People butting in line common?? Is it true?

friedela

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 15, 2017
I read a blog post that people cutting in line is REALLY common. True or false? If so, how do you handle it without things escalating? Any stories to share? Do cast members keep an eye on it at all?
 
It happens some, but not a ton. What you'll see most is one person "holding" a spot for others. Many times it's a father/mother in line and mother/father took little Johnny or Suzie to the bathroom. In those cases, it's 100% understandable and I have no problem letting them in. But then other times it's pretty clear people are just cutting. However, I really would say it's FAR less common to see true line cutters than mom coming back with kid from the bathroom. I don't see it often enough to really be a concern, IMO, just once in a while. I don't really see CMs stopping people on those occasions, I don't think they're supposed to. Guests often do...including me. I'll simply stand my ground and point to the back of the line.
 
It happens some, but not a ton. What you'll see most is one person "holding" a spot for others. Many times it's a father/mother in line and mother/father took little Johnny or Suzie to the bathroom. In those cases, it's 100% understandable and I have no problem letting them in. But then other times it's pretty clear people are just cutting. However, I really would say it's FAR less common to see true line cutters than mom coming back with kid from the bathroom. I don't see it often enough to really be a concern, IMO, just once in a while. I don't really see CMs stopping people on those occasions, I don't think they're supposed to. Guests often do...including me. I'll simply stand my ground and point to the back of the line.
Agree with Klayfish, most of the time it is family holding spots for a few other members. I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem if 2 friends from a pack of 20 sprint ahead into the queue, and then insist that their 18 slower friends be able to wiggle and squeeze their way up to them past the other 30 people that already lined up behind them. I stand my ground, tell my wife to do the same, and quite loudly tell them they can stay exactly where they are. Doesn't fly with me, never has.
 
I’ve never seen line cutting but I have had someone push/shove in front of me when I was standing at the railing during Illuminations. I was standing against the railing by the water, and this woman sort of shoved me back and jumped in front of me.
 
FoP seemed to be our worst experience. It was the only time it wasn’t someone that needed a bathroom break. After waiting 2 hours we had no less than a dozen people “catching up” to their parties. I’m talking people pushing their way up to the front. I don’t know, maybe they all had legitimate reasons for not waiting in line but it was annoying. And once, the people were forced to walk back out of the line as they got up front and had no party waiting for them. That’s the only time/occasion I’ve had that happen. Otherwise it’s pretty much emergency bathroom breaks and no big deal.
 
We have been skipped before. Two times it was very brazen and rude. Occasionally, people catch up with their party which I find annoying (I don’t care if someone leaves to use the restroom and returns - I see that as legitimate. I’m talking about someone gets in line and the rest of the family cuts ahead.) I’ve never seen it as rampant behavior but it does happen.

We do not engage. Ever. It’s the only way to ensure things don’t escalate. You know what’s worse than getting skipped? Getting into a confrontation with the skippers. If we get skipped we just carry on with our day and try not to care. Getting into an argument would put a huge damper on my day.
 
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We had an interesting experience in the Tower of Terror line a few months ago. We began to walk through the fastpass line and the last person was up near the building, so it was a decent stretch of empty line. As we were walking, I heard some yelling behind us and saw 2 teenagers sprinting down the path. I quickly pulled DD7 aside so she wouldn't get trampled, and the boys flew past us. DD asked why I "let" them cut and said it wasn't fair that they went ahead. After explaining that I pulled her aside so she wouldn't get trampled, I told her that some people are just rude, but we're not going to let it ruin our day. By that point, we had caught up to the boys and they overheard me talking about manners and seemed embarrassed but didn't say anything. DD however did find it hilarious later when we got past the library room and a new line opened so we were led straight to an elevator and those boys were a good bit back in a different line.
 
Not so much with lines, but issues with people squeezing in front of me for shows or parades. Like I haven’t been standing there for the last 20 minutes. I have no problem with shorter kids or people who want to sit on the ground getting in front of me. I will even scoot back and offer a kid a spot, but when you are taller than me, it’s very rude.

I think part of the reports about line cutting are over-exaggerations or misunderstandings. Although, some cutting does occur.

I’ve read about people complaining because someone who arrived to the front gate after them was walking faster and passed them on the way to a ride. Hate to break it to them, that’s not line cutting. You aren’t in a line yet, and there’s no rule saying because you arrived first everyone else must stay behind you.

I see no problem with passing up a slower party. I will even let people behind me in the queue pass me if we are walking slowly or have stopped to look at something. I’ve passed people in a queue as well. Those who have stopped off to the side for whatever reason or are walking very slowly. If they are dead stopped way before I can even see the end of the line of people within the queue, I will simply pass them. If they are only moving very slowly, I won’t pass without them saying it’s ok to. I don’t consider either of those situations cutting, but others might.

