Waiting in long lines at Disney World can be hard — we get it, we’ve been there plenty of times!

Oftentimes you turn to your phone to play a game, scroll through social media, or read a book, but if you want to make the most of your Disney World day, we highly recommend multitasking while you’re in a long line to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success for the rest of your day. It passes the time quickly, and you can step off the ride afterward knowing you’ve ticked off so many boxes for the remainder of your day.

Mobile Order Your Meals

We often recommend eating at off-peak times to avoid larger crowds on busier days in Disney World, and mobile order is a great way to make sure you don’t have to wait in a long line before waiting AGAIN to get your food. However, if you don’t mobile order your food well ahead of time on busy days, you may go to order your food when you’re starving at lunch time and realize that the next pickup window isn’t available for another 45 minutes.

While you’re waiting in a long line, plan your meals ahead of time and place your lunch and/or dinner orders well in advance! You can choose whatever time you’d like for later in the day, and the best part is, if you look at the time and realize you’re not hungry just yet, you can see if you can push your time a little later!

Check Walk-Up Waitlists

When you’re planning your Disney World vacation, you may choose not to do table service meals because you don’t want to spend the extra cash, or you don’t think it’ll be what you/your party wants to do. However, sometimes throughout the day, you realize you WOULD like to sit down and have a nice lunch or dinner. Don’t stress, you haven’t totally lost your chance — last minute reservations do become available!

While you’re waiting in your long line, check the My Disney Experience App to check walk-up waitlists nearby and table service reservations available around the resort to see what may be available. It’s rare that you’ll find absolutely nothing available, unless you’ve got a very large party. Finding reservations for more popular restaurants may be difficult, but there are many hidden gems around the resort that you won’t want to miss out on!

Check Other Wait Times

If you’re trying to decide where to go next after you finish with your current attraction, you’ll want to use the My Disney Experience App to check for current wait times all around the park.

The app will give you real time updates to give you insight into what rides have jumped in wait times, which have dropped, and what attractions may be temporarily unavailable. It can all change in a moment, so be sure to check again right after you get off your current ride to make sure your next move is still a good idea!

Review Showtimes

Live entertainment is another very important part of any Disney World day, whether it be in the form of parades, stage shows, meet and greets, and more. However, this entertainment doesn’t happen all day, every day, so while you’re in line, take a look at what’s available and when so you’re not caught off guard.

We can’t tell you how many times we’ve come across the heartbreaking scene where a family really wanted to meet a certain character, but they didn’t realize characters stopped meeting earlier than other attractions. Entertainment can also change on a dime due to Cast Member illness or injury, weather, and more, so be sure to check back often!

Check Your PhotoPass Photos

Whether you’ve purchased PhotoPass for your trip or not, you can see all the photos you’ve taken and tapped your MagicBand/phone for on your My Disney Experience App! Often, we find ourselves cracking up over some of our photos, and we download them immediately if we’ve purchased PhotoPass or have it as part of our Annual Pass.

If you don’t have PhotoPass, you can also look through the photos and see if there are any you’d like to purchase! Some photos with family and friends can make great Christmas/holiday cards, you can frame them for the wall at home, or can be great memories for everyone to share on social media. What better time to look through them than waiting in a long line?

Give A Cast Compliment

Cast Members work so hard to make the magic in Disney World, and we love recognizing the Cast Members that go above and beyond for bringing Disney magic to a whole other level. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to let Disney know that these amazing people should be recognized for their hard word, and doing it while you’re waiting in line is super simple.

To leave a Cast Compliment, visit the My Disney Experience app and search “Cast Compliment.” From there, you can enter the reason for your compliment (you’ll select from a number of choices, you won’t be able to type one in), and the location, name, hometown, and date of your interaction. If you can’t remember the Cast Member’s hometown, that’s okay! It’s optional, but it does help Disney find the person easier.

Book Your Next Lightning Lane

Of course, one of the most beneficial things you can do in line while waiting is book your next Lightning Lane! You likely won’t have to wait long if you’re using Lightning Lane for the ride line you’re in, but you can also use standby lines while you wait for your next Lightning Lane to become available. If that’s the case, be sure to watch the time closely and book your next Lightning Lane as soon as you can!

Remember that you can hold three Lightning Lane reservations at a time, and you can book another one immediately after using one up. However, there’s also a secret three hour rule you’ll want to know about too — while the app will tell you you have an hour to return to redeem your Lightning Lane, you actually have THREE! After the first hour passes though and it “disappears” from your app, you can book another return time, allowing you to stack Lightning Lanes.

Be sure to stay tuned to DFB for all the latest Disney World news, tips, and tricks!

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How do you pass the time in long lines? Tell us in the comments!