Imagine this.
You have been in line for Avatar Flight of Passage for the last two hours. It’s past noon, and you decided to come to Florida in the middle of july. It’s so hot that Disney is selling individual Lightning Lanes for the nearby kiosk so guests can have the chance to buy water. You just need to hang on a little longer, and then it’s time to fly over Pandora in one of the best 3D motion simulators out there and…
…wait, what’s that? A group of six teenagers singing loudly, just zipping past you in lane as they say “excuse me, sorry” over and over again? W-what? Well, it’s just six of them and… wait… another group of teenagers is just approaching, singing loudly just like the previous one and repeating “excuse me, sorry” again and again!? The wait time just increased by thirty minutes because of that!? Oh my god, you can feel it, you are about to explore, this is too much to handle!
Relax. Take in a deep breath. We’ve all been there. Line cutting can definitely be a problem, be it in Disney World, Disneyland or Universal across the globe. Now, how should we react to that?
Who are these people?
I think we need to separate this into specific groups.
The first group consists of people who cut the line properly. This occurs when one person enters the queue to hold a place for the rest of their party. We've all witnessed this scenario: someone enters the line, and soon after, the rest of their family or group joins them. This often occurs when one member holds a spot in a popular attraction while the others enjoy a ride with shorter queues. It's especially noticeable in Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland, where you might see individuals riding something like Winnie the Pooh before rejoining their party in Peter Pan's Flight.
The second group also falls under the category of line cutting and is often easier to spot. It's essentially the example discussed at the beginning of the article, where large groups simply say "excuse me, sorry" and breeze past everyone else. This typically involves a big party of teenagers or young college students and has recently caused significant issues, such as in Soarin'. Both Mickey and guests despise this behavior, as it gives the impression that these individuals believe they're entitled to special treatment.
This situation is the one that frustrates me the most, as this group tends to move around as if they own the place.
The third group is one I wouldn't necessarily classify as proper line cutting. It usually involves a parent accompanying their child to rejoin another family member in line. For instance, the child may have needed to use the restroom or encountered some other issue, prompting the parent to return to the rest of the family. If I see parents with a young kid moving ahead in lane I almost never get mad. I mean, unless the group with the young kid has five other people with them, then it gets sketchy.
What should you do?
So, what should you do if you see proper line cutting? The best thing to do is to just talk to a cast member. See if there is one of them nearby and inform them of what is going on and show that you are not happy with it. It’s usually not a good idea to just confront whoever is line cutting. You never know how they will respond, and they might escalate it to something that might even get you removed from the queue.
What about you, have you encountered line cutting in Disney or Universal? I honestly think it’s something pretty rare, but it can be a bummer when it happens. We’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
