How important is it for you/your family to meet characters??

[AuroraBorealis]

Not important to us, but we're adults, no kids. Plus, I grew up when characters freely wandered around the parks and you had the fun of just running into one. There is nothing like turning a corner and seeing Mickey when you least expected him! I'm really turned off by the current incarnation of queuing up to meet characters and collect autographs. It just seems too sterile and controlled to me, less magical, I guess.

I think we've gotten maybe three character pictures in the last five years and we did just happen to randomly run into the characters and there were no lines.

 

[jpolak]

Two words, character meal. We do the princess breakfast in Epcot, and a couple of others that way we get all of our pictures and autographs done in a nice calm environment. This year we may wait to meet Tink. Maybe.

 

[BeckieSue]

We like to see as many as we can, but won't wait in long lines. We enjoy our character meals (really looking forward this trip to 1900 Park Fare with the step-sisters) It is neat when we find ones that you don't see all over the place. Characters are part of the Disney experience .

 

[christa112]

Our 1st trip of course we wanted to see every character we can. But now it is not so important. Also if you do character dining you can see alot of characters that way which helps cut down on the lines.

 

[Luna_Lovegood]

We do a character meal (more was overkill) and we point out characters as we see them, but we don't usually stand in line. The exception was a late night/early morning at the Magic Kingdom. There were no lines, and the characters were just wandering around, riding the rides, and visiting with the kids. We did manage to get a few good snaps that time.

 

[khertz]

If we are passing a character that we like (Buzz & Woody, Stitch, etc) and the line to meet them is short, DH and I will stop and get a picture with them. The only ones we stood in line for were Mickey Mouse (we went to Toontown's rope drop so we could get there before the line got too long!) and Donald Duck (DH's favorite). Otherwise, we don't waste too much time on meeting characters. We're planning to do our first ever character meal (breakfast at Chef Mickey's!) on the next trip so that we don't have to even stand in line to meet Mickey and hopefully Donald.

 

[harriettb]

I enjoyed seeing my granddaughters' excitement over meeting Mary Poppins and some of the other characters on our recent trip. We'll try for more when we go back in the fall, but I'll steer them toward the rides over spending too much time waiting in line for an autograph and photo. I will probably try to schedule one character meal....but personally I think the prices are a little high.

 

[DisCopper]

I LOVE the characters... mainly because all the people waiting in line to see them are NOT waiting in line for the rides (er... themed attractions).

I stopped caring about them at all somewhere around 6-7 years old.

Yes, I may pause to see someone interesting... Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, Darth Vader, etc... (don't know what Vader's doing on that list...).... but there's no way I'm waiting in line to stand next to them.

 

[bytheblood]

It is not a priority for us. We pick Mickey and Donald each time, plus several princesses. Outside of that, we go for the ones we really like or have never met and pass on the rest.

 

[Liann]

LOL!!!! My son just came in and asked what this thread was about so I read him the title. His reaction was "You hafta be a facist or a communist to even ask that question! Duuh.". (he's joking of course)

But I think that tells you our opinion on the matter. It's a MUST but we wouldn't like devote a whole day to it or miss something else we'd like to do.

 

[SummerSky]

If I see characters I like and the wait doesn't seem too bad, I definitely go meet them, but if the wait's too long, I'll pass, it's not that big a priority.

 

[hannah_03]

Our first trip we only went to MK and we were overwhelmed. I think my daughter got 3 or 4 signatures. Last year we only did Disney so I made sure to work that into the schedule. She got at least 10. I'm hoping for a ton more this year since we will have more time but I won't stand in line for 2 hours again like we did at the Epcot spot LOL! I plan to do alot of character meals this time to get the greetings/meetings in.

 

[DRS_Are_Best]

I wouldn't say that not meeting characters would ruin our trip. However, we are travelling with 3 small kids (nearly 4 and 26mo old twins when we go) and meeting characters:

(1) serves as down-time between rides
(2) gives them the context with the shows they (sometimes) watch from home
(3) pictures give us a very nice keepsake (especially since we're almost definitely getting the cd) -- it will allow us to show them meeting the characters as they grow older.

So, that said, we will go whenever the opportunities present themselves, but I doubt we will wait on any line that appears to be too long.

 

[brightvalleyjrts]

It is very important to me!! My boys really love them and I love the pictures. They have really enjoyed going back and seeing the pictures from past trips. I actually think I love them more than the kids!!

 

[KristyLo]

I love meeting the characters but I do not care to wait in the lines. We always try to fit a couple of character breakfast or lunches in our trip specifically to meet the characters so my kids will not want to stop at every character line in the park.