Stay and cruise - Characters?

[Madhattermad]

Hi everyone,

I am doing my first Disney World and Disney Cruise next year with my partner and my daughter who will be three when we travel. My question is do I need to try and be measured on character meals/meet and greets at Disney World to avoid character overload by the time we get on the cruise? I get the impression there is a lot of meet and greet opportunities on the ship.

We are doing 7nts at the Poly followed by 4nts on the Dream.

Note: I know meet and greets aren’t happening because of covid and I know there are unknowns so please avoid chat giving warnings about covid changes.

Thanks

 

[Cruising Engineer]

On the ship for a 4 nts, the M&Gs are mainly photo ops and autographs (a minute or so with the character). On longer cruises (7 nts +) there are Royal Teas and ticketed (no cost just crowd numbers) events. You won't get overloaded and the time spent with the character is quick.

 

[Karin1984]

Look up the navigators of previous cruises with your itinerary on disneycruiselineblog.com.
You will see which characters you normally can expect on a cruise. Fab Five, some princesses, and Pirate-characters is usually the minimum. If you are a fan of meeting the Fab Five in different costumes, keep in mind there will be at least 3 different costumes for the Fab Five: Sailing, Tropical & Pirate outfits. These you do not see in the parks.

Usually it's easier to meet characters on the cruise than in the park, lines are usually shorter. I wouldn't spend time to meet Mickey at WDW, but go for the cruise.
While you are waiting to board the cruise in Port Canaveral, there is also a character to meet in the terminal.

 

[o&smom]

Hi everyone,

I am doing my first Disney World and Disney Cruise next year with my partner and my daughter who will be three when we travel. My question is do I need to try and be measured on character meals/meet and greets at Disney World to avoid character overload by the time we get on the cruise? I get the impression there is a lot of meet and greet opportunities on the ship.

We are doing 7nts at the Poly followed by 4nts on the Dream.

Note: I know meet and greets aren’t happening because of covid and I know there are unknowns so please avoid chat giving warnings about covid changes.

Thanks

I hate to say it, but I think there is a very high probability of no character meet and greets through most of next year. Take advantage of anything you can.

 

[pumpkinqueen93]

For me, I prefer meeting characters on the cruise vs. at the parks. When I'm at the parks my priority is focused on all the rides and attractions. While on the cruise I could prioritize meeting the characters. There were plenty of chances to see them, some I've gotten photos with multiple times. And on the last night of the cruise they had the characters all around the lobby area. I love the different outfits they have on the cruise as well.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

I also preferred the characters on the cruise vs. the parks, in part because face characters who speak (Spiderman, Cinderella) remembered my child from multiple interactions in the kids club and at the M&Gs. In the parks we prioritize rides, and I try to fit characters in with character meals as much as possible.

 

[deliela999]

Character interactions on the cruise were sooooooo much better than the park. Even the character meals we did it was so quick, get a picture and move on. On the cruise they'd spend a minute with each kid and really interact. My daughter danced with Goofy, Chip and Dale made a kid sandwich and she disappeared between them, but my favorite was Captain Hook trying to steal her tiara and her giving him hell for being a sneaky snook.

 

[MomOTwins]

It seems weird to talk about this without talking about Covid changes--that'd be like a post on the best buffet at Disney World even though they are now all (and likely to be for the foreseeable future) AYCTE family-style meals instead of buffets.

So I'll answer your question in two ways.

In the "before times" pre-Covid, when we did a land and sea trip we actually preferred to do characters at the parks. We could use a same-day fastpass we picked up on the app to see characters at our leisure without waits, and character meals made for a nice break from the hot parks in the air conditioning and we liked that we could knock out a lot of characters at once. In contrast, there were always long lines for characters on the ship, and we didn't like the "scheduled" aspect where we had to plan to be at a specific place at a specific time to see the character--often when there was another activity we wanted to do or when we were just running behind because kids wanted to swim longer. We generally avoided scheduled character meets on the ship and just enjoyed the occasional random encounter in the hallway (which were awesome, but not frequent enough that it would make our character park visits feel like overload).

Next year, I would assume that all the character M&G's on the cruise will be either on the stage as part of a stage show, or smile and wave from the stairs/balcony without getting close. In the parks--I would expect what they are doing now to continue throughout 2021 (i.e., character cavalcades and a few distanced character meals). We really enjoyed the distanced character meals at the parks and I would highly recommend it. But you definitely won't get character overload from that--there are really only a few such meals, and the cavalcades go by so fast.

 

[tinkerone]

We prefer the interactions on the ships. The ones you can get at the parks can have a lengthy wait even with a fastpass. Not always, but sometimes. We have found that they character dining is a good way to go if you want some good photos. We have never been rushed.
On the ships you get the opportunity to get costumes you will not get on land such as Captain Mickey. The wait time can occasionally be a bit on the lengthy side simply because mom wants just child, then child and dad, then family, then maybe one with grandma and grandpa. They will take all the photos you want and do not rush you so while that is a plus when it's your turn, it can also be a minus when your waiting through someone else's time. The wait on Castaway Cay are some of the best we have experienced but that could be due to the fact people are off to the beach. My fondest memory was with Captain Jack on CC, he was funny and spent some time with us.
My choice would be on the ship but we are all different and have different needs. Read all the reply's, take them all with a grain of salt and make the decision you feel is best for your family.
Have a great cruise.

 

[JonKPest]

All kids go through a phase where they are scared of the characters. So with all of your planning please be prepared to make adjustments if you need to. They always out grow this at some point. So enjoy when you can.

 

[spiders]

What you would consider to be a “long” wait to see a character on board would be a “short” wait at the parks.

The only way I would bother to see a character at the parks if I was already combining it with a cruise is if I was using the Disney Visa locations or if my kids just really, really, really, really wanted to do it.

 

[DisneyConvert]

On our first cruises on the Dream (they were B2B), I noticed that the Princesses would take a certain route from their sleeping/dressing area to their morning post-breakfast meetings at the Atrium. So, the next day or two, I was ready and took some spectacular pictures. Princess Ariel even wished me, "Have a good day on your feet!" as she hurried by.

Also, the performers in the shows are usually the character wranglers and if you like the shows (we do!) it's a great chance to chat with these incredibly talented (and friendly!) artists and show some appreciation, which they appreciate.

 

[Starwind]

As with others, we prefer meet and greets on the ship and at WDW will mostly just do character meals for M&G [with some exceptions, like Duffy]. Even at the holiday events like MVMCP we don't do the character M&G, our focus is mostly on the rides and atmosphere.

One reason we like the character meals for doing M&G is because you get to see the roster of characters at that venue, and you are spending most of your time eating and relaxing vs standing in a line. It strikes a nice balance for us. We also don't do very many, usually one, max two per trip.

We've had a lot of great interaction on the ship, from characters and/or their handlers remembering us from M&G to M&G to an amazing spontaneous one-on-one dance with Goofy in the atrium. We like that they have multiple time slots with most characters, different costumes, and different locations. It lets us pick and choose who/when we do a M&G with. We also like spontaneously seeing characters in passing as they move from one area to another. Lounging outside on deck 4 we often had this happen. A nice way to bring a little bit of happy into the day

You can look at previous navigtors here [ https://disneycruiselineblog.com/personal-navigators/ ] to get a good sense of what normal cruises are like in terms of their M&G and other activities.