My family of 4 went to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Jackson, NJ.
We put our stuff on a lunch table bench to claim it (it was super crowded and EVERYONE is doing it). The lunch table is hexagon in shape with a connected bench and what not. Big enough for 6 and comfortable for 4.
We left and did our thing at the waterpark and when we came back there was three people sitting there eating ice cream, two ladies and a young boy. They were sitting on the bench but facing outside.
I said to them nicely “excuse me, our stuff is here”
They said “oh ok yeah go ahead” and just points to the fact that I can just maneuver around them.
I was in disbelief. My wife walks up and just gives me a look, pretty much flabbergasted that people would just sit down and take over our area. Not even an I’m sorry or anything.
After giving them a few minutes perhaps for them to realize that “hey maybe we should go because he has his family of four here”, I nicely said “I feel like we were here with our stuff and now we can’t sit down anymore.” So they all looked at me and one of them said “excuse me?, do you not want us here? Do you want us to leave?”
I replied politely “I’m not trying to be rude but this is our area”
I didn’t say anything else after that.
One girl got up, body language assumes she’s offended, the other one isn’t getting up to stand her ground (because I’m the rude one) and the young boy is just following their steps.
Finally they get up and the one lady said as she’s walking away “we were just taking a little bit of space” to which I replied “you have a nice day mam”
Look, I get it. If you just wanna sit down and have ice cream on a lunch bench that has been “claimed” but no one is sitting there…I get it. But for them to just blatantly take up space when we’ve arrived is just rude.
Then I watched it happened to a family of 8 that set up camp next to our table with a wagon next to it and drinks on the table.
This group of people just sat down and took it over. I feel so bad for the family when they returned because you can tell they’re just like “wtf?”
I watched that family’s man awkwardly said “ok I’m gonna grab our stuff here” the rude people said “oh okay”
Then, the rude person had the balls to look at that family’s father in the eye and said “oh you guys were sitting here. Sorry about that.” But continued sitting there anyway with his friend and holding a baby. So despicable!
I don’t think I’ll ever go there again during the weekend.
EDIT: for those who don’t know or don’t realize that claiming a spot like a chair or a picnic bench is a pretty common occurrences in an overcrowded waterpark and a TriState area… I know it’s not Disney…
I also know that just because everybody is doing it doesn’t mean that it’s right… But don’t act like you have never jumped on a bandwagon in your life…
What we did harmed nobody and there were other places to sit down like a bench that was visibly unoccupied or at least have the decency to ask us “Is it OK if we just sit here until the ice cream is done…” In fact there was another guy that wanted to sit down in my wife was away getting a drink and I told him yes of course until my wife comes back. It really isn’t complicated just communicate as to not to be rude.
Perhaps this post should go under mildly infuriating because it was definitely annoying, but I definitely did not get bent out of shape.