disney characters in park??

[mrsmcnoggin]

WE are planning a trip for april and my kids are excited to meet disney characters in the park. Can anyone tell me when and where the best places to meet characters are?

 

[Honeybee1983]

Last year we did encounter a few different characters around the park, including Mickey, Goofy, Minnie and Peter Pan. We Saw Goofy, Minnie and Mickey again in Toontown and we saw the Princesses at the Princess Fantasy Faire as part of the royal coronation ceremony (we did not want to wait in the 1.5 hour line to see them individually!). I can tell you though that the very BEST character interaction we had was during our character dining experiences! We ate at Ariel's Grotto and Goofy's kitchen. Ariel's Grotto was fun and the food was decent, but it was very, VERY busy and the Princesses had to rush. Still, it was MUCH better in my opinion than waiting in a 1.5 hour line to get to take a pic with each of them! Goffy's kitchen was by FAR the best character experience we've had! We did first seating for breakfast and saw a good 7 characters MULTIPLE times, We played with them and danced, took lots of pics and the food is great there too! HUGE buffet, lots to choose from! I figure you have to eat anyway, right? Plus this way, you aren't leaving all possible photo ops and character opportunities to chance in the parks. This time we are going to do Minnie's at the Plaza for breakfast. I hear there are even MORE character interactions there and it is less expensive than Goofys too! Either way, for character meeting, I am totally sold on the character dining!

 

[annadette]

The characters are dispersed throughout the park pretty much all day - you will find some just inside the entry-gates, more located around the town-hall/railway station circle (not sure what that area's called), around the sides of the castle (there's pathways on both sides, and Snow White's Wishing Well is a great place to meet a princess or two), Buzz is usally available in Tomorrowland, you can meet a few princesses at the Princess Fantasy Faire, and there's also a Rapunzel Meet and Greet in Fantasyland - plus, lots of characters up in toontown at various times during the day. Seeing characters is usually pretty easy - but if there's a certain character you really want to meet, pop into the Town Hall and just ask a CM there if that character will be in the park today, and where and when - they have a schedule that they will check for you (they won't give you the schedule though). We waited 4 trips to meet Donald Duck, and it turned out he was just at the opposite side of the park, so we got a good photo with him - all we had to do was ask about his schedule! Good luck!

 

[CanadianDisneyDad]

G'day

We have found in the past checkgin with Customer Relations or asking a CM the character schedules and they are most helpful on advising you on locatioins for characters.

Definately keep your EYES open for the.

We did a Character Breakfast at DL and you definately get a load of characters with limited crowds as they do circulate around the tables and pose for pictures.

But slightly off topic the BEST place to see the characters we found is on ae Disney Cruise. You get all the characters but only 2,500-3,500 people competing for the characters as opposed to +50,000 in the parks. (just my plug for DCL).

Either way kids love meeting them!!!

cheers

 

[redjl]

Couple of other hints. We were there last week. By the Bugs life movie (California Adventure), there is a spot where we saw Mini, Pluto, Chip & Dale. Also over in CA, Buzz and Woody can be found opposite the carousel on the boardwalk. Goofy can be found near his rollercoaster in CA. Tow Matter and Lighning McQueen can be found on the East side of the mountain (near the new cars area being built) in CA. We found Sully by the Monsters Inc ride in CA. Mickey (in sailor outfit) can be found on the Boardwalk in CA.

Aladdin and Jasmine have there own spot between the Tiki room and the Jungle cruise. Rapunzel has her own spot near the carousel (Disneyland). Pooh and Tigger can be found down by splash mountain. In Toon Town, Mini and Mickey have their own houses you can get pictures with them. Plus Pluto, Goofy, Donald, and Daisey can be found in toon town. We found the Mad hatter, Tweedle Dee/Dumb, and the Queen of Hearts by the tee cups. Tinkerbell has her own spot between the castle and tomorrow land rockets. We found Jessy by the Western Roundup, north of Big Thunder Moutain. There are usually a few near the enterance of Disneyland.

Then there is the princess area with the 6 regulars (we were lucky and got all 6 of the main ones. And the lineups were short - 30 min each time). Supposedly Mulan and Pocahontas are not there all the time, so they were the only ones we missed.

But as a previous commenter mentioned, the best was the Character breakfast. We saw 12 characters during breakfast, which is about the average, from what I have been told. But a few we saw there were the only time we saw that character (fairy god mother, Captain Hook, and another but am blanking on their name). We went to the one on the Disneyland side which was $65 for 2 adults and 1 child, but it was all you can eat. They said you do need reservations during the busy times of the year.

Hope that helps

 

[helenb]

But slightly off topic the BEST place to see the characters we found is on ae Disney Cruise. You get all the characters but only 2,500-3,500 people competing for the characters as opposed to +50,000 in the parks. (just my plug for DCL)

I was going to say the same thing! On DCL the characters are ALWAYS around and they have scheduled time to meet them, plus they just show up at all major events! It's just amazing how many characters you can meet. And the face characters are usually always played by the same person, so you have a good chance of them remembering you/your child if you meet them more than once.

Also, on DCL the characters come into the Kids' Clubs. The littlest ones (3-5 year olds) often have 'storytime with Belle', or Peter Pan, or Alice, etc.