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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

126 replies

create · 05/08/2011 22:49

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?

OP posts:

Chandon · 06/08/2011 15:10

I think you are all mad for going to places like that.

I won tickets to Alton's last year for the whole family, but I just could not face it and we never went.

My kids would LOVE to go to Legoland. But again, I can't face it.

It is marketed as "fun", but really, it is pure STRESS (endless queueing, dirty loos with queues as well, horrid overpriced food, too many other people around, and my kids would guaranteed have to pee just as we're at the front of the queue...) interspersed with a few minutes of fun (the rides).

The VIP passes and queue jumping would annoy me, as effectively, THEM jumping the queue means YOU waiting longer. So their benefit is to your immediate disadvantage. Hence more stress.

I really do not know why people subject themselves to this.

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 06/08/2011 17:07

I'm kind of with you, Chandon, although I'd consider Legoland on an INSET day.

It does seem bizarre that people subject themselves to something that seems both hellish and extraordinarily expensive in return for the odd burst of "fun". But then I'm petrified of heights so what would I know!

SoupDragon · 06/08/2011 17:12

When I was in Disney World 8 years ago, they had a wonderful system. You could get a free fast track pass for the top rides which gave you a time slot later in the day when you could come back and skip the queue. Brilliant idea. I think you had to scan your disney ticket to get them and it only let you have one at a time IYSWIM, you couldn't stock up on them.

singersgirl · 06/08/2011 17:16

But VIP passes and Q-Bot things don't actually mean longer waiting times for other people, as all the people who've paid for them and seem to come to the front of the queue would otherwise (if such upgrades didn't exist) be in the main queue making it even longer. It seems as if they're disadvantaging 'main queue people' as they get onto the ride 'ahead' of particular families, but in fact over the course of the day everyone would wait just as long for all rides as those 'fast trackers' would have to join the overall queue.

Anyway it's ridiculous to suggest that paying for a better service means that you think you are somehow better than other people. I don't like queueing for an hour for a ride and luckily for me I don't have to. You can pay to save time in many ways in life - business class check-ins, Next Day Amazon delivery, expensive slot from Ocado that means I don't have to queue at the supermarket at all.

SoupDragon · 06/08/2011 17:16

I did pay an extortionate amount of money on a "front bat" fast pass for the Vampire at Chessington because I wanted to go home and the DSs wanted to go on the ride again. It was the only way to guarantee we got DD from nursery without being fined!

SharperSeven · 06/08/2011 17:43

I would never pay for priority boarding, I would rather sit in the departure area for longer than board first and be penned in my seat.

Olifin · 06/08/2011 22:08

Past continuous of 'to sit' is 'sitting' not 'sat'. (Unless someone else put you there).

pigletmania · 06/08/2011 22:15

Well my dd 4.5 years, and developmental delay of 2 years, and ASD traits, I would happily buy tickets to queue jump as dd hates waiting for long periods and has big meltdowns, as she does not understand that you have to queue and that you will get your turn eventually. Hopefully she will get better as she gets older.

MadameLupino · 06/08/2011 22:21

My lip has gone all Elvis over 'to the Max'. Just fancy .

PumpkinBones · 06/08/2011 22:32

It's wuite funny that, that, as has been pointed out, these places are often so shit that they can actually convince you that spending another £50 to jump lines is a good idea

PumpkinBones · 06/08/2011 22:32

wuite? quite

timidviper · 06/08/2011 22:39

When we went on holiday a while back we stayed at a hotel that automatically got you fastpass on all the rides in the theme park and it was ACE! I would never want to go again without it, we could do twice as many rides and activities by not standing in line.

As others have pointed out there are all sorts of things you can get faster or more conveniently by paying more so why not. As with everything else in life some people will choose to pay it and others won't, we all have our own priorities. One of mine is not queueing if it can be avoided.

MadameLupino · 06/08/2011 22:54

timidviper, not picking on you at all but you made the fatal mistake of saying 'and why not?' . I cannot resist.

Because you are sending the screamingly clear message to Alton Towers or whoever that, no matter how crap they make whatever it is they're offering, you will offer them more money to make it better for yourself. So rather than limiting entry numbers or expanding or re-thinking systems, they are being rewarded for doing feck all.

You cannot say it is the same thing as choosing to spend your money on a flash phone or cigarettes or another luxury. That's a fairly simple exchange of goods for money. More money = better phone (arguable I know but go with it). In the theme park case more money = getting to do what you have already paid through the nose for, whilst being in unconscious cahoots with the management to make sure others have a slightly crappier time. That's the worse deal ever.

