I’m getting ready for FastPass+ selection day and I’m wondering how many character meet and greets to include in my touring plans. The Unofficial Guide says that kids love characters and has the meet and greets in every TP for young kids (my kids are 2 and 5, they love Mickey, Minnie and the princesses). But I have a CRT lunch already and I’m trying to get Chef Mickey as well. So do we need to meet Mickey and Minnie in the park every day if I get a Chef Mickey ADR? Can kids overload on the characters? Can you tell it’ll be their first trip and I want them to have an amazing time
You can’t see too many characters but no need to repeat. If you’re seeing them at meals it’s a waste to seem them again. You’ll get better interactions at meals. Plus, that’s why people do character meals - to see characters while they eat so they don’t have to wait in line. It’s almost like paying for a FPP. Do schedule any characters you are interspersed in that aren’t covered by meals.
It really depends on the kids. My oldest daughter has never had much interest in meeting characters. At 5 my younger daughter enjoyed meeting the princesses at Akershus but had no desire to wait to meet them in the parks. Both of my kids would much rather go on a ride or see a show. I wouldn’t plan a bunch of meet and greets in the parks if I had character meals scheduled, but that is my family. Yours might be different.
I never worry about repeating characters. I have kids similar in age to yours and they always kind of balk at waiting in line to meet characters in the parks. I’d try and get as many must-do meets as a part of a meal if you can.
Thank you everyone! I don’t like standing in line either, so I’m glad to hear your experiences! Anna and Elsa don’t have a FPP or a character meal, do they? I think that’s one meet and greet that we’ll have to do but otherwise I’m glad to hear that it’s ok to To not repeat characters in meals and parks.
I’m glad that you posted this, because I haven’t thought of it yet… when I was growing up, we never did a character meet and greet - maybe they didn’t have them or more likely my parents had no interest.
Now that I’m bringing my son for the first time, I really want him to enjoy the characters but I’m thinking - like most people it seems - that the meals are the way to go. But maybe I should have repeats while he’s still young enough to enjoy it…
The first time we took ours they were 4 and 5. We had character meals planned but not meet and greets. Every time we would see characters in the park they would beg to meet them. We ended up in so many character meets. We really didn’t think they would want to do that.
It will probably depend on your kids. We ended up changing our touring plan on the fly and it worked out great so I wouldn’t worry either way.
We did a couple repeats on the fly such as Donald in Mexico because it was a short line. Mickey just has such long lines everywhere that I wouldn’t do it SB and no way would I waste a FPP.
We did Anna and Elsa right after Frozen Ever After right at rope drop and waited 10 minutes. So that’s an option for seeing those two without a long wait.
Also we met Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Goody, and Donald all in Magic Kingdom even though we had met all of them except Minnie at Tusker House. We like their costumes and especially the location of Mickey in MK. Almost feels like his official home. So you might consider that one.
Come to think of it, we also met Ariel and Rapunzel in MK even though we also met them at Bon Voyage breakfast. But Ariel was in different costume and Rapunzel was with Tianna at the park and Tianna’s a must do for us as well.
I’m not sure if using the International Gateway Entrance aka the “back entrance” by the World Showcase would help with this strategy but worth considering.
Hmm that’s an interesting idea. That would save some walking too…We’re staying at WL but that’s what Minnie Vans are for, right? (Two kids in car seats plus 4 adults). Where is the best place to get dropped off at the International Gateway?
Thanks everyone else, I appreciate all the opinions!
International Gateway has been great for RD, because there’s a much smaller crowd there. But, I don’t know how that’s going to change with the Skyliner opening soon, since that will drop a lot more people off at that entrance. Just last month, we noticed they rearranged that whole IG entry way by moving the security checkpoint further down toward the boat launch and repositioned the tapstiles to allow for larger crowds.
