Holiday queue situation - what should be done

[whenlifegivesyoulemonssuckonthem]

Currently on a cruise….. this is not a comment about pros and cons as I know what a lot of MN think of cruises.

today we arrived at a US port.

everyone had to clear security even if they did not intend to get off.. instructions were clearly issued.

1. morning excursions to queue at relevant point at 0730
2. independents and after noon excursions to go from 0700 onwards to collect a numbered ticket. Tickets would then be called in blocks once the morning excursions are processed.

i was awake anyway so at 0640 I wandered to the collection point for our numbers. When it started I got 53 and 54.

Around 0745 they called numbers 1-150 so we leave our breakfast and go queue at immigration.

There were people joking the queue with numbers over 150. Then there were morning excursion people who. Clearly hadn’t listened to the instructions and now wanted to push ahead of those who actually followed the system.

AIBU for thinking both sets should be told to wait for either their correct numbers or in the case of the excursion idiots go to the back of the queue as they’d missed their slot entirely.

i also think people who get to airport security and don’t have their electronics and liquids ready should be made to go to the back of the queue.

Just speak to the Purser if there is a delay in getting off for your excursion. An awful lot of people who go on cruises are not really that bright, so they struggle to follow simple instructions. Enjoy being on holiday!!

I was not on an excursion - I was going independent but didn’t like queuing longer because of idiots who can’t follow simple instructions

We’d actually hired a car to do our own thing for the day as we normally do

Is this your first cruise? If not then you must have been expecting this surely? If so, then you’re still unreasonable as you ought to know by now that people are arses when it comes to queuing.

10th - I just can’t take people who can’t follow instructions and play the imbecile

I was wondering if it's your first cruise, too.

Cruise lines have all sorts of 'rules' about little things like this but the staff don't like to enforce them, because their tenure depends on happy passengers.

They can't afford to pick an argument with an entitled person pushing their luck in a queue, and risk having a complaint made about them or a low satisfaction survey score.

An in the US in particular, there are a LOT of entitled passengers, who blather on about their status level and think throwing tips around willynilly lets them do whatever the hell they want.

Twatty comment…..

Maybe in this case it should have been us customs enforcing it.

US customs have nothing to do with organising the queue for immigration.

If it was only 7:45 then I would imagine the morning excursion people assumed the queue would still be morning excursion people and felt you were the ones queue jumping

As much as the British seem to love a que, allegedly, they are shit at it...... because no one gives a shiny shit about anyone other than themselves. People will do what they want, and to the exclusion of instructions because it's their 'right' same as airports. The bloody plane isn't leaving without you, but people refuse to listen to appropriate boarding instructions. I wish they had turned away people if it wasn't the 'right' que, but people are so worried that customers will complain, and they'll be help accountable, they usually don't

I said YABU because the system sounded confusing and there are a host of reasons why somebody might miss their spot etc and it sounds like a bad system to call people so they have to abandon their breakfast - what a waste of food and potentially not something everyone wants to do. I also think it makes sense the staff don’t want to police everyone’s tickets, there’s a rough system but does it really matter if it isn’t followed perfectly?

but if the morning excursion people only started getting processed at 7.30 then surely they wouldn't have all been done in 2 minutes? So people getting there for 7.45 were, what, 5 minutes later than if they'd joined the back of the queue at 7.30? Yes it's annoying but if they could still make their excursion I would feel petty making them miss it because they were a few minutes late. That could be one surprise baby change or whatever. It's not like they were supposed to be there at 7.30 and rocked up at half 9.

All sounds a bit miserable and regimented whilst simultaneously being badly organised, tbh - if I was relaxing on a cruise I wouldn't want to have to get up and start queuing at 7am in the morning to get a ticket to then have to come back again at an unspecified time, possibly when I was halfway through breakfast or in the shower, to queue again, to get processed through immigration - particularly if I didn't plan to leave the ship at all, or even if I'd deliberately booked an afternoon excursion to AVOID getting up that early!

"independents and after noon excursions to go from 0700 onwards to collect a numbered ticket. Tickets would then be called in blocks once the morning excursions are processed.

i was awake anyway so at 0640 I wandered to the collection point for our numbers. When it started I got 53 and 54."*

So independents (which you were) were told to go there from 0700 onwards, but you went at 0640 - which isn't 0700, and are now complaining about and name calling other people who didn't follow the rules...

So it's OK for you to ignore the instruction to go there from 0700 - but everyone else is an imbecile for turning up outside of their instructed time.

Righty ho...

Morning excursions knew to be there for 0730 and had until 0745 to get in the queue.

absolutely no reason not the be there on time apart from laziness or not giving a shit.

I was quite prepared to queue until 0700

I mean, that's cruise life isn't it? Holidaying in close quarters with thousands of other people, many of whom will be twats. Or just different to you.

I'm an avid cruiser too but you do have to take the good with the bad, and that generally involves tuning out all the other people and just doing your thing.

The rules apply to everyone - it’s not an a la carte menu.

just like people showing up on the dining room in Shorts - the dress code is for a reason. Shorts = buffet.

"Shorts 🟰 buffet" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

If it annoys you so much why go on ten cruises? It doesn't sound like much of a relaxing break 😂

Cruises, like other holidays, can’t impose ‘rules’ in the same way as workplaces or immigration officials etc.

The rules are really just requests, or reminders of courteous behaviour. If people choose not to comply, what are they supposed to do? They’re a service industry and they don’t want to get into regular acrimonious confrontations with non-compliant customers.

Please don’t reserve sun loungers with a towel, this is a quiet carriage, abusive behaviour towards staff will not be tolerated etc, etc. None of these ‘rules’ are enforceable without creating backlash (confrontational scenes, upset staff, horrible reviews etc).

You haven't even followed the rules that you know laid out in your own OP whilst slagging everyone else off.

Oh well, suck your lemons, you clearly enjoy the sour taste.

You've made me laugh though thank you.

Are you actually posting this from your cruise? 🤣

Not sure I'm buying it now.

It sounds like a ridiculous system. The morning excursions start wiring for processing at 7:30. The 1-150 people start queuing at 7:45?

Well obviously if that is the case there will be morning people who won't have been processed yet so more morning people turning up at 7:45 won't have made any difference. They would still be in the queue had they turned up at 7:30. If by some miracle all morning people could be processed in 15 mins then you would have a point but I think this is highly unlikely.

Its not morning people's fault that the cruise don't leave enough time between morning and later groups for processing

I do agree that people with numbers above 150 should be asked to wait. There should just be someone there calling out 'any remaining morning excursion people awaiting processing please come to the front. Anyone with tickets above 150 please wait to the side until you are called.'

But if the cruise people had not finished processing morning people then any late arrivers won't have held you up any more than had they already been in the queue in front of you. The problem is the cruise only leaving 15 mins to process all the morning people

You were prepared to queue until 7:00? The queue wasn't even open at 7:00 🤔