Where Are the Characters?

[Lands of Wonder]

I remember walking into the park and always seeing characters roam Town Square. I remember the characters using the guest backs to write autographs in the books. It was a different and great time at Disney. It just doesn't feel the same anymore like it once did.

 

[Rebel_]

In June they roamed in full force at DLR. It was awesome. I get why they don't do it at WDW, but it really was splendid to have so many chance encounters. Now - we did meet fewer than a typical WDW trip, but between roaming characters and Marvel it was hands down a better experience for my character loving family.

 

[thomas998]

Good to know. Prior to my most recent trips (2018 and 2016) it’d been a pretty sizable gap since I’d been to WDW. It just struck me as disappointing, but I understand why.

Yes... though I doubt it is really a safety issue as much as a wanting to control where people go which is what they do with the meet and greets. If it was just safety then they could still allow character that weren't in full costumes to roam around like Mary Poppins and other non-head covered characters.

 

[Br’er Rabbit]

Yep like others have said, some characters like the Country Bears do roam. It’s really fun to see what type of shenanigans the bears get into. I once saw one of them go up to the popcorn cart and steal a bag of popcorn.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

I was at DL this past October and can say they were not roaming...There were coraled lines to see these characters..Once on stage the CM had to point out where they were going to be for their greet and form a line...

This past June I was taking some night shots of the train station area at DL, turn around and there, seemingly out of nowhere, is Mickey and Minnie just playing around. They even danced with each other momentarily. Goofy and Pluto came out too. They all just roamed around Town Square suprising people and gawking at the Main Street windows. No formal pictures or anything. It was incredible.

I noticed characters, particularly human ones, tended to roam Fantasyland early in the morning at DL. I think they probably stop and become more stationary when the crowds start to build up.

 

[thomas998]

This past June I was taking some night shots of the train station area at DL, turn around and there, seemingly out of nowhere, is Mickey and Minnie just playing around. They even danced with each other momentarily. Goofy and Pluto came out too. They all just roamed around Town Square suprising people and gawking at the Main Street windows. No formal pictures or anything. It was incredible.

I noticed characters, particularly human ones, tended to roam Fantasyland early in the morning at DL. I think they probably stop and become more stationary when the crowds start to build up.

I've also run across the green army men in California Adventure on most every trip I can recall usually over by the Midway Madness

 

[TrainChasers]

I was just in Disneyland around Christmas, with Christmas crowds. During my time there I saw Mary Poppins and Burt riding the carousel, Gaston wandering fantasyland, Alice and the mad hatter stopped by the coke corner ragtim piano for a game of musical chairs, and characters were always out on Main Street even way into the night. Mickey and Minnie usually had a line, but chip and dale were running all around having fun. Oh yes and I was walking up the castle walkway (the one to the right of the drawbridge) and the evil queen passed me by, I stopped to look at her and she said “ohhh a peasant!” And kept on walking.

It’s very much still a thing in California.

 

[erasure fan1]

it's guests. They basically attack the characters for attention and it becomes unmanageable and unsafe very quickly.

Sadly, there are plenty of morons who do this WITH a roped off line. If I had a nickel every time someone ran up to a character yelling hi and ignoring the line, I'd have enough money for 5 day passes. Lol

I do think the main reason for non roaming characters is the added income from the meals and photos.... granted, people are stupid so limiting that with roped off areas is a nice secondary effect.