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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Theme park queue jumpers

137 replies

Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:20

I took the kids to a theme park today. We knew it would be busy as it’s school holidays. One ride the kids were desperate to go on had a 60 minute queue. We joined the end of queue and waited. About 20 mins in three women pushed past everyone behind us and tried to come past us. When I said no she claimed she had to come past as her kids were further up. I said her kids were welcome come back to join her where she was. She swore at me and carried on up the queue to her group of teens about 10 people in front of us. They then spent the rest of the queue time loudly complaining about how I wouldn’t let the pass! ( not that I was able to stop them- I’m not going to physically restrain someone!) Aibu that everyone has to join the back of the queue and wait? Or is sending a teen in to save a place ok? I heard no one else in the queue behind us confront them- although as was about 20 mins worth of queue I doubt would have heard people much further back.
yabu: it’s fine to save a place in theme park queue
yanbu: it’s pushing in and unfair

OP posts:
JOD74 · 14/04/2023 16:21

How do you know they didn’t need to nip to the loo or something?

Isthisexpected · 14/04/2023 16:24

Well it's not on if one person holds places for a group because that group are off doing something else. They then get to go on the rides earlier, ie taking the places of people actually queuing. But I do think it's OK to leave such a long queue to go to grab a drink/loo break and go back to wherever you left it.

SellFridges · 14/04/2023 16:26

It’s not ok to leave a theme park queue and come back. I’ve never heard such nonsense.

Original poster
Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:26

Well, we’d been in the queue for 20 mins already and hadn’t seen her leave to go to loo/ get drink and assumed she would have said if that were the case?!

OP posts:
PuffinsRocks · 14/04/2023 16:28

YABU and your behaviour sounds childish IMO.

Sailawaytocromer · 14/04/2023 16:29

It’s fine! If it’s one person holding a place for 10 others that’s not on. 10 people holding a place for 1 is ok. I can’t think of a lot of reason why she wasn’t in the queue.

wincywincyspider · 14/04/2023 16:30

Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:26

Well, we’d been in the queue for 20 mins already and hadn’t seen her leave to go to loo/ get drink and assumed she would have said if that were the case?!

Why should she tell a stranger, in public, that she'd been to the toilet?
It's a theme park, they're hardly round every corner, it's very possible they've walked to find a toilet then walked all the way back. You aren't the queue police.

Curseofthenation · 14/04/2023 16:30

I would have done the same. You go to the loo and have drink breaks before joining a ride queue. If you need to go suddenly, well then you go on the ride separately!

Original poster
Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:33

my kids are going to enjoy theme parks so much more when they realise they don’t have to queue up for rides anymore! I can queue whilst they do something else and then just join me later! 😂

OP posts:
Original poster
Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:33

P.s sarcasm!

OP posts:
Nismet · 14/04/2023 16:34

No that is the policy at Merlin places and I have done similar to you. In these hour long queues it would be crazy if this became the norm. If every family pulled the same trick she'd be expected to let dozens of people queue jump her in an hour long queue, and you can be 100% certain she would not stand for that.

Also I think it's quite good to teach your kids it's ok not to be a complete doormat.

I'm not saying I never let people queue jump elsewhere, but specifically at Thorpe Park on a big ticket ride, generally no.

IglesiasPiggl · 14/04/2023 16:35

Some places explicitly state that this is not allowed. If lots of people do that it misrepresents the queue time for everyone else, who might not have chosen to queue had they known the queue was actually much longer because of places being held for others.

blubberball · 14/04/2023 16:35

Theme park queues can turn feral sometimes. I remember a group of teens pushed past us and pushed my kid out of the way. I'm not usually confrontational, but I pushed right back until me and my kid were back in front of them.

Original poster
Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:37

It was a merlin place- Chessington world of adventures. Vampire ride to be precise. I couldn’t see anything about it in their online terms and conditions though.

