Tell me all about Disneyland characters (July 2025)

[DFelt1]

Hi - we're going to Disneyland in July for a quick 2.5 days, staying at DLH. We're WDW regulars, and while we went to Disneyland 7 years ago, I'm still a newbie there.

My son is neurodivergent and probably getting a bit old for characters, but he was absolutely certain he still wants an autograph book and wants to meet characters. We went through who was listed in the app, he first wrote down all he wanted to meet, then due to the length, I had him prioritize the "musts".

It's still a lot of characters to meet. We explained that due to the time and the other stuff we want to do, we probably wouldn't get to all of them.

That's a long preamble to my questions -

What is the character meet and greet situation like?

I know not everyone is out regularly and to check the app, but is the app accurate?
I know not everyone has a line like WDW, but does anyone? Is it all a free for all?
Do they mostly sign (I understand not everyone can)?

 

[LKing]

Do you mind sharing his list? Start with top priority and work your way down. If I know what character(s) you are interested in, I can better answer your question.

 

[Pluto468]

The best way to meet characters and get autographs is to do a character meal because they come right to your table and interact with you. But the characters do roam around the parks,too. I've seen Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Daisy around Main Street often. I see alot of characters in Fantasyland, Toontown and Frontierland. Also Tiana in NOS. I've also seen them at DLH, they go hang out by the pool sometimes.

A line usually forms but the wait depends on the character.

The app is iffy. Once we waited 45 minutes for Aurora but she never showed up.

Who does your son want to meet?

 

[DFelt1]

The #1 priority is Oswald, since he sleeps with a stuffed Oswald.

Then the characters he's never met at WDW:
Alberto & Luca
Baymax & Hiro
Clarabelle
Genie
Pinocchio & Geppetto
Horace
Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde
Miguel
Mirabel
Pete

Then some Marvel characters - Ant-Man, Iron Man, Loki, Spider-Man & Thor

Then the big 6 - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy & Pluto.

Finally, there's another 14 on the list, but he's met them a bunch.

 

[mom2rtk]

Plaza Inn breakfast is great for meeting a nice cross section of characters. We usually see 8 or 9 in the 60 to 75 minutes we are there.

 

[Tinkaboo]

Pooh characters are usually found down in front of the entrance to Tiana's ride, near the Pooh ride. I saw Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore here last week (alas, no Piglet). I believe they were all signing.

Ran into Captain Hook just hanging out off to the side of the main entrance to the castle. He was just hanging...not doing anything to attract attention, just chillin'. I did a few selfies.

Saw Alice, Jasmine, and PeterPan walking through FL.

Mickey and Minnie in their usual spots in Town Square. Cruella was riding around in one of the horseless carriages.

As for one on one time, I second @Pluto468 regarding character breakfast. I got pics with Minnie, Daisy, Pluto, Tigger and Perla from Cinderella. Pooh was there also.

You can always find Avengers roaming at AC.

Oh and if you are a Disney VISA cardholder, there are special meet and greet at both parks...Darth Vader is theStar Wars one.

Have fun!

 

[Tinkaboo]

The #1 priority is Oswald, since he sleeps with a stuffed Oswald.

Then the characters he's never met at WDW:
Alberto & Luca
Baymax & Hiro
Clarabelle
Genie
Pinocchio & Geppetto
Horace
Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde
Miguel
Mirabel
Pete

Then some Marvel characters - Ant-Man, Iron Man, Loki, Spider-Man & Thor

Then the big 6 - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy & Pluto.

Finally, there's another 14 on the list, but he's met them a bunch.

Avengers all sign except Iron Man. IronMan is usually only out in the morning until early afternoon, Spider Man is around a lot. Loki and Thor tend to be around at night. Both Captain Americas can usually be found day and night. Ms. Marvel might be around but usually people don't even recognize here and walk on by. Black Panther is usually the same place as Iron Man, right in front of HQ in a special photo spot, but I've also found him just walking around. Dr. Strange is usually in the Ancient Sanctum.

Hope this helps...

 

[mdmost]

I believe Oswald hangs out around the entrance to California Adventure on Buena Vista Street. You'll need to check the app if he's out the days you're there. Your son might enjoy Oswald's.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/shops/disney-california-adventure/oswalds/

 

[JerrodDragon89]

The #1 priority is Oswald, since he sleeps with a stuffed Oswald.

Then the characters he's never met at WDW:
Alberto & Luca
Baymax & Hiro
Clarabelle
Genie
Pinocchio & Geppetto
Clarabelle
Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde
Miguel
Mirabel
Pete

Then some Marvel characters - Ant-Man, Iron Man, Loki, Spider-Man & Thor

Then the big 6 - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy & Pluto.

Finally, there's another 14 on the list, but he's met them a bunch.

So use the app and you should see whats characters are coming out that day

Oswald is when you walk into DCA most the times in the afternoon
Luca is at the Pixar Peir location
Baymax in the big hero six land
Clarabelle Either at toontown or the front land in DCA
Horace the front land in DCA
Genie Pinocchio & Geppetto Fantasyland
Judy Hope moves so she could be in Hollywoodland or near the little mermaid
Miguel and Mirabel are in fronterland for now
Pete is only in Toontown

Marvel characters walk around the land and have times in the app
Mickey and Friends meet in Toontown, Main street USA and the front land of DCA

 

[Pluto468]

Oh and if you are a Disney VISA cardholder, there are special meet and greet at both parks...Darth Vader is theStar Wars one.

