good time but Im worried about having an exerience like one of the previous posters, those stories are all really horrific given that you were at a family oriented park (Not to mention its Disneyland for crying out loud!!).

It isn't the norm for me. Often our trips have no issues with line cutters at all. But of course, when you get that many people in one place, not all of them are going to be honest. Usually the worst I see is the small child behind us scooting up past us until his parents call him back. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Tink91]

After waiting in the line of SM for a good 2 hours we had a group of maybe 6 teenagers join 3 who were a few ahead of us. So frustrating

 

[-KT-]

My family and I had just gotten past the fast pass line for thunder mountain when a mother and her child rushed past us. We figured she was meeting up with some people so we didn't say anything but then a cast member started yelling at her to stop. She pointed to a woman and said "we are with them" but the woman she pointed to said "I don't know her". When the woman said that the mother looked shocked and then started trying to shove past more people but luckily the first cm yelled to two big male cms that stopped her and took her out of line. It was so weird, I have never experienced anything like that anywhere in my life and I felt awful for the child.

 

[jennym68]

we were waiting in line in Mickeys house to see Mickey..you know the part where they show the old cartoons and then let about 20 people at a time thru the door..my 4 yr old was very excited to see Mickey and we had waited a long time, it was so busy and i was over people trying to cut in line (had seen this many times this trip) anyway i could see a man & woman pushing past people and as they came to me i said 'where do you think you are going?' and he said to see Mickey and pointed towards the door..i said well what do you think the rest of us are doing? he just looked at me and i said look at all the people lined up here, go wait your turn! My DH turned to me and said where did that come from as it was out of character for me to speak up..i think i was just hot, tired and over people doing this! they both slunk back to where they had come from.

 

[daniele_ut]

Just last night, they had to shut down Mr. Toad just as we were about to ride because of the impending fireworks so the CM put as the front of the line for when Peter Pan would reopen after the fireworks. Since the PP line had been more than 60 minutes long before that we were thrilled. A VERY large guy and what I assumed was his wife and child cut in front of us before they hooked up the rope while dh was taking DD to the restroom. I didn't say anything because frankly, he looked mean. Eventually they let about 8 other people in front of us. I didn't say anything because i didnt' want to start an argument and I knew we'd still be on the ride within minutes, but dh was a little ticked when he came back from the restroom. When the cast member who put us in the spot in the first place came back she told the guy and their party that they had cut in line and he got really belligerent, saying that there was no one there and they hadn't cut in front of anyone. He got really loud about it and eventually an older woman that had cut in with them came back and told us to just go in front of them. It was embarrassing and uncomfortable, honestly, bit the cast member who had been so nice to us apologized several times for the mix up.