OP posts:
GoodChat · 14/04/2023 16:38

I'm with you OP. It's shit when you've got kids who are already waiting an hour.

purpleboy · 14/04/2023 16:49

We've just got back Florida and this is a thing there, I saw a few times the staff telling others to use the quick queue line to find the rest of their party up ahead. It drove me insane the amount of people who came past us in every queue. By the end of the holiday we were doing the same, if we had to put bags in the lockers 1 person would go do that and the rest of us would get in the queue, they would then join us, I hated doing it but if you can't beat them join them!

Original poster
Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:50

@wincywincyspider
the words she used to swear at me indicated she might not be so
delicate as to be unable to allude to the fact she needed to use the facilities! However, she could have lied and said she’d gone for the emergency drink option if she didn’t want to mention toilets!

OP posts:
wincywincyspider · 14/04/2023 16:58

Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:50

@wincywincyspider
the words she used to swear at me indicated she might not be so
delicate as to be unable to allude to the fact she needed to use the facilities! However, she could have lied and said she’d gone for the emergency drink option if she didn’t want to mention toilets!

My point is she doesn't owe you an explanation, does she have to give that same explanation to every other stranger in the queue as well?

Her kids were up ahead. I doubt the kids felt like queuing on their own to hold everyone's spaces. If it had been the other way round and the parent had waited in the queue then maybe, but either way you aren't the queue police and she doesn't have to explain anything to you. If there's a problem then tell a member of staff.

SirenSays · 14/04/2023 16:59

Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:33

my kids are going to enjoy theme parks so much more when they realise they don’t have to queue up for rides anymore! I can queue whilst they do something else and then just join me later! 😂

Wasn't it the opposite though? So you'd be telling your teens they all have to stand in line while you go and have fun

IrregularChoiceFan · 14/04/2023 17:01

My mum would sometimes do this but she wasn't actually riding so would make it clear to people she was overtaking that she was just dropping something off or telling us where she would be waiting (pre mobiles). I don't really think its on otherwise.

Original poster
Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 17:01

@SirenSays yes it was the opposite in this situation- it if people feel place holding is ok in a queue then why should it matter who holds the place? I don’t go to theme parks in the Easter holidays for my enjoyment- it was for them!

OP posts:
SummaLuvin · 14/04/2023 17:03

alton towers queue jump policy says no to space saving.

Original poster
Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 17:06

@wincywincyspider
“My point is she doesn't owe you an explanation, does she have to give that same explanation to every other stranger in the queue as well? “
She doesn’t owe me an explanation- it just would have been polite if she’d had one. My point was that if we all pay The same price for a ticket to why should her time be more valuable than mine? If you don’t want to queue buy a queue pass (£10 each on this ride) or don’t join the queue.

OP posts:
mostlysunnywithshowers · 14/04/2023 17:06

Depends. We've had children catch up with their friends ahead of us and it is annoying, but when a ride seats a lot or the queue moves fast it's not big deal and I've ushered my children through to meet their sibling if they had to the toilet.

One example where judging queue tutters are being ridiculous is where a ride seats a particular number of people and families ride together so that 1 person going to the toilet and coming back is not in any way affecting the queue - because that carriage was already partially filled by the other family members and strangers were not going to share, e.g., train carriages or separate carts on a track. In this case, your tutting and judging are just making you look like Victor Meldrew and too uptight to be queuing for a 'fun ride' in the first place!

Nismet · 14/04/2023 17:09

Luckycatyellowsky · 14/04/2023 16:37

It was a merlin place- Chessington world of adventures. Vampire ride to be precise. I couldn’t see anything about it in their online terms and conditions though.

Yeah I don't know where I got Thorpe Park from, must have muddled with something else.

We haven't done Chessington for a few years but I know I looked it up in detail for at least one of the others. I have an autistic child who is fine queuing but not so fine with queue jumpers! It's pretty rare IME for people to ask at Merlin places.