How to find characters?

seagodess

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
786
When DH and I went 7 years ago, seeing the characters wasn't as easy as I expected. I always pictured them just wandering around the park (like in movies and stuff). In actuallity there were only a few that we saw. Goofy, mickey, minnie, pluto, and a couple princesses.
This time we are doing the Surf's up breakfast with Mickey, so I hope to get a bunch done there. I also thought I read somewhere that you can get a schedule somewhere of when and where what characters will be around the park. Does anyone know anything about this?
 
CMs with the "Character Spot" pin have these schedules. Unfortunately, they are not always willing to pull out their schedule to find your particular character. If you're looking for particular characters, sometimes DISers can give you a rough time, but it's not always guaranteed. Ex: DISers have said Peter Pan hangs around FL and Matterhorn in the middle of the day before the parade, but I have yet to see him.
 
CMs with the "Character Spot" pin have these schedules. Unfortunately, they are not always willing to pull out their schedule to find your particular character. If you're looking for particular characters, sometimes DISers can give you a rough time, but it's not always guaranteed. Ex: DISers have said Peter Pan hangs around FL and Matterhorn in the middle of the day before the parade, but I have yet to see him.

I think we are mostly interested in the main ones. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald. Others would be nice, but not as huge of a deal.
What is FL? What is a character spot pin? What does it look like?
 

Funny I just told this to someone else on here, but if you have an iphone or an android phone you should download an app called Mouse Wait. It has a section in it that will tell you where and what time any character will be in the park.You just have to select the character you are looking for and it will tell you if that character is making any appearances that day.
 
I have noticed that characters like to appear at the entrance of lands and a lot of times near the entrance of Main St. The Winnie the Pooh gang love to hang out near their ride as so the Splash Mountain characters near theirs.

For Mickey and his friends, if you get desperate you might just have to resort to Toontown. But I have seen Mickey on Main St. quite a few times. He and Minnie appear a lot throughout the day, so I wouldn't really worry about them. Donald will sometimes dress in his Frontierland getup and pose in that area. I never found it too hard to find the main characters, but it may be different throughout the seasons. Hope this helped ;)
 
We have seen Pooh and tigger over by the pooh ride, Brer Fox by Splash Mountain, Mary poppins and bert near the Jolly Cafe on Main st. and also on Main st. We saw Mickey, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale (they were walking around seperatly-Mickey and Chip/dale had a bit of a line but not the others) and caught Alice walking ( I think she was headed for a break or something) but we caught her and got a quick autograph and picture.
We have also seen Goofy and Mickey & Minnie in diff areas of Toontown.
 
You can stop at City Hall on your way into the Park and tell them al the characters you want to see. They can tell you when and where they will be on THAT day.

Cast Members that escort characters have big buttons that say something about "Ask Me About Characters" or some such. They can also tell you.

Or... go into any shop. Find someone who is available to help you. Ask them if they can call the Character Finder. They can then find out when and where any character is schedule to be on THAT day.

- Dreams
 
You can stop at City Hall on your way into the Park and tell them al the characters you want to see. They can tell you when and where they will be on THAT day.

Cast Members that escort characters have big buttons that say something about "Ask Me About Characters" or some such. They can also tell you.

Or... go into any shop. Find someone who is available to help you. Ask them if they can call the Character Finder. They can then find out when and where any character is schedule to be on THAT day.

- Dreams

Thanks that is really helpful. We will be stopping by city hall anyways on our way in for a first vist and b-day button for DS.
 
CMs with the "Character Spot" pin have these schedules. Unfortunately, they are not always willing to pull out their schedule to find your particular character. If you're looking for particular characters, sometimes DISers can give you a rough time, but it's not always guaranteed. Ex: DISers have said Peter Pan hangs around FL and Matterhorn in the middle of the day before the parade, but I have yet to see him.


We've been to Disneyland 6 times in just over a year and have tried to find Peter *every* time. We spent hours sitting in Fantasyland waiting, we went to City Hall every day, we literally split up our group so we could have both his "usual" spots by the Matterhorn and over in front of Casey Jr covered. In all those trips we saw him exactly once. As he literally came out one CM entrance by Small World, ran past teacups and kept going toward Tomorrowland. We tried to run to catch him, but got in trouble for running in the park by a CM. We slowed to a speed walk, saw him get stopped for a fast photo in front of the Rockets in Tomorrowland and then he ran out the CM entrance behind the Plaza Inn before we could catch him.

We asked a poor CM coming out if he might come back out or what the deal was and their response was the same as it ALWAYS is at City Hall: He's Peter, he's unpredictable. He doesn't always go where he's supposed to nor does he stay out and sign autographs like most of the other characters.

This last trip my oldest wanted to go to Disneyland for her 8th Grade Graduation trip instead of Washington DC with her class. The problem was, she was also injured and in a wheelchair the whole time so there was NO way we could do the usual Peter hunting. Peter is her favorite character and she was starting to feel punched in the stomach after all the failed attempts at finding him. We did our best at City Hall and watching Fantasyland this trip until our final day. When Peter didn't show up for his 2:30 appointed time we started scouring all the cubbies he's reportedly been seen near. One of the Princesses was out so DH asked her handler if he knew where Peter might be. The response was the worst we've ever heard from a DL CM. In an irritated voice she just said "He's not here obviously." Didn't offer to help, didn't say she didn't know, nothing.

Then we remembered that we were told by one FL CM setting up the parade that he sometimes flits past Tink & friends so DH headed over there. The CM there was completely different. Not only did he tell us that Peter was supposed to be in FL again at 4:30, but said that his supervisor was also in charge of Peter. If she told him he *had* to be somewhere, he had to. All of this even before he heard our exasperated tale and that my oldest was in a wheelchair. After he heard that, he said he would make 100% sure we got to see Peter. At 4:30 on the nose Peter came strolling up to us as my DD14 was nearly in tears. We know how hard it is to find Peter so when the crowd following him grew enormous we knew we should make it brief, but Peter wanted to make sure we got as much time as we wanted. He never rushed us, in fact he kept trying to reengage us when we thought we were taking too much time. He was amazing.

So apparently all you have to do is be an adorable injured teenage girl in order to finally see Peter! :rotfl:
 
I saw Peter flit... I can only describe it as flitting down the path near where Tink and her friends were doing the Fairy Hollow meet and greet. A couple of hours later during a bathroom break near .. the name escapes me... we managed to come across

We also managed by some fluke to find Ariel, Fairy Godmother, Sleeping Beauty, Alice and the Mad Hatter in the same spot.

Crazy luck I guess

Untitled.jpg
 
So apparently all you have to do is be an adorable injured teenage girl in order to finally see Peter! :rotfl:

Sounds like one of the CM was running a little low on Pixie Dust. Glad you finally got some Peter time.

Wait! That came out wrong. :rotfl:
 








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