Character Locations

Updated 3/16/13

The following would not have been possible without help from Kenny and his website, KennyThePirate.com.  Here, you’ll find detailed lists of characters, locations, and meeting times organized into neat little charts that are more easily printable.  You can find his Magic Kingdom character list here and his Master List of characters here.  Kenny keeps up to date with this stuff much better than I do, so double check the times there.

There are a lot of wild cards in the world of Walt Disney World characters.  As you read over the following, you’ll probably find yourself saying, “NO THAT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENED WHEN I WAS THERE” and you may very well be right.  Lines can jump in length with just a few extra groups of people.  A group of ten people taking pictures in every conceivable configuration can push a wait for Daisy Duck that would ordinarily be 5 or 10 minutes to 15 or 20 minutes.  By some stroke of fortune, someone has inevitably arrived at Merida to find only a few people in line smack dab in the middle of the afternoon.  “Anything is possible.”    By having the following knowledge, you’ll be able to prepare the best possible plan and truly roll with the punches as Rapunzel throws them at you.  You’ll know which characters have the longest waits, where they meet guests, when they meet, which characters are available elsewhere with much shorter (or longer) waits, what the characters are wearing, and much more.

Magic Kingdom is where you’ll find the largest assortment of characters in Walt Disney World.  It’s also the only location to meet several characters, including Rapunzel, Merida, and Tinker Bell.  Let’s take a look at who we can expect to find.  I’ve ordered them from “highest priority” to “lowest priority” based on expected wait times later in the day.  The reality is that most characters will have the shortest lines in the early morning and the longest lines in the afternoon and early evening.  Unfortunately, it’s only possible to visit one or two characters first thing in the morning.  We’ll want to visit the characters with the longest afternoon waits first thing in the morning or whenever else is best.  In some cases, the standby waits can hit 60 or more minutes in the afternoon.

Belle at Enchanted Tales with Belle – Yellow Gown

Priority: Highest

Location:

Enchanted Tales is located inside Maurice’s cottage in New Fantasyland.  As you enter New Fantasyland, you’ll see it on the far left before you arrive at Be Our Guest Restaurant or Gaston’s Tavern.

Usual Meet Times: Belle meets from immediately after the Park opens to Park close.  She usually meets during morning Extra Magic Hour, but not usually during evening Extra Magic Hours.

[click to continue reading..]

{ 60 comments }

5/24/12 Update: Updated meet times for all characters.

This is the fourth part in the Character Prioritization Series.  Epcot is here.  Hollywood Studios is here.  And Magic Kingdom here.

The following would not be possible without the help of Kenny over at KennyThePirate.com.  At his site, you’ll find printable charts that list the characters and their meet times in a much more organized format.  Make sure to check out the Master List, which lists each of the locations a character meets.

The Magic Kingdom edition provides a little color about what you’re looking at below as well if you haven’t read over the previous articles. Basically, the point of this article is to identify where the various characters are located and create a plan to minimize waits as much as possible. While even the “lowest priority” characters will have afternoon waits of 10 to 15 minutes, it simply isn’t possible to meet every character in the morning when waits will generally be shortest. Because of that, we need to identify the characters that will have the longest afternoon waits and visit them first. Then we can move on to the “less popular” characters later in the morning or whenever we can expect their waits to be shortest.

Overall Strategy: Camp Minnie-Mickey is the major priority at Animal Kingdom.  And specifically, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse see the longest lines.  Unlike the other three major theme parks, there really aren’t any characters that must be done in the morning or you’re doomed to find a 40+ minute wait.  At Magic Kingdom, we have Rapunzel, Tinker Bell, and Ariel, each of which can see 45+ minute waits virtually from Park open.  At Epcot, it’s the Character Spot that can easily see 40 to 60+ minute waits.  At the Studios, we have the Toy Story characters and Phineas/Ferb.  At Animal Kingdom, we’ll still want to prioritize Mickey and Minnie at Camp Minnie-Mickey, but it isn’t the end of the world if we don’t get over there in the early morning.  Other than that, there are fewer character meet and greets in Animal Kingdom than the other major theme parks and no characters see absurd wait times.  Let’s have a look at what we’re dealing with.

