How to meet characters on board?

[disneydude365]

Hey we are looking into a vacation for 2016 and considering a cruise but for me characters are big part of Disney (favorite is Peter)
I've read a few posts with them on board the ships but looking for some solid info on meeting them and how
Thanks!

 

[lanejudy]

Character meet & greets happen throughout the day. They'll be listed in the daily Navigator so you can plan ahead if there is a particular character you want to meet, and you might randomly see them around as well. I don't believe I've seen Peter Pan onboard, but maybe we missed him.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[jenpink]

Peter Pan was definitely onboard our recent cruise on the Magic. My daughter said she kept seeing him everywhere For random sightings, I often would sit on deck 4 between the two dinner seatings and the characters would often walk by

 

[Maggie'sMom]

We were on the Fantasy last week and met Peter Pan on formal night. We also saw him out on Pirate Night. He may have been available other times too.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

I saw Peter Pan running around the ship (Dream) in May. He asked this little girl if she'd seen Tink. The little girl pointed up the stairs and said, "Yes, she went that way!" He said, "She went that way? Thank you!" Then, he took off running in that direction. I also saw him in the atrium playing "duck duck goose" with a bunch of kids. It was so cute! I also saw one of those pirate guys (Jack Sparrow or Captain Hook)...I don't know which one, walking around the ship too. Those were the only ones I saw just wandering around the ship without a handler. The others were during scheduled meet and greets.

 

[xlxo]

Character meet & greets happen throughout the day. They'll be listed in the daily Navigator so you can plan ahead if there is a particular character you want to meet, and you might randomly see them around as well. I don't believe I've seen Peter Pan onboard, but maybe we missed him.

One meet that is often forgotten is inside the terminal on debarkation day. Look for it in the waiting lounge to start your collection early.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

However, certain meet and greets, (Frozen & sometimes Marvel characters) require a ticket. You can pick those up at Port Adventures after you board. They do not cost anything, they are more like fastpasses which tell you what time and date to come meet those characters.

 

[MunFam]

Another thing we "learned" about character meet and greets, at least on our WBPC cruise...sometimes, a character would only be out one time, for 15 minutes. Meaning, you have 15 minutes to get in that line before the line closes...BUT there may be multiple characters at say 4:45pm that will be out one time only. What do you do? You get in one line about an hour early and wait. You are the first person in that line and then scramble to the next line before they close it. On pirate night, my DH and I were both in lines an hour early separately...let our DD do the M&G in each line and then we each rushed off to the next set of character lines in the 4 backdrop/character set for that time and waited again...texting back and forth as to who was closest to the front of the line to send DD to. I can honestly say, we saw every character that was on that ship because it was important to DD. AND we had over 400 pictures from Shutters to prove it.

With regards to which characters will be on board...they told me that it happens to be which cast members fit the "character" look...so we did not have Belle, even though she was in the stage show because there was not a girl that looked like Belle.

 

[AngelDisney]

Another thing we "learned" about character meet and greets, at least on our WBPC cruise...sometimes, a character would only be out one time, for 15 minutes. Meaning, you have 15 minutes to get in that line before the line closes...BUT there may be multiple characters at say 4:45pm that will be out one time only. What do you do? You get in one line about an hour early and wait. You are the first person in that line and then scramble to the next line before they close it. On pirate night, my DH and I were both in lines an hour early separately...let our DD do the M&G in each line and then we each rushed off to the next set of character lines in the 4 backdrop/character set for that time and waited again...texting back and forth as to who was closest to the front of the line to send DD to. I can honestly say, we saw every character that was on that ship because it was important to DD. AND we had over 400 pictures from Shutters to prove it.

With regards to which characters will be on board...they told me that it happens to be which cast members fit the "character" look...so we did not have Belle, even though she was in the stage show because there was not a girl that looked like Belle.

I notice this too! I am trying to work out a plan in order to meet both sets of characters. This is very frustrating especially when it's the only M & G time for both sets of characters.

