To Character chase or not..

[shasess]

...that is the questions.

On our first trip to Disney last March my DD9 and I spent quite a bit of time at the parks chasing characters and waiting in line for autographs. This year (May) I would like to avoid this at great lengths. We pretty much attained all of the character auto's that she wanted except for Cinderella and Ariel . My daughter and I agreed that we will only try to get the remaining two auto's but we will not spend time in line waiting for other character's......

Any advice on how not to get caught up in the hype once she sees everyone lined up for the characters. It's not so much as meeting the characters for her as it is seeing how many autographs she can collect in one day.

PS. She started collecting a few pins on her first trip. Maybe we can expand on that.

 

[Traveliz]

...that is the questions.

On our first trip to Disney last March my DD9 and I spent quite a bit of time at the parks chasing characters and waiting in line for autographs. This year (May) I would like to avoid this at great lengths. We pretty much attained all of the character auto's that she wanted except for Cinderella and Ariel . My daughter and I agreed that we will only try to get the remaining two auto's but we will not spend time in line waiting for other character's......

Any advice on how not to get caught up in the hype once she sees everyone lined up for the characters. It's not so much as meeting the characters for her as it is seeing how many autographs she can collect in one day.

PS. She started collecting a few pins on her first trip. Maybe we can expand on that.

You know if you go to Disney more than once in a lifetime - I am saying if you go somewhat regularly - I would go ahead and autograph chase -- or maybe agree on just doing new ones...the reason being my daughter (now18) did that too and we had so much fun doing it - sometimes we would enter a park with just that goal in mind. Of course now those days are totally over...so I say go for it or compromise on it. Before long she will be whisking past the characters with only an occasional glance.

Liz

 

[cranbiz]

Most likely the best way to get Cindy's autograph is to attend one of the character meals that feature Cindy. Ariel, you can get at Ariel's grotto and she is usually at the Princess Storybook breakfast in Norway.

 

[shasess]

You know if you go to Disney more than once in a lifetime - I am saying if you go somewhat regularly - I would go ahead and autograph chase -- or maybe agree on just doing new ones...the reason being my daughter (now18) did that too and we had so much fun doing it - sometimes we would enter a park with just that goal in mind. Of course now those days are totally over...so I say go for it or compromise on it. Before long she will be whisking past the characters with only an occasional glance.

Liz

Thanks for the advice...Your right...Some of my daughter's friends don't want anything to do with the princess'..I'll take her innocence as long as I can get it!

 

[mickeymousemommy]

We chase more for the pictures than the autographs. We readily jump into lines that are shorter and skip ones that are longer. A lot of the time you can come back around and find a shorter line. It won't be long before your kids won't want to take pictures with the characters! My older boys don't want to anymore. Although they could turn out like me and love it no matter how old they are!

 

[Enchanted]

I would also suggest letting her get the autographs of the characters while she still feels comfortable doing it. I'll be eighteen this month, but I adore to pin trade. I think that it's something that's not nearly as "embarassing" as teens get older (I won't get in line to see characters, but I will interact with them if they're on the street.) because you're talking to CMs and not with characters. Let her enjoy it while she still wants to enjoy it.

 

[AngieBelle]

If she already has a full autograph book, you might not have to worry about getting caught up in autograph seeking if that's all she's really interested in. If you want the character experience without long lines, go to Toontown within the last hour before closing. If it's slow enough, sometimes they even open all the rooms and have a free-for-all. Another good spot is the new Character Connection at Epcot. It's one line for several VIP characters in a row, and it's somewhat hidden so not everyone knows it's there.

At AK, go to Camp Minnie-Mickey first thing in the morning before the first Lion King Show. It will be practically empty. It also might be pretty empty if a show is going on, but watch out for the show dumps- that theatre holds over 1,000, and they all exit right into that area.

 

[Fire14]

Mickeymousemommy
Where was your picture with ariel taken? Was it TT Princess room?

 

[LiteBrite]

You know if you go to Disney more than once in a lifetime - I am saying if you go somewhat regularly - I would go ahead and autograph chase -- or maybe agree on just doing new ones...the reason being my daughter (now18) did that too and we had so much fun doing it - sometimes we would enter a park with just that goal in mind. Of course now those days are totally over...so I say go for it or compromise on it. Before long she will be whisking past the characters with only an occasional glance.

Liz

Just an amen to this - I also have a now 18yo DD, and I look back fondly to those autograph chasing times. She will grow out of it. For us, we went from autographs to pin trading, and I can tell you that one will cost you both in time and money! It's true that you don't ususally have to wait in long lines to trade pins, but when DD was in the pin phase, we could *never* pass a CM (or anybody else) with a lanyard. It really took just as much time as the autograph seeking. Plus, you get lots of cute pics when they go for autographs - pretty soon she won't want anybody pointing a camera at her, either, so enjoy it while it lasts!

 

[Taqwus]

Hehe I am 33 yrs old and I had a field day getting pics/autograpsh

 

[mickeymousemommy]

We had the Ariel picture taken at Akershus, Norway in EPCOT. It was a great surprise and thrill for my daughters to see her standing there! That was the one picture we decided to fork over the $31 for. I'm glad I did, because the one I took didn't come out as well.

 

[brack]

Hehe I am 33 yrs old and I had a field day getting pics/autograpsh

I'm 53yo and love getting my picture taken with the characters. My DW has come to expect it.

I even had Cruella thank me for having my picture taken with her.

