Entertaining Toddlers in Line?

[SherriA1]

Does anyone have any ideas about entertaining toddlers in line? We're going to take our 2-year-old for the first time in a couple of months (she will have just turned two when we go), and I am completely clueless about how to entertain her in line. She loves to read books, but she likes to sit down on the floor and spread them out, so obviously that is not a great option in line for an attraction, although it should work fine in her stroller. She'll possibly be standing with us or, more likely, she'll want us to hold her in line. How can she entertain herself in our arms?

 

[nilla]

We always went with the "how many __ can you spot?" game.

 

[tlmadden73]

1) Skip the lines - seriously ..
GO EARLY .. and you won't wait more than 5 minutes for most of the rides that your 2 year old could go on.
For anything later in the day, schedule a Fast Pass (and then getting a 4th, 5th and more). On my son's first trip to MK when he was 2 we used Fast Pass 6 times that day .. even on rides that had a generally short wait simply because we didn't want to entertain him. The only rides we did wait in. Dumbo .. which has a playground INSIDE the queue. He didn't want to go on the ride he was having so much fun in the queue.


2) A lot of lines are just cool to look at (Dumbo, Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, etc.) .. they'll be entertained watching the things around them (and the other people).

You'll probably be surprised (unless you are in a super long 30+ minute long line) how entertained they will be just by seeing the ride itself and the anticipation of getting on.

 

[twinsmama]

ETA: Do you babywear? I highly recommend bringing a baby carrier. This will make it a lot easier on you when she wants/needs to be held. I did this when they were 2.5, my father and I wore them for maybe 3 hours over the total trip. Not a lot, but we were very happy we had the carriers.

1. As PP said, skip the lines. Plan ahead so you know the best times to go to the best parks on what days and tailor for FPs to the child. IMHO, a happy child is a happy trip. When I took my twins at age 2.5 and 3.5 I knew what to expect of them, I knew that if that wait time said over 20 mins, we weren't getting in that line. We did go in a low crowd time of the year but it worked great.

2. Know that you will not be able to bring a stroller through the lines. I sooo wish they could just redesign all the queues so that you don't park your stroller til the bitter end! (highly unrealistic but a girl can dream). I did not know on our first trip that I would have to abandon the stroller before getting in the queue, and not always right outside of the attraction.

3. If she is a sitter, as mine are, I said screw it and let them sit at my feet in standstill queues, ones where you wouldn't move for 3+ minutes. Because even sticking to our 20 minute wait rule, a few times we ended up waiting longer. I know the ground is disgusting, frankly anything they touch there will be germ filled. They never got sick and they popped right up whenever it was time to walk forward so we did not slow down the line.

4. $1 coloring packs, such as those found at Target. These are a lifesaver! I buy at least 2 per kid per day. They come in re-sealable bags, with 4 crayons, a page of stickers, and a mini coloring book.

5. Lollipops. Kid getting cranky? Plug that mouth with a sucker!

6. When all else fails, hand over your phone and find their favorite TV show on youtube.

I know others do not share this philosophy of mine but when the kids get cranky & tired at Disney, I happily pacify them with sugar and screens so that we can go about our merry way. For us, we will never go to Disney more than once a year, and we always take short trips no longer than 4 days. It never leaked over into bad behavior once we returned home.

I will be holding them to a little bit of a higher standard this time as they will be turning 5 during our trip and are old enough to understand "if you want to ride this ride, we will have to stand/walk in this line for the length of 2 episodes of jake and the neverland pirates".

 

[Amboo]

I agree with the others. If the line was more than 15/20 minutes, we didn't wait. And we aimed for more like 5/10 minutes. Since we didn't have to wait too long, our son (he had just turned 2 as well) was happy to just look around. For us no ride was enjoyable enough to deal with a cranky toddler! And yes, we would hand over the phone if we got desperate. But we only had to do that once or twice. There's so much for them to see that they're usually pretty happy. Just avoid getting in line if they're hungry or tired. Recipe for disaster!

 

[AFwifelife]

I carried a hipster Vera Bradley with me through the lines for my phone and wallet and would add a few things to keep my son happy. I would switch out what I brought with me so things were new: $1 cardboard books, flash cards, mini Disney figurines, Slinky, paper and pen, coloring page and crayons, and candy. Most of those things you can find at the Dollar store. Also if the queue is dark, glow bracelets are awesome and not completely distracting to others.

 

[ShelleyTaylor]

Bubbles, Books, little plastic character action figures
And lots and lots of snacks! When mine were toddlers at DL I always saved snack time for the lines.

 

[twinsmama]

For us no ride was enjoyable enough to deal with a cranky toddler!

EXACTLY! And some people may equate cranky with bratty but it's really not. You can't expect a child under 5 to really understand why they have to wait, especially as the day gets longer, they get more tired, hot, hungry. You can start teaching them about it definitely and some kids get it, but many do not.

