It feels like there is never a shortage of things to do at a Disney Theme Park. Even for the avid Disney fan who has visited multiple times the parks are filled with magic. But, if you are anything like me, the magic can begin to die down when you are stuck waiting in an extremely long line ride after ride. I am not the biggest people person and tend to get claustrophobic when I am stuck in large crowds. That being said, when lines are 60 minutes long (or in some unfortunate cases even longer), I can get a little restless and frustrated. I have searched far and wide for ways to entertain myself in line without excluding other members of my party and have compiled a list of ways to entertain yourself and your friends while waiting to board your favorite ride.
1. “Car Games” like Eye Spy: This one is pretty easy and self-explanatory. Pretty much any game that you can play in the car can be played while waiting in line: a quick game of Eye Spy, the ABC game using people’s t-shirts and hats, etc. These are easy and free games that pretty much everyone knows.
2. Plan the next part of your day: This one is pretty easy and again, pretty self-explanatory. Sometimes it can be helpful to look at what else is around you and what you have left to do. If you know the park pretty well, this can be as simple as deciding where you are going to grab your next meal. If you frequently visit the parks, this one won’t take up much time, but if you have never been before this can be an optimal time for pulling out the map and trying to figure some things out.
3. Find Hidden Mickeys: Disney Imagineers are extremely creative and enjoy hiding little teasers around the parks. One of the most popular teasers would be Hidden Mickeys. Using materials that would be placed in ride queues, on rides themselves, and in other areas of the park Disney has created different Mickey Mouse shapes that can sometimes be obvious and other times extremely difficult to find. At pretty much any souvenir shop around the park you can find books that give you clues about these Mickeys and begin your search.
4. Heads Up: Chances are that these days most of you will have someone in their group who has a Smart Phone. There is a free app that you can purchase called Heads Up. This game is sort of a weird charades, Taboo, Catchphrase hybrid that has many different categories and options. My favorite part about heads up is that often times you get the attention of other people waiting in line and they start to play with you, making it an even bigger group activity. This probably isn’t one for you if you find yourself to be easily embarrassed, but it can be fun to watch other people humiliate themselves. Once we had to act out sumo wrestling and my dad pretended he didn’t know for a bit to keep it going… That’s my family for you!
5. Disneyland BINGO: I have only done this once, but had a blast doing it. The only problem is that you definitely will have to plan ahead or bring supplies along if you plan to this. Disneyland BINGO involves you and your friends coming up with your own BINGO boards filled with different types of people/things you might see while at the park. Examples would be things like: crying kid, couple who displays too much PDA, someone wearing red Mickey ears, a woman wearing high heels, etc. Each person creates a Bingo board or a list with whatever types of people/things your group has decided upon. Your next goal is to either get a “BINGO” by finding those people, or find all the people on your list. If you play with trusting people, you can simply check them off. However, it adds an extra element of challenge if you require photographic evidence of what you have found. Either way, it can be fun and sometimes lasts the whole trip!
I am definitely not an entertainment expert, but those are just a few of the fun things that I have found during my time roaming around the parks and waiting out those long lines. I am always looking for new things to add to my list, so if you have any favorite ways to pass the time, let us know! I would love to try some out!
– Melissa Hoyt
Categories: Vacation Tips
These are really handy. Heads Up is a really fun game and I can always go with some Disney planning. I have 3 more to add.
1. Take pictures. This one is fairly obvious but when the pace slows down it’s fun to try to capture some of the details of the queue’s.
2. Say The Same Thing – There’s an app for this game but you don’t need an app to play. Each person you’re with thinks of a random word. Next, you try to come up with a word that relates to all of the random words said at first. You keep going until you all land on the same word. If you’re with a bunch of people this takes a while.
3. Disney Parks Draft – I’ve tried to do this but have never been with enough Disney nerds to get very far. You basically have a Disney Parks Fantasy Draft. You can have 5 or 10 rounds. Each person is building their own theme park with rides (you can do restaurants too) from inside of Disneyland and/or Disney World. The goal of the draft is to come up with the most interesting theme park you can. I hope to go with enough nerds one day to actually play this game!
I like Spot The Undercover Cast Member. I usually see someone doing the Disney point in regular guest clothes. It’s kinda cool 🙂