Line Cutting

[The Master]

One of the banes of park enthusiasts is line cutting. An all too common act at many parks that can easily escalate. On my visit to GAdv today, Thursday 04/24/2025 line cutting was much more rampant than I had seen in awhile. On Medusa it was the old I need to catch up with my friends excuse, except when this person passed by six more followed her to join their two friends. Over at Sky Screamer, kids ran in the Flashpass line, then ducked under the railing to cut into the standby line. At Nitro where the large front queue splits, four teenagers went the other way to cut off the majority of people walking in the main path and laughing about it. Finally at Flash another person tried the "I need to join my friends" clichie.

Sometimes you can predict when its going to happen. Often line cutters have certain cues or tells that can tip you off like aggressive behaviors and tailgating as you walk, especially if they are jockeying and peering around you. Plus there are certain spots in some queues, design flaws that are often exploited by cutters. I need to join my group is a tired cliche that cutters still frequently use.

 

[CoasterBroCam]

I’ve had multiple instances of line cutting, but my most memorable instance of it was when my mom tried to make me cut the line for Superman at SFGAM. I didn’t, and she was pretty mad afterwords that I made her wait 15 minutes for me to ride.

 

[Zachary]

I think legacy Six Flags parks have, on average, had to deal with more frequent security issues than legacy Cedar Fair parks, but, at least in my experience, the legacy Six Flags parks were always far better at security than the legacy Cedar Fair parks.

I very much hope that the new, combined chain didn't look at security funding/staffing/training/etc at the legacy Six Flags properties and see that as an area to cut back to more Cedar Fair-like levels because, frankly, it would be a recipe for disaster at the legacy Six Flags parks if so.

I don't know why Cedar Fair didn't/doesn't understand how horribly aggressive/rambunctious/rule breaking patrons impact the guest experience of others, but it has long seemed near the bottom of the legacy Cedar Fair parks' priority lists for a long while now. Security is a rare area where Cedar Fair needs to learn from Six Flags, not the other way around.

I'd be very curious to hear from SFGAdv people over the coming year re: how security levels in the park (staffing, monitoring, visibility) seem to compare to recent years pre-2025. It's an area where, in my opinion, at least until the park's market position (hopefully) changes and, in turn, the audience (hopefully) shifts to a less rowdy, ideally more family-type demographic, cuts are unacceptable.

 

[The Master]

Dorney had armed security guards who supposedly received PA state trooper training. Its pretty unusual for a regional park to have such extreme security like that. I don't know if they still have armed security but they seem to have been downsized the last few years I visited Dorney.

I never seen armed security at GAdv which may partly be due to different and stricter laws in NJ vs PA. At best GAdv security have trash pickers. However, GAdv often has Jackson police, sheriff deputies, or NJ state troopers walking around. Yesterday I didn't see police at the park. 4 incidents of line cutting in one day is unusually high for GAdv, possibly just rowdy spring breakers?

 

[dwillt]

I find that the older I get, the less patience I have with the "I need to catch up with my friends" line. Last time I was in the park, I made a point whenever I was on line to hold the railings at both sides of the line, blocking the way for anyone to "catch-up with their friends." When one teenager told me, "Excuse me, sir, I need to catch up with my friends, I was just getting ice cream," I told him "Too bad, hope you enjoyed your ice cream." He looked completely perplexed by the fact that I wasn't budging and he tried again, "No, really, my friends are up there." And I just said, "And you're back here. Too bad for you." He muttered something under his breath about me, but he stayed where he was.

 

[Mattatee]

Dorney had armed security guards who supposedly received PA state trooper training. Its pretty unusual for a regional park to have such extreme security like that. I don't know if they still have armed security but they seem to have been downsized the last few years I visited Dorney.

