Not being racist, but...

[furie]

I'm also disappointed at this topic because when ever anyone says "not being racist, but..." its usually followed by a massively racist statement, and this wasn't really :/

Yep, I was expecting* a decent conversation piece about casual racism, or where are the boundaries of racism drawn up, should there be allowable banter, etc, etc.

In this case it's just cultural difference. We're taught as children to queue. I'm actually shocked that for the 2012 Olympics we didn't introduce long distance queueing as a new Olympic sport, one we'd be sure to win.

We're taught from a very early age to wait our turn, and to do it patiently and with consideration for those around us, who are also politely queuing away. We're also taught that we should repress our emotions and not force a confrontation, absolutely no eye contact. It's just the British way (for the most part, with notable exceptions on these forums ).

Obviously this isn't as important an act of etiquette to the French (and Spanish). Why should it be really? If you've got friends to meet at the front, or only 20 minutes until you have to meet the bus, then why should you wait in a queue? So you don't upset a few people you've never met before and will never see again? Where's Ben's tiny violin?

Okay, it upsets us as queueing is a national pastime and we have rules on signs that say you mustn't do it and we adore officiousness. The French and Spanish also have these rules on signs, but they're more... guidelines.

I've never seen it at Disney in Paris (though they're very rude pushing in at the character meets), but I think that's because the queues are so tight it's just not really possible, plus it tends to be much younger kids and it's harder to force the way through if you're encumbered with a brat.

How's that Hixee?




*Nope, I really don't know why either

 

[peep]

I don't think it's even a culture thing, it's just people in general are becoming more 'rude'. I don't think I've really experienced it too much on my travels, had a few kids occasionaly try and push past in various queues all over Europe, really not limited to France and Spain (not even been Spain yet). I've found it's generally just really impatient kids and teens, rarely seen adults push people out of the way unless (like the lady in the dodgems queue at GF) they've left the queue with their kid to use the loo and tried to get back to their group.

I think the worst I've seen was at Walygator Parc in France but that was more down to the awful design of the queue for Monster (it being stupidly wide, then narrow on the staircase).

In Disneyland Paris I think the French peeps get a lot of greif from British peeps for no good reason. Most of the time if I'm pissed off by queue jumping or pushing to get to a character they can come from literally anywhere. I've found British people to be some of the rudest people at Disney, like they expect to be treated as superior and therefore everyone should let them go first. I've also had several issues with Spanish families thinking they get priority over everyone else, just pure ignorance. The only problem I've had with French peeps are what I mentioned already, just kids being impatient and just annoying.


I'm now intrigued as to what I'm going to experience in America from some of the comments in this topic.

 

[Mushroom]

There is a good example of brits being rude at a park on a show called Holiday Showdown. They did a part in Disney. I need to find that clip!

 

[Ben]

Furie's thing about Disney reminded me of the single most offensive park in the WORLD for queue jumping... Disneyland Hong Kong.

JESUS. That place was the absolute pits. We thought being ex-British colony they might have kept some of our ideals. Nope. They were the absolute worst. They were bad in China, but, at Disney it was kids and parents who thought they were entitled to go to the front just for no reason at all.

So, Chinks are worse than Frogs.

 

[Thekingin64]

The worst for me has to be the rapids at Phantasia. Everyone was filling every possible gap, no matter if it overtook loads of people. Even I joined in with it.

As everyones doing it and it's such a wide queue, it's not really noticable though.

 

[marc]

The worst place I have seen is dlp simply for pushing and running to get to the front.

2nd worst was Disneyland. People thought they could leave the queue get a drink go the loo and join where they left. This happened far to much.

 

[Lofty]

Yeah. French people are horrendous. It's not like they don't know they're hated either. But, Spain is one of the worst countries for queue jumping. It's the younger ones that are the problem. The kids, they're a nightmare, they just don't care. Walibi Holland had a big problem for queue jumping too!

 

[Kebab]

Actually I listen to Skrillex, who is too awesome to be categorised. He's a massive douche though.

I'm at Birmingham O2 Academy this sunday, Skrillex is playing there! But I'm not HXC enough to watch Skrillex, so I'll be watching LIGHTS play in the little room. cool)

On-topic, I do agree with what you're saying. Spain's no better, and it really pisses me off how inconsiderate people can be. The worst is cattlepen queues, I remember queuing for Furius Baco, and the amount of people who jumped from the entrance to the neighbouring cattlepen section (this is like 70% through the queue) is unbelievable. I love how they say "hey, can we come by you?" like they know them, that's the worst.

 

[Snoo]

I'm now intrigued as to what I'm going to experience in America from some of the comments in this topic.

Again, nothing like that. You get the occasional jumper, but nothing that requires confrontation unless you feel like it.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

I agree. Americans loudness works in favour in these kind of environments where someone is doing something that disadvantages everyone else, because they get called out on it big time. Queue jumping is definitely more of an issue in the UK than the States. Definitely.

When I was at SFOG, some kids who were waiting at the exit of Goliath and, in the commotion of offload/onload, entering the platform and taking seats. I noticed, and I told staff and pointed them out. They noticed me doing do, and followed our group around making threats for quite a while. It was like being at Thorpe. Eugh. SFOG is such a dump. That's the only park I saw queue jumping outside of Florida in the US, and I saw it a couple of times that day. Florida doesn't count because it has a high percentage of non-Americans being scumbags.