I agree - queuing appears not to be the stong point of our continental neighbours
Just shout 'attention' in a french accent at them or 'arrette'! And it helps a little
Depending on how old your children are, when you arrive at the park in the morning - go all the way to the back of the park first - perhaps the back of frontier land or right over on the right to future land (or whatever it's called). People tend to bunch up in the middle bit early on, so you can avoid some of the queues that way.
There is a soft play area in the space planet restaurant and they do okayish pizzas there at lunch time.
Don't ever get the steam train thing from the first station - walk to the station at toon town or frontier land and pick it up there!
Watch out for the shows at the stage just below cinderella's palace - sometimes they are quite fun - and if you get there early you can sit on one of the benches to watch, gaining a well earned seat for a while
The waffles sold at the handcarts are not too ruinously expensive and are a really good afternoon snack
Book a character dining experience if yours are young enough to enjoy meeting mickey and minnie - it is worth it, if bloody expensive!
Alternatively if you are in the Disneyland hotel bar at around 4pm ish (check with teh concierge what time they will be there) then you can have the characters all to yourself for a good 15mins or so