Character experiences without the meal.

[TracyMags]

Hi there,
I am taking my 5 kids ages 2,4,6,8 and 10 to Disney at the end of the week. (I am starting to freak a bit, I am so nervous) Anyway, I have reserved a cinderella lunch for my girls but I cant really afford anymore of those type meals- that one really drained my pocketbook. Also, taking all of my kids out to eat is difficult to say the least.

So I am looking for some Character experiences that I dont have to buy a lunch or dinner to attend, that I can tell my kids about in advance. Who can I expect to see and where???

TIA

Tracy

PS- wish me luck, we have never went this far from home and I am a little scared with so many of us.

 

[daisyduck123]

I would get to MK at opening and go straight to Mickey's Toontown Fair.

In that area, there is the "Toontown Hall of Fame Tent".
Inside, there are 3 lines you can get into that lead to separate rooms.
The lines are marked with signs as to which characters are in the rooms.
One is usually princesses.
Another - the Pooh characters
Another - Minnie & Goofy maybe...any of the Fab Five...someone else here can help out with this I'm sure

**But the characters do change at times.

You will get to see a lot of characters this way, without a lot of walking.
(Sometimes the wait isn't too bad either!)

Have a great time!!

 

[PollyannaMom]

Do you have the Disney Visa card? - When I was there last year, they had a special character thing set up at Epcot. All you had to do was show your card, and you got a private room with a few characters and your family to take photos. I think we got a free 5x7 on PhotoPass, but the handlers would also use your camera and take more. There was not a long line, and we didn't feel rushed out either.

 

[TracyMags]

Thanks! Great information. I am going to write that down.

 

[daisyduck123]

Do you have the Disney Visa card? - When I was there last year, they had a special character thing set up at Epcot.

Yes, they still have this..we just did this on May 16 & got our FREE 5 X 7!!
(It's only in the afternoon until 4pm though).

 

[bzzymom]

Character meals are expensive. We do only one character meal a trip. The rest of the time I look at the character schedule you get at all of the parks. Also keep your eyes and ears open. Sometimes you will hear other people talking about where they have gound characters.

At MK the judges tent has characters, they vary though, but there is a princess room there. I have seen Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White there. Also, Ariel is in her grotto almost all day.

At Epcot, I have seen many characters around the world. In Canada I found Kenai and Koda. In England saw Pooh Characters, In France I have seen Belle and Beast, and Aurora as well. In Moracco we saw Aladdin, Jasmine and the Genie. In Germany I have seens Snow white, Pinnochio, and Gepeto. There is also a character connection which has various characters as well.

MGM has Buzz and Woody, Jojo, Little Einsteins, Kim Possible, Mater and Lightning McQueen.

At AK I have seen Lilo and Stitch, Flick and Atta, Stanley.

 

[Merriwind]

Character Connection across from Innoventions West has tons of characters--and is usually pretty empty. You just make your way through, visit and get pictures with each character.

If your hearts are not absolutely set on Cinderella's for a meal, every other character meal is cheaper. Lunch at the Garden Grill, probably the least expensive, would be $21adult/$12child.

Have fun!

 

[MSSANDRA]

Check the opening time on Toon Town...Sometimes is opens later than the main park. I also would consider a character meal that the boys would enjoy too and give them ALL that experience or either do a seperate meal with the boys.
Also we have goten really lucky at Camp Mickey-Minnie at AK.

Also... decide how much time you will allow kids to stand in line for characters. knowing in advance will cut down on melt downs. It can consume a huge amount of your day if you let it.

 

[reginaastralis]

We just did our first character meal, and honestly was not "that" impressed.

We did Cinderella's Gala Feast at GF. Besides seeing the Fairy Godmother, we had seen Prince Charming and the mice at the Pirate and Princess Party. I think character meals are nice for the "rare" characters. Of course, trying to keep my two year old clean enough for pictures with characters was pretty impossible.

