September is a great time to go to Walt Disney World and we are looking forward to doing so again this September. Last year we spent 6 days at Disney the week after Labor Day and hope to spend 10 days there this year.
We found the lines to be almost nonexsistant for both the rides and character interactions. In fact we were able to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride TWELVE times in a row with no waiting (or less than one minute at most). It was a terrific time for our children to do more riding and less line standing. In fact we became so spoiled that we would skip any line that had the "long" wait of 10 minutes or more posted
!!
As far as time with characters it was way more than just a quick hug, quick smile and quick jot in the autograph book. In some cases it was that but for the most part the characters were playful and took the time to interact with our kids. The boys had a blast playing "hide and seek" with Stitch and a paper bag at Animal Kingdom for almost 5 minutes. It was close to closing time and no other guests were around. For three serious little Stitch fanatics it was heaven on earth. They got to spend minutes as opposed to seconds with almost each character. It was so much more meaningful to not be one of a hundred or more kids in line but instead to be one of a handful of kids stopping by with no line so to speak of. Of course we did hit lines now and then, but they were short and the characters still seemed to take bit of time to steal a hat off of someone's head, play with a doll our son was holding, or play a game of peek-a-boo with our youngest. Our best character interactions came at Epcot. While touring the world we were able to spend a lot of time with the characters situated at the different "countries" throughout Epcot. The kids were able to "teach" Genie how to use a payphone (he was on his way back into the character only area when our boys spotted him and supriseingly he stopped and spent a few minutes with them). The boys also spent a long time interacting with Esmerelda and Chopin. Both face characters who could and did talk up a storm with our boys.
Another thing we noticed was the amount of "shows" we were able to take part in. Our children were able to drum in the Pocahontas show at Animal Kingdom, pass out bookmarks before the show, "star" as Gaston in Belle's Garden Storytime, and help Figment learn about digital cameras at Epcot. It was great being able to feel like you were involved in so much!
And finally a great big THANK YOU
to the DIS boards. By reading the suggestions posted we were able to go to downtown Disney our first night and purchase little "cast member" name tags for the boys at the Christmas shop. With the name tags on the boys were delighted to hear their names from the face characters and the cast members they interacted with throughout our stay! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL SUGGESTION!
Being a homeschool family it is great to have the chance to plan our vacations on our own time table instead of following a school calander. Being able to go in September is a huge plus for our family and we will never tour at "high season" again!
We honeymooned in Disney last September too - we had a BLAST! (Pssst...make a PS for Jiko at the AKL - trust me - you'll LOVE it! 
)
Can't wait to meet Tyler and have fun at Disney 
:thewave: :thewave:
