Taking Child to Meet and Greet suggestion

[Maddie2178]

Hello,

I am taking my 5 yrs old daughter to wdw in a few weeks. I'm not sure if it's worth it to take her to see characters she may no know. She has not yet watched Brave, Aristocats, and so on. Is it not worth the time to take her to characters she doesn't know or not know well?

Another question about repeating characters. Is it worth it to see Mickey Mouse and etc. mutiple times in different parks or it more or less the same thing? We are in the parks for 6 days and skipping Epcot so not too rushed for time.

Some background, it's her first time to disney world! So I'm really trying to make it magical! I been there before during college with friends a while back. We really didn't do much character stuff. To be honest I wasn't to into the wait 30min to snap a picture deal. I figure my kid as a 5 yrs old would would dig this so advices would be appreciated

Also regarding the park food situation, probably going to eat quick service for the most part to stop the money hemorrhage so will I be stuck eating burgers and chicken fingers for the trip? Yikes.

 

[mrzrich]

You will not be eating burgers and chicken fingers unless you want to. Quick service at WDW includes many options. Salads, Sandwiches, Wraps, Chicken and Ribs, Fish and Chips, Asian, Tex Mex. Familiarize yourself with the menus.

http://allears.net/dining/menu

 

[mrzrich]

As for the characters, let your child take the lead. Some parents get excited about the characters, and then when they arrive, the child is uninterested or terrified. Kenny the Pirate is a good guide to the currently available characters. Perhaps look over his site with your daughter to see who she is interested in meeting

http://www.kennythepirate.com/disney-world-character-schedules/

 

[mimi1016]

When I took my son in 2014 he was 2 months shy of turning 2. He really only knew Mickey (from Mickey Mouse clubhouse) but he still got a huge kick from seeing the characters and interacting with them. He loved to take pics with them all. I will say that most of our character interactions came from sit town character meals and the only lines we waited in were at HS and weren't that long. If you pay attention to the times some of them come out you may beat the crowd and shorten your wait. As far as QS you can definitely get more than burgers and chicken fingers but from what I remember your best bet for variety would be at Epcot. I would take a lot at some menus on allears and see what's available at the parks you are visiting. Good luck planning and have fun on your trip!

 

[DWillowBay]

I suppose the value of seeing a variety of characters is that when she finally does see those films, she will have a recollection of meeting that character. My first visit to a Disney Park was actually in Disneyland during the "Robin Hood" and "Adventurers" days. I had no idea who the characters were at the time, but now have great memories of seeing these "rarely seen" characters. Everything about WDW is magical, so you won't have to work too hard at making it so. ...and as the PP stated, you can have a very wide range of foods at the Quick Service restaurants, so make it enjoyable for yourself and your daughter.

 

[MYD714]

We took my niece on her first trip when she was 5yo in 2011. She had never seen The Aristocats, so she didn't recognize Marie, but she couldn't wait to meet her once she saw her. Since then, she still hasn't seen The Aristocats, but Marie is her favorite. All she talked about during our last trip with her in 2014 was seeing Marie. We're taking her again this summer, and Marie is still all she talks about.

At some point this summer, I plan on showing her The Aristocats, and I'm sure it will only fuel her love for Marie.

Prior to her first trip, we had planned to see only a few characters she knew, and I'm glad that she wanted to meet others as she saw them.

I love seeing Minnie/Mickey in different outfits, so I think it's worth seeing them in different areas. We loved Minnie in fantasyland dressed as a poodle trainer. She was a huge hit with my niece.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

Cinderella and Mickey are by far the most popular characters, lol...On our last trip I think we saw Cinderella 4 times and Mickey 3 times. My kids are still young so they didn't catch on as to y we were seeing them so many times in so many different places. Plus the characters are really good if your child mentions they just saw them yesterday at so in so, the characters will usually play along. Also a lot of characters are fun to see even if your kids don't know them. My kids have no idea who Snow White is and honestly I refuse to let them watch that movie bc I think its seriously violent and gross at the beginning of the movie, lol. On our last trip we also waited to see Merida and my son only saw the movie once and all he remembered was Merida had a horse (he rides horses and has his own horse) so when it was his turn to see Merida they had like a 5 minute conversation on riding and how she learned to shoot a bow and arrow off a horse. We also met Tiana and Prince Naveen and I don't think he has ever seen that movie but he still really enjoyed meeting them. We also saw Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, and The Mad Hatter. Again he has never seen any of those movies but he really liked Alice. He talked to her about how much she liked Tea. So I don't think it really matters if they have seen the movies that the characters belong to or not its still fun to meet all the different characters

 

[GADisneyDad14]

My experience with my DS (ages 3-5 on our trips) has been similar to most of the posts above. He knew the Disney Jr characters at first, but not really anyone else. Didn't stop him, still loved the camera and interaction. Kid fell in love with Stich (unfortunately) at the Ohana breakfast but had no clue who he/it was. And nothing is more fun than a 5-year old boy with Tinkerbell. He couldn't get that lipstick off his face fast enough. Our M&Gs - whether he knew the character or not - have produced some of the best photographs and memories from our trips. Keep in mind in the indoor settings you have professional lighting and the photos tend to look fantastic. If they are outside and it's a sunny day, beautiful.

As for if it's worth seeing Mickey in multiple parks, IMHO, YES. He'll have a different dress and theme in each park. MK is the classic Mickey, and he talks. AK is Safari Mickey, pretty sure he is Sorcerer Mickey at HS (someone correct me if I'm wrong here). Same for some of the other main characters. Eg, Donald Duck meets at Epcot in the Mexico area and is wearing a sombrero and bright colored outfit.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

When we took our two-year-old for the first time last year, we concentrated on characters she knew - this boiled down to Frozen characters, princesses (Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Belle), Mickie and Minnie, and Tinkerbell. It was a short trip (5 nights, 3 park days) and waiting to see characters can eat up a lot of time, so we only bothered with ones she loved at that time.

