How to prepare kids for longer lines and lowering expectations?

[DSNY4ever]

This feels very first world problem-ish right now, and I know we should just be grateful to be going on a vacation, but I am watching the Tip Board as our trip approaches and the wait times just seem out of control. My kids have never regularly waited 70-180 minutes for rides and that seems to be the average wait time for pretty much everything in MK and Hollywood Studios. How do you prepare kids who remember the "old Disney" to lower their expectations and get ready to wait in very long lines?

 

[sponica]

Pull out the old "when I was a kid" routine? When I was in my late teens/early 20s, long lines were part of the package.

I imagine it depends on the age of the kids as to how well that works.

Everyone who had a trip planned in the past 2 years is going to Disney. I already told my 5 year old, we'll be waiting in loooooong lines.

 

[DSNY4ever]

We fall into that category. Our trip was supposed to be two years ago. Even when I was a kid we didn’t wait two hours for rides though . I think I did that once when Indiana Jones first opened in Disneyland. We had them each pick two rides per park that are important to them, and I’m hoping we can manage that…? They can definitely handle like an hour wait, but I don’t know if they can handle significantly longer for everything.

 

[sponica]

I think if you're staying on site and can leverage the early entry, even to knock out one of the "big rides" that will go a long way or if you can last until the end of the day, when wait times are inflated.

We're in a spot where we know we'll be back in a couple years, so I'm not going to try and cram EVERYTHING in but I do have priorities. (and oof I just logged in and checked wait times, seven dwarves is over 2 hours and rise is over 3)

 

[Jen81NYC]

Following! Although my kids don’t remember the old Disney (first trip) but neither them or my husband will have the temperament for endless lines. Do you think this will be the case even with Genie+? I’m literally having stress dreams about not getting on any rides, which is the opposite way you want to feel when you’re gonna take a very expensive vacation, sigh

 

[sponica]

Following! Although my kids don’t remember the old Disney (first trip) but neither them or my husband will have the temperament for endless lines. Do you think this will be the case even with Genie+? I’m literally having stress dreams about not getting on any rides, which is the opposite way you want to feel when you’re gonna take a very expensive vacation, sigh

My friend was there the week before president's day week and her feedback was this:
A) She was not emotionally prepared for HOW CROWDED it was. While she understood it was going to be more crowded than normal (they went that week every year prior to covid), she hadn't truly processed it.
B) She did open to close almost every day. She understands it's a bold strategy and wouldn't recommend it for everyone.
C) Get the Genie+, even if it is awful.

She goes yearly so she is willing/able to tolerate the wackiness of this year.

Get there for early entry, so you can knock off one ride with minimal wait and if you can last until park close, the waits usually drop then as well.

 

[WxKristin]

It's so strange how my patience has changed over the years. In the pre-fastpass days, I remember waiting for 2+ hrs for the rock-n-roller coaster on a high school trip. All the mountain rides (space, splash, thunder) were also typically well over an hour wait.

In 2019, we did our first trip with our kids (2 and 5 at the time) and with Fastpass and rider switch my 5 year old was so spoiled by to not only getting on things without a line, but doing it multiple times in a row with rider switch. Changing those expectations for our Sept trip is going to be tough. I've already started talking to him about it, but honestly I'll probably just resort to pulling up phineas and ferb cartoons on the cell phone for any line >60 min (just need to remember headphones).

 

[Meglen]

Simple.. you don't. No matter how many times you tell them the lines will be long they will complain and whine about there feet/hunger/bored yada yada. I learned this last trip it's us as parents who need to change. If they are not happy with long lines than don't do them.

 

[Karin1984]

How about a test? Go to a regular park, pick a route that could be the length of a queue, tell them to take 3 steps every minute (or whatever you think is reasonable). At the end of the 'queue' there should be some kind of reward.

Depending on age, let them experience it a bit.

 

[gregskellington]

If you do your research, leverage early entry if on site, and use G+ you might not be in all that many long lines outside HS, which is a mess right now. I just got back and didn't really have any problems at the other three parks and did all of the major rides, sans 7 Dwarves (did that on a Tour and really don't care for spending time on it any other way). Longest lines I did stand by for were about an hour for ToT, 30 minutes for Remy, 30 minutes for FoP. Those were at early entry or near close.

 

[popy]

Tell the them story of scrooge, stingy, Disney is not was it seems to be,
all about all the more money they can get out of the little guys.
explain too, watch out for those who will exploit you , with Disney stories.