 

[smiths02]

Our answer has always been just not to wait. You get 3 FP+ a day (plus more if you use the first 3)...are there really more than 3 rides that you have to go on? We have been in the summer (over 4th of July twice), and we just don't wait. Pick your FP+ and parks wisely, go at rope drop, which is probably more conducive to a 2 year old schedule. If she is tired or hungry, let her rest or eat...
that being said, a lot of the lines are fun...I recall that Toy Story Midway Mania and Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh were lines that made my 2 year olds a little sad that we had FP+!! They were fascinated by the interactive lines or the talking potato head or what have you

 

[Paigesmom2013]

If she knows colors, you can play I Spy. Other posters had good suggestions too. Look at crowd calendars and go to parks on the most recommended day. A few years ago the longest thing we waited for was a Buzz and Woody M&G for 30 minutes. Our kids did well I think because there were fun things in the queue.

 

[Minnesota!]

I Spy. Patty Cake. Anything you can play with your hands. We did a lot of talking about what was coming up, and letting them talk about whatever they wanted to talk about.

 

[larryz]

Give them washable markers, and let them color your legs.

 

[maxiesmom]

Please no bubbles in line. Not everyone appreciates them. I-Spy is always good, or Rock Paper Scissors. You be surprised at how little extra entertaining you will need to do. There is so much to look at in the queues, and some of them even have games to play or things to interact with. Hand sanitizer, make sure you have that handy.

 

[cel_disney]

We did games with colors (find me things colored red etc...I spy didn't always work until they were 3+), we brought stickers and a small notebook, phones/iPods for watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse, and I always packed 2-3 monster trucks or match box cars. We couldn't use those everywhere but some places they were great! (Like waiting outside for buzz lightyear, it was perfect to let him play on the ground with them! And often shared them with another toddler which was great for keeping the peace!), the coloring packs and a few small books were also in our backpack! And both of my kids still had binky/pacifiers at that age and I definitely used them at the park even though they wouldn't have been allowed to use them when we were out at home! Similar to the lollipop but sugar free! And I brought a lot of snacks - squeeze applesauce, goldfish, pretzels and fed them one at a time (minimize mess).

Honestly - it was never really a problem (we had DS there at 11.5months, 2, 3, and DD at 12 mon, 15 mon, and just 2 and then 3 with no major melt downs that I could remember!).

We also brought our Ergo carrier for DD until she was 3 or 4 - even if we only used it occasionally it was nice to have to keep her on me in line if she wanted a quick nap or just to rest her legs without me getting hurt!!

 

[disnut8]

I will again suggest pipe cleaners. Cheap, flexible and sharable. You can "fight" with them while in line (being careful not to interfere with others), you can bend them into shapes, you can hand them out to others to play along and if you drop or lose one, no big deal because you have others. Also, very easy to stash in a bag somewhere and they are smushable.

 

[gap2368]

I would go as early as you can book your FP starting around 11 ( lines start to get long around 10:30)
have aride at 11 do lunch another FP for 12:30 another one at 1:30 back to your room for a nape and pick up another FP for latter in the day when you think you will be back one ride I would not get a FP for is pooh the how line is just fun things to do and it normally is never more then 30 minutes I would do a FP for peter there is things to do in that line but I do not think a 2 year old would understand hitting a shadow of a bell that I can at 5 foot barley reach. or watching a light that is spotted to be tinker bell

you can give her things like pipe cleaners and let her make something out of them if or when she loses it no big deal. point out mikes to her. play not step on the creak or step on the creak. have her wear light up shoes or sandals get a cheep stuff animal ( and maybe have 2 that are the same so if one get lost)

 

[DisneyLove2015]

Travel magna doodle. We always took one with us for our son when he was younger!

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We avoided high line times (rode stuff early before lines back up, utilized FP+, rode more later in the evening.

Rides like Pooh, Dumbo and Peter Pan have entertaining lines, though I would use FP+ for Peter Pan even though the line is cool - Peter Pan's line is always just so long.

With our 1yo, against our better judgement, we waited an hour for Little Mermaid in the middle of the day. We were with some people who were leaving early and they wanted to ride it before they left. She did just fine but mostly because she was obsessed with the the talking Scuttle. At least that line is visually interesting too.

Bring little snacks! Snacks were a lifesaver for us.

 

[Disney_1derland]

Be careful with bubbles in line. There are people who absolutely hate them. We actually were confronted by someone once because they thought my lip gloss was a container of bubbles.

Our rule is maximum wait = 10 minutes/year of age. That has always served us well. We also carry tons of tiny snacks for the little ones. Our kids are grazers so this worked really well for them. little bags of pretzels, tiny granola bars, fruit snacks, fruit, etc.

Other things that have worked for us: make a friend in line. Little kids make friends really quickly so having time to socialize can pass those minutes quickly. Talk about the ride you just came off of. You'll be amazed what your child observed that you might have missed. Stickers. They give out stickers to little kids so often we collected tons of them. My kids liked passing them out to other kids, sticking them on themselves, sticking them on blank autograph pages, etc.

Good luck!

 

[SherriA1]

Thank you so much, everyone! These are some great suggestions, and I really do appreciate it. We absolutely do not plan to wait in long lines! We will do FP+ and only plan to ride a few rides a day and will completely go at our daughter's pace. I was just thinking that, even in a FP+ return line, my daughter could get bored, but my only experiences with her in lines are basically at our post office, so I wasn't really thinking about all there will be for her to look at in a Disney line that will likely keep her much more occupied than at the post office. Thanks again for all of the great tips!!