Fun Activities To Do In The Car On The Way To Disneyland / Magic Kingdom

Fun Activities To Start The Disney Magic on the Drive or Flight to a Disney Park!

Unless you live right down the street from your nearest Disney resort, the actual drive to the Disney park can feel like an eternity to your children. They’ll be anticipating all of the magic and fun that await them once they arrive…ugh…but that blasted drive! Of course, this can also apply to/for adults! Here are some fun things to do in the car to keep everyone excited about the day ahead while keeping them distracted en route (especially great if you have a multi-hour drive ahead of you!). For that have purchased one of our Disney park adventure challenges, you might consider opening the package BEFORE you get there (for those that are extra eager to get started.) Although, you might not be able to officially begin, everyone can have fun pouring over the master list and reading the instructions!)

Activities/Games That Don’t Take Preparation

1. We’ll start with a simple game that we always played in the car (this is great for those families that are familiar with the Disney movies.) The rules are simple and can be played multiple times (depending on the rules you choose.) Begin by choosing two Disney movies that everyone is most familiar with. One person begins by naming a character in one of the two movies. The person must name a DIFFERENT character. The next person must name a non-repeating character. When someone can’t come up with a new character from one of the two movies (within 30-60 seconds), he/she is out. The last person, to be declared the winner, MUST come up with ONE more character after the last person is out. This game can be repeated by choosing new movies to select characters from. Variations on this game are to come up with characters from any story, but perhaps all start with the same letter or a specific animal (like dogs or cats.)

Disney Park Scavenger Hunt!
The Great Disney Park Adventure Challenge

2. A variation on the above is to not choose a single story - but allow for any Disney character. However, before someone can say their character, they must repeat all of the past characters in order. For example, Lisa might say “Mickey.” Bobby might then say “Mickey. Peter Pan.” Dad might then say “Mickey, Peter Pan, Goofy.” You get the idea. If one fumbles, they are out. This, of course can be repeated as often as you’d like.

Activities/Games That You’ll Need To Prep (but is worth it!)

1. There’s a variety of ways that one might obtain different sounds from different Disney attractions. The Disney company sells CD’s of different collections of songs from different attractions (I.e. Yo Ho A Pirate’s Life For Me, from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.) The activity/game is simple - begin playing the song and see who guesses the attraction first. For those super familiar with the parks (and a bit handy with Youtube) you can select a compilation of videos of people going ON the attraction. Then play the sounds of the attraction itself to see who can guess it just from the sound.

Disneyland Scavenger Hunt
Download it Now!

2. Similar to #1, get your hand on a collection of Disney songs. Depending on the ages of the players and the overall knowledge of Disney music, choose a collection of songs such that you can play each to see who can guess THE STORY of the song first. For avid Disney fans, try to choose songs that are more obscure. They might not be able to name the song…but they might be able to guess the movie. For SUPER Disney fans, find instrumental background music. Each movie has distinct music and you’d be surprised how much you can identify just from the instrumental songs!

3. Download your favorite list of the most popular lines from the Disney movies (a simple Google search will offer plenty.) By only reading the line, see who can guess the movie. Bonus points are awarded for being able to guess the character by name.

4. For those with especially long drives, offer something VERY fun. Yes, this will take a little prep…but it could be the perfect activity for your drive (depending on who’s in the car.) Stop by your local Disney Store or Wal_mart and pick up some small Disney toys, candies, etc. Things that are VERY small. It’s advisable to get things in multiples of the children in the car. If you have three children, then pick up 3, 6, or 9 small things. You can also pick up 3 of each instead and not worrying about the multiplier. To prepare, wrap one of the small items in wrapping paper (or the three of the same, if that’s what you decided to buy.) Then, take the next item (or set of three) and set those ON TOP of the wrapped gift. Then wrap that stack up as a single present. Now, set the next item on top (or set of three) and wrap THAT as a single gift. Keep going until all of the gifts are wrapped. Essentially, you’ll have a gift inside a gift inside a gift, etc. Once in the car, break down the mileage to the Disney Park and divide that by the number of wrappings you have. For example, if you have five toys/candies and it’s a 100 mile drive…then every 20 miles (that’s 100 divided by 5) allow the kids to unwrap ONE layer of wrapping. They will each receive a small token gift and be looking at another gift to open once they drive another 20 miles. HOWEVER - the rule is that they CANNOT ask about the mileage or “Are we almost there.”