Beat the Crowds this Summer

Vacation season is vacation season for a reason. Temperatures and the weather around the country are generally better. Children are no longer in school, making it simpler to take the entire family on a trip. There’s plenty of reasons to go out of town during summer, but it presents many challenges. The biggest of these challenges is often the crowds.

But how do you avoid the crowds? There’s nothing that can be done to stop the crowds, but there are ways to avoid the bulk of them if you try. Not only will this make your vacation easier, but it will act as crowd control in itself by helping to disperse the flow of people. Continue reading to see our tips for managing the crowds while you’re enjoying vacation.

• While all of summer is busy for vacations, June is usually the least busy. Many schools are in session through part of June, making July and August a more popular option. If you can make it work, June is your best option.

•    If you can avoid travel during holidays, do so at all costs. Summer holidays are satiated with vacation goers. Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July, and Labor Day weekend are all very popular with travel. Avoid these days if possible.

• The time of day you go is very important. Places such as amusement parks tend to get more crowded in the early afternoon. Don’t sleep in. Get up early and head out right at open for the attractions you want to see. You’ll have shorter wait times and less crowds.

•   Try to vacation on weekdays. Weekends are busier because locals get out and do things as well as tourists. While that doesn’t mean it’s not crowded on weekdays, it will be easier to navigate the crowds.

•  Pick less popular destinations. Everyone heads to Disney World in summer. There’s tons of other vacation spots, especially if you’ve done a vacation spot once before. Do some research and find areas that are less crowded, but just as amazing.

•   If you can’t beat the crowds, embrace them! Go into vacation expecting the crowds. Plan extra time for your activities. If you go in knowing there will be crowds and try to keep a positive attitude, it might make the experience better. Just remember you’re all there to enjoy a vacation!

Those are our tips for beating the crowds, or at least accepting them. There’s no good way to avoid them unless you plan to travel in the off season. Enjoy the rest of your summer, crowds and all.

Comic Con and Crowd Control

San Diego Comic Con has become a nearly impossible event to attend. The comic book and pop culture event puts a cap on attendees of 130,000. Tickets for Comic Con 2014 sold out in approximately two hours.

With this many attendees and this high of a demand, crowd control is important. Attendees, volunteers, and guests all need to be kept safe, and this can be a challenge with so many people in one area. This challenge has been met in many ways, such as capping attendance, managing traffic movement, having lottery systems, and more.

Event organizers should take a good look at how Comic Con manages crowd control. While the organizers are far from perfect, their methods work fairly well considering the scale of the crowd. Certain corridors are transformed into one-way walkways to make pedestrian traffic more manageable. Comic Con also has events in more than just the convention center. Utilizing multiple venues can help diffuse crowds.

But there’s only so many volunteers and officers to police the crowds. One of the largest complaints with Comic Con itself is the lines for panels. Specifically, lines for the large panels. Getting into Hall H is considered something of a miracle, and it’s almost necessary to camp out overnight to get a spot in the hall.

However, Comic Con does have some strict rules when it comes to lining up for panels to help with crowd control. If you are an attendee planning to try for Hall H, take a look at our tips below. This will not only help the staff trying to keep the event running smoothly, but it will also ensure that you won’t be removed from the line or have your badge revoked.

Comic Con Tips

~ Line up Early. If you want a chance of getting into one of the larger rooms like Hall H, plan to be there at least four hours early….but really it should be more. Some people line up before midnight the night before, and while that’s not necessary it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the line overnight. 

~ Camping is not allowed in line. This means no tents, cots, heaters, large fans, open flames, and more. Do not bring these items as they take up a large amount of space and you will likely be removed from the line.

~ Do not save space for friends to join you in line. The attendees around you may report you to a line monitor, and you will all be removed. That’s not to say you cannot take breaks if you are waiting in line. Have your group arrive together and take turns having food and bathroom breaks.

~ While camping is not allowed, some items are. A “normal sized” chair, blankets, and sleeping bags are all allowed as long as it only takes up the space of one person.