Character Greeting Trails – Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Chip, Dale, Pluto, Pocahontas, Meeko, Rafiki, Thumper, Miss Bunny, and Possibly Others – Wilderness/Normal Attire

[click to continue reading..]

{ 17 comments }

5/24/12 Update: All character meet times updated.

This is the third part in the character prioritization series. Check out the Magic Kingdom edition here and the Hollywood Studios edition here. The Magic Kingdom edition provides a little color about what you’re looking at below as well if you haven’t read over the previous articles. Basically, the point of this article is to identify where the various characters are located and create a plan to minimize waits as much as possible. While even the “lowest priority” characters will have afternoon waits of 10 to 15 minutes, it simply isn’t possible to meet every character in the morning when waits will generally be shortest. Because of that, we need to identify the characters that will have the longest afternoon waits and visit them first. Then we can move on to the “less popular” characters later in the morning or whenever we can expect their waits to be shortest.

Overall Strategy: In Future World, there is really only one main priority – the Character Spot. You’ll want to visit first thing in the morning or after 7:30pm if possible. Otherwise, you can expect 30 to 60 minute waits. In World Showcase, you’ll find the two longest lines at Belle/Beast in France and Aladdin/Jasmine in Morocco. Because the characters around World Showcase first appear throughout the late morning and early afternoon, you should be able to arrive at most of the characters just as they are scheduled to appear to find the shortest waits.

Let’s take a look at what we’re dealing with.

Character Spot – Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto in Their Classic Outfits

Priority: Highest

Location:

Character Spot is located in Future World to the right of Fountainview Cafe and the Fountain. As you enter from the main entrance, you’ll come across this area after passing Spaceship Earth.

The queue is through this door with the posted wait time on the right.

Usual Meet Times:

• 8:50am – 10pm

The Character Spot does not operate during morning Extra Magic Hour, but it does run through the entirety of evening Extra Magic Hours.

Process:

First, you’ll enter through the doors and enter the main waiting area:

On the plus side, the queue is air-conditioned and organized. Once you make it to the front of the queue, you’ll proceed to the first meet and greet area featuring Mickey Mouse. Once you meet him, you’ll move on to the next four characters individually. You may find a wait of one or two minutes in between characters as the previous group finishes up, but once you make it through the main queue. you’ll be meeting one character after the next without additional formal queues.

Interaction: Average. None of the characters talk, but they do their best to interact playfully. The characters don’t necessarily rush the interaction, but wait times are longer here than just about any other Meet and Greet, causing most meets to be on the short side of things.

Wait Times: Because of the limited capacity and popularity of this Meet and Greet, wait times are often 30+ minutes from 10am – 7pm and can hit 45 to 60 minutes when crowds are heavier.

Best Times to Meet: The best time to meet is first thing in the morning at or before 9am. While the conventional wisdom is to head straight to Soarin’, that attraction has a much higher capacity and offers FASTPASS. Like most Meet and Greets, the Character Spot has a capacity of one person/group per character and doesn’t offer FASTPASS. If you visit Character Spot first and move through in ten or fifteen minutes, you’ll still be in great position to ride Soarin’ with a short wait and collect FASTPASSes with a return time that’s about an hour in the future. The second best time to meet is after 8pm. By that time, most people will move on to World Showcase for dinner, shopping, and IllumiNations, leaving Future World relatively empty. Plan to head over after 8pm if you don’t visit first thing in the morning.

Other Meet Locations:

These characters are all over the place. For a detailed list, check each character in the Magic Kingdom Prioritization. The list would be 50 or 60 deep if copy/pasted here.

[click to continue reading..]

{ 16 comments }