How Visible Are Meet & Greets?

[jkl2000]

I'm hoping DS4 doesn't want to do any M&Gs - just my opinion but I feel like it'd be a waste of time. I know at least a few may be unavoidable (hey, we can do the free Disney Visa Card one ) and yes, I've read some comments where people said they were surprised by their kids' interest in them. Overall, though, is it REALLY obvious that M&Gs are going on? Are they usually out in the open (the way they used to be) or are they mostly indoors now to avoid the heat? Is there signage that makes it obvious?

In short, how easily can I keep my kid from knowing what's going on? LOL. Will we get past Main Street?

 

[Master Yoda]

Many of them are moving inside, but a good chunk of them are right out in the open and quite visible. This is especially true in World Showcase.

 

[WDW-LUVR]

Some of our best moments are at the M&Gs and when we I have the children with us that really aren't interested in the charters I have a contest for them. The one with the most pictures with the charters get a prize. Even the adults get involved and we all have lots of fun with.

 

[stevehousse]

My boys love meeting characters! I don't understand why you wouldn't want your little guy to meet them?

 

[King Capybara 77]

If your child is not "into" meeting characters then yes they would be a waste of time.however if he would positively explode meeting his favourites then go for broke and meet as many as possible.Too many times i see kids being pushed to characters they have no intrest in.Whichever way i am sure it will be a magical time

 

[RandomPrincess]

We do M&Gs but if you want to keep them moving. I always tell my DD we will try to come back later it worked last trip. I just tell her to wave as we walk by. If you are doing a character meal or Visa M&G it helps to . We are going to have lunch with Mickey tomorrow etc.

 

[Disney Shib]

I took my nephew back in 2012... we did a couple character dining experiences and he got to meet everyone he wanted. When we were in MK or HS he made a couple comments about how he already got to meet those guys and had no interest in doing it again. Maybe a breakfast at Ohana or Chef Mickey's could curb the craving for the M&G?

 

[Disnee4Me]

In 1992, when my first DS was 28 months old (it was November and quiet in the parks), we had a lot of Meet & Greet encounters. He enjoyed it for the moment. I as his parent, remember it well, especially with the pictures and videos we took .... those are priceless!!

 

[jkl2000]

My boys love meeting characters! I don't understand why you wouldn't want your little guy to meet them?

Last time I was at WDW there were no meet & greets, you just ran into (a few) characters randomly, so the idea of waiting in line 30 minutes to meet a character just seems like a lot of time to burn for that. He's the only one who might want to meet some, so I just wanted to get an idea of how likely it is that he'll "notice" that there's a meet & greet happening. But I think we'll be able to skirt them when necessary.

We're only doing one TS breakfast, but it's not a character breakfast.

 

[Disney Shib]

Last time I was at WDW there were no meet & greets, you just ran into (a few) characters randomly, so the idea of waiting in line 30 minutes to meet a character just seems like a lot of time to burn for that. He's the only one who might want to meet some, so I just wanted to get an idea of how likely it is that he'll "notice" that there's a meet & greet happening. But I think we'll be able to skirt them when necessary.

We're only doing one TS breakfast, but it's not a character breakfast.

My other recommendation would be to go back at the very end of the evening. This july, while the parks were very crowded, about 45 minutes into our EMH's we walked right in to meet Tink in Adventureland and a few others in new Fantasyland. While leaving the park the wait time sign for meetin Mickey on Main St. was 5 minutes... there wasnt a soul in line and we got to take quite a few pictures without being hurried along.

 

[Figgy1]

Do a few character meals! You may think M&Gs are a waste of time, but some of our best Disney memories happened doing them. The CMs on the lines are great and it's something your little one will always remember. He may not remember one ride but I'll bet they'll remember meeting Mickey and all his friends forever!

 

[Lord_Vader]

The character meets are some of the best memories we have of our children at WDW. The character interactions can be priceless, from Donald #1, Goofy or Pluto doing something with my duagher's hair, or Woody acting putoff that my son had a Buzz Lightyear sweatshirt on, and now the Princesses mess with my son, he is 16. In the photo above Cinderella was "teaching" him the proper way to address any "princess" he wished to "court," later Princess Aurora "taught" him to waltz and Rapunzel told him that he already had the smolder.