I’ve also noticed that people don’t understand how the holding pens work and don’t usually follow the CMs directions about moving forward and filling in all available space. We usually take the opportunity to move to the front when we enter a holding pen. If the CM says move forward, and I can move forward, I’m gone. I’m sure there are probably a number of people thinking I’m cutting because I was behind them in the queue, but am now in front of them in the pen. Guess what, I’m not cutting, I’m following the instructions I was given. If you don’t like that I’m now in front of you, you should have moved forward as instructed. I don’t rush or push past anyone or anything. I give those around me plenty of opportunity to step forward, but if they don’t move and leave an empty space, I move into it. People just tend not to move forward, especially the first few times they are instructed before the pen really starts to fill up. People’s natural instinct seems to be to stay spread out and keep a respectable distance from each other. This usually makes it really easy to simply walk your way to the front of most pens.

I also know of a few times that we have needed to “cut” past people in a line. In each case, we weren’t actually cutting, but it might have looked that way to those we passed. In one instance, I had to find a child and remove them from the line. There was an emergency. One time we needed to get out of line, but the only way to do that was to go forward a ways before we could exit. One time I lost a pair of ears, and they sent me down a line to a CM to go get them. I can’t remember if there were any other reasons we needed to cut past people, but each time we had to “cut” we weren’t actually riding. However, the people I passed by didn’t know that. So, I try to keep that in mind when people cut past me. You don’t always know what is going on, and if they are really cutting or not.
 
At Disneyland:

Most people are courteous when in lines.

However, we have experienced people who cut past saying they are "catching up" to their family. Depending on the number of people and the make up of people (eg. parent + young child OR a bunch of teens OR an entire family), I will either believe them or not.

However, we always let them pass (giving them the benefit of the doubt).

I hope that most (prefer "all") people are "truthful" when they say they are "catching up" to families and are not taking advantage of others' kindness in allowing them to pass. This just ruins it for people who need to catch up with their families for "legitimate" reasons and who have no intention of "line cutting". :-)

Having said this, I think that those who are "catching up" to family should ONLY be doing so IF they were originally in line with the family when they entered the queue and had to leave for some important reason (eg. emergency washroom break).

I do NOT think it's OK for 1 family member to "hold places" in line while the "rest" of the family do other things and then "join" them (ie. catch up) to them in the queue. In "my" humble opinion, this essentially amounts to "true" line cutting because those who are "catching up" were never in the queue to begin with. They are only "catching up" (at a later time) when it is "convenient" for them to do so.

We always try to use the washrooms prior to lining up. However, emergencies occur (it's only happened a couple of times when our child was 2 years old) and if we need to leave the queue I will always explain to the people in "front AND behind" of me that we are leaving the queue for an emergency washroom break and will return. I will also apologize for leaving the queue.

This is a bit of overkill but I will also explain and apologize to others in the queue as we exit (example: sorry ... emergency washroom ... coming back) so that when they see us return they will hopefully recall that we left for an emergency washroom break and are not line cutting. We also try to "catch up" to our family from the "least" disruptive point in the queue (eg. if we can go back in line from the "side" instead of going through the entire line up we will do that).

As for "real, actual, no doubt in my mind" line cutting ...

We've only had one truly bad experience with "line cutting" and it occurred at the Tram line up. The parks had just closed and it was chaos at the Tram line ups. We lined up for the section designated for "unfolded" (ie. open) strollers.

For those who are not familiar with this section, this section can only fit about "4" regular sized "open" strollers so the wait for this section is always "long". At minimum, there's always a "several" trams wait before being able to get on BUT since it was park closing, the wait was especially "long" (recall: the chaos I previously mentioned). :-)

We had been in line for over 20+ minutes when the family in front of us ran into their friends. The friends lined up behind us BUT the family in front of us (the mother) kept signalling her friends to "cut in front" of our family. The friends refused but the mother in front us of kept urging her friend forward and even told her friend "it's OK" several times despite her friend's refusal. Kudos to the friend!

However "Boo" to the mother in front of us ...

I do NOT understand why the woman in front of us thought it was "OK" to "line cut" because no one "asked us" if it was OK ... the woman just "assumed" that it was OK to line cut because she knew the people behind us. For the record, when I heard this I definitely felt that it was NOT OK.

So far, we had kept silent because the family behind us refused to cut in line. However, the mother's blatant encouragement to "cut in line and that it was OK" to do so made me really angry especially since I knew if her friends cut in line we would be relegated to a "later" Tram (we were next in line and by the stroller count in front of us we knew we would be the last ones on for the next Tram ... I wasn't willing to wait extra time for the 2nd Tram ... like everyone else waiting for the Trams, we just wanted to leave ASAP).

I finally spoke up and told the mother that "No ... it's not OK for her friend to cut in front of us". The mother replied that they were together and that her friends were part of her "family". I told her I understand but it still wasn't OK for her friend to cut in front of us. If she (the mother) wanted to be with her friends then she could trade places with us to join her friend (ie. we move up and she moves back in line).

I refused to relent and the mother and her family "glared daggers" at us during the remainder of the wait and throughout the entire Tram ride. Her friend had to wait for the 2nd Tram. Somehow I was at fault for not being willing to give up our spot despite waiting 20+ minutes prior to her friends arrival. :confused::sad2:

Thankfully, this was a "one of" experience because, as I stated at the beginning of my post, most people are courteous when in lines. We just had unfortunate luck! :-)

Sorry for the super long post ... apparently I'm still upset over the blatant encouragement to line cut and the rude assumption that it is acceptable behaviour.:rolleyes1:)
 
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I have no problem with parents taking children to the bathroom it happens but on the few occasions that (usually teens) tried cutting ahead to their party, I do not let them pass me I simply tell them to call their party on the phone and they can meet them behind me.
 
