When there is a line in front of something people want, people will get in that line instead of going to the lineless table next to it. It sounds like a Super Spy tip from Burn Notice, but very true.
Yesterday I got back from a trip to Magic Mountain. Because of the LA traffic, my mom and I weren't sure how early to leave to get there. As it turns out, there really isn't too much on a Friday morning. So we got there at 9:15 for a 10:30 opening. But that's not the funny part. What's funny is what we found at the gates.
The last time my mom went to Magic Mountain was over 20 years ago, so she didn't really know the ropes. But common sense was with us. And common sense said that there shouldn't be a single line of 30+ cars all lined up in front of a single gate when they'd for sure open up most, if not all, of the gates. I will admit, there were cones in front of all but one gate, but the park wasn't open yet. So that's why there's cones, right?
Waiting in a single line just didn't make sense, so we decided to move up in front of another gate behind another car with the same idea. Or so we thought. About ten minutes later the car we pulled up behind drove away to where I'm guessing would be behind the massive line, leaving us in the front. Note that by this time there were five or so cars following our great example by getting in line behind us.
Who would have thought that all but one of the gates opened. And when they did, the huge line completely dismantled into a crowd. Of course, we were the first ones at the gate, so we got in first.
Alright, has everyone learned their lesson? Of course not, when does a mass of people learn things? On our way to the park gates, my mom and I passed eight ticket booths (we bought online and just passed by). There were four ticket booths to the left, and four to the right. There were absolutely no differences between the booths, no differing signs, no different color in shades. Exactly the same. A line eight people long had formed on the four booths to the left, and the four on the right were completely empty. When my mom had to run back to the car to grab her ID that she forgot (and was nessessary to get our Flash Passes with) seven of the eight booths were open.
Time and time again we saw this when lining up for rollarcoasters as well. All the lanes would have four or more people waiting to board the coaster, except for one lane which was inexplicibly empty. Guess where we lined up at.
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