to think paying extra to jump a queue is just wrong?

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We've spent the last week or so doing the tourist thing in London (most expensive holiday ever and we slept at home!)

Most of the big attrations (London Eye, Aquarium etc) allow you to purchase a priority ticket for a few pounds per person extra, which means you don't have to queue. I know it can be done at Legoland and other theme parks too.

It just seems wrong to me though, that those with enough cash can not only jump the queue, but effectively make others' waiting time longer. It doesn't seem like the behaviour I want to demonstrate/teach to my DC, but at it seems to be the way of the world AIBU?

The socialist in me wants to say it is very wrong and rant about private health and education. But I am ever the hypocrite and admit that I have used private health and perhaps less seriously a priority pass at Seaworld. I even jumped the queue for the toilet.

bit confused startail, all these pesky local folk and their annoying kids, how did you identify them? demand their addresses?

or you just think london kids should not have the same right of access as kids from elsewhere?

If you lived here you would realise that a trip to the science museum or other such is as big a treat for our dcs as yours. I live in London and it takes me and hour and a half to get there. We don't just skip down from our kensington mansions to trample on the country folk.

when i was in florida about 9 years ago, me and my sister bought the vip queue jumping passes in the theme parks, had nearly all the rides done by lunch time it was great!! it was only a few dollars extra but it was sooooo worth it. me and DH are starting to save for florida and i have budgeted for queue jumping passes. i wouldn't do anything else. i think those who hate queue jumping have never experienced the joy of not having to stand around for days.

Am I seeing this skew-wiff?

If the queues for these rides are hours long then the parks are offering you crap value. They are letting too many people in for too few attractions. But instead of complaining or not bothering, you opt to give them more money so that you can have a better time than the people who don't pay extra. That's extra for a shit service. And congratulate yourselves on your 'I'm alright, Jack' (always wanted to say that ) good fortune on being able to pay for the VIP service.

It just leaves a really bad taste, to me but maybe I'm looking at it wrong .

We once had the opportunity to go in a private pod ride on The London Eye which did involve a bit of queue jumping but I didn't realise you could pay for a priority ticket in, for want of a better word, public pods.

My DS is in a wheelchair and is often offered the chance to jump queues, I have never quite understood this - he is sitting down comfortably and is perfectly capable of waiting his turn. It causes him no issues to sit and wait in line with everyone else.
We usually say "thanks but no thanks" when offered but once at a well known theme park he was physically taken out of the queue by a staff member and put at the front so we went along with that one but had a quiet word later about asking and not assuming first.

I don't have anything against people paying for priority tickets if they wish to though - each to their own.

At some of the theme parks it's not so much queue jumping as what they call virtually queueing. You put in the ride you want, it work out what the queue length is roughly (and from what I've see tends to if anything slightly overestimate) and gives you the time you would be at the front of the queue to turn up. You can't do this for more than one ride at once, but you can spend the two hours you would have spent in the queue doing something else.
I've never used it btw.

YABU. It's no different to flying premium class which gets you through security quickly at one end and off the plane first at the other.

Is this thread about the NHS vs private insurance? Let me read it.

"Now you pay and made to feel increasingly more shit about not 'upgrading' to basically the same thing that would have been included before. " I agree with this and other of MadameLupino's posts.

Is it also wrong to use your money to have a nicer car than someone else on the road? Or fly business on the same plane that people are squished into cattle class? It's a business! If the demand is there they will supply it.

it teaches your children that people who can afford it get what they want faster than those who dont

therefore yabu - its a life lesson, your kids have to get used to

You can look at it the other way round - people can choose to pay a discounted amount if they're willing to queue a bit longer - if that makes you feel better!

Don't see the problem, in most aspects of life money can buy you a more comfortable and convenient ride, that's just the way the world is and I can't really see how it would be possible or necessary to change it!

I have been at Legoland on a particularly busy day before when the q-bot queues were just as long as the normal ones. The guy at the gate ended up letting in the same number of people from the q-bot and the normal queue at the same time. You could see he just didn't know what to do, if he let just the q-bot people through that would mean that the rest of us would never have got to the front of the queue. System totally breaks down on days like that.

I was a bit at the suggestion from one poster that London attractions should at certain times somehow be reserved for non-Londoners. So, what do you do if you live here? Forced to stay at home to accommodate out-of-towners!? . Yes, I will try that next time we go on holiday. Tell all the locals on the beach to go home and make way for us...Am sure that would go down really well.

I think that it is completely wrong. You should all pay the same price and be equal. You then get people who can't queue. I think that the Prince of Wales tried it once ,at a ski lift, and only lasted a few minutes before he expected to barge ahead. On duty I can see he is VIP, but if he is on a skiing holiday I think that he should just cope with a lift queue like ordinary mortals!

at Legoland they have introduced extra priority queueing!

There are the Q-bot things which are £10 each, it says they are not queue jumping, as "it queues for you and you go on when you have virtually reached the front of the queue." Yeah well if you are not standing in the queue bored and are able to go on another ride, or go to the loo, or eat an ice cream, then yes you bloody ARE queue jumping!

Now there seem to be even more expensive Q-bots (£35?) which really do queue jump, which makes all their disingenuous claptrap about the £10 ones even more ridiculous.

Mind you I love it when you do manage to go on a quiet day and see a family of five swishing in at the front of a 2 minute queue, and I think "HA!! How d'you feel about that £50 now?"

