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[moonloo]

wow, I seem to be in the minority here about the character breakfasts.

The hotels are open to the general public, ie locals and general public can access them without paying for a park ticket.

I deeply resented the fact that I had paid for a park ticket, yet anyone could walk into the hotels and meet the characters. Meeting the characters is a main part of the Disney experience, but when they were at the hotel breakfasts it was like a big 2 fingers to the those of us who paid for park tickets. I'm sure the locals thought it was a great thing, oh lets go to the hotels during breakfast time and meet the characters for free, any day we want to!!

Now though, with the characters moved to the park during EMH , its back to being what it was originally meant to be, an exclusive for hotel guests who make the effort to be in the park for EMH.

Yup yup!!!!!!!!! I much prefered it how it is now, the atmosphere is better in the parks with the characters around for emh, but I would like them to change up the characters more often!

[Lucyloo]

I think as long as the characters were kept in the dining rooms and not just general areas of the hotel, then only hotel guests would have the benefit of them. We had to show a ticket to enter the golden forest room for breakfast.  If this was the case for all hotels then only paying guests would be able to the characters.

[bad-pink-tink]

I think as long as the characters were kept in the dining rooms and not just general areas of the hotel, then only hotel guests would have the benefit of them. We had to show a ticket to enter the golden forest room for breakfast.  If this was the case for all hotels then only paying guests would be able to the characters.

Thats only for GF rooms. In both the Sequoia Lodge and Santa Fe the character meet and greet area was in the lobby of the hotel. THATS why anyone and everyone took advantage and just turned up at the hotels.

If you want to blame anyone, its the locals and general public who played the system, took advantage and ruined it for genuine hotel guests

[Disneyprincesswannab]

I agree in principle but when we went on the park at New Year at 7.30 am we only saw Chip and Dale; Maybe it is better now but I liked the guarantee of characters in the hotel-you knew where and when they would be and we never queued for long.

[moonloo]

I agree in principle but when we went on the park at New Year at 7.30 am we only saw Chip and Dale; Maybe it is better now but I liked the guarantee of characters in the hotel-you knew where and when they would be and we never queued for long.

We were there for 7 days from 23rd March and every day there was Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip And Dale, and on one of the days Pluto was replaced by Donald... I personally think that surely since most visitors during EMH will be guests staying over more than one day they should put some thought into changing up the characters, maybe put some rare ones in there to encourage people to opt for the Disney Hotels...

[Sulley15]

We saw more characters in the park during the EMH, than last time in the lobby in the New York hotel. Plus at times this queue was long and end up missing the EMH in the park.

Plus you can get a photo with the castle in the background by one of the disney photographers which was a nice touch!

[Disneyprincesswannab]

Yep-rare ones exclusive to EMH only would be a real bonus.

[HildeKitten]

To be fair, every single time I went to a character meet and greet in a hotel (and I confess that I sometimes popped into hotels I wasn't staying at); the queues were really reasonable!
Even during the summer, I never had to queue for more than 15 minutes to meet a certain character, so I don't think that many locals and non-hotel guests (of that actual hotel) were screwing over the system by showing up.

Heck, one trip in July, I did two meet and greets in the Sequoia Lodge, where I was staying (one before and one after breakfast), one in hotel New York and then went into the Disneyland Hotel lobby (NY and DL because I was trying hard to meet Launchpad, which failed). In NY there was a 5 minute queue for Goofy, so me being there didn't mess things up. And in the DL it was so quiet that there was literally NO ONE queuing to meet Mickey Mouse. I literally had my picture taken with him because he was standing around having nothing to do!
And that was at the tail end of July, so well into the summer peak season.

i didn't make a habit of trailing all the hotels for characters, but when I stayed at a hotel I did see if I could meet one, and I did often pop into the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel, even if I just went to DLP for a day. But again, the queues were never ever long, so me doing that had no actual impact on anything.

To be honest I think the main reason Disney pulled them is simply because they think they can cut costs that way.
I'm not sure whether they are actually succeeding or not, but regardless, I would like to see the characters returned to the hotels. I think it always added a little extra
Of course, if they wanted they could very easily check whether or not someone is entitled to be there (whether it is as a hotel guest, an AP holder or a shareholder), by making a CM check the hotel easy pass/AP/shareholder card before people enter the queue.
So it'd be super easy to make sure only paid guests so to speak get access to the hotel characters.

[soojah]

One thing I'd love in the hotel room is a step - my 5 yr old couldn't reach the sink to wash his hands. A small thing but would have been v handy!

[moonloo]

Soojah, that is a very good point, my 7 year old still struggles!

[mikkelnl]

I think characters should def. be present in the hotels, it's part of the package I'd say. And if non-guests are meeting them this way, simply let the characters only be present during breakfasts, or somehwere only guests are allowed...

It's part of the experience of a Disney hotel, we really enjoyed it last year, and are bummed they won't be there this year.

I'd say it's simply a way to cut costs...