Dancing with Mickey and Minnie

[mj23cj]

I seemed to of gotten my girls hopes up of getting to dance with Mickey & Minnie by telling them about Mickeys backyard BBQ but after reading all the bad reviews I dont know if I want to do this and waste 2 dining credits.

So is there any other places to dance with mickey and minnie? Places in the parks or a character meal? We went to DL a couple years ago and they had a location close to BTMR where there was a country western type band and the fab 5 came out in western gear and dance with the kids. This was something I read about on DIS and not really publicized by Disney and NOBODY was there! My kids had all the characters attention with maybe 10 other kids for like 30-45 min! Anything like that at WDW? What about dancing with the princesses?

If there mickeys BBQ is only place to get this then is it as bad as people say it is? Main concern I have it the place being crowded and how the characters deal with that. I read about characters pushing kids! My kids are timid and not ones to rush to the front of the line. Do the characters dance with everyone or only the kids that come right up front of everyone else? How long is the characters out for? We will be meeting all the characters in the parks probably more than once so I am not worried about just getting an autograph and having a meet & greet. I am looking for something more outside of that. Thanks!!!!

 

[Itinkso]

I seemed to of gotten my girls hopes up of getting to dance with Mickey & Minnie by telling them about Mickeys backyard BBQ but after reading all the bad reviews I dont know if I want to do this and waste 2 dining credits.

So is there any other places to dance with mickey and minnie? Places in the parks or a character meal? We went to DL a couple years ago and they had a location close to BTMR where there was a country western type band and the fab 5 came out in western gear and dance with the kids. This was something I read about on DIS and not really publicized by Disney and NOBODY was there! My kids had all the characters attention with maybe 10 other kids for like 30-45 min! Anything like that at WDW? What about dancing with the princesses?

If there mickeys BBQ is only place to get this then is it as bad as people say it is? Main concern I have it the place being crowded and how the characters deal with that. I read about characters pushing kids! My kids are timid and not ones to rush to the front of the line. Do the characters dance with everyone or only the kids that come right up front of everyone else? How long is the characters out for? We will be meeting all the characters in the parks probably more than once so I am not worried about just getting an autograph and having a meet & greet. I am looking for something more outside of that. Thanks!!!!

If you are an onsite resort guest, late EMH in DHS, usually on Monday nights, has the Disney Jr. Dance Party. Mickey and Minnie rotate through the Dance Party along with Sofia and Jake and a few others. The characters dance with the group of kids who are there for the party. They don't pose for photos or stop to sign autograph books.

Characters do not push kids. If your kids are very small, they may not be in the characters' line of sight and you should make sure they are not too close to the characters for that reason.

 

[Robo]

I read about characters pushing kids!

I'm not clear about your meaning of "pushing" in the sentence above.

 

[mj23cj]

As far as the pushing thing I cannot elaborate as to what happened. I have never seen this happen myself or heard of characters doing it besides what I just read on Trip Advisor seen here http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaura...y_s_Backyard_BBQ-Orlando_Florida.html#REVIEWS

I am not saying characters do push just typed I read it and I dont want to experience that myself. Whether this truly happened or the kids were just in the way & got pushed by a character who didnt see them I dont know. I just wanted to know if the BBQ is good character interaction or not

 

[Itinkso]

You may want to post your question on the Restaurant board as Backyard BBQ doesn't take place in the Parks.

 

[mj23cj]

You may want to post your question on the Restaurant board as Backyard BBQ doesn't take place in the Parks.

Ok I will do that as well but since my main question was about dancing with the characters in general in the parks I am hoping others will respond here. Thats why I picked this board. Thanks for the tip on the dance party at DHS!

 

[Bluegrrl]

Animal Kingdom has a dance party in Dinoland. Animal characters like Meeko, Brer' Fox, Mushu and Thumper come out and have a mini-party nearby the entrance to Chester and Hester area. Very fun.

Sometimes Tomorrowland has a full-on dance party near Space Mountain. I've seen Incredibles, Monsters U and other "Tomorrowland type" characters.

Keep in mind though - Walt Disney World is NOT Disneyland in terms of characters. At DL I've seen characters free roaming with (maybe) one guard and no real "set". At WDW, character m&G is very structured. There are rooms and m&g locations for the characters or they have meals or you can only see them in parades. I think it's because of the type of guests and the amount of guests they have there.

Although, at some of the M&G, the characters take longer with some kids depending on the time of day and amount of guests. I've had great interactions with Mickey and Minnie simply because there weren't that many people there that day and it was super early/super late.

Best interaction was at the Garden Grove at the Swan. Pluto and Goofy were there and it was a not very crowded restaurant. Boy practically has Pluto all to himself. It was GREAT.

Good luck, and definitely check Kenny the Pirate for more help.

 

[twirly123]

We did the Backyard BBQ last year and we all, especially my DD5 absolutely loved it - we are already booked for this year.

Yes, it is quite busy, but each character normally has a ring of children around them, so not unbearable. My DD5 didn't get to dance with every character but mainly as I think she was out of their line of sight. It may seem like the characters are ignoring some children but I honestly believe it is because they cannot see them. DD5 didn't seem to mind at all and had a great night.

As always, there are some children more pushy than others and with no CM organising lines it is always going to be a little more chaotic, but on our visit, not in any way that caused concern.

I would definitely recommend. We paid OOP and definitely worth the money IMO.

 

[DWillowBay]

MBYBBQ is great! Good food (picnic food, not Victoria & Albert), great character interaction. Of course someone might get 'bumped' as the characters don't have great peripheral vision, but there's no body slamming... I've never seen anyone hurt and I've done these character meals a lot! We have always enjoyed MBYBBQ, and more importantly, so have my kids. Don't let others scare you away from a good time. Have a ball!!