How do you entertain your kids while in line?

[kugelette]

I'm concerned about the wait before getting in and then long line times during park visits. I would hand over my phone but I use it to take pictures and figure out the day (plus communicate with other members of the group) and I remember last time in Disneyland the battery was toast before lunch. How do you keep your kids occupied in line?

 

[jimmysmom74]

We love to look for Hidden Mickeys, play the ABC find game, make up questions to ask characters, look at our sorcerers of magic cards, place 20 questions Disney style, Disney Trivia.

iPad for really long lines, if I bring it. Try to avoid the electronics!

Please...no one say the B word!!!! lol

 

[GoingToDisney25]

I think this would depend on your child (age and just how they are). I haven't gone yet, so I'm not speaking from experience, but my son is going to be turning 3 while at Disney and currently the plan is: sticker books.

Dollar tree sells these packages that comes with a page of stickers and a little book. My son loves to do this in the house. He will take the stickers of and put them in the book. That will occupy him for a good 15-20 min, especially if I don't help him take the stickers off the sheet and he has to get them off himself and it takes his little fingers a little more effort.

We're also taking coloring things so he can color while in line if we run out of stickers, but we're doing 3 park days and plan to take enough for the three parks. Also, both adults traveling have an external battery pack we bought that gives us about 6 full charges on one charge. So, as a last resort, we will have the iPhone to let him play him. We'll also talk and see what we can find while in line.

My son isn't a very patient person, so we're definitely trying to be creative. If anyone else has suggestions, that's great, so I'm definitely subscribing to this thread!

 

[RAPstar]

Use television references to teach them how to enact the perfect murder so they won't get caught.

 

[maxiesmom]

When the kids were little we would talk and play eye spy. Maybe a bit of paper, scissors, rock. We never took anything extra along to keep them occupied.

 

[Wiloughby1]

We just talk to them! On our past trips, my kids have been 2, 18mos & 4, and 3 & 5. Never gave them electronics or carried gifts. Occasionally they would bring a small toy- a figurine or a new plush, but really, we just talked and made up games and stories. And my son had yet to be identified as having ADHD! Trust me, you don't need anything if you just connect with them. Not worth killing your back over. The queues are so detailed- lots of conversation starters, even before they have large vocabularies.

 

[bigjrfan88]

Lines...Hmmm...never have to worry about spending too much time in those.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Big fans of just talking to our kids here.

Personally, I think our kids don't mind the lines much because it's a place that they have our undivided attention. We love it too.

We also like to look for Hidden Mickeys as well.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

When they were younger we played observation games or talked, but we never made an attempt to "entertain" them - we were simply interacting with them. We have always told our children that the world is not here to entertain them, nor are we. They are responsible for their fun, and they need to find it in themselves and the world around them. If we hear the words "I'm bored" we tend to put them to work. My boys stopped saying that many years ago.

Now that they are older and have things like iPhones they have more options in line, but we still talk and play observation games.

 

[2DisPrincesses]

I always keep small snacks in my bag too (goldfish,grapes, raisins, etc) but I don't pull them out until the girls get really restless. We honestly haven't been in too many lines the last few trips. The worst lines I remember we're before the Dumbo refurb and my youngest wanted to ride over and over

 

[foohpah]

We just talk. Reliving funny stories from past trips - my kids particularly enjoy sometimes hearing stories about trips they were on before they were old enough to remember. We also discuss the ride we are about to go on, what we plan to do the rest of the day, etc.. Just whatever topic naturally comes up. Sometimes hidden Mickeys, trivia, random thoughts and facts. Most queue areas are done well and provide some natural talking points.

 

[Wendybird55]

First of all they're in Disney..and even if it's waiting on line I found there's so much stimulus in Disney that there's always something for my son to look at or talk about. A big help has always been the park maps..DS enjoys looking at them and pointing out the places he wants to go and places we've been. He has an iPod touch and now that they have WiFi in some parks - he uses the MDE app to see what characters are around - also he can take pictures or if he's that restless, play a game.
It does depend on how old your kids are. If they are still in strollers...you might not have much to worry about as far as entrance line is concerned...DS when he was younger would just sit in his stroller chillin' with his sunglasses taking in all the sights.

