Boing Boing Staging

Chinese theme-park queue-jumping techniques

Mostly they come down to “pretend you don’t know it’s a queue”; have the old people in your group pitch a tantrum; have the kids in your group go to the front, then “catch up” and board — from a 2010 issue of In Park magazine:

Screaming Old Man – The technique is used by elderly men and women to advance to the front of the line, so if you’re older than 75 listen up! How it works: Go to the front of the pavilion queue or the pavilion exit and begin yelling. As the staff and supervisors gather, crank up the volume and begin waving your arms like you’re trying to flag down a passing jetliner. This instantly creates a commotion in the queue line. In order to maintain order and as a sign of respect, the younger staff members or supervisors will usually reward you by letting you enter the pavilion with no further wait.

Jumping the Kid – The technique uses your kid as an “advance man”. How it works: Your small child “accidentally” wanders away, snaking his/her way through the queue advancing just far enough so that you can see him/her. You begin yelling at your child, “you’re a very bad boy or girl.” As you yell, your entire family pushes its way through the queue line to retrieve the child, inserting yourselves as far forward as possible. Once you reach the child, repeat.

Lift and Insert
– Another very popular
technique is to lift or crawl through the queue
line barrier to gain an advanced position in
line. How it works: Find an area of the queue
where there is no guide. Lift or crawl through
the queue line barrier inserting yourself directly
into the queue. You can even do this with your
entire family and group! Your chances for
success are quite high, as many people in line
will say very little or nothing and let it go to
avoid a confrontation. If a guide catches then
they you may have to leave the line, but this is
quite rare.

These are certainly not unique to China.


The Art of Queue Jumping

(via Kottke)

(Image: 2014 Disney World, Marc Smith, CC-BY)

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