It's like buying a sandwich and paying a premium to not have the waiter spit in it, which means he has to spit in the sandwich of the person who hasn't paid the premium tax.

LynetteScavo · 06/08/2011 23:06

Anyone who goes to such a place in the summer holidays is bonkers.

I do the Lego Land/ London Eye thing but out of season. I hate queues and DS2 hates them even more. I'm too tight to pay extra at the height of the season to que jump, though.

I can't get worked up about people paying more to queue jump though. A couple of years ago a flew with my Dsis, and she got very worked up about 1st class passengers getting a separate queue at the airport, and potentially getting out quicker. Somehow I couldn't get worked up about it. She could have bought a 1st class ticket if she's wanted to....and she complain during the flight they had comfier seats. But if people chose to spend x amount more on a ticket, they are going to want a bit more for their money.

MuddlingMackem · 06/08/2011 23:29

I think that YAB at bit U.

We did the Legoland / Thorpe Park / Chessington / Alton Towers thing a couple of years ago when dd was only 2 and ds was 5. DH is a mad-keen coaster fan, but if he'd queued for all the rides he wanted to go on and me and the kids didn't/couldn't I'd basically have spent huge chunks of the days at each of them on my own with the kids. Him being able to pay to queue 'virtually' for the big rides meant that we actually got to spend some time together between his jaunts on the coasters, so they were well worth the extra few quid.

But maybe that's because we don't see a problem with queuing for rides when we're all going on them, as that's still time spent together as a family, it just seems like wasted time if DH is queuing on his own.

startail · 06/08/2011 23:59

Sorry tried to post earlier and it vanished.
What I was trying to say, badly I fear.
Is that free entry to the natural history museum in particular makes it stupidly busy.
If a trip to London is a rare treat you want to do all the popular bits in one visit and personally I wouldn't mind paying a bit of money if it put some of the museums regulars off at certain times.

startail · 07/08/2011 00:01

If any one knows a random weekend when London is less silly I'd love to know Oct halfterm is mental

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 07/08/2011 10:42

INSET days, star. Trips to otherwise crazy-busy places is what they're for, surely!

frazzle26 · 07/08/2011 12:23

Just out of interest, if everyone paid for priority passes, how would it work then?? It would just be pointless getting them surely.

Guitargirl · 07/08/2011 12:25

Star - I find that the weekend either just before or just after half-terms/other school holidays are the quietest.

Having said that we went to the NHM/Science Museum last Monday and it was fine - actually better than when I used to take DD on a school day before she started nursery and it would be jam packed full of school trips. We went on New Year's Eve one year which was hellish. I was 8 months pregnant, nowhere to sit and I kept kneecapping tourists with the buggy (by accident of course )

After a hideous day at Legoland on a Sunday last September, I vowed never to take the DCs again on a weekend. Hideous. I drank the best part of a bottle of wine when I got home.

This year, I took DD out of nursery for a day in the last week of term and we had a really good day. Busy but we didn't queue for longer than 20 minutes for anything. Last September we had to queue for over an hour for the spinning spiders ffs. This time we just walked straight on.

Having said that though, I think waiting in a queue for a theme park ride for teenagers at least is a bit of a rites of passage isn't it? I remember waiting for an age for some ride at Alton Towers with my mates when I was about 14 and then throwing up in the queue for another one !

Letz · 07/08/2011 12:52

"Just out of interest, if everyone paid for priority passes, how would it work then?? It would just be pointless getting them surely"

The theme parks/attraction/whatever would simply up the prices of the entrance tickets - meaning more eventually lose out. I don't like it at all but don't blame those who pay extra. It's the businesses being greedy. Giving allotted times seems like a much better and fairer way to do it.

thursday · 07/08/2011 13:24

i don't mind if people want to pay double for quicker service. i cant afford to so would have to wait. i dont think it lengthens my wait noticeably, because all those people hopping on at the front would have been in the queue instead so overall the same number of people go on. greedy greed greed on behalf of the businesses though .

startail · 07/08/2011 15:47

Inset days will have to wait a year. Different schools until then.
The DDs have already said they are off to a theme park, first one

Olifin · 21/08/2011 21:24

I know this thread is old now but I thought of it today when I arrived at the Science Museum to find no queue; it was the same next door at the Natural History. We had a great day, no crowds, no stress. Therefore I suggest that a sunny Sunday during the school hols is the ideal time to go. Unless it was a complete fluke that is.

MugglesandLuna · 21/08/2011 21:38

We go to Legoland once a year and use the fast lane because of DS2's ASD. I dont think I would pay for it if we couldnt get it, we just wouldnt go. I dont begrudge people that do, its just an option like lots of things in life.

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