My advice, hit up story time with Belle and Toontown in MK. Usually we have really good luck seeing characters as soon as you hit up the Maingate at MK.

WS in Epcot is also great to see characters, like a pp mentioned. We happened to literally stumble on Belle in her blue dress leaving the character connection ... and my daughter played with Wendy and Peter Pan on a jungle gym at Epcot.

It really depends on what you want to make the most of your vacation. If you know your kids will be ok with standing in line after line, then by far, you'll get some AMAZING time with the characters. We always try to be last in line to see Mikcey in his judge's tent, so we get some alone time with the mouse. And, if possible we try to be one of the first into the room for the princesses, the other princesses (is that even a word) have come over to talk to us while waiting for the kid's to get to them. That has sometimes made our trip.

 

[MomofKatie]

Fort Wilderness has a FREE nightly campfire and movie at their open-air screen. At the campfire, you can purchase (or bring your own) s'more supplies to roast over the fire. The CMs tell stories, do sing a longs, and Chip and Dale come by to dance and play with the kids. After the campfire, they play a different Disney movie each night on the big outdoor screen.

There are also wagon rides each night for a small fee- I think $8 for adults and $5 for kids. The wagon rides are 45 minutes, and they leave from Poineer Hall (where the Trail's End buffet and Hoop De Doo show are located).

 

[Mkrop]

Which parks are you going to?

MK Toontown was mentioned. We also saw Stitch in Tommorrowland, Ariel in her grotto, and we saw Mary Poopins by the Carousel, Pooh and Tigger near Poohs Playful spot Oh yeah there were some as soon as you enter MK

Epcot Character Connection in Future World

MGM By Mickey's Sorcerer Hat

AK Camp Minnie Mickey. Stanley from Playhouse Disney was outside the park when we arrived and some of the others like Donald and GOofy were there on our way out, about 3ish.

Are you on the Dining Plan, this helped us do more character meals then we usually do? These were are TS meals.


Have fun!

 

[Princess Roo]

We got to Epcot's character connection about 30 mins after park opening and it was DESERTED. DS decided he was still afraid of the characters, but otherwise he could have played with them for a while. (It did give us a chance to try to get him to warm up to them without holding other families up, which is what my intent was.)

Mickey's Toontown in Magic Kingdom often opens after the park does. While we were there, the park opened at 9AM and Toontown at 10AM. There was a relatively large line of people waiting to get in right when it opened (this was mid-May). We had the same experience with Camp Minnie Mickey at AK in December.

If your girls aren't set on the castle meal, I agree with the others who suggest a cheaper meal for the whole family. We love Chef Mickey at the Contemporary, but if the buffet is too difficult to manage, there is Garden Grill at Epcot. I have heard it's pretty empty if you go for the latest lunchtime, and that makes it cheaper than dinner, too.

 

[TracyMags]

Hi there,

My 4 yr old is really stuck on Cinderella and has dressed up like her everyday for the past two years. She wants to wear her tattered halloween costume from two years ago to this lunch and everything. She is really excited and I don't think I can change those plans. Also, she is a bit more tentative and I figured a lunch would be a relaxed way for her to see her favorite character.

My oldest son has a mild autism and has no interest in characters. My other son is 6 and while he would like a meal, I was really thinking that there would be other things that he would enjoy more so. He is going to pin trade. I bought those in advance and it was expensive also.

I was under the impression that it was too late to reserve another meal. Am I wrong? I may consider another meal but if the characters are around the park I see no reason, really. Also, where I am unfamiliar with the parks layout, I was worried that I would commit out day to a particular park if I reserved another meal.

Honestly, I can't leave my two youngest with my BIL b/c they will cry and going out with the whole family for a meal can be torture. We planned on eating most of our meals at the house.

(I may get flamed for this but with one with autism and 4 younger than him, its really hard and we have to pick and choose what we can do. I am trying to make sure that everyone has something special on this trip- KWIM)

Thanks for your help. I will make notes of the characters locations for the kids to fill their autograph books.

