CHARACTER MEET & GREETS

[pettyone]

Hello!!

Does anyone feel that the theme park character "meet & greets" are better than the character dining experiences?

How many opportunities for meet & greets could we expect within the parks (MK, AK & Epcot)?

(DD4 & I are taking our trip in December 2005. Several of the character dining meals are buffet-style & I would be afraid that she would miss a character visit since she would be tagging along with me to the buffet...)

Thanks a bunch!!

 

[ccgegg]

The drawback to character greetings in the park is the sometimes long lines. Plus, you may be in line for 20-30 minutes and as you approach the character, they'll announce that so-and-so is leaving in 3 minutes. You get a hurried look on your face and immediately look at the people in front of you to see how many of them have autograph books (because those take longer than just a photo). Then you cross your fingers and wonder why the family in front of you needs 4 photos of the same character.

For the character meals, you're guaranteed to meet the character. If you're at the buffet when a character comes by, just tell your waiter that you missed a particular character and they're very good about coming back to see you.

As for a typical number of meet & greets in the parks, it depends how much time you want to sink into it (and how busy it is). I'd say you could easily do 5-6 characters a day, more if you don't do much else.

AK has a great spot for Pooh characters near the Dinoland entrance. It's off the beaten path, so it's not overly crowded (at least when we went). And the best part is that you stand in one line to see 3 different characters. They do it this way in Mickey's Toontown also.... have a "Princess" line, and 2 others..... you get to stand in one line and see about 3 characters.

 

[bamagirl@hrt]

Both venues offer some unforgettable character experiences. We've done a lot of both. You say you are going in Dec. Will that be early Dec. or close to Christmas? We were there the week after Thanksgiving in 2002 and had awesome meet & greet opportunities with little wait. In AK, one of the designated meet & greet areas is Camp Minnie-Mickey. We met Donald & Daisy, Mickey & Minnie dressed in Christmas attire, as well as "Santa" Goofy. There was NO line!!! My kids had unlimited time with these characters! We got great pics for our Christmas cards! My son was 15 months old at the time & adored all characters. My DH took him into the Judge's tent at Toon Town while I took DD on Goofy's Barnstormer. At first he thought they were closed, as no one was around. But then he saw Mickey inside. My DS played with Mickey for about 10-15 minutes. It was great. We also happened upon Lilo and Stitch at the Animation Studio area at MGM -- we were 2nd in line. Baloo pushed my DD around in her stroller at AK in the Harambe area. Those are a few examples. At Epcot, a great place to meet characters is the Characters on Holiday bus. There's a separate thread going about that right now too. I would think that if it's a crowded time of year, though, the lines to meet characters would get very long, and the characters only appear for a set length of time.

As for character meals, does your DD like the princesses? If so, both the Princess Storybook Breakfast in Norway at Epcot and Cinderella's Royal Table in the MK have family style service. They bring large platters/skillets of food to your table for everyone to share. It's all you can eat, so they will refill anything you want. That's a great way to see characters without having to leave your table for a buffet. I haven't been, but I believe the character dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern in MK is like that also. My kids love the character meals, but they hardly eat at them, because they're so excited.

Sorry this is so long, but I hope I've helped!

 

[HollyJoy]

I really think it depends on what character breakfast, and what meet and greet. We attended the Princess Storybook Breakfast in Epcot, where we thought the character interaction would be really good. We were greatly disappointed. It was merely so-so. Maybe we had too high expectations, I don't know. However, the character meal we had at LTT in MK was awesome! The characters came around to our table throughout our entire meal, not just for 2 min at the beginning. As for the meet and greets in the parks, well the best one we found was the character bus at Epcot. It was low stress, low wait and GREAT interaction!

 

[HopperFan]

We haven't done the character meals in a long while since I have teens who would rather go elsewhere. But I do have a "special" child who still loves to meet characters and luckily has patient siblings. We went to MK only last trip and even with arriving after opening and leaving before closing and riding just about everything, he got over 20 signatures and photographs with characters. Many times there are mutiple characters together, like in toontown, so you can get 3 greets for one wait. We also did meet some while the siblings went on rides he didn't want to go on. There are plenty out there, just keep yours eyes open and get ready to detour a few minutes.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

If you absolutely must meet a character and they are at a meal, my advice is plan to do the meal.

