Lack of Characters

[eeyorerulz]

Hi,

I was in the parks from the 50th opening day for 10 days. My intrest was to see as many characters as I could, but all I ended up seeing was mickey, princess, mickey etc all the time, no other characters.

I was disappointed by this alot, n ot even daisy duck or Timon.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

That's a real shame. I don't usually look for characters, but I see a ton of them almost every time we go to Disneyland, and even at California Adventure. I'm sorry you weren't able to see them. They are a lot of fun to watch, and I love how the kids' faces light up.

I especially like when it's the group. I have a picture of Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee & Dum, the White Rabbit, & the Queen, who were out in Fantasyland - people were taking group photos with them. The last time I was at DL, over Memorial Day weekend, as I entered Main Street, I saw Mary Poppins (white dress), Bert (who was in character), and two penguins. I had to stop & watch them for awhile - they were so cute!

 

[AFMom]

I noticed the same thing when we went in April. We're normally bombarded with characters - this time we hardly saw any! My kids were disappointed in how few autographs they got in their books over the 3 days we were there.

 

[lntsmom]

the two we saw every day were Mickey and Dale...minus Chip?!

We saw Buzz once...but we nearly had to tackle him to get a photo. Woody escaped from us 3x...he was always headed somewhere else when we saw him. He didn't stay out long- 15 minutes one time (we saw him coming out and going in..unless they had 2 Woodies out at once).

There were never any characters out in Critter Country.

One day the princesses were everywhere, but we never saw them again.

At CA we saw Golieth from JoJo's circus and Cruella DeVille.

On our first day they had the red Queen and some flowers at the front gate.

It was pretty similar to character interaction at WDW...but I'd been led to think we would see a lot more characters at DL.

 

[mommytotwo]

We were at DCA on saturday, and I didn't see that many characters either.

 

[KMH1]

The last time I was at DL, over Memorial Day weekend, as I entered Main Street, I saw Mary Poppins (white dress), Bert (who was in character), and two penguins. I had to stop & watch them for awhile - they were so cute!

Oh Mary Jo, you're so lucky...we've been trying to meet Bert for so long (10 trips to WDW and DL over the past five years), and we always miss him. We were really hoping we'd catch him at the Princess breakfast last month, but nope! We'll try again this October in WDW!

Back to the OP's comments...we thought there were fewer characters at DL than WDW overall, but we did a pretty good job of finding them. We also went to all five character meals to "guarantee" sitings!

lntsmom, weren't the Pooh characters out in Critter Country when you were there?

Amy

 

[JDarling]

I saw TONS of characters in the 6 hours I was there this Saturday... In fact, we saw the Queen of Hearts, Snow White, Tweedle Dee, and Tweedle Dum, Alice, and the Mad Hatter all playing duck duck goose with the guests just inside Disneyland's gate! A few feet away, Foul Fellow, Gideon, Pinocchio, and Gephetto were giving autographs and posing for photos! On our way to them from Main street, (we were exiting the park), we ran into Pluto and Eeyore.

 

[LUVCINDERELLY]

We saw lots of Characters when we were there May 21-28. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Mary Poppins, Bert, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Snow White, Ariel, Belle, Daisy, Jasmine, Chip and Dale, Pinocchio, Woody and Jessie, Flik and Princess Atta, one of the characters from Monsters Inc., Chicken Little...these were all at either DL or CA and don't include the ones we saw over dinner at Goofy's Kitchen or breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe! Lots of pictures with autographs to match!

 

[spendleb]

We went in May and were even there the day after the 50th celebrations kicked off but we only saw Donald Duck once in 3 days and that was on the parade! We saw Mickey loads of times though where in Orlando we hardly saw him.

 

[almostGoofy]

I think Disney is trying to remedy the character situation. They've been advertising locally for auditions for characters; both face characters and those under a certain height to fit certain costumes.

