Best time for Minnie and Friends

[czmom]

I think we want to do Minnie's as our character meal this trip. We are a ride-heavy family and like to take advantage of rides early, before the crowds build. Our trip will be in early August so definite crowds. Also, we are staying on site and will be using EE every morning.

I think in summer the park opens at 7 for resort guests?? Or is it 8? When do the crowds get heavy enough to where a break would be good for our breakfast?

We can eat a light snack early so I'm not worried about being starving if we wait. I just don't what to be eating when lines are short.

Thanks!

 

[agamble]

Parks open at 8am to the public during the summer. EMH will be one hour early, but only at one park per day. We like to go to Minnie's first thing in the morning, but since you're doing EMH every day, you probably aren't interested in that. If you want to make the most of your ride time, make a late booking. Call and check what time they clean up the food (probably 11:30), and make your reservation for an hour before that.

 

[mom2rtk]

Wendy, we did the same thing but with the park opening at 9 and EE at 8. We ate around 9:45 and never worried about food or characters going away but still felt like we got a decent amount done before we had to stop and go eat.

I have heard from others that the characters aren't as plentiful later in the morning. We saw 9 characters that day.

 

[czmom]

Okay, so maybe we will book around 9:30/10:00. That gives us a few hours of park time and hopefully food and characters will still be plentiful at Minnie's

 

[ktlm]

We usually do it around 10:15 or so. That gives us a couple of good hours of park time. The restaurant usually is not that crowded by then, and the characters usually spend a ton of time with us. We've never had an issue with the characters not being plentiful. We had one trip where we only saw 7 (which by WDW standards is a lot), but usually we see at least 9, and one year we saw 12.

 

[MikeRx]

We've done as late as 10:40am and have had a good meal and character interaction. If you miss someone you can ask and they will send them your way and with the crowd thinning out around 10:50 it is sometimes easier to get your pictures/autographs with less people in the background....however I think 10:15-10:30 is ideal. You get the MM from 7-10 and then eat a far more relaxed meal. It's one of my biggest tips for those staying on property or taking advantage of their MM.
Mike

 

[rms123]

We went once at 10:30 and did miss some characters. Kids were sad since they saw them as we walked up but then they never came to the table.

 

[agamble]

We went once at 10:30 and did miss some characters. Kids were sad since they saw them as we walked up but then they never came to the table.

This could happen at any time though. They change out the characters throughout the meals sometimes. Staff needs breaks. It's probably every 30 minutes or so. I know it's about every 20 for the ones meeting outside. It gets hot in those heavy costumes.

 

[czmom]

So what characters are the usuals at Minnie's?

 

[Aussie Princess]

I always try and get as early as possible for Minnie's the lasts 2 times we have done it we had before the park opened reservations

 

[agamble]

So what characters are the usuals at Minnie's?

Minnie is the only "guarantee." Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore are very regular as is Captain Hook. It's also common to see Chip/Dale there. We saw those (minus Pooh) plus Max (Goofy's son), The Fairy Godmother, and Pip the Penguin on our first trip. Last trip we saw a lot of characters and it was a bit of a blur because we were a larger party. But I know we saw all of the regulars plus Daisy Duck, who I have never seen in the parks before though she is now meeting at the Visa M&G, so we can see her on our next trip. Don't expect Princesses, Mickey, or Goofy. If you want to see those you'll have to go to their respective meals. I think Chip and Dale are regular at all of the meals except the princesses.

Note: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Pooh characters, and Princesses can all be found around the parks, most with specific M&G locations, without buying a character meal. Hook can be found if you're in Fantasyland at the right time. The Fairy Godmother has not been wandering for a while now and you're not likely to see Max, Daisy, or Pip anywhere but a character meal either. The same thing goes with the special characters at Storytellers. They have Meeko and the Brother Bears, those characters will not be around the parks. Of course one benefit of the character meal is that you could see a nice variety of characters without having to wait in long lines.