Suggestions for things to do in line

[KulaMauiMouse]

Planning to go to WDW in June and preparing for some long waits. We have four kids with us-ages 10, 7, 6, and 3. Any suggestions for things to do in line, other than I spy? Or links to a thread on this? I saw a couple books on Amazon about this, anyone have one? Love it or hate it?

 

[ChitownFamily]

We enjoyed finding Hidden Mickeys using this app- http://www.hiddenmickeyguy.com
One of many ways to kill time in line

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

You can just talk and enjoy each other's company, that's always fun. Pipe cleaners work wonders for younger kids. The only thing I suggest NOT doing is bubbles. Creates a big mess.

 

[jezebel73]

-the I'm going on a picnic or first letter-last letter game but all Disney answers
-Disney trivia app on your smartphone and take turns answering the questions
-everyone say their favorite part of the previous day or the current day so far, or any topic about memories like a recent holiday, most embarrassing moment, best food, coolest gift they ever gave or received
-Mad Libs - you can find this in a phone version where it asks for all the words then when complete, plugs them into the story for you to read off

 

[BubblyTrip]

My kid made friends with any kid remotely close to him in age. It was lovely!

 

[4Beans]

Ring pops. Seriously. I pack things in my backpack that the kids aren't typically allowed to eat. It works wonders at keeping them happy, and it also raises blood sugar. Not a treat for every ride or line, but a few here & there is wonderful.

 

[Pamnkevin]

You can just talk and enjoy each other's company, that's always fun. Pipe cleaners work wonders for younger kids. The only thing I suggest NOT doing is bubbles. Creates a big mess.

Pipe cleaners are a GREAT idea

 

[MandiC]

Most of the lines have lots to look at. We rarely felt bored in line

 

[jen2207]

While waiting in line for Splash Mtn on Sunday I downloaded the 'Heads Up' game app. It's on Ellen all the time, she had a part in developing it I think? Anyways it was a lot of fun and my kids 13, 11 and 8 and I played it while waiting for rides or ADRs. People asked us what it was and where we got it. Other people in line got into helping give clues too. It was fun! And definitely made the time go by faster.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Most of the lines have lots to look at. We rarely felt bored in line

This is what we were pleasantly surprised to learn when we did our first WDW trip a few years ago. I packed all this stuff (sticker books, pipe cleaners, lollipops, etc.) thinking my kids (ages 2, 4, 9, and 9 at the time) would need stuff to occupy them in the lines and we ended up enjoying just hanging out, looking around at the theming, and talking to each other and other people in line most of the time. We also learned that the queues move along more efficiently than we expected (this was a late August trip when the crowd levels were 5/6 out of 10). On our May trip last year the crowd levels were a little bigger than they were on our prior August trip and we occasionally allowed our kids to play with some apps on our iphones while in line, but those instances were few and far between.

 

[KulaMauiMouse]

Most of the lines have lots to look at. We rarely felt bored in line

We've been to Disneyland dozens of times and this is our experience, too. With the new fast pass+ system I'm afraid our wait times at WDW are going to be much longer than we're used to

Love all these ideas, never would have thought of pipe cleaners. Love the games, too, and the interaction that allows with the kids-that's what vacations about!

 

[KulaMauiMouse]

Just looked at the Heads Up app-looks like SO much fun!!

 

[3Gsandme]

Most of the lines have lots to look at. We rarely felt bored in line

This is us. With so many interactive queues, there seemed to always be something going on. Additionally, I think we all needed a few minutes to just zone out every now and then. It feels kind of good to mentally detatch from all the stimulation.

One thing that we did do was reminding the little one about things we did previously. "Do you remember having dinner with Cinderella last night? You wore your silver sparkly dress and you looked so pretty! Remember when Sister asked Lady Tremain about Lucifer (probably the 4 year old's favorite part of Cinderella)." That was also a time when we'd pull out the MDE app and the map and decide what was next on our agenda. We didn't have any huge waits, though. Maybe 30 minutes tops.

