I’m planning two days in the parks plus an Oogie Boogie Bash night for me and my 18 month old. I’m pretty sure she will enjoy character meets more than rides, but those meets are the one thing that custom touring plans can’t factor in as well.
I’m hoping to snag a couple character dining reservations. What are your best tips for efficient character experiences in the parks?
Character meals are a great way to meet lots of characters! For you touring plan I would add in breaks, or even yet a short “meal” at a place near where the characters are supposed to be.
I really like the spontaneity of the characters at DLR, but it can make it more tricky to plan. My DD likes to watch the characters from afar, by it not meet them, so that is easier to account for 
I brought my 2 year old to WDW last year for two days and suspected the same thing (and it was confirmed - the characters were her favorite part). I did build in to my plans a handful of the meet and greets that are in there and are regular (in WDW, it’s Ana and Elsa in Epcot, Ariel in MK, etc.) as well as booked on character lunch. That covered probably 80% of the characters we met, but then I just kept an eye on our time - when we wound up getting ahead of our touring plan and I saw a relatively short line for characters (Aladdin and Jasmine, Buzz Lightyear, Tinkerbell, etc.), we added that in on the fly.
For trips where we plan to be more character-centric, I will watch the character meet times & locations on the Disneyland App on days that have similar operating hours to the days of our trip. I keep track of these in a TP by incorporating a break in my TP for each overlapping set of times for characters in a similar area- for example, if Aladdin & Jasmine will be at the Wishing Well at 10:30 and Mary Poppins & Bert on the Fantasyland Pathway at or around the same time, I’ll set one break and in the notes section state we have an option of either meet & also in the notes, for each character that’s an option, keep track of what other times I’ve consistently seen on the app for meeting those same characters.
Once I have done that for a few days, then I’ll prioritize the characters with less meet times as early as they appear in the day while leaving characters with more sets and/or continuous meets (like Royal Hall, Anna & Elsa, Mickey at his house) for later in the day once the ones with only 2-4 meet times have been conquered. This is where I update the notes to state which character is a priority at any given time but also I like to have a back-up because quite frequently at Disneyland the characters/times advertised on the app are subject to change, even last minute.
If you do have any high priority characters a great thing to do early in the day, is chat up a cast member wearing an “Ask Me About Characters” large yellow button (usually all of the character handlers & any of the Royal Hall attendants) to see what times they have down for specific characters. I’ve also found that talking to them when there aren’t any other guests around seems to give you a better chance of getting accurate & detailed answers. When in front of or within earshot of a larger group of guests they tend to be less divulging & more vague about which characters will be where & when. I’ve also come to realize that as frustrating as this is in the moment when trying to meet a character we’ve planned for, it allows for there to be a lot more spontaneity & prevents (as much as possible) large throngs of people trying to scrum/queue for a character that might be more rare.
And this leads me to the best advice I have about characters is to really go with the flow. If you’re running into a lot of characters not being where they are supposed to be it can change the very fun interactions that you can get into a sad chore of tracking them down, so I’ve learned to accept that there isn’t really a foolproof way to plan for characters & to then set expectations with my kids that we will try as hard as we can, but if we can’t meet any specific character we will still have a great day!
Thank you! What kinds of wait times have you experienced with character meets?
One resource you might want to consider is character locator. Kenny is a former Liner and offers the most detailed character meet times available. He also has touring plans that includes characters. I would look at his touring plans and combine them with plans from other sources to create my own. It worked well!
Kenny is a fantastic resource with awesome connections on the WDW front that make sense to purchase his character locator if planning a character-centric trip to WDW.
However, DLR is a lot more spontaneous & more often than not, characters even that are advertised & planned for being available are at a moment’s notice not available (the same is true for characters that aren’t available that suddenly are & with no announcement so this can work as much for you as it can against you). And because of this, no (third party or otherwise except maybe if you know the Cast Member(s) who actually schedule the characters) source exists that give you a reliable schedule of character meets. The closest is the DL App and as elaborated in my above post, even using that you have to take it with a grain of salt as all posted times are subject to change.