The answer is to all pay it and get back to square 1.

Iirc, at Disney (Florida) the fast passes are free an available to all- they give you a time to go to the big ride and you can do other stuff ( like spend money on their food!) while you wait. Ime, it's only in the uk that you pay for that, but it may have changed I guess.

I love fast-track tickets.

We're not long back from Florida, and one of the reasons we chose to stay on site at Universal was that our hotel key card doubled up as fast-pass.

It isn't queue jumping - it is a completely different queue. When we went over to Busch Gardens we bought fast pass tickets - why on earth would I want to pay a small fortune to go to a theme park and then waste the biggest chunk of the day standing in a queue???

I don't see the problem with paying more for quicker / better service and experience. I do it with lots of things - upgraded flights for getting bags straight away off the plane, paying for private dental and medical treatment for a better and quicker service, shopping at a more expensive shop for more efficient service in a less crowded environment, paying for VIP entrance to a club so I don't have to stand outside it all night waiting to get it etc.

I won't go to a theme park or attraction if I'm going to have to spend my day standing in a line, bored shitless.

And fast pass tickets are sold in limited numbers, so the situation where the queue for fast pass is longer than the regular one is a non-occurance.

In Ireland you can pay to skip queues for operations. Poor people have died on waiting lists for cancer treatment while middle class people with "health insuance" get priority access to the same services, paid for with public money.

Now that is unfair.

Sorry OP, I have never used a priority card for a tourist attraction. I just go to things that don't have massive queues.

Yes talkingnonsense at Disney the Fast Passes are free - the only perk tyou get by staying on site is occasional early entry and late evenings but these are almost as busy as normal times if you dont get there very early in the morning.

The Universal fast passes you have paid for by staying onsite asmentioned by Squidgy.

I think these massive theme parks are a different case to the aquarium or london dungeon though - the system works there in a well organised way and everyone understands it - the london dungeon doing it is just ridiculous - they should have timed tickets and have done with it.

YANBU. I complained massively when I went to Legoland recently because of the 'q-bots' they have there. If you can afford to pay and extra £40 per person on top of the £100 odd you've already paid to get in then you caqn just jump the queue. ANd the staff have a total inability to manage a queue so instead of filling a ride that seats say 20 with 15 from the main queue and 5 from the q-bot queue they were filling totally from the q-bot queue, and running the ride several times this way letting the occasional person on from the main queue.

I did complain especially as I was there for 2 days and did manage to get exit passes which helped me but it's just favouring people with a huge disposable income who have more money than sense basically.

Disneyland Paris have a 'virtual queuing' system and it works well. i.e. it's not limited to people who pay extra. ANyone in the park can take a ticket at the ride entrance and then goes back at their allotted time. Much better, works very well (because the staff can manage queues) and fair to all.

Legoland also do a £15 q-bot that we did think about getting on our second day as we'd been so pissed off the 1st day but the queue for that was huge. Later in the day again we were really hacked off so decided we would get one, we were in the queue for over 1/2 an hour as everyone in front of us was complaining. They'd all bought the £15 which only allows you to 'virtually queue' for 1 ride at a time and if they missed their allotted time due to queuing for other rides it wouldn't let them on, and they only lasted for a few hours. After listening to all the complaints we decided not to bother.

It's ruined theme parks entirely imo. From now on if I take the dc to a theme park it'll be during term time. I don't mind queuing that's all part of going to a theme park but when you've got people who can afford an extra £320 (that's how much it would have been for us if we'd bought q-bots for the 2 days (and will be an extra £80 in a few years when DD is old enough)) just to not queue then it ruins the day for everybody else.

Hmmm. This doesn't bother me in the slightest tbh, maybe a little peeved at the time if others are getting their turn before me but when I ever have the money spare I would buy too for the easier option.
I don't understand what your worried your kids are picking up from it? Life IS hard, and unfair sometimes. And if you have more money, things are easier. It's perhaps not an ideal thing to learn but it IS fact. If anything, make your kids more aware of this and they may strive for an excellent education in order to have an easier life. I don't know any parent who wouldn't want their child to have a fantastic career!
Don't get me wrong, I am not implying we should sit and drum in to our children about our financial worries and teach the message 'money is everything' but I see this situation as a basic example of life - you have more money, you are treated better. Unfortunately priority passes or not, that will never change!

Indeed mummyfleece - the first time your dc ask you 'why does everyone have a bigger house then us?' You just have to say because they have more money and shrug - you cant hide away from that.

I agree that it is not fair in many ways. However, years ago I always found it completely unfair that flights were always boarded according to children. Why a mum and dad with a 10 year old should get priority over me made me so angry. I had paid the same and should have been equal. Also, why not board the noisy people with loads of stuff last. I know I will get slated ofr this but having been offloaded two economy flights whilst travelling alone last year because Qatar Airways take the queue and put families at the front so the overbooked seats always end up with the lone adults being rejected is just unfair. I fly Business always now and not only have to pay at least 3 times the cost but if travelling to the UK also get stung for a huge extra tax.
Theme park rides are a bit different though, surely that is the time that children SHOULD get priority according to their age and size. Although the smaller the child does not necessarily mean the more the whiner, they do have less stamina.

Why on earth do people go to theses places? They sound grim.