I never seen armed security at GAdv which may partly be due to different and stricter laws in NJ vs PA. At best GAdv security have trash pickers. However, GAdv often has Jackson police, sheriff deputies, or NJ state troopers walking around. Yesterday I didn't see police at the park. 4 incidents of line cutting in one day is unusually high for GAdv, possibly just rowdy spring breakers?

KD also has a couple armed/gun trained security too for what it is worth. Not sure if it was a CF legacy chain thing or just at certain parks.

 

[twoyutes92]

i think a lot of this would be solved by single rider lines. as much as i hate line cutting, it is MADDENING the number of times i see half-full trains get sent off from the station especially visiting the parks alone or with one or two other people. wider adoption of single rider on the bigger coasters would speed up ops and reduce the line cutting impulse in a lot of people IMO

 

[CoasterBroCam]

i think a lot of this would be solved by single rider lines. as much as i hate line cutting, it is MADDENING the number of times i see half-full trains get sent off from the station especially visiting the parks alone or with one or two other people. wider adoption of single rider on the bigger coasters would speed up ops and reduce the line cutting impulse in a lot of people IMO

I had to wait in a 30 min line for fury at winterfest and had to sit and watch trains with a shit ton of empty seats

 

[twoyutes92]

I had to wait in a 30 min line for fury at winterfest and had to sit and watch trains with a shit ton of empty seats

exactly. the rides i think that need it most are flash, nitro, superman, and medusa. flash is particularly egregious given its already limited capacity and its abundance of queue space with cyborg closing. every seat should be filled every time.

 

[jscll]

KD also has a couple armed/gun trained security too for what it is worth. Not sure if it was a CF legacy chain thing or just at certain parks.

Until recently, Cedar Point police coverage was run by their own private police department. They now contract that out to the Sandusky police department.
Whoever is in charged of training and standards of the new Six Flags needs a raise. Security is the friendliest I have ever seen across every park I have visited so far this year. I have been greated every time I have passed through the entrance security. When the security telling people to keep walking through the fancy metal detectors, they are giving directions loudly, clearly, and in a friendly manner; without yelling aggressively. I hope all of the parks roll out the new security uniforms with the brightly colored shoulders. The uniforms look sharp and are easily identifiable. The body cams being added a couple of years ago is one of the best things both companies (at the time) did.
At Great Adventure, there is definitely plenty of security, but they are not always where they are needed most - queues. At least they put one at the exit of the Flash, that would be a constant place for line cutters to enter otherwise. Jumping over Cyborgs old silver handrails is a constant issue - Having the switchback chains set correctly would help.

i think a lot of this would be solved by single rider lines. as much as i hate line cutting, it is MADDENING the number of times i see half-full trains get sent off from the station especially visiting the parks alone or with one or two other people. wider adoption of single rider on the bigger coasters would speed up ops and reduce the line cutting impulse in a lot of people IMO

A well trained and engaged station entrance attendant can solve most of this issue. The problem with how they tried to implement the single rider lines a couple of years ago is it actually reduced capacity. (They loaded the trains, and then opened the single rider gate to fill in the remaining empty seats. This delayed the start of checking the train by about twenty seconds, increasing the time the trains were stacked.) Although filling in every seat obviously increases capacity, reducing train stack time is the most important factor to increase total riders per hour.
Overcrowding stations also leads to more empty seats. It would help if the Flash Pass merge attendant was also always an entrance attendant when possible. On Nitro for instance, they already have two stair cases on the entrance side. If the merge and height check attendant was moved into the station, they could go back and forth between the two stair cases and keep the station at a manageable crowd level (about two train loads or 72 people). I have hope, as they have started to do this at Medusa.

 

[GoHokies87]

I can hardly blame folks that need the restroom in a long line, or even folks going for a drink run on a hot day when you're gonna be there for hours anyways. A lot of the time that will happen when you're a good ways into the line. If I see someone bailing on a line and come back afew minutes later, that hits WAYYYYY different than the Khalidesque "another one" experience of having your stragglers running up after someone else has entered to "hold a spot". The entrance is a great spot to gather and wait till the rest of your party arrives. Yes, several people might get ahead of you while you wait for your stragglers, great opportunity to grab a snack.

