Please help a newbie figure out character meet & greets in MK

[slickpoetry]

Trying to plan a day at MK in October, and I realize I have no idea how long these waits will be for standby lines (the MDE app doesn't help). A general estimate would be nice. Assume it is a level 5 crowd day.


Mickey Mouse at TST

Cinderella in PFH

Chip and Dale near the Horseshoe

Alice at the Tea Party

Buzz Lightyear



Also, for those characters that are at outdoor locations, I am assuming there is still a formal line-up to meet them, right? How does that work? And which of the above characters could I potentially use a FP on?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Depends on the time of day.

 

[smitch425]

Trying to plan a day at MK in October, and I realize I have no idea how long these waits will be for standby lines (the MDE app doesn't help). A general estimate would be nice. Assume it is a level 5 crowd day.


Mickey Mouse at TST

Cinderella in PFH

Chip and Dale near the Horseshoe

Alice at the Tea Party

Buzz Lightyear



Also, for those characters that are at outdoor locations, I am assuming there is still a formal line-up to meet them, right? How does that work? And which of the above characters could I potentially use a FP on?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Great chart, LSU, but that is for attractions, not characters.

OP, Cindy would be the only one I would use FP for, and that would get you two characters (her and Rapunzel, I believe). Meet Mickey later in the day/evening and you should only wait 10 or 15 minutes. The others are all outside, and yes, there are formal lines for all characters. Many meet in timed sets. Check this website for the best info...

www.kennythepirate.com

ETA: missed Cindy on the chart, sorry!

 

[slickpoetry]

awesome chart! that helps a lot, thanks. I do see none of the "outdoor" characters are listed, though. are those lines generally short?

 

[slickpoetry]

Great chart, LSU, but that is for attractions, not characters.

OP, Cindy would be the only one I would use FP for, and that would get you two characters (her and Rapunzel, I believe). Meet Mickey later in the day/evening and you should only wait 10 or 15 minutes. The others are all outside, and yes, there are formal lines for all characters. Many meet in timed sets. Check this website for the best info...

www.kennythepirate.com

Thank you!!

 

[LSUfan4444]

are those lines generally short?

Depends on the time of day. The chart was nothing more of an example of how wait times will increase during the day.

My guess would be, in order of priority (which one I would do at rope drop)


Cinderella in PFH
Mickey Mouse at TST
Buzz Lightyear
Chip and Dale near the Horseshoe
Alice at the Tea Party

 

[smitch425]

Alice is also at EPCOT, and much easier to meet there, IMHO.

 

[ktlm]

Check out the website Kennythepirate.com Kenny has all the character schedules, tips for meeting them etc. My daughter is a character nut and we live by Kenny's website and app on our WDW trips.

Mickey is at TST all day. I don't know what FP+ might have done to the line, but since he moved there, we have never waited over 10 minutes for him. We just keep an eye the line and go when it is short. I wouldn't use a FP+ on that.

As of April 20, Rapunzel is going to be moving in with Cinderella which means that their line is going to be consistently long. That line could easily be an hour or more for most of the day, even on a level 5 day. If you are lucky, it would only be 30 to 45 minutes. That is one that you either want to FP+, or you want to head there immediately at rope drop before the line builds up.


Chip and Dale I'm not sure about. We usually see them at EPCOT and AK, and don't specifically hunt them down at MK.

Alice at the Tea Cups. Look at Kenny's schedule. In our experience, if you get there 5 or 10 minutes before she comes out, you will be near the front of the line. Once she comes out and people see her, the line gets long and cut off very quickly. Also, the often rotate the White Rabbit and Alice, so you want to be there before she comes out, because some of the people in line to see White Rabbit will wind up missing him and seeing Alice and vice versa.

At MK Buzz typically does not have too long of a line (DHS where he meets with Woody is a whole other story). At MK, He is kind of tucked away, so people who aren't specifically looking for him don't always notice him. We have rarely waited more than 5 or 10 minutes for him at MK, even when we go up after he is already out. Still, you need to be sure to get there early in a set, because lines do get cut off, and it is never fun to bring a child up who sees a character they love and wants to meet them, only to be told they can not get in the line ot see the character.

All the WDW characters pretty much have formal lines. (At DL there are still some wanderers and pop ups).

 

[ktlm]

No offense to LSU444fan as that is a really neat chart, but we almost always go during level 5 or 6 times, and I'm looking at the times on that chart, and I can tell you that a bunch of those times are not at all what we have experienced. The times have been much longer than listed for the most popular characters and rides when we have been there. For example, Enchanted Tales with Belle has been 45 minutes by 9:10 or 9:15 and an hour by 9:30 and mostly stays in those ranges until late in the evening when the line is generally short. Rapunzel is usually 45 minutes to an hour or more by 9:30 or 10, although her line does occasionally dip to 30 minutes during the day if you are lucky. Splash Mountain is usually 40 minutes to 60 or 70 minutes in the afternoon if it is a warm day. Peter Pan, DD's favorite, generally has longer lines than on that list. There are others that are also significantly under what we have experienced on our trips too. Some of the times on that chart are pretty close though and I would see a few are even over what we have seen. For example, we've never seen Mickey's line 25 minutes since he moved to TST, even in the middle of the afternoon (and we usually pop in during the afternoon to see him when some of the ride lines are longer). We did see it at 20 minutes once in the afternoon, but we haven't seen it longer than that.

 

[fyreworks]

I used this to help me plan my character meet and greets in addition to the Kenny the Pirate site:

http://www.easywdw.com/category/character-locations/

Like everyone else said, it all depends on time of day and how much the characters interact. In general, I found that characters that talk (princesses etc.) take much longer than characters that don't. We waited about 20 min in line to talk to Rapunzel at PFH during EMH, but about 45 min for Merida because of the way that line is structured. I would schedule at least 30 min per character visit. It will be shorter on some and longer on others. Go immediately to the characters at rope drop if you can for the shortest line.

 

[ferd]

Mickey is at TST all day. I don't know what FP+ might have done to the line, but since he moved there, we have never waited over 10 minutes for him. We just keep an eye the line and go when it is short. I wouldn't use a FP+ on that.

Now that Mickey talks (which he only does in MK), his waits are much, much longer. I've seen it be a 25 minute wait by 9:15. Because he's up front by the park entrance, a lot of people see the sign and go in as soon as they enter the gates so it can consitently make his time long throughout the day. Also because he does actually interact with guests now, the meet and greets take a little more time and thus cause the line to move a bit more slowly. The best time would be during a parade (if you can fight the crowd through main street to get up there) or during Wishes, etc, or first thing in the morning or late night.

If Mickey is a priority to your family, you may consider FP+ for him. Out of the characters you mentioned, Mickey and Cinderella are the only ones (in the MK) who are available on FP+.

Mickey is in the other parks as well (in different outfits, too) but those Mickeys do not talk, but they do usually have shorter wait times.