 

[jkl2000]

My other recommendation would be to go back at the very end of the evening. This july, while the parks were very crowded, about 45 minutes into our EMH's we walked right in to meet Tink in Adventureland and a few others in new Fantasyland. While leaving the park the wait time sign for meetin Mickey on Main St. was 5 minutes... there wasnt a soul in line and we got to take quite a few pictures without being hurried along.

Sounds like a good idea - I guess if we go by the wait times like any attraction that would work.

 

[jkl2000]

View attachment 30948

The character meets are some of the best memories we have of our children at WDW. The character interactions can be priceless, from Donald #1, Goofy or Pluto doing something with my duagher's hair, or Woody acting putoff that my son had a Buzz Lightyear sweatshirt on, and now the Princesses mess with my son, he is 16. In the photo above Cinderella was "teaching" him the proper way to address any "princess" he wished to "court," later Princess Aurora "taught" him to waltz and Rapunzel told him that he already had the smolder.

^ Cute pic! I'll keep an open mind...

 

[tare]

I think character greets are a ware of time as well. When there is a super long line I convince dd to pass it up.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

M&Gs are indicated on the park maps.

 

[berlioz70]

The only Character M&Gs that scream *look at me* are at MK right when you walk in under the flag pole. There are characters easily spotted at all parks, but mostly they're off to the side, in the shade, and lots of Guests still manage to walk by and miss them. It's likely your DS will see character greetings, but if it's a character your DS doesn't care about he'll likely just move on; if it's a character your DS loves and wants to see then be prepared for a line or two.

 

[DJMoore2011]

We went in Nov 2011 and our longest wait was Tinkerbelle and that was only 10 minutes. Second longest wait was for Beast to come out with Belle that was 5 minutes. We had a rule, if we were going to see them at a meal or had already seen them at a meal we didn't wait in line. Another rule was we would not wait longer then 15 minutes. If the line was longer then that we would try to find the character later. We were not spending our time in line for meet and greets. And we didn't my Darling Daughter left WDW meeting and getting her picture taken with over 40 characters and many autographs for her scrapbook. And we did not feel like all we did was wait. A couple of them we stumbled upon, Peter Pan along with Tigger and Pooh comes to mind where there were NO wait times and we got to spend lots of time with them. We went to meet Mickey in his theater and the 5 minute wait time was how long it took to get through the maze of a line. Of course we meet Mickey while the parade was going on too. Then we went over and meet the Princesses in town hall once again it took us longer to walk through the line then wait, we went back right away to Meet Cinderella and Aurora.

 

[Disvillain63]

First visit for each of our children was at age 3...they wanted the characters and that was our focus. We were still able to visit the other rides/attractions and enjoy Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue, the Aloha Luau, CRT (different name then), Garden Grill, Chef Mickey's (different name then)...only ADRs were for the first two... They had characters aplenty and lots of interaction with them...it was the 90s. The photos and memories are priceless. DS played hide-n-seek in the Toontown Maze w/Goofy and sword fought w/Hook; DD was 'held' by Belle during the photo and Dopey wouldn't let go of her while signing other children's autograph books. They also got to meet characters that aren't seen too much now...Perla & Suzy Mouse; Friar Tuck, Sheriff of Nottingham, & Prince John; Gideon & Foulfellow; Roger Rabbit; Baloo & King Louie.

My step-Grandson (8) was not interested in many characters this past trip and we didn't worry about meeting them. He did do the Jedi Academy and loved it.

The magic dies quickly. It sure was fun to see their reactions and thrill at meeting the characters they'd seen on TV and in the movies...while they still believed in them.

 

[JIMINYCR]

When DS was young he was torn between going on the rides and doing the M&G so I had him decide which characters he most wanted to see and he was happy because I left the choice up to him. There were times when the line was looong and DW said to me... Go do a ride and I'll wait it out with him and we met after my ride. But looking back, getting photos with the characters is what DS remembered most of that early visit after he grew up. Glad we did as much as he wanted. Lots of great memorable photos in the photo albums for us.