 

[ShannonB]

I was there for one day in May. We saw the following posing for pictures & signing: Pooh, Tigger, Euyore, & Bear Rabbit in Critter Country. Mickey & Minnie were at their houses in ToonTown. Goofy & Pluto were standing in ToonTown. We saw Woody in Tomorrowland. Sleeping Beauty was on Main Street. Before the parade started, Chip & Dale were on Main Street along with Minnie.

 

[batraylover]

I think that Disney has been improving the number of characters out and about each day at Disneyland. I think part of it is, you just have to know where to look. For instance, we were there at rope drop on May 20th, and Main street area was swamped with characters...Goofy, Max, Peter Pan, Wendy, Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse. I am not sure if there are characters around Main Street all day or not, but if you get there when the park opens, there are lots. In Toontown, Chip, Dale, Pluto, and Goofy were out, this was late afternoon. The White Rabbit, Alice, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, The Queen of Hearts, and the Mad Hatter were near the entrance where the 50th floral arrangement was, with the band on and off about every hour or so. They were there almost all day! Ariel is in her Grotto in Triton's Gardens almost all day, she was my favorite, it was the first time I had seen her not in a parade. We also saw Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and the Queen of Hearts around the carousel in Fantasyland off and on throughout the day. Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, and Snow White were there, in sets of twos near the castles throughout the day. They rotated, as Cinderella was in charge of the Princess storytime that day. Even so, it was not difficult to find all four in the park. Near the Winnie The Pooh ride in Critter Country, you could find Winnie The Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore, almost all day long, all though Winnie The Pooh must go to bed early, as Tigger was out a lot longer than he was.

Of course, if you don't get your fix of characters cruising around the park, get front row seats for the Parade of Dreams, the characters really interacted with hand shakes and such with the crowds, and Timon gave high fives to the kids.

 

[batraylover]

Woody and Jessie were also out at Disneyland, but only half a day, and we didn't get a chance to make it over there. If there is a specific character that you want to see at the park, you can always ask at City Hall, they can call a Character Finder to locate them for you. And, if you get home and didn't get that much wanted autograph from a specific character, e-mail Disneyland, tell them that you really were hoping to see _______ and didn't get a chance to, they will send you a black and white 8 x 10 personalized autographed photo of that character.

 

[Mom2my2daughters]

I love character seeking. I would love to go a day by myself just to see all I can see. I'm such a dork! I thought DC was lacking. I REALLY had my heart set on seeing some characters from Monsters Inc. but only saw them in the parade. Is Boo ever out for autographs? She was so cute in the parade.

This was the first time we saw Cruella DeVille, and she was hysterical! What attitude she had, so perfect The main characters dressed in their 50th costumes were beautiful, especially Minnie! Wow! It seemed we saw Pluto everywhere! Wonder why that was?

We got autographs from, Minnie, Mickey, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Max, Chip, Dale, Alice, Mad Hatter, Mice from Cinderella, Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora and her prince, Hercules, Pinnochio, Mulan, Baloo, Aladdin, Rafiki, Winnie the Pooh, Eeorye, Tigger, Cruella DeVille, Belle, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, Jo Jo, Stanley, Buzz, Flik, Princess Atta, Jasmine, and Stitch.

Never did see Woody or Jesse out anywhere. Addie actually brought that up today.

 

[iceskatejen]

Woodie and Jessie can usually be found in Frontierland, near Pioneer Mercantile. I see them often, but that's mostly because I love to listen to a CM named Farley play the fiddle--he's usually playing when they're out there.

 

[Redcon1]

We saw Bert a couple of times, the last being in Fantasyland. He did look a lot like Dick VanDyke with that long narrow face.
It was a real disappointment though. We asked him for his autograph as he was leaving, and he spent a good 15 seconds or so explaining he had to leave, etc. so he couldn't sign our book. My wife and I looked at each other and wondered why in the time it took for him to tell us he's leaving that he couldn't have just scribbled his name in the book.
He wasn't really rude, just more concerned about getting offstage.