How long are character greeting lines?

[amanda12404]

How long do you normally wait to see the characters? I know the princesses have tickets but just wondering how long people can wait to see the others...

Amanda

 

[saraheli]

Most our under 10 minutes. The only exception for us was Captain Jack Sparrow on Pirate night which was 45 minutes.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

It depends on the character and the timing of the meet. The meets starting at 9:00am had shorter lines than those happening in the evening. My advice is to show up 10-15 minutes before the beginning of the time and for most meets, you'll be one of the first people in line.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

Unexpected characters like Capt. America had the longest lines.

 

[SeattleSuz]

They werent too bad, unless you get a bunch of cutesie littles who push their way in front of your child and then proceed to take a plethora of pictures and take up the majority of Belle's time. That's the only thing about when they randomly pop up on the ship, is that some people don't really respect the line.

 

[lbgraves]

The characters don't really "pop up". It's all scheduled. You can get the detailed listing from the PALS line with specific times and locations. This includes all those seemingly random appearances as well. Show up 10 minutes prior and you won't wait long.

 

[Buzzsawelp]

What is the PALS line?

 

[MunFam]

Some nights, we waited in line for an hour...BECAUSE...they would only have a character out one time for the entire cruise for 15 minutes. You had to be in line within that 15 minute period...the kicker was they often had another character going at the same time that was only going to be out one time...at the exact same start time. The only way to make this work was to get in line early (sometimes there were 3-5 other families infront of us...and then they would have their friends cut in the line with them and take up tons of time) and then rush to the end of the other character line before they closed it.

Other times, especially during the day on the pool deck, there may only have been one other family in front of us.

 

[xlxo]

Most our under 10 minutes. The only exception for us was Captain Jack Sparrow on Pirate night which was 45 minutes.

I would say....

• depends on when you join the line
• how popular the character is
• the lines feel longer towards the end of the cruise as more kids clue in on what it is all about.

I found some lines were 20 minutes or longer on my Alaskan trip. Pay attention to when it ends.... lots of sad faces when the handlers cut the line for late parents/kids showing up.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Formal and semi formal nights draw long lines at every photo location. The staircase photo was steady at about 30 minutes all night long.

 

[Bruiserknits]

If you want to see Princesses, they do tickets. Be sure to get one and show up about 10 minutes ahead of your ticket time. You will be let into the queue by a crew member when it is your time. From there it generally takes 30 minutes to visit with all the princesses.

 

[Weedy]

If you want to see Princesses, they do tickets. Be sure to get one and show up about 10 minutes ahead of your ticket time. You will be let into the queue by a crew member when it is your time. From there it generally takes 30 minutes to visit with all the princesses.

Why show up early for your time??? Isn't the reason for the tickets is not having to wait.

 

[Mazz519]

Just did the Alaskan Cruise average wait was 15 mins for the real popular characters..

 

[wajones2]

The longest wait we had on our last cruise was the ticketed Princess M&G (over 45 minutes) and the shortest was the ticketed Anna & Elsa M&G (less than 5 minutes). The average non-ticketed wait was 20-30 minutes - Disney Magic 11/2014.

 

[SeattleSuz]

DD was the happiest when she got to meet Stitch on Pirate Night. Any other character meets were purely convenient and just added to the fun. We didnt get tickets for the princesses cuz it seemed like a huge time-sucker...

 

[MunFam]

Why show up early for your time??? Isn't the reason for the tickets is not having to wait.

Technically, yes...BUT...typically the group infront of your time is not done yet so there may be 10-20 families lingering infront of you...then if you "show up" at your time...there may be another 30-40 families that beat you to the que. We waited almost an hour for our TIMED visit with Olaf. So if you get there a few minutes early, you beat the rest of your timed group and follow the previous group through the que.

 

[annacali]

We personally felt like there were unscheduled encounters with the characters all over. Peter Pan was in the elevator, Belle was walking down the hall by the shops, goofy passed us on the stairs. All were willing to stop for a hug or quick picture. There would usually be several meets scheduled at the same time in various parts of the atrium and we never had a problem just going from one to the next usually with only 5-10 minute waites for each. The only exceptions were Dopey and Captain Jack because they were only out 1-2 times all week. After our cruise in June I swore I would never wait in long lines for characters at WDW ever again---we totally enjoyed our easy access to characters on board.

 

[SwimMom2]

Check the navigator for when character appearances are scheduled. Show up at most 5-10 mins before the time begins. The character bouncers will close the line when it becomes long enough to correspond to the length of time that the character will appear (generally 15-30 mins).

The perception on the vacation from a WDW person: very short waits. Show up on time and you feel almost like you're on Main Street USA in 1987.

This is the number one reason why we rebooked onboard. Character greetings are one of our favorite things about Disney.

 

[lbgraves]

What is the PALS line?

It is the number to call [using the numbers for those letters on the phone] for a recording of the next day's M&Gs.

 

[Moma Bear]

If you want to see Princesses, they do tickets. Be sure to get one and show up about 10 minutes ahead of your ticket time. You will be let into the queue by a crew member when it is your time. From there it generally takes 30 minutes to visit with all the princesses.

Where do you get the tickets?