 

[HashberryOTG]

Maybe instead of filling them full of negatives, you impart how exciting it is that so many people have the opportunity to go to Disney right now. It's caused things to be very busy.

And then the inside parent thought of 'if you don't like it, we can stay home!' In all seriousness tho, if it's going to create misery, it's not a good vacation choice.

 

[MainMom]

Bribe them with pool time and Mickey bars.

 

[Anna131517]

Go to stuff with shorter lines. There are a lot of less popular attractions that don’t have super long lines. There are also cool places like the Bone Yard and Planet Watch at Animal Kingdom and Tom Sawyers Island at MK. Do an EP scavenger hunt. Watch more shows.

 

[zillayen]

This feels very first world problem-ish right now, and I know we should just be grateful to be going on a vacation, but I am watching the Tip Board as our trip approaches and the wait times just seem out of control. My kids have never regularly waited 70-180 minutes for rides and that seems to be the average wait time for pretty much everything in MK and Hollywood Studios. How do you prepare kids who remember the "old Disney" to lower their expectations and get ready to wait in very long lines?

Our trip is very last-minute (we booked this past Sunday for March 3/16-18) so that's helping. We cancelled our first round of Spring Break plans that involved flying internationally, so my kids are really just excited to be going at all. I think it actually helps that we have been to WDW/DL before because they know exactly which rides are a priority for them. We're going to each pick one favorite ride per park and make that happen and not even worry about the new rides (RoTR, Remy, etc.) this time.

We're also doing 2 days beforehand at Universal and have the Unlimited Express pass bc of our hotel so I'm hoping to saturate them with rides there and then be more relaxed at WDW!

I'm most worried about my husband because he is NOT a park vet and the last time we went (in 2018, crowd level 5) he rode two rides at MK and then said it was "too crowded" and went back to the hotel to chill.

 

[MamaMermaid]

My son is 4 so take with a grain of salt - I'm no expert...

We told our son that the lines would be long and that we would all have to be patient. We told him we couldn't carry him through all the lines (he gets tired and misses his stroller, lol). We said that we would all be together, talk, have fun, etc and that it would be really fun to ride when it was our turn. He was/is pretty good about understanding.

The calmer/less grumpy we were, the better off he was. Have a great trip!

 

[DSNY4ever]

Maybe instead of filling them full of negatives, you impart how exciting it is that so many people have the opportunity to go to Disney right now. It's caused things to be very busy.

And then the inside parent thought of 'if you don't like it, we can stay home!' In all seriousness tho, if it's going to create misery, it's not a good vacation choice.

We are definitely faking a super positive attitude about it all, so I'm not imparting any negatives. In all honesty though we would not book a trip right now. This is a credit from when everything was shut down. It is expiring, so we either lose everything or go. We are going to try to make the best of it. Just being together we *will* have a good time.

Can anyone who has been recently tell me about how many rides they were able to get on each day and whether that was with Genie + or not? Just trying to get an idea of what to expect.

 

[pjacobi]

Teach your kids discipline. You will have much more enjoyable family trips and your kids will have a skill for a better life.

Discipline takes years and years of practice. It's not something you can start in the line for "It's a Small World".


-Paul

 

[DSNY4ever]

Teach your kids discipline. You will have much more enjoyable family trips and your kids will have a skill for a better life.

Discipline takes years and years of practice. It's not something you can start in the line for "It's a Small World".


-Paul

I guess I should have clarified. I don't have toddlers, and they are super well behaved. Just looking for tips and advice on how to handle the 2 hour lines as a family and manage the expectations that we won't get to do all the things we usually do. We can't afford to add Genie + each day, so we'll be saving that for Hollywood Studios. Today's tip board minutes look a lot better than what I've been seeing all week, so that has me a little hopeful. I think it's a lot to ask even adults to wait for that long for something so short. We are going to watch some you tube videos so they can really narrow down their top two in each park and anything else will be icing on the cake I guess.

 

[DisneyAuntie12]

You could do the positive reinforcement method - maybe for every half hour the family waits in line, everyone “earns” $2 towards a snack. Then you can play it up as a “win” if you’re getting close to a bigger better snack, not a “lose” because you were in line for so long. They might even start to hope for more wait time if they feel like it earns them a bonus of sorts.

Another idea might be to let the kids judge trade offs for themselves. Wait two hours for a headliner, or do a tour of the “B list“ attractions with much lower waits? If they feel like they made that call they may be happier with it.