February 16, 2013 at 1:40 PM

It took Jachin Spotts upwards of three and a half hours to inch toward the front of the line to access the Bryce Jordan Center floor at THON 2013 on Saturday.

“Honestly, I expected to wait maybe an hour, hour and a half at most,” he said. “Not this long... I think they should get a faster pass system. I think there could be improvement there.

Cat Powers, public relations overall chair, said the floor was “at capacity” at about 1 p.m. Saturday, adding that no one else would be let onto the floor until the number is below capacity.

Powers said she could not predict when the line would begin to dwindle down.

Ross Clark was situated in the middle of the line, which wrapped nearly 20-25 sections of the concourse. Clark had been waiting about 45 minutes to an hour and was only expecting to wait a total of 30 minutes to an hour.

Clark said he had heard some rumblings about why the line was taking so long.

“It’ll probably be another half hour just because they closed the floor because they’re mopping it right now,” he said.

And Clark was in no hurry to relinquish his spot in the midst of the line.

“We’ve already waited this long, so what’s another half hour?” he said. 

Some parents of dancers have been patiently waiting in line, as well, some for as many as four hours.

Mark Reissbeck, a parent, had finally made his way to the front of the line at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, after having waited in line since 9:30 a.m. He said he wishes he could have reconsidered his decision.

“I understand that there were a lot of families, so the number of people that could get onto the floor was less, but they really didn’t communicate that very well,” he said. “If I knew we would’ve been in line this long, we wouldn’t have waited.”

He also said he had his own ideas about how to improve the waiting game.

“Maybe they should consider something like what Disney does, where you get a ticket, and come back at a later time. A ‘fast-pass’ kind of thing,” he said.

Dawmma Isdainer, another parent, also made her way to the front of the line eventually, although only having waited about an hour in the line.

“I only expected to wait about ten minutes, though,” she said, laughing.

She had a similar idea on how to reform the line process.

“[I like the idea of] handbands with colors that allow people to come in at certain times, but given out ahead of time,” she said.