Try walking through those crowds while the 15 minutes of your precious sit-down, air-conditioned break are ticking away.
Every new theme park employee faces this problem. You go on break for the first time, then waste 10 minutes of your break wading through the crowd to get to, and then back from, the break room. (Or the cafeteria.) That's why theme park employees develop what I call the "theme park power walk."
It's the ability to walk through a theme park crowd like a kayaker steers through Class IV rapids. You watch the crowd to see how fast it's flowing, go with the swiftest stream, then keep your eyes open for obstacles downstream that you'll need to steer around.
The biggest mistake people make when trying to navigate a theme park crowd is looking at the bodies in front of them. Look at their heads, instead. Stay with folks looking straight ahead, and prepare to swing around those who move their gaze to either side. They'll soon stop or slow down, throwing the current around them into turmoil.
Strollers are the jagged boulders of the theme park rapids. Swing well away from them.
Big groups are trouble, too. All you need is for one in the group to get distracted, and all will slow or stop. Find the people walking alone, eager to get to their destination, and slice through the crowd with them.
I laugh at folks who try to run in theme parks. Forget the rules prohibiting it. Runners are like those sports cars on the highway that rush up to pass you, never noticing the slower traffic ahead that's gonna force them to eat their brakes. A good power walker, keeping his or her eyes on the current flowing ahead, will beat a runner through the crowd almost every time.
Of course, my power walk drives my family nuts when I've brought them along to a park. My wife worked one summer at Epcot, but she was "talent" (in the orchestra) and rarely had to get through the park alone, so she never developed "the walk." So they hang back like "civilians," wondering why I'm plowing through the crowd when I'm supposed to be on vacation and relaxed.
Hey, old habits die hard. Plus, I've got a ride to get to!
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But I hate walking in crowds with people for the exact reason you mention Robert.... They just can't keep up :)
My leg still has the scar, and I was in physical therapy for my shoulder a year later.
Power walking for me now, thank you.
And Joshua... I run a theme park website for a living. It took you until now to realize that I've lost my mind?
The worst area?
Main Street USA (lets stop in the middle of the road and stare and take pictures! Come on people :) )
Later, I became a CM for a time, working in TDA, and the power walk was very useful for getting from my cubicle in TDA (behind Toontown) to a meeting at Harbor Point (between Space Mountain and Main Street.) However, I was also one of the very few TDA CMs who wore a nametag and pins in the park, so I still wasn't particularly speedy.
Always have consideration for people trying to overtake you.
Check over your shoulder before you make a wild turn. Slowing down, check back to make sure no ones going to rear end you.
Be considerate for the other sidewalk users.
Too many times I've wiped out a kid, or knocked into some lane hogger.
But yes, I learnt the power walk many years ago when I worked sideshows at the Palace Pier in Brighton, UK.
15 minute break to walk half a mile from the attractions to the end of the pier, via a food vendor, begging people to hurry up and make thier selection, then eat and walk back again.
My trick is not to watch the people in front of you, but the people in front of them. Plan ahead and make decisions early. Walking against the flow of traffic sometimes works better because they see you coming and move after seeing the angst in your face to get through.
I'm 6ft 5, mostly leg (OK, 36 inches of inside leg) and that means I have a HUGE step, so when I'm walking, I'm walking, and wifey, at 5ft8, HAS to keep up with me. If shes too slow, I grab her hand and pull.
She knows the score and does her best, but on hot sweaty Florida summer days she starts to lag and thats when the Speed Walk and pull comes into play.
A casual stroll, with no intention to go on anything, still results in this fast pace as well.
Annoying, but neccessary!
One reason leave a park 15 mins before everyone else does, or I'll just sit back and wait 30 mins past closing time and then powerwalk back to my transportation.
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