One thing Disney does best is keeping visitors entertained while waiting in line for rides and attractions. If you have visited a theme park you know that waiting in line can be long and boring. This is even more true when you are with kids. Some of the queue have things lots to touch, this is a good reason to keep that hand sanitizer in your park bag!
Magic Kingdom has the most kid friendly interactive lines which makes sense since they have the most rides without height restrictions. The Dumbo ride even has an indoor play area where kids can play while you wait for your turn in line. The interactive elements can only be seen in the stand-by line which means that if you use the Fastpass line you will not see them.
Magic Kingdom rides with interactive queues:
- Peter Pan-this interactive queue was most recently updated. The line takes guests into the Darling children’s bedroom where you can play with shadows of butterflies and bells. Keep an eye out for Tinkerbell.
- Winnie the Pooh-of course a line for a ride aimed at preschoolers would have a fun play stop to keep them happy. There is a garden area to play in, a bee coaster that wraps around the line and monitors where you clear the honey to find images of Pooh and friends.
- Big Thunder Mountain railroad-There are small monitors where you can watch funny short movie clips and you can even blast into the mountain. First you crank and then you get push the detonator, just be sure you watch out on the hills to see the blast.
- Haunted Mansion-this outdoor queue has plenty to touch for kids and kids at heart. A wall of musical instruments that make sound when touched has kids composing their own music and the crypt of a sea captain leaks water at times or releases bubbles.
- Dumbo-When Dumbo made its move into New FantasyLand the line got a makeover which includes an indoor play area. This is great because its inside and air conditioned plus there are a few benches for the grownups to rest while the kids play. At busier times they will hand out a buzzer that goes off when its time for you to get back in line.
- Space Mountain-this is another popular ride so to keep guest busy there are video games to play throughout the queue.
- Journey of the Little Mermaid-in parts of the queue there are several spots where crabs are sorting all Ariel’s treasures you can help the crabs sort them into the right category.
- Seven dwarfs mine train-There is a gem sorting game and barrels filled with gems that make a fun design on the ceiling.
There are some lines that may not have anything to touch but Disney is also big on the details to really immerse you in the theme of the ride. The queue for Adventure Everest over in Animal Kingdom cases of Yeti artifacts and makes you feel like you are preparing to climb mount Everest.
Over at Epcot the standby line for the popular ride Soarin’ helps guests pass the time with an interactive trivia game. There is a website posted on the screen where you can join 1 of 4 teams and answer trivia questions in real time. The line has large monitors where you can see the questions and answers. Towards the end of the line there are monitors with the top scores of the day.
The best way to experience all the fun of the interactive queue is to going during the morning Extra Magic hours. You can go through the standby lines with a short wait but you are not a morning person you can still catch check them out you just may have to wait a bit longer. Also none of these extra elements are worth waiting in line for a long period of time so if its a ride you really want to ride your best bet is using the Fastpass line.