I like the idea of meeting new characters each year depending on what phase she's in. For example, DD could not have cared less about Sofia the First last year, and she now LOVES this show. We have all the books! She has also seen Brave, Aladdin, and Tangled since our last trip, so we'll probably take time to meet Rapunzel, Jasmine, and Merida this year.

We try to always approach Disney with the attitude that we can do it all in stages because we'll always be back, so that's how we've handled characters.

 

[bumbershoot]

Also regarding the park food situation, probably going to eat quick service for the most part to stop the money hemorrhage so will I be stuck eating burgers and chicken fingers for the trip?

Hmm. When we accidentally have a CS-only day, we are HUNGRY and buy much more than if we have a nice TS during the day. For us, it's more satisfying and less or the same money (but again, more satisfying) if we get one sit-down, be-waited-on, meal per day.

 

[Bluegrrl]

And do try the character buffets. Are they overpriced? Probably. But you really can't put a price on sitting down, eating, air conditioning, and having around 5 character interactions!

 

[StirlingSilver83]

And do try the character buffets. Are they overpriced? Probably. But you really can't put a price on sitting down, eating, air conditioning, and having around 5 character interactions!

Best way to meet characters IMHO, lol...I would rather meet most of the characters sitting down and eating and having them come to our table than standing in a long line more than likely in the hot sun, lol. We did a TON of characters on our last trip, a lot of them were at character meals. We also had FPs to see the FP Characters (talking Mickey, Tinkerbelle, Frozen, and Rapunzel & Cinderella). Then there are the non FP characters that we waited for bc my son was really into characters last year, lol. Those characters were Merida, Petes Silly Side Show, Aladdin & Jasmine in Epcot, Mulan, Duffy, Tiana & Prince Naveen, Peter Pan, & Fairy Godmother. We wanted to desperately see Gaston but every day we were in Magic Kingdom he wasn't meeting, and then when he finally did meet it was on our departure day and we rushed over there to his M&G and the line was already closed. We were a little bummed but if we only missed 1 character out of all the characters we wanted to meet I say we did a heck of a job, LOL. Besides theres always next time to meet Gaston, so on our next trip his Meet & Greet goes to the top of our list

 

[jim o'reilly]

I would second the character buffets. If your kid likes Disney Jr, Hollywood and Vine has DJr characters (Doc McStuffins, Handy Manny, Sofia, Jake). It is quite expensive for lunch ($38 for adults, $22 for children) but worth not waiting in lines in front of Disney Jr for meet and greet, where the lines were 30 minutes for each of the characters.

time = money.

Source: Just went in January 24, 2016 to January 29th, 2016

 

[Nancyg56]

My DGD was 4 when we took her the first time. My DD and DSIL figured she might like to get a "few" autographs, but woudl get the book later. Our first night in we booked Chef Mickey because my DD said it was a great way to kick off a Disney trip. Holy Sprint to the gift shop!!!! Our little Tinkerbell took one look at Pluto, her favorite, saw that he was signing books, and my DSIL was off and running to get the book and get back before the first character got to the table. LOL!!!! For the next two years we spent more time in M&G lines and character meals than anywhere else! LOL! She was a true character junkie, and it was a blast!

I know that meals are pricey, but if you book breakfast they are a good value. You can each have a substantial meal, and the characters come to you. Fom what I remember of my DGD, she did not care who the character was, she loved them all! Anyway, book the breakfast and then you can stop for dinner later in the day, and choose CS for that meal.

We just took our two Princesses in August, and it was way too hot to stand in the lines, so honestly the character meals we booked were the best value on that trip.

 

[Maddie2178]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I already booked a lunch at CRT and a lunch and Hollywood and Vine since I know those would def be big hits my kid. That's also why I'm leaning towards not doing much more table service meals because gosh those are expensive.

We will just head over there and see what happens! Will adjust plans depending on how my daughter reacts.

 

[asbyrneva]

Also its fun to see some characters in different outfits/situations. magic Mickey at Magic kingdom is definitely different than safari Mickey at Animal Kingdom. Meeting Mickey twice in different places won't be repetitive. However meeting cinderella at CRT and then at princess hall would be.

as previous poster noted check out Kenny's site it will help you make decisions about who to try and see where.

 

[JustAKid]

I went on Amazon and bought my kids a Disney Character Encyclopedia. It has been a great way to share some of my childhood with them when they see "old" Disney characters that they don't know. I feel like it will help with character reorganization but also for them to know where some of the themes throughout WDW come from!

 

[MNDisneyMommy]

I'll add a vote for repeated visits with little ones. My daughter warmed up to them more each time she saw one, so it was good we had a few each day.

 

[DVCcurious]

My kids like the character meets more than the rides. They will meet anyone and everyone whether they have seen the movie or not.

So I suggest letting the child see the characters and then letting them decide if they want to meet them or not.

My daughter really wanted to meet the Aristocat and the white rabbit, even though she'd never seen Aristocats or Alice in Wonderland. Character interactions are never a waste of time.

I also second the idea of character meals. We've done Crystal Palace (winnie the pooh, tigger, eeyore, piglet) 4 times, Garden Grill (Mickey, Pluto, Chippendale) 3 times, and Cinderella's Royal Table once. I highly recommend them.

 

[cruisingtwins]

My daughter have not seen any of the original princess movies as I find them creepy and not child appropriate but she still knows all the princesses and loves to meet them.

I found the QS food really bad you really have go on the hunt for decent stuff. We love sunshine seasons on epcot, CHH is MK and Yak and Yeti in AK have not found anything decent is HS.