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[kazziep]

Hello 
I last went to DLP about 8 years ago and as I remember you tended to just bump into the characters around the park and in hotels and could get autographs and photos as opportunities arose. I think there were designated places and times for the more popular characters but we found the characters randomly and didn't need to queue for these. Am I right in thinking this has changed and that there are now set meeting places and times for them all and that they tend not to be in the hotels? How does the Princess Pavillion work in terms of queuing/booking? Would really appreciate any help with planning. Thank you!

[rebecca20]

There are set times for certain characters i.e. generally ones that go with the season, you will find all this info in the park guide when you arrive / online. Also Princess Pavllion has a queue to get a time slot (go crazy early) and then also a queue once you go to meet the princesses.

There will always be free roaming characters and ones that are more likely to be in areas i.e. Fantasyland = Cinderellas mice / Tweedle Dum etc.

Characters are back in hotels at the moment but I don't know when you're arriving so may have gone.

[kazziep]

Thank you so much Rebecca...sounds like seeing the Princess' may be a little daunting! We are booking lunch with the Princesses for my daughter's Birthday so do you think that will cover 'meeting Princesses' or whether there are different ones at the Pavillion? It's the end of May we arrive 

[stifle]

You can tell the cast members in the Princess Pavilion which princess(es) you've previously met and they will try to assign you a different one if possible.

There is no choice in Auberge de Cendrillon; you have to take whomever you get.

[rebecca20]

With the Pavillion there's only two princesses at a time so maybe wait and see who you get at Auberge and then decide. Also if there's two adults and one child you could queue and get the fast passes while the others do rides (you get two fast passes per person). For Auberge Perla and Suzy are pretty much guaranteed but Princesses it really depends. Cinderella / Aurora seem to be the most popular (based on social media photos and personal experience) but that's by no means factual!

[stifle]

Overall you've got the following five categories of character:

1. Scheduled characters – you'll find in the program the times of these characters' meet & greets. The quoted times are minimums; they often are present for longer hours than mentioned in the programme. Advantages: you know where to go, you will often get slightly less popular characters in rotation, and there are usually PhotoPass photographers present, whether the icon appears on the programme entry or not. Disadvantages: the queue times can be very substantial even in off-season, at the "or friends" meets you will not be guaranteed the character you want, and guests will converge on the locations knowing that the characters are present.

2. EMH characters – generally the VIPs are to be found in Main Street USA in 3-5 locations around Town Square and Central Plaza, from around 8-10am. In terms of advantages they are less busy until about 09:30 (when guests without EMH privileges can start to come in and await rope drop, and again there are PhotoPass photographers with them. Disadvantages: you need to be up early, and there isn't usually much variety of characters, generally Donald, Pluto, Goofy, etc.

3. Random roaming characters – can be absolutely anyone, fur or face, and they turn up in all sorts of places in either park. They will have a cast member with them for chaperoning. Advantages include short queues and the chance to meet unusual characters. Disadvantages: sometimes there are no queues at all and the character selects whom he/she/it wants to interact with, there can be some pushing and shoving, they are impossible to predict or find, and they are not usually accompanied by PhotoPass photographers.

4. Character dining – offered in Auberge de Cendrillon in Fantasyland, Inventions in the Disneyland Hotel, and Café Mickey in Disney Village. The latter offers all meals, as does Inventions (but I understand there are no characters in Inventions at breakfast), and Auberge de Cendrillon offers lunch most days and dinner some days, varying by season and park opening hours. Advantages here are that you have probably the best interaction of all with the characters in terms of number of characters and the amount of time they will spend with you. The biggest disadvantage is the cost – table service prices for very mediocre food at Café Mickey, or top end prices of up to €69 per guest (exclusive of drinks) at the other two. And you do not generally get PhotoPass photographers (although CMs will be more than happy to take photos with your camera for you).

5. Indoor character meets – by which I mean Princess Pavilion, Meet Mickey Mouse, and Meet Spider-Man. These have their own buildings in the parks and operate quite long hours. Princess Pavilion has reached a level of popularity that there is normally a ticket distribution from 10:30am in the morning where one member of your party should attend with park tickets for all the party members. In off-season you can get in the queue at 10 or 10:15 and get a ticket, but in busier times it has been known for the queue to be full before 10 or even 9:30 – if they count in enough guests to the queue to account for all the spaces they have, they will give out the tickets and be done.

At the other two indoor meets a more traditional queueing process is in use and these can and do get quite crowded.

Advantages: these are the best character interactions you will get free of charge. PhotoPass photographers are on hand with high quality cameras to capture your interactions, and the characters are really great. Disadvantages: you are likely to spend a very substantial length of time queueing, and it is all over in 3 or 4 minutes.

I have not mentioned hotel characters as (a) they are about as consistent as British weather, and (b) I have not met one since 1995.

[kazziep]

Thank you so much for your replies- very very helpful  Can I just ask how the Photo Pass photography works? Don't remember that from last time...
Again, thank you!

[stifle]

It may have changed since last time so I'll run through it.

Option 1 is a standard PhotoPass. This is a thick paper card that will be issued to you the first time you get a photo taken. The photographer and any subsequent photographers you see will scan the card to load the photos. You take the card to any shop that prints photos (such as New Century Notions/Flora's Unique Boutique in Disneyland, Walt Disney Studios Store in Parc Walt Disney Studios, or any hotel boutique) and you can review the pictures you've had taken and get photos printed there on demand. Prices start from €15.99 although there are offers available for multiple purchases in the one transaction. Photos can be purchased at the exit of Princess Pavilion and Meet Mickey Mouse, or you can order them later on.

Option 2 is a PhotoPass+. Purchased for €49.99 from any shop that prints photos, this is a plastic card on a lanyard with two additional copies of the same card on small fobs. When synchronised to an account on the Disney PhotoPass app on your phone or disneyphotopass.eu, it will allow you to download all of the photos scanned to the pass for no extra cost. Photos can be loaded for 10 days and downloaded for 1 year. If you order prints in store from the PhotoPass+, you will be charged a lower price. You can also order prints online from the disneyphotopass.eu website, which furthermore allows the purchase of miscellaneous products such as photobooks, t-shirts, phone or tablet cases, and so on.

Option 3 is a PhotoPass+ for annual passport holders. As the name suggests, this is only available if you have an annual passport – the single plastic card is valid for a full year and costs €39.99 for Dream AP holders and €44.99 for other AP types. It's valid to load photos for the year; in all other ways it is the same as a 10-day PhotoPass+.

In all cases, to use the card at character meets simply hand it to the PhotoPass+ photographer as soon as you reach the top of the queue for your character, and take it back when you're done. To load ride photographs to your PhotoPass+, the best option is to note the photo number, go to the kiosk and get the cast member to call it up, and simply hand over the card. The cast member can make basic adjustments such as zooming the photo in (especially useful on Pirates of the Caribbean or The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror where there are lots of guests in the picture), or panning and moving it if you're off-centre or covered by the overlay. If you've associated your PhotoPass+ with your PhotoPass app you also have the option of scanning the QR code on the photo or entering its 5-character code into the app. Contrary to popular belief you do not need to have internet access at that point in time in order to do this, but you will need to connect to the internet by the end of the day on which you scan or enter the code and open the app; that will automatically download the photos for you. You can't make any modifications to the photo this way though.

Hope that helps!

[Ohana]

Random character meets are the best. I ran from Discoveryland right through to Fantasyland to meet Peter Pan 

Art of Animation also had several characters; we saw Mr Smee, Peter Pan, Hook, and Mary Poppins and Bert