It varies from character & also by their location, but if you show up at the start of the meet time listed in the app you can expect at least a 20-30 min. wait for popular/rare characters. A lot of people will stake out the area 10-20 min. (or more) before the posted time so by the time the meet time comes the line is already forming. For this reason it’s not uncommon to see just 5 min. windows posted for their meets & that usually means that in that 5 min. they’ll allow guests to queue & then cut the line off and possibly even earlier if by the handler’s estimate the character will not be able to make it through the queue in the amount of the time is actually scheduled for the character to meet (which isn’t posted on the app but is known to the handlers who are responsible to manage the character wrapping up on time).
For the character meets that have larger blocks of time and/or established meets the above won’t apply, but generally if you go earlier in the day the wait will be less. We’ve noticed though that for Pixie Hollow Tinkerbell is always advertised as being there 8am-3pm but often isn’t there until 9 or sometimes later, but hers is definitely one to go as soon as she is open bc her line gets long & once it warms up is in full sun & moves very slowly so isn’t an ideal wait.
Royal Hall will often have only 1-2 princesses right when it opens so we like to wait until 9-9:30 (or 1 hr-1.5 hrs after it opens) to get the all 3 princesses. The wait might be longer (20-30 min) as opposed to 5-10 min in the first hour, but you’ll meet 3 princesses so it’s a good trade-off. Also most days there is often a lull around lunchtime so noon is a great time to get in line & have less than 20-30 min. to meet 3 princesses.
And then if your child will be into Pirate characters at all it’s worth noting that for Jack Sparrow & Redd (who are both fantastic to meet) they will often do a very unusual meet style where if their line is starting to build up they will start walking the line to a different location in an attempt to throw people off. They’ll do it really cleverly saying their “just recruitin’” or going on an adventure of some sort, but most of the times we’ve done these meets, the guests around us & have all been agreeable about following in a line formation to wherever they go next & the character keeps interacting with the guest who is at the very front making their turn a little extra special, but it does often discourage more from getting in line or cause those who are towards the back who can’t really tell what’s going to bail so it’s effective in keeping their lines manageable especially where they meet in more cramped quarters (the walkways of New Orleans Square are some of the narrowest in DL).
And since I’ve brought up the unique situation with Pirates characters, there are a lot of characters (mostly in Fantasyland but can happen in Town Square or random places in DCA) who will be roaming only which means they are happy to interact with guests/sign autographs as they walk along between destinations & will “pause” if you have someone ready to pose a photo (but not guaranteed) but they will not stop to have a formal queue form & it will a free-for-all requiring you to be a little more bold than you would otherwise be in a traditional line up to meet. There can be times though when no one else is taking advantage of or noticing a roaming character where you can just walk up to them & end up with a lovely & lengthy one on one interaction so again, a very big pro that counteracts the cons (might be a scramble if a lot of guests are trying to interact with the one character & no formal line; hard to notice since they can tend to blend in and move very quickly among the crowds so you have to be obervant/in the right spot at the right time).
Whoops! I didn’t notice she was referring to DLR! Sorry about that!
This is really helpful information! Thank you!
I’ve never looked at the character section of the app. Just looked now and see tons of characters on the map. Does this show what’s possible or are all of these characters actually out and about right at this moment?
No worries! I believe he does have a character locator for DL as well, but unless he has & maintains an inside connection with the character scheduling it’s impossible to have a reliable set of times as in my experience, CMs on the ground are getting last minute updates of a character’s availability.
So the map shows all advertised/planned meets for the day based on location. If you click on the location marker it will bring up the list of characters set to meet in that spot that day & their planned meet times.
If you click on Show List in the upper right-hand corner, it will then display the characters in alphabetical order & if you wanted to filter to only Disneyland or DCA meets you can add that Filter in the upper left-hand corner. From the list view, you can click on the character’s name & if the character is planned to be in only one location that day, it will take you to screen that shows you their planned meet times with the name of the location listed as well. If the character has several different locations where they will be that day, then when you click on their name the several different locations will drop down underneath their name & you’ll first need to select a location to then see the screen with the times at that location. As an example Fantasyland has about 6-7 different locations outside of the Fantasy Faire area & characters who appear throughout Fantasyland aren’t necessarily tied to any one spot, so you could see Mary Poppins & Bert or Peter Pan or Alice & the Mad Hatter in several different areas along the Matterhorn walkway that will be notated on the map.