 

[abeyst]

If you keep track of the times the characters are out you can do some rides in between the character times. They come out a few different times a day so you can hit a few characters each time and still have time to ride rides, eat etc.

Other tip I can give is to see characters at MGM instead of MK. MGM is so calm compared to MK when it comes to lines (and people fighting) for characters. We noticed it 2 years ago when we fought for 2 days at MK (my son HAD to see Donald), then the next day we got to MGM and it wasn't nearly as bad. We wondered why the difference and wished we'd done MGM first to save us time at MK.

 

[makinorlando]

I love getting pics of my DD with the characters. I have told my DD that along with doing lots of special meals, and things this year, we are going to be more diligent about "character chasing" for autographs. Many times she does not want to be bothered with standing in line - the one thing about living here - she knows there will be another visit within a couple weeks! We have several character meals scheduled, and that is a great way to see the characters without too much fuss. She seems to be more into it right now, so hopefully we will be succesful in catching up with some elusive characters!

Epcot has Character Connection which is a great place. I have not seen it crowded - (but then I don't go on the days that I anticipate the parks are very busy)

This autograph book has made me envious...check it out!

www.wdwautographs.com

 

[HugsForEeyore]

I love getting pics of my DD with the characters. I have told my DD that along with doing lots of special meals, and things this year, we are going to be more diligent about "character chasing" for autographs. Many times she does not want to be bothered with standing in line - the one thing about living here - she knows there will be another visit within a couple weeks! We have several character meals scheduled, and that is a great way to see the characters without too much fuss. She seems to be more into it right now, so hopefully we will be succesful in catching up with some elusive characters!

Epcot has Character Connection which is a great place. I have not seen it crowded - (but then I don't go on the days that I anticipate the parks are very busy)

This autograph book has made me envious...check it out!

www.wdwautographs.com

Thanks!!! That's our site! I am envious of anyone who is local to Disney World, as I wish we could go far more often and chase all the rare characters we been looking for!!

To the OP, I would just give into the urge to meet characters every time! Nothing is more important! Why fight it!! (OK, only joking - just our opinion!)

 

[outtonight]

I always meet characters, not so much for the autographs (because once you have one, you don't really need another from the same character), but for the pictures.

I love how I can look back at my WDW photos and see myself growing up just through all of my pictures with Mickey. So while I agree that new/different characters are fun, I always think there should be at least ONE character you come back to every year, so that you can document time with them.

 

[Joanna71985]

I like meeting the characters for the pictures and the interaction. I have all of mine listed in the website below (the yahoo one). BTW, I am 20 and I LOVE seeing the characters.

 

[canda]

I have a 2 1/2 year old. Last time we went we did not charcater chase but when we would stumble across some, He would be so excited to see them. He loved them so much. He would run to the country bears and just hug and dance. Even the ugly ones. When he saw the Fab Five he was starstruck. almost as much as DW would be if she ran into Bon Jovi.

 

[Eeyore2003]

Perhaps the pins would be a nice idea. My boys never got "into" stuff like that, but we took my niece when she was 7 and all she wanted to do was get autographs. Everywhere, no matter what.

Then we took her when she was almost 9 and she was much more into the pin trading. She had some for trading from a previous trip, and then we bought her a little package of, I think there's 6 in the package. She did allot of pin trading with CM's trying to get better and better pins. She was almost a little shy when getting any autographs this time, right on the borderline age thing I think. I think you had a good idea with the pins. Get one of those little packages of 6 and let her keep trading away.

 

[paigevz]

My son was 9 last trip, and we did all the characters we found, except for the character bus unloading in Epcot, because we had reservations for CP. He's already planning his attack for this trip, and he will be 11. My younger one loved the cuddly characters but not the face ones. I second the picture-gaining motivation. Those are great pics. It also makes a great souvie for my kids, as we put the picture on the page facing the autograph in their books.........they love to flip through the books and exclaim over the characters, and notice some of the little things they do with their autographs that are "in character".
I have found that Epcot is a great place to meet characters. They are scheduled around the World Showcase. We take it slowly around there, because that is the attraction of the World Showcase, really, the scenery and theming, and no rides to race to. On our World Showcase 1/2 day, we do only the two boat rides in the showcase, and no other rides........we stay out of FutureWorld. It's one of our most relaxing days. The characters give the kids something to look forward to in every country (plus this is where we buy them the most souvies). They aren't usually crowded there, in our experience. I'll never forget when my oldest saw The Beast at 4. We were waiting in the French courtyard, and when he came out, he could barely fit through the garden door! My son was standing on a rock wall around some landscaping, and the Beast walked right up to him. My son and an older woman were the only ones waiting for him. My son just flung his arms around the Beast.........it was his favorite character, and he hadn't known we were waiting to see him (scheduled, so we waited about 4 min). It was precious. EVeryone in the courtyard, Belle, the other woman, my husband and I just went "awwww"..............I'll never forget it.
That's one of my best memories of WDW. You never know what will happen with the characters, and they are more memorable than the rides and shows..........I have a ton of those types of memories with both sons.......so I'll keep up looking for characters until they don't want to anymore.
We also schedule lots of character meals..........again, a very relaxing way to meet characters without fighting for them. We schedule one of each type of characters, usually.
We do all the characters we can at each trip. The kids change so much on each trip, and they really love seeing old faves as well as new ones.
We then get a lot more freedom throughout the rest of the parks, as my kids will see a character they've already posed with,and just wave.