~ If you plan on staying in line overnight, keep it down. You will be waiting in a public area and making a large amount of noise, dancing outside of the line, and running around creates traffic issues and unnecessary noise.

~ Respect the grounds and do not leave garbage and belongings behind. 

~ Be polite to those around you. It is understandable that tempers may flare while waiting in line and surrounded by people, but starting arguments will only cause more problems. Don’t make another problem where there doesn’t need to be one.

~If you don’t get into the panel you want, don’t throw a fit. With as many attendees as there are, it is simply not possible. Go out and enjoy other parts of the convention. Not everyone makes it into Hall H, but don’t let that ruin your experience.

Comic Con is not for the faint of heart. While the convention itself is organized as best as can be expected, the heavy crowds and packed schedules can be too much for some people. Know what to expect before you try for a ticket, and use common sense while attending the convention. This will make the experience better for everyone.

Keeping Crowds Happy in Line

June is here, and with it has come vacation and theme park season. Now that school is out for the summer, more and more families are going to be traveling. And of course, many families travel to theme parks.

Theme parks have a lot of fun things to offer. There are rides for kids and adults alike, good food, and great shopping. A day at the theme park makes for a great memory. The one part of a theme park that is not pleasant is the lines.

It’s the one part of theme parks that people try not to think about. Lines are not fun. They’re long, it’s usually hot, and the amount of people in lines means that most people only have time to go on a few rides in their entire visit. Lines can ruin a person’s experience at a theme park and encourage them not to come back.

This is why more and more theme parks are trying to make waiting in line tolerable…and sometimes even fun! Some parks are now sending costumed characters to walk up and down the line. Others are creating interactive games along the lines for children and sometimes adults. Some rides have TV displays that will play videos. The goal is to entertain those people who are in line to lower the perceived wait time and have them leaving happy. 

This form of crowd control is less about keeping crowds calm, and more about keeping them happy. Theme parks are attempting to keep crowds entertained, as well as cool. Universal Studios in Orlando, for example, often have fans and water misters along lines to keep people cool during the hot wait. 

After all, if customers have a miserable experience in line, they may simply skip the crowds next year and find something else to do. It is smart of theme parks to realize this and try to find a solution.

Disney Controls Crowds with Price Increase

There has been recent speculation that Disneyland’s recent price increase to $96 has less to do with inflation of prices, and more to do with crowd control.

The Disney parks are certainly not lacking in demand. Every year the parks get a great amount of visitors. So many that there are already people who choose other parks over them to try and escape the crowds. The increase in the daily price plus the elimination of several seasonal pass options has people asking if Disney is trying to reduce traffic to their parks.

This is particularly true of local residents, who are more likely to visit the parks multiple times a year. Eliminating the SoCal Pass will require residents to pay much more for a Premium Pass, or drop down to a cheaper pass that gives them less access.

It may not be an orthodox type of crowd control, but a company such as Disney can afford to do it. If attendance at the parks were to drop too much, prices could be adjusted. However, it seems unlikely that attendance would drop enough for that to happen. Instead it could be that Disney simply wants less crowding, and the price hike and elimination of a popular seasonal pass could be a way to get that.

Only time will tell if this method was effective. Regardless of the price hike though, crowds are sure to still be strong at all Disney parks this summer. It’s unlikely that a price increase would put a stop to that.

Santa needs YOUR help!!

Santa needs your help! While you are finishing your holiday shopping, add a few extra toys in your carts to help kids in need! Toys for Tots are always looking for donations and you can bring a smile to any child’s face by donating! Donate online or find your local Toys for Tots Campaign at:

http://www.toysfortots.org/Default.aspx

Online Shopping Safety

With smart phones, tablets, and laptops there is no need to take on the snow, cold, crowds, or less-than stocked shelves. With online shopping, the item we want is just a click away, but we need to remember to do it safely! Here are some tips for online shopping, not just for Christmas shopping but anytime of year:


This year's Cyber Monday had record sales proving that online shopping is here to stay! Be safe and shop smart!

http://idtheft.about.com/od/preventionpractices/a/OnlineShopping.htm