 

[MandiC]

We've been to Disneyland dozens of times and this is our experience, too. With the new fast pass+ system I'm afraid our wait times at WDW are going to be much longer than we're used to

Love all these ideas, never would have thought of pipe cleaners. Love the games, too, and the interaction that allows with the kids-that's what vacations about!

Honestly I loved the FP+, I know it gets a lot of negative stuff on here but you know how it works. When someone has a bad experience they are much more vocal than if they have a good experience. The only thing we waited more than 20 minutes for was characters (Ariel, Tinkerbelle and Rapunzel), if my daughters hadn't wanted those we would have never waited longer.
I do think that depending on the ages it's nice to just talk to them. My girls never really seemed bored, though I do remember in particular waiting for Rapunzel they both sat down to rest a few times.

 

[NotUrsula]

String tricks. Yep, really old-fashioned, but fascinating to kids who've never done it. I've found that other kids around us in line want to try, too, so now I carry a spool of string with me in the parks so that I can give pieces away to other kids.

For girls, clapping rhymes are also fun, but you have to make sure that they don't get too loud. We have learned some in line from girls from other countries who offer to teach them to us if we will share ours.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I ordered a book called "Lots To Do In Line" and we looked at it some on our most recent trip. It's the same publisher as the Hidden Mickey books and the same size. I enjoyed looking through it, but we honestly didn't wait too long for much of anything, so it wasn't necessary.

http://www.amazon.com/Lots-Do-In-Li...keywords=lots+to+do+in+line+walt+disney+world

 

[KulaMauiMouse]

The only thing we waited more than 20 minutes for was characters (Ariel, Tinkerbelle and Rapunzel), if my daughters hadn't wanted those we would have never waited longer.

That's awesome to hear! Honestly I'm mostly thinking of my 3 year old nephew who's never had to wait for anything, but 20 minutes is totally doable. I was thinking waits would be closer to an hour.

 

[sarahk0204]

Ring pops. Seriously. I pack things in my backpack that the kids aren't typically allowed to eat. It works wonders at keeping them happy, and it also raises blood sugar. Not a treat for every ride or line, but a few here & there is wonderful.

We are a big fan of Smarties and the individually wrapped Lifesavers mints (Peppermint, Spearmint, and Orange are our favorites). I just don't like to do sticky or melty in June.

 

[ChitownFamily]

That's awesome to hear! Honestly I'm mostly thinking of my 3 year old nephew who's never had to wait for anything, but 20 minutes is totally doable. I was thinking waits would be closer to an hour.

It all depends on when you are going to the World. Check the crowd calendars to get an idea of the expected crowds for your visit. http://www.easywdw.com/calendar/june-2014-walt-disney-world-crowd-calendar/#more-12466

Touring plans.com has a chart that tells you the wait times according to crowd level. I'll share one of the most popular rides: Peter Pan. So on a level 1 day Peter Pan (MK) is less then 36 minutes. On a level 10 day Peter Pan is more than 80 minutes.
I'm not sure if you will be able to see the link I'm sharing. Part of the touring plans site is free & other half is paid.
http://touringplans.com/magic-kingdom/crowd-levels

ETA: here's a note from the touring plans site about this wait time chart: These numbers represent minutes. We've taken the highest wait times for each day we have data, split them up by the Magic Kingdom crowd level estimate we have for those days, then calculated the average range by level.
If you're going on a day where Magic Kingdom is estimated as a '3' crowd level, the times under the '3' column will be a good estimate of the longest wait you'll see for each attraction. As you can see, some attractions vary a lot more than others.

I hope this info helps!

 

[Caseheidi]

I was just going to ask the same question. Glad I did a search first.

The other games we play are:
*"I'm thinking about..." - basically "I Spy" but can describe anything
*"Which do you like better? This or That?" - We tend to get on themes with this one
* Rhyming games (DD is a preschooler, so things she is working on!)
* Alphabet game (A is for Apple, B is for Boy...)

we play many of these often when we are in a restaurant.

we have also used the What to do in line app. It is the book, but on your phone. It has specifics to the line ques and questions, so it gets the family looking around their environment and answering questions about what they see. I much prefer it on my phone then carting around a book.

We also make up stories and tell them. sometimes one line at a time with other members adding to the story. Can be lots of fun.