Are you taking your kids on a road trip to Disney? Here are 9 Disney activities and games for kids you can play during your road trip.
Best Disney Activities and Games for Kids on a Disney Road Trip including Disney Games for free!
Few things can beat a family vacation to the Magic Kingdom, but, if you live far away, the long car ride to Walt Disney World can be as exhausting for your kids as it is for you. Therefore, once you’ve secured your hotel reservations, made note of the local repair shop (in case of car emergencies), and packed everyone’s suitcases, it’s time to figure out how to keep the kids from growing bored during the drive. The following guide is a list of fun activities to keep your children occupied and happy while you focus on the road.
Table of Contents
8 Disney Games and Activities Perfect for a Road Trip to Disney
1. Disney Sing-a-Long
A great way to engage your kids and lift their spirits when they’re sitting for long periods is by singing songs. When they’re jamming to great tunes from their favorite animated movies or television series, they’ll forget about how long they’ll have to wait (and sit) before meeting Mickey Mouse.
Most Disney series and movies have original soundtracks you can purchase and download to your phone or are available on streaming apps. Disney even has a Disney’s Greatest Hits albums. If your car has a CD player, you might consider going the old-fashioned route and filling a nylon CD binder with soundtracks from your son’s or daughter’s favorite Disney productions.
You can turn something as simple as picking and listening to music into an exciting activity by helping them decorate the binder with stickers of their beloved Disney characters before you leave, and letting them choose their tunes during the trip.
2. Disney Themed Bingo
Another fun activity to captivate your kids on the long car trip is bingo. While you can purchase ready-made bingo cards online, if time permits, you can make your own so they are specifically tailored to your kids’ tastes. You can find printable, Disney-themed bingo cards online or print blank ones and design them with your kids. For added fun, use small candies, gummies, or stickers for markers. If the road trip takes more than an hour or two, print coloring bingo cards for your children to enjoy.
3. Walt Disney Matching Card Game
Your kids will love playing a Disney-themed matching game during the long car trip. As with bingo, you can purchase a Disney-themed set of cards from most retail stores or design them yourself using printable online templates. Matching games may seem a little less engaging than bingo, but they come with a bonus: Playing matching or number games helps your child develop their memory and communication skills.
4. Lap Desk & Organizer
Wherever the children go, messes and messiness are sure to follow. However, you can minimize the necessary clean up by providing a desk for them to work on. You can use a flat, metal cookie sheet as a surface for playing games that involve cards or paper, for coloring, or for holding snacks.
Although you’ll probably need to clean stray crayon marks after the trip, a cookie sheet is an inexpensive alternative to most retail car-seat lap desks. Moreover, the desk doesn’t take up a lot of space and is easy to store when not in use. Younger children might enjoy using the cookie tray to play with magnets, so be sure to use baking trays with magnetic properties (check the labels; some metal sheets are not magnetic). If you can’t get your hands on magnetic trays, consider using adhesive magnetic strips instead.
5. I’m Going on a Picnic … in Disney World
Teaching your kids to play the “I’m going on a picnic” game is easy and will leave them laughing for hours. The original game starts when one player says “I’m going on a picnic.” The player follows by saying “… and I’m taking …” and listing an item that starts with the letter “A.” The second player will repeat what the first person said and add something that starts with the letter “B.”
The game continues as each person repeats what the previous individual brings to the picnic while adding an item of their own. Each new item must start with a different letter of the alphabet. To keep consistent with your Disney-themed car adventure, you can choose a specific Disney movie for the picnic’s setting and bring items related to the characters or worlds you’d find in that film.
For example, you could start the game by saying “I’m going on a picnic in Wonderland, and I’m bringing … apple jam,” or “I’m going on a picnic in Neverland, and I’m bringing pixie dust.” Adding a setting will make the game a bit more difficult, but your kids will enjoy thinking up picnic items they can bring from their favorite Disney works.
6. Counting the Miles with Mickey
For exceptionally long trips, you can make tickets with numbers on them to help your kids keep track of how long you’ve been traveling. First, cut a piece of black construction paper into Mickey Mouse’s signature silhouette, and then assign a number to each ticket for every hour you’ll be on the road. Every time an hour passes, say “Tickets please!” and collect the Mickey tickets from your kids.
If you live conveniently close to Disney World, you can use tickets to keep track of the miles you’ve driven. Your kids will feel like they’re on a train adventure rather than a long car ride and will anticipate each hour with excitement.
7. Who Am I: The Disney Edition
The “Who Am I?” game is usually played as an icebreaker at school or camps, but you can easily adapt it to meet your road trip activity needs. The original game involves writing the name of a character or person on an index card and taping it to your forehead. Other players would be able to see the name of your persona.
The point of the game is for you to ask a series of “yes” or “no” questions to help you guess who you are. To play the game in the car, write the names of Disney characters on index cards, or, if your children are too young to read, print and cut out pictures of Disney characters for them to choose from. Let them decide the number of questions you can ask and guess accordingly. If you win, you get to choose the next guesser. If you lose, you’ll have to spend another round guessing the name of your character.
8. Disney Spelling Bee
Last, but not least, is another simple, yet exciting, car brain game for your kids. Hosting a Disney-themed spelling bee in your backseat is a fun way for children to practice their spelling skills while passing the time. You can use cards from the matching game or “Who am I?” to choose which Disney movie title or character’s name they’ll spell.
9. Disney Audible Books
Listening to an audible book is a great way to pass the time and there are lots of audible Disney Books! Pretty much any story Disney has ever told is available as an audible book.
Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks
With these 9 Disney games and activities for kids, your next Disney road trip is sure to be entertaining and a lot of fun. From bingo to spotting license plates, these creative ideas will likely lead to family bonding and laughs along the way. So why wait? Grab some snacks and add a little magical sparkle to your road trip by busting out these Disney games today!
For more road trip games, check out these 11 Road Trip Games that can be played in the car.
Guest post by Jordan Smith. She is obsessed with Disney, her beautiful family, and cars. Her career as the lead mechanic for ActionGatorTire.com. It is both challenging and rewarding, but she loves getting to do what she enjoys every day. Having a creative outlet, like blogging, and planning future vacations are the best ways she knows to deal with the pressures of adulting!
Get Travel Insurance
Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that can go wrong on any trip. Be prepared for the worst with travel insurance. We use Travelex or Safety Wing (often cheaper).
Book Flights
I use Skyscanner to find flights. I use it so much, I wrote an entire guide to finding cheap flights with Skyscanner! My second favorite site to find flights is Momondo, another great site for finding cheap flights.
Book a Place to Stay
I recommend using Expedia.com or Hotels.com for most hotel bookings. I prefer to book directly with Marriott when I stay there because of their excellent military discount.
If you prefer staying in a vacation rental instead, I recommend VRBO.
Rent Clothes
Rent clothes for your trip with Travel Style Expert for only $50 a month!
Choose Activities and Tours
To find great activities in any area I use Get Your Guide and Viator. If we are visiting a city with lots of popular attractions I always check CityPass and GoCard to see if they have discount cards available.
When I want to book a full-on multi-day tour I use TourRadar. They’ve got fantastic weekly deals.
Rent a Car or Take a Lyft
More often than not Lyft is cheaper than Uber. Use my Lyft link for an $18 credit! For a car rental in any country, I recommend Discover Cars.