For those that have done DCL and WDW both

[Mike Bartenhagen]

We have been on 2 Disney Cruise and are making our first trip to WDW in October. It seems as though many of the things that we have to make reservations for and pay for are things that just happened on the ship. On our first cruise the characters were quite accesable and you could see them every night before dinner and also at an occasional meal. On our second cruise the characters were everywhere. Every meal seemed as though it were a character meal because you usually saw some of them there visiting the tables. Are the characters around at the park? Is scheduling all of the special activities necessary if the kids want to see the characters? How does it compare to the cruise in terms of opportunites for pictures and autographs?

Mike

 

[LibertyBelle]

The characters are very abundant in the parks. There is a weekly update sheet for each park that has a list of what characters will be where at what time. At MK for exanple in the morning. through to mid-afternoon and then again in the early evening town square, right as you walk onto Main Street is full of characters. The Characters sign autographs around the castle after the Castle show and they are in Toon Town all day long (Mickey is at his house and other characters are inside the County Bounty tent all day)... the Alice in Wonderland Characters are out through out the day in front of the Tea Cups and the Snow White clan is usually in the Expo Hall. Just be sure to grab the Park map insert which is the weekly times guide and it will tell you for sure where and when characters will be avaliable. If there is a certain character you are looking for and can't find them ask a CM (any CM) they have a phone number they can call that connects them to entertainment and they can find out if a character will be avaliable that day and were. But no, you will not have a hard time finding them in the parks...

 

[trracers]

Where is the weekly update? I would love to have that for our visit!! That way if DD6 is looking for a specific autograph and it isn't going to be there, we can ride ride ride

I know WHEN the character will be out, but I don't know WHICH characters will be out...

 

[beattyfamily]

IMHO, it was a bit easier to see the characters on the ship than it was at WDW so we always schedule a couple of character meals at WDW.

If you are lucky enough to run in to the characters at WDW the lines are longer than on the cruise too, IMHO.

 

[mousebrat]

While you will see characters in the parks, we like character meals, particularly breakfast. The advantage of the character meals is that the characters will come around to your table. That's great for two adults - we get some cute pictures without having to battle a crowd of kids. We particularly like early breakfasts because the kids that are there are usually still tired, so they aren't running around and distracting the characters.