I thought it would be cute to get a couple of character autographs for my niece while we were in Disney. But every time there was a character there was a huge line! We were there Feb 9-14 and never waited more than 2 min. for a ride so I just couldn't justify waiting 15-20 for a picture and an autograph.

Just my opinion.

 

[pettyone]

Thanks everyone for your responses & great tips!!

 

[alloyd1170]

Weve done Chef Mickeys for breakfast a few times on checkout morning and love it. It is buffet, and takes about an hour to see Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip, and Dale (Goofy hangs out at the entrance). Sometimes you will get to see them twice! The nice thing about the set-up there is that you can see the characters coming so if theyre a long way off, you head up to the buffet. The other nice thing is that there is no line for waiting to see them. You get to pass the time up at the buffet and eating. This is great for little ones who hate to stand in lines-theyre occupied by finding where the characters are. In the parks, the lines to see characters can be quite long, and often after standing in line for awhile, the characters will have to leave for a break. They say they will come back in 5-10 minutes, but then youre stuck waiting in a line even longer. And try explaining to a small child why the character left, that it will be back, and having to wait in line until it does! Not fun and I can think of a lot of other things we could be doing!

alison

 

[trirae]

I echo what others have said. They are both good experiences, and in different ways. We had excellent character interaction at Cinderella's Royal Table. At the same time, I wouldn't have given up the opportunity to do some meet and greets as well. I would say make a list of your "must meets" and be willing to wait in a line or two for them, but otherwise, there are times when you happen upon characters with little waiting. We were there in October, and the only really long line was for Ariel in Toon Town Fair. We waited over an hour. BUT with Ariel's Grotto closed for refurb, I think it was just the only venue to meet her. We were getting crabby, but the look on dd's face and dniece's face were so precious. AND Ariel was really good. For us, the characters were more important than some of the rides because of the ages of the kids (2, 3, and 6) but if kids are older that might not be the same. Since we didn't have to worry about hitting things like roller coasters, that time was well spent.

 

[beattyfamily]

We like character meals and like to book at least 3 (different) character meals and then do the meet and greets if we come across them and there aren't big lines for them...

There are some character meals that are pre-plated so you won't miss the characters like PSB, CRT, Ohana's, LTT off the top of my head.

I usually do a Mickey one, a Princess one and a Pooh one. My kids would be so disappointed if we never came across these characters in the parks and that has happened. So the character meals make meeting at least those characters a guarantee.

 

[pettyone]

Even more tips...thanks (taking notes)...

 

[scorp111]

I would agree with most and say do both!

But my wife and I, along with our 19 month old daughter, are probably a bit more "into" getting autographs etc. We got over 50 pictures(some characters don't sign)/autographs during our first ever family trip in September. All told, we have 50-60 different characters. We have done the character dinner at Chef Mickey's and the Character breakfast at CP twice.

The lines can build quickly in the park, but after the 1st day our so, we decided that we would just watch for opportunities when the lines were a little less. It worked for us, but it was September with low crowd levels.

One thing is certain, I absolutely prefer the lining up and waiting for pictures/autographs as opposed to the old mob the character mentality. We visited DLP a few years ago, and only the pushiest children/parents were able to get good photos. The current way establishes order and rewards those willing to wait a bit....

 

[BuddyGenie]

I actually wanted to do a Character meal, preferably the one with people characters, but my sister had second thoughts since the only ones that did so were Princess Character Meals. In a discussion between my mom and sister over AIM, my mother made a joke about it.

The best Character Meal I've ever been to was the late Soundstage Restaurant at MGM (now replaced by Playhouse Disney). They had current movie characters back when the movies were good. Stars from Aladdin, Hunchback, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, etc. Lots of interaction, and a nice mix of people characters and animal characters. I had them Aladdin signing my sketchbook, and he went through all the drawings as moments from his life. It was fun.

Personally, going through the trouble of making a PS for any Character Meal isn't worth the hassle. I can wait on a line. I just plug in my Ipod to tune out the people and play a few rounds of Pac-Man to occupy my time.