 

[mmouse37]

One meet that is often forgotten is inside the terminal on debarkation day. Look for it in the waiting lounge to start your collection early.

I think you mean Embarkation day. No meet and greets on debarkation day (day you leave the ship).

MJ

 

[thumpie's mom]

Character's are my daughter's favorite thing to do on the cruise...and there are plenty of them and numerous opportunities to go and see them. One thing, not yet mentioned is that in the lobby there is a character board listing all the scheduled character's for that day, what time they will be out and most importantly, where they will be. They also walk around randomly throughout the ship. We have been on 6 cruises and Peter Pan has been on every one of them. If you love characters, the Disney Cruise is the place to be.

 

[xlxo]

I think you mean Embarkation day. No meet and greets on debarkation day (day you leave the ship).

MJ

Thanks for the correction.... I often get the two mixed up.

 

[Muskegon78]

what is the waiting lounge?

 

[xlxo]

If you get through all of your security searches and registration early. They make you sit and wait in area before allowing you to board. To keep the kids entertain, character pictures are taken there.

 

[tinkmom2]

They do have the scheduled meet and greets but you really should carry a camera at all times. The characters walk around the ship all of the time. We have caught so many characters walking around in the hallway like Fantasmic Mickey going to AP or Snow White dancing with the kids in the atrium on our rain day. I have so many cute impromptu pictures with the characters. We didn't take pictures in the terminal at Miami, it was just too busy.

 

[lulucornbread]

There are daily character meet & greets.. we also saw characters at the port & walking around the ship.

 

[KBinCO]

On the Fantasy, when we attended the afternoon "Sea Ya Real Soon" (on Castaway Cay day) all the main characters and princesses were there, with no lines. There were no photographers, so we took our own pics or had CMs take pics of all of us, but we literally got pics with about 12 characters in 15 mins.
Besides that, we waited 5-10 mins for most character meets. Our longest lines were for the princess greet, which is now ticketed, and also the pirate night characters.
Ticketed meets are very easy and quick.
We also bumped into a lot of characters on the ship, and they would stop for pics or to dance and play with the kids. Once we bumped into Rapunzel, and she took my 4 year old's hand and walked her to the kids club with me. Also, there are many character events in the kids clubs. If you have kids and leave them in the clubs, they are bound to have encounters in there.

And yes, on embarkation day, there are plenty of characters waiting in the port and atrium... the port had long lines, the atrium did not.

There are also meets on Castaway Cay, and there weren't lines for us with those.

 

[tink too]

The DCL app also has character listings which is very handy to check when you're out and about around the ship.

 

[the3dwizard]

However, certain meet and greets, (Frozen & sometimes Marvel characters) require a ticket. You can pick those up at Port Adventures after you board. They do not cost anything, they are more like fastpasses which tell you what time and date to come meet those characters.

My recommendation is to have somebody from your party get in line as soon as you get on the ship. The popular ones will book fast.

The DCL app also has character listings which is very handy to check when you're out and about around the ship.

The wife and I both think the app is great. One thing you can do is mark a favorite activity and time and you will get a notification on your device to remind you 15 mins before the scheduled time.

Cheers!

 

[MunFam]

We also had great experiences catching characters out roaming the ships. Particularly, early in the morning (DD had about 5 minutes of "pretend were sleeping on the steps time" with Goofy completely uninterupted one day before breakfast (6 am-ish). He was in his PJs. Then DD got to go on a hunt for Pascal with Rapunzel, they went all over the ship, maybe 10-15 minutes right before dinner for 4:30 or so...then they gathered up with other kids and played ring around the rosies another 5 minutes or so...we also caught up with Pluto on deck 4 around 4:30 one day as we were outside taking family pics. DD challenged him to a race, so they raced on deck 4. So cute. Then, late at night, we caught Peter Pan and almost every princess at least once and they spent 5-10 minutes with her. Now, we were on the WBPC and there were less than 300 kids under 18 on the ship, so character time was not at a premium compared to the 1000-1200 on a normal sailing. We chose that itinerary specifically for the character interactions.