Realistically though, I've found few parks have a decent way to handle these situations. You can call it out to the group themselves, which frequently would just result in at best a verbal altercation. You can tell a grouper or ride op, who is likely already tapped trying to handle the task at hand.

Six flags had a number posted for a while, don't know if they still do that. The one time I bothered calling was an experience that would probably kill anyone with social anxiety. First you gotta make a phone call, horror. Then we had someone who ostensibly was working security but also seemed tapped to go out out trash patrol. They just walked up through the line until they got flagged down. At this point we pointed out the offenders and he had what appeared to be a rather uneventful conversation telling them they had to go to the back of the line. The two thoughts I had were, gee this is kinda awkward with them standing right over there; and this kinda seems real easy to just start pointing fingers at random people (not that I know if that's ever happened).

The bigger parks seem to have this taken care of most of the time with the nature of the moving lines and queues that minimize switchbacks and stuff. Seems Universal mostly has issues during HHN with the temporary queues. They also certainly seem to have more visible security. The best strategy to fix line jumping has always seemed to be preventing it from happening in the first place. When it does happen, seems best just shrug it off most times unfortunately.

 

[The Master]

I seen some parks add netting under queue railings to prevent people from ducking under to butt in line.

Most queues have switchback chains to prevent people from entering unused queues, but line cutters often just disconnect the switchback chain hasps to gain entry anyway. Locking chain hasps would be better but there might be safety issues.

 

[warfelg]

I seen some parks add netting under queue railings to prevent people from ducking under to butt in line.

Most queues have switchback chains to prevent people from entering unused queues, but line cutters often just disconnect the switchback chain hasps to gain entry anyway. Lock>g chain hasps would be better but there might be safety issues.

Something I noticed at Disney, they did a good job of making it so no switchbacks get used. I wish more parks could do that.

 

[kmccarthy27]

it was the old I need to catch up with my friends excuse

Something I noticed at Disney, they did a good job of making it so no switchbacks get used. I wish more parks could do that.

I was at DHS 2 weeks ago, and this was a real issue with Slink Dog Dash, one thing I noticed is "dad" pulling the confused kid through while talking on the cell phone like there is someone they are trying to catch up with. But the think with Slink Dog Dash's queue is that some of it is not confined so when they needed to they would jump out of the queue "fencing" , through the bushes, and walk around from the outside until someone let them in.

Sad part was for SDD the line was not even that long compared to what it usually was.

 

[GASM]

Been on Slinky once and it’s definitely an odd queue layout. Deceptively long as well, but I imagine that’s entirely by design.

 

[DE_Creative]

Something I noticed at Disney, they did a good job of making it so no switchbacks get used. I wish more parks could do that.

Seconding this. I always try and put my hands on both railings and don’t move whenever there’s a group attempting to cut, but often that’s impossible when there switchbacks or another system where they can cut around

 

[The Master]

Another phenomenon I see is if someone walks the least bit slower in a empty line, other people tend to immediately pass them without a word or hesitation. This gets really bad when a middle man is caught between a slow poke in front and a pushy person behind them desperately trying to pass both the front slow poke and trapped middle man they are squashing.

 

[NKMM10893]

The day people stop treating their days off like appointments that they’re gonna be late for is the day humanity begins to heal.

 

[The Master]

I was at the park today and the line cutting at Flash was terrible. People were ducking under the railing to "join their friends," right in front of the line attendants who ignored it. I complained about a group who ducked under the railing right in front of the attendant who claimed he didn't see it. However, the cutters overheard my complaint to the attendant and preceded to mock me aboit it up to the station. The line cutting is definitely worse so far this season and l suspect the employees are told to be passive about it. At least there wasn't additional line cutting at the other attractions that l rode today.