Character M&G strategies (esp Moana)

I know not everyone is into characters, but my DD is a big character fan, even at 12. We have 3 character meals (CP, TH, CMC) so we will cover the Fab 5 with those pretty well. My other DD has requested Pluto, so I have a plan for that. How would you incorporate some princesses visiting strategies into your plan? Top of our list is Moana, Belle in Epcot, Jasmine, and Cinderella. Should we try to RD any characters, or is that not a good way to spend the 1st hour? I’m wondering if we should prioritize Moana at AK. I was already planning to save Pandora for later in the afternoon after hopping time, so that wouldn’t mess up our RD strategy. Thanks for any thoughts you want to share!

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Epcot is great for meeting characters. The princesses are in the WS. So is Pluto and Donald. Times can be found in MDE. You may want to consider adding in Akershus or CRT to cover a bunch. You could switch that with either CM or TH since mostly the same characters.

I also read on Chat yesterday that Moana wait was 1h 15. How much is she worth? The characters at EP won’t have that long of a wait.

Agree with @flute that Moana will be the hardest one to accommodate/therefore possibly the only one worth rope dropping if this is a priority for you.

If you have the time to add CRT as a meal, you are very likely to have all three others (Cinderella, Belle and Jasmine, the latter two are regulars but occasionally not available). At Akershus I don’t think Cinderella is a regular (maybe she visits occasionally? I have not seen her mentioned in recent trip reports/comments on Akershus). If you check MDE for timings, you shouldn’t have a major problem/time investment visiting Belle and Jasmine in Epcot WS (France and Morocco), whereas I don’t think Cinderella has a regular M&G anywhere? I may be wrong/outdated on this, but it was not the case during our last visit.

Final thought: if waving/distanced photo op is enough, you can also see all of these princesses and much more in the MK Festival of Fantasy parade twice a day (currently noon and 3pm). Our kids love seeing the characters there almost as much as M&G.

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https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/entertainment/magic-kingdom/character-meet-princess-fantasyland/

It still shows Cinderella in this location from 9-9, unless something has changed.

We did this particular meet years ago–it’s worth it. Cinderella greets with another princess–you get to see both.

Worth noting that Moana isn’t open at RD and only appears at set times which you can see in the app. I think they only stay 20-30 minutes at each appearance. First time for Moana is 9:15.

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From chat re Moana:

We went back today. Got on line at 9:10, maybe 10 groups ahead of us. They opened the line at 9:20. It’s a long walk down to where she meets. We were done meeting her by 9:35. As we were leaving the line was quite long, I’d say 45 minutes long.

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Thanks, I saw that too. Very helpful!

I think we will just get in line a little bit early before she opens. I remember taking my girls to meet Pocahontas in that location 5 years ago. That was probably my favorite character interaction of the whole trip.

The tough thing about working in some princesses for DD is that DS wants nothing to do with them. Thus, the reason I didn’t book a princess character meal. So I’ll make sure she meets enough to satisfy her without torturing her brother too much, lol.

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I don’t know what the makeup is for your whole party, but my kids decided today that when DD wants to meet characters, her brother will do Wilderness Explorers (which DD has already done twice so doesn’t mind skipping) or Spike’s Scavenger Hunt at Epcot. If your group allows, maybe just think about some options where you can split into two separate activities?!

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Splitting was helpful for us, so I echo this! DS4 wanted to meet Woody and Jessie, while DS8 went to meet Chewy, BB8 and Darth Vader.

While DS8 did ROTR, I took DS4 to meet Olaf.

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Belle at EPCOT is the absolute best. She takes each guest by the hand and down the little path for a chat, some photos, then they walk out the other way.

She meets for 20 or so minutes regularly throughout the day. So when you’re heading to France, stake out the spot and wait. I don’t remember if her meets are on the times guides or not.

She meets by the water. It is one of the best character meets we’ve had.

One day I would like a photo with her winter dress on. She only wears that during the EPCOT holidays event. The lines were really long when we went so I just took a photo of her from afar.

If it is raining, the princesses will not be outside.

The spot is actually not far from the boat launch in Morocco. There is only one area by the water there that has a separate walkway next to the water separated by a fenced grassy/tree area. If you’re facing the water, stand at the right side of that (the Morocco side) to start the line if no one is there yet.

It’s on google maps very accurately.

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I was also going to suggest now that Enchanted Tales is back in MK, that is another way to meet Belle if the times in Epcot don’t work out, plus it’s inside so not weather dependent.

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Such a fun experience too.

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We loved ETwB last time! I hope we have time to do it again. My DH was one of the soldiers!

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