Value season and characters

[jeepgirl30]

All the times I've been to disney have been adult trips. We are planning to go at the end of Sept into begining of Oct 05 with kids.

Are the characters as prevalent off peak as during the busy times? My DD5 is such a princess fan, if we do a princess breakfast will there be as many princesses available? I would think they may have more time with each table but the rotation may have less princesses. I'm debating between Cindy's breakfast and the Princess one at epcot.

Hopefully some good packages or codes will come out and we can do both.

 

[dj2]

we were in epcot the friday before MKL last january. park was practically empty--we walked onto maelstrom several times. we met jasmine, sleeping beauty, mulan, and i think snow white. (among other characters). you can ask any cm to find out where/when specific characters will be out. going off peak is better, because the lines to the characters are shorter!

 

[sunny04]

I would say yes they are as prevelent. We went in Oct. and there were times that like 10-15 characters would just all come out at the entrances and be there. We went from character to character. Once was first thing in the morning of a EMH, but once was in the middle of the day at MGM. It was like 2:30-3 and we were heading back to the hotel when we saw them all. I saw more characters personally in Oct. than I did in June and Dec. combined in the past.

 

[dj2]

I would say yes they are as prevelent. We went in Oct. and there were times that like 10-15 characters would just all come out at the entrances and be there. We went from character to character. Once was first thing in the morning of a EMH, but once was in the middle of the day at MGM. It was like 2:30-3 and we were heading back to the hotel when we saw them all. I saw more characters personally in Oct. than I did in June and Dec. combined in the past.

oooh i forgot to mention that too, because they weren't really princesses. we were there for the character bus at epcot that same day and there were almost more characters than there were children! DD7 often ran right up to a waiting character and never waited more than for the child who was already getting an autograph. we had time to meet them ALL and get autographs/photographs and then go around a second time with the video camera (just one adult on that trip) before they got back on their bus! i wonder if it's always like that in the slow season, or if we just got extremely lucky.

dj

 

[blanq]

We do the majority of our WDW travel during value season, and we have felt that the character interaction has been wonderful, both in the parks and in the restaurants with character meals. The waits for meet-and-greets in the parks are often minimal during the value season. This past January, we were winding our way through the Epcot World Showcase, and stumbled upon Aladdin and the Genie in Morocco with nary a person in sight. It was great fun for our DS, who was 10 at the time, and we had all the time in the world to snap some wonderful pictures of their interaction together.

 

[disneysteve]

I agree. Character greetings in the off-season are great. You don't have to wait in long lines for 30 seconds with the character. We have often been the only people with a character, even Mickey. We take all the pictures we want and don't get rushed through.

 

[NewEnglandDisney]

Although I can't speak to the actual numbers, I have never noticed a difference in character presence. However, as others have pointed out, the quality can be much better.

My best tip for parents (and kids, hehe!) who want to see the "big" characters is to be on hand at the opening of Epcot on a non-EMH day. After the character bus leaves the entrance and the rope is dropped, virtually everyone will run to TT/M:S. The characters (at least a few - I usually see at least Mickey and Minnie) will be standing there by the lagoon waving to people who are running past to get to the rides. One trip I actually saw Mickey there all alone with his handler, and looking sad that no one wanted to talk to him.

N.E.D.

 

[disneysteve]

Another good tip - At Animal Kingdom, go straight to Camp Minnie-Mickey. There are numerous characters there and the whole crowd rushes straight to the Safari. We went there one morning and had the characters entirely to ourselves. We have pictures, taken by a CM with our camera, of the 3 of us together with 5 characters - a nice group shot. No way you could do that in peak season.

 

[bunnyfoo]

I was there around that time this year (Sept/Oct) and there were plenty of characters around at many of the parks. I even saw Kermit and Miss Piggy at MGM which I've heard is pretty rare but the line up for them was huge so I didn't bother.

 

[ceecee]

We always go the last week of Sept and first week of Oct. It's great character inaction, still lines but not to the extent of summer.