Line-cutting

We finished our WDW week, and something has been bugging me. We are not novices, and I know line-cutting happens, but this trip it was so in-your-face that it really bothered me. I talked to a few of the line-cutters, and each one insisted they were not line-cutting; they were just joining up with their family that was already in line.

Here is how I define line-cutting: if you are walking past people waiting in line, you are cutting. If you are ducking under a rope or barrier to get in the line, you are cutting. If you are ducking under a rope or barrier to advance your place in line, you are cutting. If you are walking past people to meet up with friends in the line, you are cutting. If you and your party are not ready to stand in line, don’t get in line. There aren’t any surprises; Disney helpfully posts the wait times at the front of each queue. If you see a wait time of 90 minutes and know you have to go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom first and then get in line. See? It’s easy.

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Here! Here! We saw the exact same thing for rides, meet and greets and even rope drop…Epcot was the worst!

Just playing devil’s advocate here:

If you and your partner are at the grocery store and you both move to get into a line to checkout and your partner all of a sudden realizes he forgot the milk, do you both step out of the queue while you wait for your partner to run to grab milk and run back or do you wait in the line while your partner runs to get the milk?

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Just playing Devil’s advocate

If your on grocery line and partner goes to get milk and your turn at counter comes up, do you move aside and let those behind you go to checkout

@BackIntoTheFray, someday I may admit that I turn into that school principal that sternly tells people, “great- if it is important for all of you to be together, they should step aside and wait for you. See, that way you’re not rude”. Of course I am truly a (rhymes with witch).

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It bothers me too, a lot. But I try to just let it roll of my back unless it’s more that a couple people. If it’s an entire group, then yeah, I say something. Unfortunately there are countries that have different rules of ettiquette than are typical in the U.S.

I was thinking about something along these lines today. I plan on using an ECV while in the parks due to a foot injury. We are roping dropping FEA at Epcot. If my two other party members walk quickly and I fall behind, is it cutting for to show up 3-5 minutes after them and join them? To me, no. Now if it’s a group of teens (3+) who try to join a group, yes that’s cutting.

Are you touring together? I would think you would all stay together. The same thing happens when you have a stroller. You go, park it- then enter the line. A few minutes in a continuous loading attraction could mean you are trying to get past 30-50. people and the difference in that load time may be minutes.

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I agree with the OP on everything except the last point. DW has lower GI medical issues, and if things come on all of a sudden, sometimes there really isn’t any option but to get to a bathroom ASAP and hope you are not too late. If a party is in front of me, and someone in it has to rush to the bathroom, I have NO problem with them getting back into line where they were. If one person has been in line, and then others join in much later, then I DO have major problems…

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I also see a little bit of a difference for bathroom trips too. I agree that people really should try to go before getting in line, but sometimes it just doesn’t work that way. I have small kids, and it’s inevitable that at least once a trip someone has to go to the bathroom after we’ve already waited though a significant portion of a line. I guess I don’t expect people to let someone hold my place in line when I have to run a kiddo to the bathroom, but is sure is nice not to have to wait all over again because I don’t want to risk that DD4 can’t hold it any longer.

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I was just about to touch on the children needing to use the bathroom caveat as well - I absolutely agree w/ OP that true line-cutting is not acceptable! However…if you make a special trip to the bathroom, knowing you are about to get into a long line (for Jedi Training signup perhaps…) and 20 minutes in, your 5 year old has to use the bathroom, I see nothing wrong with having DH stay in line w/ DD and me taking DS to the bathroom and right back in line immediately. If I wasn’t obvious enough, this exact scenario happened to us lol. Kids have to go when they have to go, period, and I don’t think it’s necessary to have to restart your place in a line in that particular scenario. When that happened I did ask the cast member directing the line for JTA if it would be ok and he said certainly, just enter back in the line through here. Most people could see I was ushering a small child to the nearest restroom and seemed to be completely understanding.

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I’ll jump in too. I agree that line cutting is a no-go. If you are a family with older children or adults, then you should be able to suck it up and ALL stand in line. But, I would hold a family with young child to a different standard. For example, my daughter truly has a hard time standing in a line. If I was waiting in a long line, I could definitely see us trading off walking her around while one of us holds our spots. But, this is as much for your enjoyment of waiting in line as hers. You don’t want to listen to 90 minutes of whining any more than we do. (Not that we would stand in line for 90 minutes because that’s just a recipe for disaster, but more making a point that it IS hard for younger children to wait in lines sometimes and keeping them occupied, possibly out of line, is a survival tactic)

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Sorry but I respectfully disagree with your view on this. If every family with small children did this tactic, every 20 minute line would actually be 40 minutes. I don’t think it’s fair to everyone else in line. You say line cutting is a no-go, but that’s exactly what you’re describing.

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Fair enough. I guess I was thinking more along the lines that I would not considering stepping out of line as cutting. I would not be annoyed, for example, if all the family entering the line and then 1-2 having to step out for a bit, leaving a family member to hold a place as cutting. If they were already in the line when you entered, but then stepped out of line for awhile for a bathroom break/walk around, etc, it’s not adding any additional time to my wait as when I first entered the line. But I can see your point of that being a tactic all the time where only dad enters the line, waits for awhile and then 5 other family members arrive later on, because you did not anticipate those additional people being in line. But if there were already there then you already knew they were ahead of you. So I guess it’s down to semantics on what you consider “line cutting” vs. “stepping out and place holding”.

In the UK we hate line cutting too, or as we call it, queue jumping. I will always say something if I feel someone is taking advantage.

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I agree, I can’t stand it when 3 or 4 people push past a long queue saying their family is up ahead. If they were that bothered about being with their family, they would have entered the line together.

I understand people needing bathroom breaks, but if I’ve been waiting 20 minutes, if they’d been in the line and come out I’d have most likely seen them. And if I see them come out, I have no problem letting them back in, whether it’s children or adults. My own DH has bathroom issues due to his condition. But not a group of adults or teens.

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i often suggest to those groups that it would be much easier for the 1 person that is ahead to come back and meet up with the 3 or 4 than it is for the 3 or 4 to push forward

about 100% of the time, that logic falls on deaf ears…or they claim to not speak english

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I see it this way. Mom and child returning to Dad okay. Ten teens catching up to friends not okay. I have seen both. Sometimes CM intervenes, not often.

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This used to really bother me - now not as much - it is what it is and is it really worth the confrontation. If you feel it is - say something - if not - don’t let it ruin your time. Some people are just RUDE and SUCK and you can’t do anything about it. Families reuniting after a bathroom break or whatever - doesn’t bother me but a gaggle of kids does. I wonder if a group of seniors would bother me?!? We usually wait for the other part of our party - but not always.

Interestingly - in US on rides where you have to have a “locker runner” no one seems to be bothered by the “meet up” which is cool - as I was usually the locker runner. Take a deep breath and remember “happiest place on earth - happiest place on earth”

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That is interesting. My family would never enter the line until after I’d got back from the lockers. There was a long wait at times so they’d have got in the ride before I met them!

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