Lines: that thing you're waiting in!
Ever feel like you spend 90% of the time at a theme park in lines? Have you ever felt like your theme park experience gets ruined by long lines? Here's an enthusiasts view to lines.

Ever since Mission: Space opened at EPCOT in 2003, it has brought some of the longest lines into Walt Disney World.

So, you drive (insert # of mintues) to get to the theme park you're at. You get there to the season pass LINE. You wait till the gates open and then you're off! You get to your desired ride, and if you're lucky, you don't have to wait. By the time you get off the ride, more and more people are starting to come into the park. You look out into the parking lot and see the stream of cars just coming in, more and more. Then you think to yourself, "oh great, more people = longer lines." By the time you get to the next ride, you look ahead of you and see, yes that's right, a line. If you were lucky, you might have gotten a ticket that "saves your place in line," if not, you must suffer the wait and possible "technical difficulties" of the ride you are at. In an episode of South Park, a character complains that they have "lines for lines," a very true statement. Let's take a step back and look at the different things parks offer to "save your place."

Parks offer different systems to improve guest satisfaction while at the theme park. For Disney parks, there is Fastpass. Though extremely effective, it has a few flaws. Fastpass has the ability to go fast, there have been times that by 12 noon, a ride will not have Fastpass availible because of the demand of Fastpass tickets. Thus making Fastpass useless for that ride, and what are you to do? Wait in line. Fastpass can also be abused, many times, people know a special way to make the machines pump out the tickets making it so they can come back as many times as they wish. Overall, Fastpass is a very good system, sadly, it seems that Disney will be removing Fastpass to attractions at Disneyland and other parks.

Space Mountain's use of the FastPass system intergrated in 1999 was a great improvement on crowd control.

Another system is the one used at most Six Flags parks. The name for it is Fastlane. I personally see more downside to this system than any other one out there. Fastlane is a system that guests pay money to get them to the "front of the line," unlike Disney who's tickets are free. A key downside is the fact that many rides aren't even availible for Fastlane and also that the lines availible for rides are longer than the actual wait for the ride. An example is X at Six Flags Magic Mountain who's Fastlane line was done away with when lines often were an hour just for Fastlane. Plain and simple, not a very good system.

The final system I'll talk about is the Q-bot. This system was developed for Six Flags parks and only a few parks actually have it. Though I haven't tried it, I haven't heard any complaints with it. Though you pay money for it, the Q-bot is like a pager that tells you when to come back to the ride so you don't have to wait. The Q-bot incorperates the Fastpass with saving your place by a time, but also aquires the side of Fastlane where you have to pay for it. I personally would like to try it just to see what it's like. Alrighty now, back on topic.

So, you decided not to or weren't availible to get a system to save you place. You're faced to stand in line now. Sucks for you. So your standing out there in the summer heat, sun blazing down on you, and your blood pressure begins to rise as the longer you have to wait. You want to cool down quick, and if you're lucky, parks might have added some type of shade or misters to help cool you down. Let's throw in the worst case scenario, both of which you don't have. Up ahead, you see some vending machines that offer water or a soda. Guess what, it's going to cost you big time. "3 bucks for a friggin bottle of soda!?!?!" Not only is the park screwing you over by not having shade or misters, they want to charge you just to keep you from passing out. So you fork up the money, and get the drink. Ah, refreshing, even if it was 3 bucks. Next you continue your long path which seems it won't ever end. You look up and notice the ride isn't running anymore. Immediately you think, "oh great, what now." A ride operator comes over the speakers and says that there are "technical difficulties." Now your blood pressure is raising even more. You look up again and see maintainence taking off one of the trains lowing capacity.

Does the Six Flags FastLane pass even need to live up to its name. Some say it is literally useless.

Once the tain is off, you now figure your wait has now just doubled. Time passes, you weave through the line and you're alomst there when....guess what, you look behind you to see some people coming up through the line. You hope that they will stop before they get up to you, but guess what, just your luck they come up to you and say "excuse me, my friends or whoever is up there." By this time you're about to snap and kill the punks, or risk getting beaten up (depending on the park), or you could let them through. Depending on who you are, this is where your story changes, me, I'd report it to an operator and see the punks whine as they get thrown out of the park. Finally, you're next to ride, hours of waiting have come to this one momment, you sit down in the seat, and you realize, "holy crap, I'm finally here." You then are sent off and experience pure bliss, or hell (depending on the ride). The ride comes to a stop and you can say to your self, "man that was soo worth the wait," or you can say, "what the hell was I thinking waiting for this?" So, your ride is done, ready to go to the next line, oops I mean ride.

It's happened to all of us, some more than others, but you're going to be waiting in line sometime in your lifetime for a ride. A few precautions to take are, always hit the rides you know will have long lines later in the day. Bring water, bring a hat, bring sunscreen. Always be prepared to deal with the elements, you can't always be prepared for un-expected mishaps like people and ride problems. Remember, you're here at the park to have fun, enjoy it as much as you can, even if the lines are God awefully long.