We had an interesting experience in the Tower of Terror line a few months ago. We began to walk through the fastpass line and the last person was up near the building, so it was a decent stretch of empty line. As we were walking, I heard some yelling behind us and saw 2 teenagers sprinting down the path. I quickly pulled DD7 aside so she wouldn't get trampled, and the boys flew past us. DD asked why I "let" them cut and said it wasn't fair that they went ahead. After explaining that I pulled her aside so she wouldn't get trampled, I told her that some people are just rude, but we're not going to let it ruin our day. By that point, we had caught up to the boys and they overheard me talking about manners and seemed embarrassed but didn't say anything. DD however did find it hilarious later when we got past the library room and a new line opened so we were led straight to an elevator and those boys were a good bit back in a different line.

We had a similar ToT experience last year, walking up the empty FP line and seeing a couple teens cross the rope from the standby line and start walking up the FP line right in front of us. DW said "hey those kids just cut from the other line" and most everyone reading this knows that there is a second FP check in the hotel lobby area.... it was satisfying to watch those kids also find out and get sent back.
 
I don’t know about cutting in line, but what drives me crazy is when you go into one of the shows and people stop dead in the middle of the aisle and refuse to move down and you have to climb around them. Drives me crazy. If you wanna sit in the middle, let a bunch of people go in before you, don’t just park yourself in the middle seats. And the CMs tell you to move down but they don’t enforce it from what I’ve seen. I know it’s just a stupid little thing but it drives me crazy!
 
I don't count people taking their kids to the bathroom as cutting in line. Lines can be long and usually kids are very urgent in their need to go. I personally don't like it when part of a group saves the space for another part of their group who were off some where else. I only recall this happening to me once where it was enough to annoy me. Basically someone in front of us apparently held the spot in line for a very large group of people. I remember thinking that they seemed like a foreign tour group, as they all were wearing something identifiable. We had been waiting for awhile before this happened. No one did anything or said anything.
 
On our last trip we had this happen at least once a day, but it was just bizarre every time. The ones I remember the most went like this:

1. After a PPO at Garden Grill we went down to Soarin to see about riding before the park opened. It was 8:45ish, so we were standing right near the line entrance waiting. Well this family of 4 comes up and just stands right in front of us like we weren't even there. I know this wasn't technically a line, but I was once again disappointed in how inconsiderate people are. I never would have done that. A similar thing happened at MVMCP in 2015 while we were waiting for a character line to open. People are rude.

2. We were in the FP line for FEA and these 2 older guys just straight up passed us in the line right before you tell the CM how many in your group. So weird.

3. We were about to get off the ME bus at MCO and right as my daughter was about to step into the aisle this woman in the seats behind us almost ran her down to get off the bus. I yanked her back just in time. It was so odd, because she wound up standing next to the bus waiting for luggage. What was the dang rush????

ugh.
 
I personally don't like it when part of a group saves the space for another part of their group who were off some where else.

I don't mind it if it's just one or two stragglers that were likely joining after hitting the bathroom. In order words, 2 joining up with party of existing 6 is fine with me, but 6 joining up with existing 2 is not fine with me.
 
Line cutting and butting in happens. There's little that CM's can or will do. Tour groups are notorious for this. For those commenting that they can't believe people are so rude? Would expect anything less from a place where "We paid a lot of money to come here, we're going to do what we want" is uttered more than excuse me, sorry or please.
 
I don’t know about cutting in line, but what drives me crazy is when you go into one of the shows and people stop dead in the middle of the aisle and refuse to move down and you have to climb around them. Drives me crazy. If you wanna sit in the middle, let a bunch of people go in before you, don’t just park yourself in the middle seats. And the CMs tell you to move down but they don’t enforce it from what I’ve seen. I know it’s just a stupid little thing but it drives me crazy!

This! It is so frustrating. We usually try to hang back and judge how many people to let go in front of us before heading down an aisle. But when the front of the line stops halfway across, it messes that plan up.

I’ve noticed if the theater is full or very close to it, the CMs will enforce the move all the way down rule. They have to in order to fit everyone in. If the theater is less than half full, it isn’t really an issue, so you can pretty much just sit wherever. It’s when the theater is between 50 to 75 percent full, that not enforcing the rule becomes a problem.
 
I don't recall any blatant line cutting... so its definitely not rampant. Like others have said, there are always folks having to catch up with their party.. I am guilty of that because momma and the kids walk much faster than i do, especially near the end of the day. But in those cases, i am never more than a few folks behind my family...
 
I have no problem with parents taking children to the bathroom it happens but on the few occasions that (usually teens) tried cutting ahead to their party, I do not let them pass me I simply tell them to call their party on the phone and they can meet them behind me.

I hope people really try not to judge. There are people with disabilities you cannot see, including my teen's. Small children may be in the majority, but they are not the only ones that may need an emergency break
 

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