I find that trying to navigate the app day-of can get me stuck in my phone trying to sort through all of that as there’s not really one easy view to see “All characters out at this moment” so that’s why I like to track it advance of a trip to see what’s possible/planned/more of “the norm” for when my trip is coming up & then use the app as a back-up if there are unexpected changes and I can’t find an out of the way Character CM to quickly check on a character for me.
@lolabear_la
Thank you! My kids have never been interested in characters and now they’re 19 and 16! But I actually really enjoy meeting them and try to squeeze in one or two each trip. The very first time I took my girls to DLR, we had a run-in with Chip and Dale by the cannon in the town square. (There was no one else around. I haven’t experience such light crowds since.) It was so much fun! Chip kept putting his hand in front of one daughter’s face for every picture. Those spontaneous moments really do make the most fond memories.
One of the best tips I got from a “Ask Me About Characters” CM was that the most characters are out and about on Friday and Saturday (and maybe Sunday, but I can’t remember what he said). I went on an early Friday morning to do research and I saw at least 5 characters either walking around or in their permanent locations within an hour (I didn’t actually go up and meet them, I just saw them). And I’d think earlier in the morning is better while the characters are fresh and not overheated if it’s a hot day (and of course to beat crowds). I also call the Disneyland customer service number all the time for advice. They’re extremely helpful.
And from what I saw on the day I went, at the Thotful Spot near the Winnie the Pooh ride, when Pooh gets there for his meet and greet, so does Tigger and Eeyore, so you get three characters for the wait of one. That starts at 11am, and I noticed by the time I got off Splash Mountain about 30 minutes later, I think Tigger and Eeyore were gone, so maybe that’s something that only happens when Pooh first arrives.
Definitely check the DL app for character times if you want specific ones, some of which have dedicated locations that you don’t have to just wait for them to randomly appear. But, like someone else said, there’s never a guarantee that the character will be where they’re listed, but I think for the dedicated spots (Royal Hall, Thotful Spot, Mickey and Minnie’s Houses, Pixie Hollow), it’s far more likely.
This is a very astute observation that I completely agree with! It’s more likely the random non-character specific spots where characters don’t tend to appear… such as the Snow White’s Wishing Well or the Purple Umbrella at Fantasy Faire or any of the spots along the Matterhorn Way. It used to be that for whatever reason Jessie on the pier in DCA was very often cancelled (and of my daughter’s favorites) but we haven’t planned a lot of characters on the pier since it was re-themed to Pixar so not sure if that still happens as often.
Yes, I’m so thankful that my niece wants to see Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Mickey, Minnie, and Pooh, all of which have dedicated locations. 
(Rapunzel is on her list too, so that’s the only hard maybe).
She has only gotten harder over the years because she’s out less & less!
I’m sure you know about the shows she’s in, but just in case, she & Flynn make an appearance in Mickey & the Magical Map if your niece really wants to just catch a glimpse of her and see a fun show in the process. But even better for a Rapunzel fan is the Storytelling at the Royal Theater. Usually the first 3 shows of the day are the re-telling of Tangled and they both come out to help tell the story.
If she’s not listed on the app that day, the best trick I have for seeing her is that after the Tangled show at the Royal Theater she will sometimes come out into the theater after most of the crowd has dispersed to meet a few people who hung around. the CMs won’t usually confirm if she’s coming or not but if they allow you to really linger it’s a good indicator that she’s planning to come. You have to be in the theater for the show in order to be able to stick around afterwards & you also have to make sure you stay in the theater bc if you exit and she appears they don’t allow you back in, unfortunately. But this was how we met Rapunzel a couple of times when my kids have really wanted to meet her.
Wow, Great info! Thanks! (no, I didn’t actually know about the shows she’s in. I’m a newb to characters and the shows) 
Actually the 3pm Storytelling would fit into our schedule well (that’s when R is typically scheduled to be at Fantasy Faire anyway, so we’ll be in the area). I just wish it was air conditioned, cuz then I would mandate that we go, but shade is good too. 
…oh wait, you said the first three shows. The 3pm show is the 4th show. 
BAH! Oh well, maybe I’ll do some itinerary reorganizing.
Storytelling at the Royal Theatre is one of the most underrated events at Disneyland. I love it and it’s fairly short (but sweet!) so littles don’t have a chance to get too restless. Highly recommend it!