Hiya Liz
where are you off to? How exciting!
We took Sophie on a 4hr flight just before her 2nd birthday. I bought a load of (smallish) new things and packed them in a little rucksack for her. It included things like mini- aquadraws, a few new books, colouring book & small pack crayons, some new toys etc.
Our saving grace was that we had paid extra for her to have her own seat. We put her in the middle of us and she spent the first hour jumping on the seat looking back down the plane (we were at the front) waving and shouting "hello eddybody". Then it was time for food- she had her own meal and ate the whole thing brilliantly. I had packed some small- person cutlery and a disposable bib in her rucksack. That killed almost another hour. Then we started with the toys & things- I managed to make each one last 20- 30 minutes before she got antsy and then brought out another. I had packed enough so that strategy lasted us the rest of the flight. Of course 4hrs is nowhere near 8 hours though

Be warned- although we flew at nap time both ways, she would not sleep at all, it was too exciting. And she was/ is an angel sleeper

We didn't have a portable dvd player then but we did this year when we went on the sick-cat across to France, and it was completely genius. One hour of Peppa Pig, and another hour of Night Garden and Alex actually sat still for most of the journey- phew! We didn't think of using it on the way there and the 2.5hr journey was challenging to say the least

I would definitely get one if you don't already. I got ours from Tesco, it was dead cheap, is not at all flashy but does what it says on the tin

have a fab time xx