Despite already visiting Disneyland Paris twice already, I've never meet a Character. I told myself on my last visit that I should but I got a little taken back by all the kids that push and shove as that isn't something I would like to be part of.
Whilst there's always the Princess Pavillion or Meet Mickey Mouse in Fantasyland these come with long waiting times, and there's only one Princess I care about, Belle, and I'll have to be extremely lucky to see her as it's random selection.
What's everyone else's experience when meeting Characters, what's you're favourite way to meet them.
Keep a good lookout whilst walking around lands. I happened to bump into Jack Sparrow, Peter Pan, Hook and Smee within 5 minutes of each other at around 11am in Adventureland last September.
Book character meals, such as Cafe Mickeys and the Auberge though these can get quite expensive but you have the guarantee of meeting a few characters in less crowded circumstances and are able to spend more time with them.
Stars and Cars do a meet and greet after the parade (i think it may be by the Cinemagique? i'm not 100% on this though so if anyone could correct me if I'm wrong please =) ) where a few such as Jasmine and Aladdin, some villains, Stitch, Remy etc hang around for about 15 minutes and the crowds can be quiet for this, depending on the day etc.
Also the Descent of the Stairs at Disneyland Hotel at 4pm/5pm Thurs - Sun (once again, this info could be slightly wrong) gives you a chance to meet characters such as Mickey, Minnie, Goofy etc and maybe Mulan etc. These also tend to be quiet when compared to queuing for the Pavilion.
I don't have any tips on meeting Belle, unless you try and find a really nice CM who will try and wing it so you can meet her? I've heard stories of CM's going to extra mile to make sure you meet your fav princess. Otherwise look out for her in Fantasyland etc and she may be at the Auberge on certain days.
Hope that helps somewhat!
Last week meet and greet in the studios were all officiated by CM, so when the characters cam out bfore the parades, at 12, and again at 1, CM were making sure that everyone lined up and there was NO pushing, even gently removing children when their parents tried to shove them in on other peoples photos at the side and then calling the character (who would resolutely remain facing the opposite direction!) We found there to be loooooaaaads out between about 12 and 3:30 in fantasy land, just wandering, these again had queues, but none of them huge, or anywhere near as bad the official meet and greets.
Café Mickey is a great one to meet Disney favourites, also, a much less publicized one is the brunch at the steakhouse in the village on a sunday between 12 and 2, there were only 4 characters, but the buffet was fantastic, best we've ever had, and the characters spent a good while at each table.
Thanks, both of you have made points which I can take on to aid my character hunt.
I would rather an orderly queue where everyone has the same opportunity then another other way.
We found this to be a big issue for us too Lizi, luckily we got to see quite afew characters, but my girls are (thankfully) super polite and got so upset at the way the other kids were pushing them out of the way to get autographs and pictures. The CM with Jessie last year got quite cross with a couple of teenage girls who pushed in front of my kids to get an autograph, and then had the cheek to turn and ask me for some spare paper out my daughters autograph book. I'm actually really glad that they are making people queue now, we missed out of Maleficent last year as well as Gaston and Jafar because people, even grown ups, were physically shoving children out of the way to get there first. Awful behaviour.
Wow, the cheek of some people. As an adult that wants to meet characters as much as the children I don't want to compete for the characters attention, as surely the experience would be better if everyone had an equal opportunity therefore getting people to queue even with casual meet and greets is a great idea, which I never noticed was happening.
I love the new queuing system for the random meets, as the mother of 2 fairly quiet and respectful children it was not nice back when they would be man handled out of the way! Once a lady picked my 3 year old daughter up and moved her aside to take her place whilst I was taking a photo! Rude! So I MUCH prefer this way!!!!! ;D
Quote from: moonloo on July 05, 2014, 12:20:52 PM
Once a lady picked my 3 year old daughter up and moved her aside to take her place whilst I was taking a photo! Rude! So I MUCH prefer this way!!!!! ;D
oh my god! i don't think i would have contained my anger at some stranger moving my daughter out of the way like that (i don't have children but i can imagine how angry...i'm seething reading about it happening to you!)
Hahaha, yes storm I was fairly cross I tell you, and after my telling her off, the offending lady shrugged at me, SHRUGGED!!!! I am pleased with myself that I held it together and simply told my children that she was a very VERY silly lady! :-X
When we last (Dec 2013 boo hoo) Belle had a meet and greet in Fantasyland, we got there early and queued for about 40 mins but it was worth it as we didn't have to go to the Princess Pavillion which had much longer queues and Belle always reminds me of Xmas as a child.
The queue was very orderly. A family got brought in front of us for some reason, I wasn't bothered but I felt like Belle made extra time for my daughter (age 4) because she could see she was waiting nicely. She was such a lovely princess, she was British and talked for ages, she also invited my infant son over as well wrote a personal message with both of their names in the autograph book. She crouched right down to the kids levels. I was so worried about my son standing on her dress in his snow boots!
It was such a lovely experience I feel like I am welling up.
IT doesn't really help you much but maybe Xmas is a good time to try and meet Belle.
