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[firsttimers15]

Hello

We're off on our first trip soon, and I've seen on some reports that you can meet a lot of characters when they come out of cinemagique? Does anyone know how this works, or have any other tips for meeting Characters?  My daughter is nearly 4 and we're definitely going for the characters and experience rather than the rides :-)

Thank you x

[DLPWonders (Banned)]

You used to be able to meet a lot of characters near CinéMagique. Unfortunately that's all over
In my opinion the Stars 'n Cars set is a huge drama now.
You're all standing in one big circle that is devided in 14 different sections, but only 9 characters come out.
They are randomly going through the circle, and you're lucky if your section gets a character.
You're even more lucky if your section gets two characters. Some sections dont even get a character at all.
If you're standing like 4 rows in, you won't meet them at all since they only pick people who are against the rope.
If you're one of the lucky birds that get to meet a character, there will still be that rope in between you and the character.

As a huge character hunter (I usually do 3 rides during a 4/5 day trip and meet about 30-40 characters each visit) I'd have to say: please skip Walt Disney Studios Park if you want to meet characters! The Studios is for rides, not for entertainment. I'd recommend just staying at the Disneyland Park, and especially walk around Fantasyland a lot since that's where most of the random characters come out. And besides that...check the schedule! There are quite a few characters mentioned on the schedule, so they are easy to meet. I don't know when you're going exactly, but starting March 1st Minnie Mouse will be in her special Spring outfit at Boarding House (the top of Main Street USA, next to the Storybook Store), Thumper and Miss Bunny will be at Casey's Corner, Rapunzel will have her own photo location in Fantasyland and Merida will also be back (location unknown so far).

When it comes to character dining you have three options: Inventions, Café Mickey and Auberge de Cendrillon.
And honestly, I'd go for Inventions! I don't know if you are there on a Sunday? If so, do the character brunch there!
Every Sunday it has a different theme, and it's the only place that has the special characters/outfits.
It's pretty quite, you get absolutely fantastic interaction!
The food is buffet style, and there's absolutely something for everyone.
So you have a combination of great food that is worth the money and amazing interaction with special characters!

Café Mickey I don't recommend at all. They have a set menu and the food is pretty terrible tbh.
I'd even go as far as saying that it really is one of the worst restaurants at the resort. It's loud and crowded.
Character interaction can be good, depending on how busy it is. It can also be really terrible.
It is just your average set of characters though: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Tigger, Geppetto, Stitch, Chip 'n Dale.
Definitely not all of them at the same time! Just a selection.

Auberge de Cendrillon is great to meet princesses.
However it is really pricey and the food isn't that great. If you like fancy stuff it's probably your place.
But even the children's menu has the fancy stuff on it instead of just normal kids food.
This is just my opinion but I don't want to pay so much money for food that nobody eats, just to meet princesses that can be meet right next door at the Princess Pavillion for free.

[littlebitofpixiedust]

On the schedule it'll tell you the time the characters come out in the studios, and I'd recommend you getting there much earlier than the start time. I would attempt this once personally, it does get very busy. But in saying that if your there early enough at the rope you should get some character meets. My son had photos with: woody, Ariel, stitch, goofy, Minnie, remy, daisy and there just the ones of the top of my head! There was certainly more I'd have to check my photos. On this visit characters came out, went back and were rotated with different ones! However Disneyland Paris do change things and I'm not certain if its the same. We spent around an hour there my son and his cousine loved it! I'm going in 8 days so I'll see If it's same.

I have to agree with DLRPwonders about cafe mickey Unfortunatly, the food wasn't great in our opinion and it can get loud and a little manic. Inventions however is amazing, we tried it once and now on every visit were there! But Pre-book if you can you can phone before you travel we do as it gets booked pretty fast especially at peak times.

If you want to meet as many characters as possible try cafe mickey for breakfast instead, this was nowhere near as busy as dinner and breakfast was nice mixture of hot/cold can't remember prices sorry! But you could do that and inventions that way.

And yes fantasyland is great for meeting characters Suzy and pearla (mice from Cinderella) we've seen on many occasions near small world area, they dance and have photos with them.
Seen queen of hearts, tweedle dum and tweedle dee near Alice's curios labyrinth on a few occasions too.
Also seen Winnie the pooh and friends many times down near Casey junior, wich is a great location as its a quiet corner there.

Also in adventureland we've met balloo, captain hook, smee and the genie. But Unfortunatly there's no way to know when unless of course it's scheduled. But we've always just come across them, it's pure luck! Hope you have some good meets just have a wander round and you never know! Always have your camera handy 

[firsttimers15]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply!  We will be there Monday to Friday so Inventions isn't an option, unless they do anything in the week?  Its a shame the meet and greet I was referring to has finished.   We'll have to give the Stars n Cars a go and hope for the best!

We've already booked Auberge and Cafe Mickey for breakfast.  I've seen the menus and read the reviews, but for me it's worth the money to guarantee at least some interaction!

We'll also try the Pavilion :-)

[stecal]

Hi inventions has characters every lunchtime and evening but it is only sunday brunch that has the different themes,i think going by other peoples comments that the characters at inventions are similar to the ones at cafe mickey except the sunday brunch which is obviously themed.

[firsttimers15]

So do you think it's worth doing Cafe Mickey breakfast and Inventions evening meal? We currently have both booked but we've only paid for Cafe Mickey

[stecal]

Hi i had this dilemma as i had cafe mickey,inventions evening meal and inventions sunday brunch booked so i cancelled the evening meal at inventions as it would cost me about 85 euros on top of our half board plus vouchers to possibly just see the same characters as cafe mickey which to me isn't worth it as my eldest won't eat much and is classified as an adult so would be a waste,i have never been to inventions though so am only going by what others have said about the characters being the same but a lot of people have said the food at inventions is great with a lot of choice,i have now booked cafe mickey for breakfast as well though as i have done that the last 2 times and it was great.

[Fluffymilly]

If your budget will allow, do inventions as well its great!!

[littlebitofpixiedust]

We've never done inventions on a Sunday only weekdays and we love it, the food, the atmosphere and. Harassers it's all fab. You MAY see some of same characters that will be in cafe mickey, but you may not.

On our last visits to cafe mickey we saw: mickey, Minnie, goofy, Pinocchio, gepetto chip and dale.
On our last visit to inventions (at 2pm) we saw: Minnie, mickey, Donald, white rabbit (Alice & wonderland) penguin (from Mary poppins) tigger and snow white! Have only seen her once in there but she was lovely my son loved her dress and her voice