How do you do this, Tinkaboo? I finally have a Disney visa and would love to do the meet & greets.

 

[Pluto468]

Alberto & Luca and Baymax & Hiro would most likely be at DCA. I think Alberto and Luca aren't as common, but Hiro and Baymax would be around San Fransokyo Square

 

[LKing]

As @JerrodDragon89 mentioned, Oswald is usually at the front of the DCA, just past the turnstile on the right side (red circle). If you've passed the flagpole, you've gone too far. Lines for Oswald are usually pretty short. Occasionally Oswald is on the opposite side near Oswald Gas (teal circle). Once, on a rainy day, we found Oswald in Art of Animation.


Pixar characters can often be found on Pixar Pier (teal circle). Luca is sometimes in the area between Grizzly River Rapids and Paradise Gardens (red circle). Baymax and Hiro are not together as much as they used to be. They have a designated meet and greet location in San Fransokyo (purple).



Mirabel and Coco are usually in a plaza near Rancho del Zocalo. She is there more often than he is.

Pinocchio is pretty rare.

Horace is also pretty rare. He is usually in the same location as Oswald, but not at the same time.

Edit: Correcting layout and typos.

 

[LKing]

Actually, now that I think about it, Alberto and Luca were at the Fantasyland Theater Pixar character greet last year. It is supposed to be coming back this year for the 70th. They are also on a float in the Better Together parade which will be in DCA.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

Actually, now that I think about it, Alberto and Luca were at the Fantasyland Theater Pixar character greet last year. It is supposed to be coming back this year for the 70th. They are also on a float in the Better Together parade which will be in DCA.

Yeah, Its hard to know

Its why I just put where they are now...but you just have to check the App on the day of a visit sometimes to double check

 

[iHEARTflorida]

This has the info about the Chase Disney Visa benefits

https://disneyrewards.com/parks-and-vacations/disneyland-perks/

The app is pretty accurate about character times and locations , though a lot of the time characters don’t make it out that day for whatever reason but situations change and they could be out later that day.

 

[mdmost]

Forgot a fun one but it's fairly random. Mary Poppins and Bert ride the carousel in Fantasyland. You don't get to meet them but it's just so awesome to watch. My wife and I were in line for Peter Pan and she's the biggest Mary Poppins fan. She melted when she saw it. I caught a glimpse in her eye of her as an 8 year old.

 

[Tinkaboo]

How do you do this, Tinkaboo? I finally have a Disney visa and would love to do the meet & greets.

The meet and greet times are posted in the app under Character Experiences.
You just present your card.

In CA, it's back in the corner of Hollywoodland by where the Avengers warehouse used to be, to the left of Monsters Inc. There is a character one and a super hero one. Characters/Avengers rotate-"like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get"...

In DL, it's at the SW Launch Bay in Tomorrowland and the CM there told me it's always Darth Vader.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/en...nia-adventure/visa-card-character-experience/

I enjoyed it because there wasn't much of a line and I probably spent 3-4 minutes with Spiderman, we had great talks about my shoulder plush Spider-bot

Check it out!

 

[Pluto468]

The meet and greet times are posted in the app under Character Experiences.
You just present your card.

In CA, it's back in the corner of Hollywoodland by where the Avengers warehouse used to be, to the left of Monsters Inc. There is a character one and a super hero one. Characters/Avengers rotate-"like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get"...

In DL, it's at the SW Launch Bay in Tomorrowland and the CM there told me it's always Darth Vader.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/en...nia-adventure/visa-card-character-experience/

I enjoyed it because there wasn't much of a line and I probably spent 3-4 minutes with Spiderman, we had great talks about my shoulder plush Spider-bot

Check it out!

Thanks! I'll check it out in June. I wonder if Loki counts as a super hero. I always see him in Avengers campus but it's hard to get too close because he has swarms of people around him. Once we had a great interaction with him but he was mostly talking to my daughter about her mini tesseract. We got some wonderful pictures of them together

 

[MonocularVision]

One of the greatest aspects about the Chase Disney Visa character greets in DCA used to be that you regularly saw Stitch. It was one of the best places to find him which was great for our daughter. I think perhaps he was also at a dining place at Paradise Pier Hotel but now that it is rethemed, not sure.

 

[Tinkaboo]

Thanks! I'll check it out in June. I wonder if Loki counts as a super hero. I always see him in Avengers campus but it's hard to get too close because he has swarms of people around him. Once we had a great interaction with him but he was mostly talking to my daughter about her mini tesseract. We got some wonderful pictures of them together

I would imagine so since he is one of main characters now. He appears in the Sanctum and in the regular photo place by HQ. He used to roam a lot but I think the crowds just got to be too much so they put him in a regular meet space.

My funny Loki story is that I pointed out to him that there WAS NO LOKI PAGE in the Marvel autograph book..so I told him if he would sign a blank page, I would create a page for him, worthy of a god. He said ok and signed. Next time I went back, I showed him the book and ALL THE PAGES devoted just to him. He laughed and thanked me. Pic below. Yep..I am A TOTAL GEEK ...