I think our night turned out pretty well.
I was in a group of 5, we spent our morning and afternoon running around Anaheim and Burbank, not in the parks.
By the time we got dressed and headed to the parking garage it was almost 6. It was a little chilly that night, but a hat and long sleeves made it bearable.
The lines were somewhat long to get in and we encountered plenty of day guests trying to enter in the special event line.
Once inside, we got out special parks maps and fanny packs. We got something to eat so that was out of the way.
The park closed to day guests at 8 and the party officially started at 9. Around 7:30 we started to scope out character locations.
The characters leaked a few hours before the party by Laughing Place and were:
- Main Street U.S.A.:
- Chip and Dale (rescue ranger outfits)
- Launchpad McQuack and Scrooge McDuck
- New Orleans Square:
- Fantasmic! Monkeys (under black lights so they glowed)
- Adventureland:
- Indiana Jones (he just wandered the queue and did not do pictures/autographs)
- Baloo and Louie (TaleSpin outfits)
- Critter Country:
- Mulan and Mushu (Mulan was in her Ping outfit!)
- Fantasyland:
- Disney Afternoon Avenue (backdrops from Gummy Bears, Duck Tales, TaleSpin)
- Hercules, Megara, and Hades
- Belle and Gaston
- Darkwing Duck and Don Karnage
- Frontierland:
- Pocahontas and Meeko
- Clopin, Esmeralda, and Phoebus
- Timon and Rafiki
- Tomorrowland:
- Goofy and Max (Goofy in his dad sweater and Max in his Powerline outfit)
We had tried to come up with a game plan before and decided Don Karnage was our number one want. We headed to ToonTown and a line had already formed...but then cast members broke (?) up the line and we decided to go elsewhere. Which was really a blessing in disguise, according to other reports.
We ended up along the Fantasyland to Frontierland path and were a few groups back for the Hunchback characters. They actually ended up coming out at 8 and we got to meet Phoebus and Esmerelda together.
Then we went back to Don Karnage, the cast members said they weren't coming out until 9 and no one could line up yet so we left.
We headed to the castle to get in line for the Hercules characters. I think we arrived around 8:30 and they weren't out yet. They moved the line inside and we were still outside the fantasy faire theater, if that gives you a good idea of the line. Meg and Hercules came out together at 8:45. Meg met for about 20 minutes and then left, leaving Hercules by himself. We were afraid we weren't going to meet him and that he'd leave any minute. We had already met Meg and Hades at WDW at the 24 hour party. Amazingly, we got to skip about 20 parties in line because they were trying to wait for Hades. So we were the second to last group to meet Hercules and saw Hades as we were walking out.
The fireworks had begun while we were meeting Hercules, so we got to watch most of them.
As they were ending, we stayed one step ahead of the crowds and power walked to Baloo. He was out by himself, and we only waited about 10 minutes to see him.
We got our Indiana Jones decoder cards from the entrance to the attraction queue. When we heard Indy wasn't really meeting we headed out.
Ended up at Mulan and Mushu's area back near Hungry Bear. We didn't know before now that Mulan was meeting as Ping, but we asked the CMs and were then very excited. We probably waited 40 minutes. The riverboat went by as we were waiting and it was cool to hear the band onboard singing as they floated by, they did Waterfalls by TLC.
So we kept getting closer to the front and Mushu had been out all the time. It was almost a quarter til, and I figured if there was going to be a character change that is when it would happen. We tried letting several groups go in front of us but then everyone else wanted to wait. So we met Mushu, who I love, but I've met him before. Of course, we saw Ping walking up to start meeting two groups behind us. Ugh.
This brings up a point I have about these Disney parties with rare characters...why do they switch out like this?! Ping is kind of understandable, since she is a face character and they can't really have two different people playing them in sight of the line. OK then, but what about characters like Baloo and Louie? They just met one at a time the whole night. You're telling me you couldn't have paid for just two more people to play those characters? That cost seems very negligible to keep guests a whole lot happier. Same thing with Max and Goofy. You're telling me Disney had no idea people would want to meet Powerline Max over dad sweater Goofy?!
Sometimes I just don't get it.
We made our way to the front of the park to check on the rescue rangers. On the way we stopped to look at merch, the line for t shirts was somewhat long and they were out of smalls and mediums so we left. The line seemed pretty short but probably took around a half hour. At least those two met together. Launchpad was out and his line didn't look too long, but we skipped it and headed towards the back of the park.
We walked by to look at Max, it started to sprinkle and he moved off to the side and I was able to grab a picture of him by himself. That line looked insane.
We went back to check on Karnage and of course he and Darkwing's line was closed at 11:45. That whole area seemed like a mess, we never even got close enough to see them.
We did a few backdrop photos with basically no wait. On our way back to try for Ping again, we met Gaston who only had 2 groups in line.
We noticed that the Hunchback area had Clopin meeting, with a separate line waiting for Esmerelda who was coming out later (good idea CMs). We waited about 10 minutes and met Clopin.
The Lion King characters had a short wait but they aren't rare so we bypassed them. Half our group got in line for the monkeys and I headed for Ping and Mushu.
Mushu was out meeting, and the party had a half hour left. I guessed that Ping would have to come out at the end, and the CMs refused to say one way or another. So I waited with all the rest of the people who also wanted to meet Ping. I sent my boyfriend to the back of the line 10 til close and ended up meeting Mushu again in the drizzling rain.
Wonder of wonders, Ping came out right at closing time. I got back in line with my boyfriend and got to meet her! (him?).
We slowly walked out and got our Captain Marvel posters then had to walk to the parking garage since the trams were down
All in all it was a very successful night. Obviously, our main goal was characters. Some of our group split off throughout the night to do rides, but we ended up meeting Esmerelda, Phoebus, Clopin, Hercules, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin Baloo, Mushu and Ping and Gaston. We got a couple backdrop photos, checked out merch, saw most of the fireworks, got fanny packs and Indy ride decoders. If we didn't meet all the character we saw most of them except for Karnage and Darkwing.
I would recommend these nights, but it helps to have a plan, priorities, and luck.
I am going to write Disney an email about the rare characters not being available all the time during their meets. If this bothered you too, I'd advise you to write. If enough of us do they might do something about it.