How to See Disney World Characters
Four ways to see lots of Disney World characters on your next Disney vacation!!
One of the things that has always bugged me about Disney World in recent years is how tough it could be to just like…see Disney characters. Do you feel this way? Like…the only way to really see our Disney World character friends would be to spend a fortune on a character meal or wait in exorbitant lines to meet and greet them. It just seemed…wrong? I distinctly recall spending an entire afternoon at Hollywood Studios so that Penelope could meet the Disney Junior characters. Time well spent because she loved it and we have great pics to look back on…but man, I knew there had to be a better way!
I’m so thrilled that some of this has changed since the pandemic. I was extremely pleased with the amount of characters we saw on our last trip AND with the level of engagement from them. This was before character meet and greets were back to ‘normal’ so perhaps they were compensating for no touching, but I thought the characters were more engaged and more playful than during pre-pandemic trips. I’d love to hear if you felt the same way!
There were 4 key ways that we saw and interacted with Disney characters and I’m sharing them below so you can Pin this post for your own trip!
Book a character meal.
Ok, this one still stands. If you want to interact with a bunch of Disney characters in one shot, this is the way to do it. Over the years, we’ve done Cinderella’s Royal Table, Chef Mickey and Tusker House, with Tusker being the most recent. While the kids didn’t love the food for lunch, we were so happy seeing 4 of the core characters (Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Goofy) and getting pics with all of them.
Catch a cavalcade or mini parade.
I absolutely love these. Casual cavalcades run throughout the day and they are packed with characters. They are just a few minutes and run multiple times throughout the day, so no one is waiting in advance to get a spot. In Magic Kingdom alone, we saw the Mickey’s Celebration Cavalcade, Disney’s Adventure Friends Cavalcade and the Disney Princess Cavalcade. Boom - tons of characters. You can check cavalcade/appearance times on the Disney app and schedule it into your Genie day.
Stationed spots throughout the parks.
I LOVED walking in to EPCOT and catching Pluto and Goofy, just hanging out and waving. We saw Alice in the UK and Aurora near France. At Magic Kingdom, we spotted Winnie the Pooh and Friends above the train station multiple times. These served as great breaks to wave, snap a few pics and soak up some magic.
Meet and greets.
You can still wait in line (or use Genie+) to meet characters indoors. As of the time of this post, social distancing is still in effect, however. That being said, we waited 5 minutes to meet Mickey and had such a sweet interaction with him, despite not being able to hug or get close to him. The kids loved it regardless.
So there you have it! 4 ways to see lots of Disney World characters on your next vacation!
What do you think? Which of these would you choose?