On our first trip with DS I felt like I brought a caravan of "supplies" and with every trip I realized I needed to have less and less in the park with him as Disney provides more than enough to keep him busy. Now that he's 7 I'm down to hand wipes, tissues, small tube sunscreen and ipod Touch...I think now I have to lug more in my purse for DH than DS!

 

[Twigs]

When my boys were little if the line was really long and there wasn't much themeing to keep them occupied in line, we would play I spy, Look for hidden Mickey's or play Cootie. For cootie I took a die and on its 6 sides wrote an H (for the head), B (for the body), T(for a tail the game has a mouth, but my boys liked putting a small stinger like tail on them), L,(for a leg -need 6) A(for antenna-need 2, E(for an eye - need 2). The die is really small and easy to keep in a pocket and I usually had some sort of paper and a pen so they would roll the die and draw cootie bugs. It was a game they only played in line at Disney or while waiting at a table in a restaurant so they liked to play it.

 

[EagleFlyer]

Last time we went we pulled our daughter out of school to go to avoid the crowds as much as possible. Because she was missing school for a week, she had to keep a journal about everything she did. She was 6 so the work wasn't too complex, just simple sentences and pictures about what she was doing. We kept a notebook and colored pencils with us and would break that out during any longer waits in line. It kept her entertained and she had less catch up writing to do at the hotel at night.

He sister was only 2 at the time so we kept her busy with fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, and sometimes gave her a coloring book too. But mostly she was happy to just stand there and talk to us and other people in line about what she had already done at the park that day.

But we went during a slower time of year and didn't do any of the "big" rides because of the little kids so we probably didn't wait any longer than about 20 minutes for anything.

 

[Hannathy]

Conversation!

Anything from where/what we are doing next, where do you want to eat to current events to how the rides are built and the engineering involved.

We also talk to people around us, you and your kids can really learn a lot by doing this.

I try to carry as little as possible! I'm certainly not carrying around a bunch of "entertainment" to an amusement park! that should be enough entertainment for anyone. When they were 2, I might bring 1 of their little figures or they may get a little figure in a gift shop but not once they were past 2 or 3 we didn't carry anything.

 

[ajwolfe]

Conversation!

Anything from where/what we are doing next, where do you want to eat to current events to how the rides are built and the engineering involved.

We also talk to people around us, you and your kids can really learn a lot by doing this.

I try to carry as little as possible! I'm certainly not carrying around a bunch of "entertainment" to an amusement park! that should be enough entertainment for anyone. When they were 2, I might bring 1 of their little figures or they may get a little figure in a gift shop but not once they were past 2 or 3 we didn't carry anything.

Ditto!! We also look for Hidden Mickeys as we are waiting. My kids will be 10 & 7 at this next trip. Aside from when they were small and had a action figure/small toy or something of that nature we have never taken anything with us to play in line. Nor do we let them have our phones in line.

We are of the thought that we are at Disney, there is plenty to see and do and if you can't be patient enough to stand in line maybe we don't need to be there.

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

Talk about the fun we're having and discretely try to guess which of the other folks in line are going to meltdown before getting to the end of the line!

 

[Ametista]

I carry the hidden mickeys book with me, its small. Sometimes we go on a ride just because we need to find Hidden Mickeys in the line.

 

[anna08]

Sometimes we'll count things we see, talk about past trips, where they want to travel to next, or our favorite rides at each park. We try to recall the numbers of all the players on the Cardinals. Once we tried to remember as many words as we could that they learned in Spanish that year in categories - family, animals, foods, etc...

Our next trip I plan to bring some pre-stamped postcards and have them write quick notes to family & friends, as we don't do that often enough!

 

[GenevieveRaqs]

We're also in the "just talk" camp. We didn't find it to be a problem at all.