Stupid Guest Tricks

I'm at a Soarin' deficit so I decided to go for the Stampede this morning. Entered the parking lot a little after 8, used my AAA parking pass so I didn't have to deal with the trams, and hustled my butt to the turnstyles. Most already had wicked lines, but pretty much nothing at the Princess Breakfast entrance other than one group of people who seemed to be forming a line. There are two turnstyles, and the group was standing near the left one, so I asked the CM if that entrance would open for general admission at the same time as the others. She confirmed so I stood in proximity to the righthand one.

Time passes, Princess Breakfast people head in, and a general admission line forms behind the people who had been waiting on the left. Because most guests are sheep, no one lined up behind me. Finally one of the group on the left showed his SG colors...he points to the long line that had formed behind his group and said, "The line starts back there" (mind you, I had been waiting as long as they had at this point). I said, "Yes, the line for the lefthand turnstyle starts there. There are two lines." He said, "No, the line starts back there" and I repeated, "Yes, apparently everyone else is waiting for the left turnstyle. I came early to get a good spot. You will go in the left one and I will go in the right one."

SG pondered that and then said, "Well, you're in the way of the Princess Breakfast line." I said, "Apparently not, since everyone is getting in just fine. I'm not sure of your point, so why don't you just worry about your own group and I will worry about myself." I turned my back on him and he finally shut up.

What the &^%$! was he worried about? I was there nearly as long as him and his group, and there are indeed two turnstyles and technically two lines (at least once the sheep-guests catch on). Did he really think I was going to wait over half an hour in front, then get behind several dozen guests just because he told me to? Is he that desperate for power in his life that he needs to indulge in his own form of guest control? Sorry, bubby, that crap don't work with me.

On a brighter note, my early rising paid off. I was second in line for Soarin' and the Dream Team was waiting in the grouping area with Dream Fastpasses. This is the first time I've ever won anything in the YoaMD giveaway, and it gave me an extra ride on my favorite. I got in three rides total and happily met many NSSGs (Not So Stupid Guests) while in line who were lots of fun to chat with.

Good job, Syndrome! Your patience and knowledge and common sense were rewarded. Congrats on the Dream FastPass.
It really is amazing how sheeplike we humans are, following meekly in line instead of thinking for ourselves or asking a cast member for information.

Ha, nice one! Gotta love the line nazis...

Did you smile and wave at him as you entered the park?
Would be cool to see his expression.... :D:

Good job on telling that sheep off. I don't understand why people do that. I guess its out of frustration that they're so darn stupid. So they try and make other people feel stupid so they feel better about themselves.

Too bad that backfired and you made him feel even more stupid! :D: :D:

Freak wrote:Good job on telling that sheep off. I don't understand why people do that. I guess its out of frustration that they're so darn stupid. So they try and make other people feel stupid so they feel better about themselves.

Too bad that backfired and you made him feel even more stupid! :D: :D:

Yeah, they probably thought they were smart, lining up in the ONLY line...pity they didn't watch Sesame Street as youngsters and learn how to count past one. I can just imagine The Count: "One turnstyle, one line. Two turnstyles, two lines. Ahhh ha ha ha ha!"

I didn't even bother giving them a second glance...my focus was Soarin' Soarin' Soarin', and all SGs were forgotten in my single-mindedness.

On Yahoo News there was an article how the transit workers doing visitor duty--The Netherlands was playing a soccer game there--had to switch from their usual orange safety vests to yellow ones, because the Netherlands fans, who wear orange, were at a train station, and were confused, thinking a transit worker wearing an orange vest was one of them, so they followed him onto the tracks. After several incidents--as far as I know, nobody got run over by a train--the Swiss transit workers had to switch to yellow vests. After the game was played in Berne, where this occurred, they sent the yellow vests to Basel, where Netherlands was going to be playing Russia for the semifinals.
I have no idea what color Dutch transit workers wear on their safety vests, but you'd think that if they're about to get on a train, they wouldn't be so single-minded, thinking only of their team color....

felinefan wrote:...but you'd think that if they're about to get on a train, they wouldn't be so single-minded, thinking only of their team color....

You don't know soccer fans. :D:

In regards to the "herd" mentality, I read an article recently about a study on this. Test volunteers were put in a room full of people. The study leader asked mutliple-choice questions and people answered by a show of hands, and these were very simple questions where one answer was obviously the right one.
Well, everyone in the room except the actual subect of the study was a plant. The plants all collectively chose obviously wrong answers. Some insane percentage of people (I want to say 75%) of the true subjects went along with the group's wrong answer rather than answering correctly all by themselves.

-Rob

Yeah, sheep guests are some of the most annoying because they don't realize the obvious. Yesterday I was at a park just about to get on a ride (there is no one grouping btw) when someone sits in my seat because he was following a random group of people. Now, as I mentioned, this ride has no groupers partly because it is so simple to figure it out and partly because the employees are lazy. Well, to group for the ride there are dots on the ground. There is a set of dots for next run and a set for the run after. The line was practically empty so we got up and were two cars away and there are only 12 people per car and the second car isn't even remotely full yet. So I see this guy walk into the grouping area and start waiting, well, when the gates open to allow the next group through, he follows the first group. He doesn't get a seat so he comes back to the grouping area to continue waiting. Now I am in the next group to go, and he once again follows a random group of people into the ride area and proceeds to take my seat. I see him and think, "that's odd" and inform him kindly that I was supposed to sit there. He replies that he has been waiting, but I know I was there longer. I also inform him that I am with the group he is sitting next to and that we arranged ourselves that way on purpose and have also been waiting. Now he is still really confused so I think, "alright, he doesn't understand the simple dot system" and I proceed to explain it to him. He seems to understand and heads back through the gate and I get in my seat. Well, as the car was leaving (it was an open drop ride) I see him once again not standing on a dot, probably going to sheep another group. All of his sheeping makes me wonder if he ever got on the ride.