First Disney Cruise-Characters

[Jones1978]

We will be taking our first Disney cruise in 2027 (DD's graduation!). I was wondering how often you see characters roaming the ship or on the private islands? Or if you need to go to the meet and greets to see them.

 

[hardcorestitch]

The Disney Cruise Line Navigator app will be your best friend in this case. It will list all available meet and greets. Some will be scheduled as indicated on the app, others may be that spontaneous and magically unexpected meets.

 

[Mommb]

There will be one or more characters at a scheduled greeting somewhere on the ship most hours in the afternoon and evening (except during dinner/show time), and in the mornings on sea days. Characters do also walk around, especially on the outside decks, but that is unpredictable.

 

[o&smom]

Meet and greets are a way to see characters that you know you want to see. Cast members will take photos with your phone or you can purchase photos. Sometimes you will see characters but they are just walking to get to where they need to be and don’t have time for much more than a hello. I feel like the spontaneous meeting of characters has been cut back over the years. On our first Disney cruise, we boarded and headed straight up to what is now Cabanas and found a table out on the back deck. Very soon Chip and Dale stopped by our table to welcome us and our DD who was only 3 months. It is such a special memory! We have had amazing spontaneous interactions with Captain Hook, Goofy, Alice, Pinocchio, Snow White, The Queen of Hearts and Peter Pan and Cinderella. No rhyme or reason for any of it...all on different decks at different times. In the evening you might even catch Goofy sleep walking in his pajamas! Have an amazing cruise!!!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

The random encounters are really fun, but we haven't had it happen all that often. Our last cruise - 7 nights on Treasure, we encountered Goofy in a hallway & got a picture with him. The cruise before our most recent one - 5 nights on Magic - we met Mulan in one of the elevator lobbies and got a picture with her. I can't really remember how many we saw on our earlier cruises, but I don't think it was really much more than that. So really just one chance encounter per cruise for us. We'll occasionally see a character making their way to or from a meeting location, but often the handlers are moving them along quickly so it's not really like you can meet them or even have them pose for a picture. I don't recall ever seeing any characters just roam around Castaway Cay. If you want to meet someone you really need to do the meet & greets.

 

[Disneyworldlocal]

All of the above is correct. While sitting on deck 4 of the Magic on a sea day recently we saw Black Panther, Captain America, and Daisy roaming around. They all stopped and took photos for anyone that wanted it

 

[Dug720]

Captain America,

Version Steve or Version Sam?

 

[bbn1122]

Way back in 2011 when my sons were 10 and 12, they were playing ping pong on the upper deck by the mini golf and Goofy came along and played with them.

I got the cutest photos of them playing with Goofy and a great shot of them all together.

Pixie Dust!

Characters can be anywhere!!

 

[jwalk03]

On our most recent magic cruise the Fab 5 all appeared around the pool deck unscheduled on sea days. (mainly one deck up from the pool deck actually- but this is often where we sat so I was able to get pictures with Donald, Goofy, and Pluto this way. I think Mickey and Minnie were not posing for photos when they came around- just waving.

They also have the characters visit the kids clubs during secured programming and none of those encounters will be scheduled to my knowledge.

Most of the time you will just want to go to the scheduled meet and greet times in the app.

 

[jimmymc]

The roaming characters are almost always just walking to and from their meet and greets. I would plan on going to the scheduled meets if you want to meet specific people.

 

[Chemist]

Definitely the meet and greets are how you KNOW you can see specific characters.

We also had good luck meeting characters at the dance parties in the atrium between dinner seatings. My then 3-year old had a grand old timing dancing with Chip. A day or so later Chip came bouncing up to him to dance some more.

(We know that Chip recognized him, because the first time, R kept lifting his shirt and showing off his fat little belly toddler style. When Chip came up to him the second time, he lifted his own shirt in greeting.). R has no memory, but we treasure it.

 

[Disneyworldlocal]

Version Steve or Version Sam?

Version Steve

 

[Cruisinonlydisney]

After being on the Treasure recently, if there is a character you don’t want to miss, make sure you are positioned in line at least 15-20 minutes before that character’s scheduled arrival. You don’t want to hear the entertainment team cast member announce to the people in front of you, “friends, you are the last to see (character) during this session.” The lines can be long and they have to cut it off somewhere. The nice thing about being on a 7 day is they are out many more times a day during the week, so greater opportunities if you miss out!

 

[Kit Jackson]

After being on the Treasure recently, if there is a character you don’t want to miss, make sure you are positioned in line at least 15-20 minutes before that character’s scheduled arrival. You don’t want to hear the entertainment team cast member announce to the people in front of you, “friends, you are the last to see (character) during this session.” The lines can be long and they have to cut it off somewhere. The nice thing about being on a 7 day is they are out many more times a day during the week, so greater opportunities if you miss out!

My trick for this was to get there at the start of the character's time or a little early, meet the character, and then go to the back of the line. I would let people who want to see the character I just met "cut" in front of me, and then I'd be first in line when the next character arrived at that location (assuming it was a character I wanted to meet). This works better with adults/older kids who can handle waiting in multiple lines.

If there is a character you know you want to meet, plan to go to one of the scheduled meet and greats. Also, the characters wear different outfits on different days. I really enjoyed getting pictures of me with the characters in all of the different costumes/outfits.