Best Strategy for Meeting Characters at EP, HS, and AK

[MudQueen22]

One of our children will be 4 when we go to WDW in July. We suspect he might want to have a lot of character interaction.
MK allows fast passes for character meets. EP, however, has the character spot listed as a tier 1, and the rest don't seem to have fast passes at all.

What is a good strategy for letting my little guy have some character meets without long lines?

 

[SaintsManiac]

One of our children will be 4 when we go to WDW in July. We suspect he might want to have a lot of character interaction.
MK allows fast passes for character meets. EP, however, has the character spot listed as a tier 1, and the rest don't seem to have fast passes at all.

What is a good strategy for letting my little guy have some character meets without long lines?

Narrow down the list then check their set times on the MDE app.

MK allows FP for Princess Fairytale Hall, Mickey and Minnie and Tinkerbell. The rest have sets.

I highly recommend the meets at HS. The longest waits are usually for Woody and Jessie.

 

[MudQueen22]

Thank you, SaintsManiac.
How long are the waits for the other characters at HS?

 

[Tiggerlover91]

One of our children will be 4 when we go to WDW in July. We suspect he might want to have a lot of character interaction.
MK allows fast passes for character meets. EP, however, has the character spot listed as a tier 1, and the rest don't seem to have fast passes at all.

What is a good strategy for letting my little guy have some character meets without long lines?

Like you I want to take advantage of character meets on our June trip. I'm 50 and my son is 11! It's more for me, but he has some characters he really wants to meet too. I'm glad he's still into them. If you really want to meet the characters is EPCOT, why don't you get a separate FP for you and your little one so you don't tie up everyone else who might want to do another tier 1. I plan on getting my FP for it either on the way out the park or on our way back in when we head over to the World Showcase for LOTS of character meets there. That's one of our objectives for going to the World Showcases! I already have our FP set up for Tiana and Rapunzel and plan to get Tink and then Mickey/Minnie in the evening when we return to the MK. At AK, I've got that character greet set up as our FP after we get off of Expedition Everest. Although that may not be the best idea as I may be a hot mess coming off that ride!!

Character greets are possible without having to stand in long lines. You can rope drop them or set up your FPs to center around them for your little one! Good luck! I hope I've helped!

 

[stsomewhere]

Storybook circus in MK is a great place to meet characters, it is usually about a 20 minute wait for each side. Daisy and Pluto, and Goofy and Donald.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Thank you, SaintsManiac.
How long are the waits for the other characters at HS?

Usually about 20 minutes or so. Olaf and BB-8 are quick and really fun!

 

[cassie58]

Do you have any character meals planned? This was always our favorite way to get many meets done w/o waiting in line when DS and DD were young. We did CP for the Pooh Characters, one or two Mickey/Minnie and gang meal(TH, Cape May, etc), and a princess meal(CRT, Akershus, 1900PF, BonVoyage). There is also the Disney Jr meal now. It was nice to sit in the AC and have them come to you!

If you have more than one day at a park, you could focus more on rides one day, and catch some characters you pass with short lines, and on another day be more focused on characters, using FP or doing some at RD with short lines. And of course lots of flexibility with that age if they want to meet everyone they see, or get nervous and don't want to meet many. Also, focusing on their faves that only appears in one park, especially if you only have one day, like Olaf and Disney Jr characters in HS, or Elsa & Anna, Baymax, and Joy & Sadness in Epcot, etc. Unlike Mickey and Minnie or Donald you will see in each park in some form . I would also consider signing up for Kenny the Pirate's subscription to get great updated info. on which characters appear where and when at each park on the days you visit. Have fun - love seeing the magic through their eyes at that age!

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

The popular characters in Epcot can be difficult. Often if you look up the set times in MDE and arrive 10-15 mins early you'll be in good shape. But Belle and Mulan have lines that can get really long. We've waited 45 mins for each of them even arriving before their sets.

Joy and Sadness can get long and make for good rope drop options. Reports are that Van and Ralph and Baymax have shorter waits.

Olaf is generally short. Chewie and BB8 can get long sometimes. I don't recommend going right around the start of the dessert party - that didn't work well for us - but they don't need to be RD characters.

At 4 my son really liked meeting the Winnie the Pooh characters at Crystal Palace. That was the best character meal for him.

Are there other specific characters you want to know about?

 

[Rach3975]

Look into some of the character meetings in World Showcase. We didn't wait long at all (15 minutes?) to meet Donald outside Mexico. I think some of the princesses get longer lines, unfortunately.

Characters are a priority for one of my kids, so we used Kenny the Pirate's Character Locator. There's a small subscription fee, about $10 or $15 a year. After you subscribe you can click on a park and see a list of all the characters who meet there. If you click on the character, it will tell you their predicted sets that day and give advice about when to go. For example, one might say to be at the first set of the day because later lines are much longer. Another might recommend arriving 10 minutes before the character starts greeting at any set of the day. The one negative about character locator is that he only inputs a week of data at a time. Last time I checked, sometime on Saturday he'd update all the info for that Saturday to Friday. So it's a great tool while you're in the park but less useful for planning ahead of time.

 

[MudQueen22]

We have three character meals planned: Cinderella's Royal Table, Garden Grill, and Chef Mickey.
He's more into the Toy Story Characters right now (we have EMM at HS booked, so we are hoping he can meet Buzz, Woody, and Jessie there). We plan to make a few fast passes, but we plan to use the bulk of them for rides.
We will only have one day at EP, so we plan to use our tier 1 on Soarin'. We all like that one, and ds (4) has never been able to ride it before so we think he might like it too. I wish character spot was on a Tier 2, but it's not. Fortunately, he likes the fuzzy characters more than the princesses, so glad to hear that the likes of Donald Duck are easier to see in EP than the princesses.
I'll look into Kenny the Pirate. Thank you!!

 

[Unca’ Donald]

Since you are doing EMM at Toy Story Land I would recommend being in line for Woody and Jessie right when they come out at 7:30.