Tracy

 

[DisneyArk]

(I may get flamed for this but with one with autism and 4 younger than him, its really hard and we have to pick and choose what we can do. I am trying to make sure that everyone has something special on this trip- KWIM)

Thanks for your help. I will make notes of the characters locations for the kids to fill their autograph books.

Tracy

I think you're a wonderful mother to plan a trip to WDW for your 5 young children! I think trying to plan something that each child will like is a wonderful idea! Try to focus on the things you are able to do and the kids will have a great time! My kids rarely even realize the things that we don't get to do.

There are characters everywhere (standing around the parks). If you have a lot of time in the parks, you can spend a lot of time waiting in lines to see the characters. If you aren't going to be in the parks very long, then you may want to set limits on how long you wait in lines for character autographs so you can ride rides and see the shows.

When you enter the parks they will give you a map and it has a Mickey glove over the locations where they have character meet and greets. Some parks even have times listed when the characters come out to sign autographs (ex. MGM they have Toy Story and Monster's Inc characters).

I agree with the other posters that the Character Connection at EPCOT is not usually busy and is a great place to see characters.

Have a wonderful trip! Good luck!

 

[Mkrop]

TraceyMags

This is a wonderful vacation you are planning for your kids so do what best fits the needs of all your children involved. Asking for suggestions is great and all the advice you get here is wonderful but then you need to take that advice and taylor it to meet your family.

We choose character meals vs greets at the park for three reasons:

1) we were on the Dining Plan so we just used that for our TS meal each day and actually did big lunches and got a nice break out of the heat and then did counter service later for dinner

2) DH is not a standing in line person so I have to work with that so if I wanted my kids to see characters I needed to "take care of aka feed" DH.

3) And the most important reason was DS4. He loves the characters (more than some of the rides) so I wanted his time with them. He has hypotonia or low muscle tone so sometimes his endurance is not great. SO I wanted to minimize his time standing in lines so I choose to do that with the characters, I mean we did some, but most we met at the meals, and then used his standing in line time for the rides.

This is what worked for my family it doesnt mean it would work for everyone!

So I totally hear you about trying to please everyone and take certain things into consideration. So plan as much as possible with flexibility in there, get some park maps and map out a tentative schedule so you have an idea of where things are so you will be able to take full advantage of all the park has to offer and please all your crew.

Good luck and have a blast!

 

[Kies99]

MGM Studios had a whole bunch of different characters around the giant hat multiple times through the day when we went. We saw:

Pinnochio
Maleficient
Mary Poppins w/penguin
Donald/Daisy Duck
Pochohantas (sp?)
Meeko
King Louie
Belle
Tigger

and a couple others I can't remember. Plus they have all the other characters lining the one street.

 

[Andyjo0930]

If you are willing to stand in a few lines, your kids can meet as many characters as they wish. In MK, when you first walk through the gates, around the circle they have characters at different times during the day. When you go further down main street, right in front of the castle, there is another circle and again, there are characters there at different times during the day. There is also Mickey's Toontown Fair which another poster mentioned. In AK, there is Camp Mickey Minnie and there are I believe 4 different places to meet characters. Usually its MIckey and Minnie, sometimes Rafiki is there, Goofy and Pluto. In MGM, I can't remember exactly where it is, but there were some small trailers set up and at each trailer there were a few characters. I remember Jojo and Goliath from Jojo's circus was there. If your kids want to see a specific character, you can always ask a CM to see if that particular character will be in the park that day and where they will be.

 

[amy4bruce]

If you make a right when you enter the Magic Kingdom, there is Exposition Hall. (At least, I think that's what it's called. Hmmmm.... I'll have to go back and check.)

One year, while waiting for me, DW and DD6 went into it, just to get into air conditioning. They ran into Mickey, Minnie, Pinnochio and Chip and Dale. Without waiting. Very nice.