Hi Lesley!
This is a great question as it can be difficult for little ones to hang in long lines while on vacation at Walt Disney World. Ultimately only you will know how to best entertain your children, but I'll give you some suggestions on what usually works with my kiddos.
Disney has recently introduced a new
phone app called Play Disney that is interactive while you're in the parks. You log into the app using your
My Disney Experience username and password and can play various games while in the queues of certain rides. We had a long wait at
Toy Story Mania! once at
Disney's Hollywood Studios and we played quite a few fun attraction specific games while in line that were great for all ages. The kids had a ton of fun!
Another great phone app to play in line is Head's Up. We saw another family playing this in the line and decided to try it out for ourselves. The Disney Parks version is free while you are on Disney property, otherwise it's a small fee to download the entire pack. There is an animal version that's great for the smaller kids who can act out or make the noises of the animals for guessing. Playing games like this does drain your phone battery, so I highly recommend carrying a portable battery charger if you don't already.
Like you said, most of the queues are entertaining in themselves, but won't hold attention for the entire time. We like to play I Spy a lot while we are waiting, where you say, "I spy something...." and then describe what it is and have the kids guess the answer.
When all else fails, give them snacks! If we are entering a queue that we know is going to be a long wait, we come prepared with food. We will grab popcorn or a pretzel for them to munch on as we go through the line. You can bring drinks and food into the queues as long as they are finished and thrown away or packed up and put away by the time you reach the attraction point. We got in line for
Avatar Flight of Passage at
Disney's Animal Kingdom when it was a 3 hour wait earlier this year and I came prepared with kids meals for that one. I grabbed chicken nuggets and fries for the kids as well as our filled popcorn bucket and games.
Please stop back by and visit if you have any additional vacation planning questions.
Have a magical day!
Leslie