Walt Disney World: it's a jungle out there. To help you cope, I've compiled a short field guide of people you will likely encounter while waiting for your favorite ride.
The Inchers - These people thrive in attractions like the American Idol Experience, Mickey's Philharmagic, or Muppet Vision 3-D, where an entire group enters at once versus a traditional line. When presented with such organized chaos, the Inchers will drift toward the periphery of the crowd and proceed to - you guessed it - inch their way towards the front, positioning themselves directly in front of the auditorium doors.
The Complainers - A day in WDW can be fun. The Complainers are oblivious to this. Who can have fun when there are long wait times, stifling heat, melty ice cream, blistered toes, and restrictions on flash photography? The Complainers are also firm believers that "misery loves company," and so they air their greviances at high decibels to try and convert other guests to their cause. Do not give in! The best defense against a Complainer is a sunny attitude.
The Space Cadets - Have you been standing in one spot for an unusual length of time? Are the people in front of you facing backwards? Then you're probably standing behind a group of Space Cadets. These flaky friends mean no harm, they are usually just confused as to which way the line moves. Thus, Space Cadets are unaware that the entire rest of the queue has boarded the ride already and there is a huge space in the line ahead of them. Many times, a Space Cadet will figure out this error on his/her own, but sometimes it becomes necessary to cough loudly or politely point towards the empty queue ahead in order to get things moving again.
The Nextels - Nextels almost always travel in large groups, usually made up of several families. Despite their numbers, there only a few Nextel Leaders within the group, and only the Nextel Leaders may carry actual Nextel push-to-talk phones. These phones are key to the Nextels' survival. Without the phone, they are lost, left to wander aimlessly from ride to ride, searching for the rest of their party. In order to quell their fear, Nextels need to be kept in constant communication with their group. They are often seen shouting status updates while in line - "There's a 90 minute wait for Test Track!" "No, we're in the SPACE MOUNTAIN line! Mission: Space is in Epcot!" "We will be at the parade in 10 minutes. No, I SAID 10 MINUTES!"
The Shopoholics - These spend-happy guests can smell souvenirs from a mile away. If there is a gift shop nearby, they will find it. Shopholics are easily identifiable, because they are often sporting one or more of the following: Mickey ears, Disney shirts/shorts, Disney crocs, and a Mickey balloon, all purchased that day. Shopoholics are almost always carrying copious amounts of shopping bags, which they tote as a badge of honor. When in a queue, they use the down time to examine their loot, usually at the expense of moving the line forward (see: Space Cadets).
Explorers - what groups have you encountered while in WDW?
This post is part of the DisMarks Blog Carnival. For more Disney fun, click here.
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11 comments:
Love it.
The Placeholders.
These groups leave whomever has drawn the short straw (or by default Grandma) in the ninety minute queue while they go off and enjoy themselves. Sometimes combined with the Nextels, the other twelve of the group know to return once the Placeholder is in the front of the line and elbow their way past everyone else to "catch up" to their friend in line.
This was hysterical!!
Am adding two more:
The Tour Group: Easily identified by matching shirts of the same color, and following a Leader who likes to hold a flag waaay up high so everyone can see. Tour Groups like to go to attractions together, and especially like shows where they can talk throughout the entire show, oblivious to everyone around them.
The Middlers: These are the folks who, when entering any of the large auditorium shows (ie: Mickey's Philharmagic)insist on plopping themselves in the seat in the MIDDLE, despite repeated announcements by the Castmember that everyone is to "please go to the end of the rom and fill in every available seat". This apparently applies to everyone else in the park except for the Middler.
That is AWEsome!!!
The Oblivious
Members of the Oblivious clan wander aimlessly into your camera's sight lines within inches of the lens, just as you've pushed the shutter. Forces the photographer to wait another 15 minutes for the Tronorail to come by again (this happened to me on Saturday. Twice!)
The Congregators
Congregators chatter away in an impenetrable knot smack dab in the middle of the path, unconcerned with the masses of humanity who are forced to squeeze around them single file.
I love this. Absolutely hysterical.
The Busybodies,
They want to tell you their whole life story and hear yours. They don't realize that they are strangers, you will never see them again and they are not a part of your group.
I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!
The English.
These are folks from England who have traveled a great distance to visit Disney World. They are polite and enthusiastic. Sometimes confused, and always entertaining, they are constantly trying to figure things out. Here is an example...(you will need to read the quotes with an English accent for the full effect)...upon reaching the front of the line for Crushing Gusher, the leader of an English family approached the cast member who assists in sending people down the slide completely empty handed...the cast member says, "sir, do you feel like you forgot something?"...the gentleman looks around and notices that everyone is holding a tube that they carried up the stairs, he responds, "oh yes!! the old tuba!" and he scurried down to get one...we were cracking up...
Darn, NMB - you're the first one to get my idea! I call them tour groups with flags the turismos, and I divided them into Argentinean youth herds, the otros, and the more infamous to almost every Walt Disney World fan: the Brazilian tour groups!
I have written about my Disney experiences on my blog, but this particular post reminded me of one of my favorite "waiting" stories from Walt Disney World http://blog.marshotelonline.com/2009/05/09/if-parade/
JPiC
Hahaha I love love love this post, I've actually got something like this lined up in my Disney Thursdays series! xxxx
I like that someone kind of almost included a small description of that group that stands at the front of the queue blocking the entrance while the stragglers catch up. And while they are annoyed at the people in their group who are holding them up they either: A. balk at you as if you are cutting the line in front of them, or B. step in front of you in line, as if you forced them into the line, all the while looking back waving to their group to "catch up" with them (aka to cut in front or you).
I'd also like to add that group that speaks 10 times louder than everyone else in their native language. They seem to assume, "no one around me knows what I'm saying, so why bother lowering my voice?"
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