Fantasyland has many characters during the morning/lunch hour, specially in front of Bella Notte (Pinocchio & Gepetto, the 7 dwarfs, Suzy & Perla), near Alice's Labyrinth (Tweedledee & Tweedledum are always there, sometimes the Mad Hatter & the rabbit too, and if you're very lucky, Alice and the Cheshire cat).
In Adventureland, just next to Au Chalet de la Marionette, you can meet Hook & Smee, and sometimes Peter Pan & Wendy. I've also seen Baloo & King Louie all around Adventureland, but usually around Hakuna Matata restaurant.
In Discoveryland, next to Star Tours, I've seen Stitch, but also Chip & Chop in futuristic costumes.
Also, yesterday Ii saw Belle (with her first dress, not the gown) next to the well, in front of the castle.
If you ever see a line of people where there's not an attraction, or a big crowd, check, because sometimes you just don't see the characters and you might miss some of the best. I've queued for longer for Hook than Peter Pan, Belle, Pluto or Goofy, just because Hook was in a very visible place and the rest were kind of "hidden".
And now they have between 2 and 3 CMs with the characters, so they can better control they queue. People will always try to jump the whole queue, but CMs don't let them. I've seen some get pretty serious/angry.
Also, face characters really take their time. When young kids were meeting Bella she spoke to them, sat on the floor, asked them how their day was, who they'd met, how pretty their princess dress was... They're really nice.
Wow, I've got back from my visit last week and I saw a lot of characters wandering around. I decided to queue up at Toon Studio to meet Mickey Mouse and when we were wandering around Fantasyland we noticed Alice and The Mad Hatter come out, so we ran over and met them both.
Whilst wandering around the park, I saw the Seven Dwarves on two different days, Hook, Smee, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the White Rabbit, Evil Stepmother, Ugly Step Sisters, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Peter and Wendy, Minnie Mouse, Stitch and obviously Alice and the Mad Hatter who I met.
I was happy with the way the Cast Members were and they made the experience more bearable, and when I met all the characters, just wow, when I saw Mickey Mouse, I had to give him a hug else I would regret it later, then he took my arm and we danced and he was so lovely. Then when I met Alice and The Mad Hatter they were great, baring in mine I'm an adult. The Mad Hatter was reading my t-shirt which had names of places and was like so you're been to all of these places, and I'm like no, it's a lie. I've only ever come to Paris and when posing for pictures he caught me rearranging my hair so was like wait, I need to rearrange my hair too.
I didn't realise what joy came with meeting characters when you're an adult and should know better.
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Wow! It sense last week was a good one to go!
Quote from: polar vixen on September 15, 2014, 06:11:42 PM
Wow! It sense last week was a good one to go!
They were definitely out in force, it was lovely to see them out and about. I watched Hook and Smee walk through Fantasyland towards the location of their meet and greet and Hook was messing around with the Cast Member by using his hook to pull her back by her collar. My boyfriend was also watching the Evil Step Mother and was like she seems really rude, and hadn't realised she's in character until I told him, the idiot. I think he forget where he was.
Quote from: itslizi on September 15, 2014, 06:28:23 PM
Quote from: polar vixen on September 15, 2014, 06:11:42 PM
Wow! It sense last week was a good one to go!
They were definitely out in force, it was lovely to see them out and about. I watched Hook and Smee walk through Fantasyland towards the location of their meet and greet and Hook was messing around with the Cast Member by using his hook to pull her back by her collar. My boyfriend was also watching the Evil Step Mother and was like she seems really rude, and hadn't realised she's in character until I told him, the idiot. I think he forget where he was.
Hahaha! Yes my husband did the same about the Queen of Hearts who kept stamping around and pointing at people....until he realised she was fully in character. She even grabbed our kids tight for a picture then pushed them away, I was laughing so hard and so were they ;D ;D ;D
I was there last week and saw (and had photos taken with) loads of characters - they all had CMs with them and all the queues were orderly. These are my favourite photos :-)
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And this .............
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Those look wonderful Andy, very cool photos. :D
Lovely photos!!! :) so glad they've finally implemented a que for characters my son never stood a chance (being in a wheelchair) he wasn't even able to see the characters let alone have a photo with any. Only thing that ever made my blood boil here. We're going in 5 days and we will happily que for our turn :)
Thanks so much you two :D Meeting the characters was such great fun and loads of adults without kids had photos taken ;)with them. I suspect the chacters and CMs were pleased that the adults joined in as much as the kids. Hook and Smee were really funny, messing about with everyone :D I only saw those 2 by chance. I'd just been wandering around Adventure Isle, was strolling to Fantasy Land to go on Peter Pan and saw them so I joined the queue ;)
We were there last week and kept missing the characters. We ate in Cafe Mickey twice and booked at the princess pavilion twice so we were guaranteed meets. Other than that we arrived as they were leaving except Buzz Lightyear and Chip n Dale . It was our first time there so we weren't too bothered as there was so much more to do but when we go next year I will be on character hunt! Haha