Disney Character Encounter

I am working on two weeks of Disney withdrawal.  I don't even have all of my pictures sorted.

What I loved the most this time was character meet and greets.  Being an adult, I never got into the idea that I had to run around on a character hunt just to stand in line and get a picture.   Well somehow, someone at Disney must have realized that Character pictures are cool because between 2007 and two weeks ago, Disney completely changed character encounters inside the parks.

There is always character dining, which is a good way to see characters, especially some of the harder ones.  With the Disney Dining Plan it is not hard to do and it doesn't seem as expensive.  Yes you pay but with the dining plan you pay 25% less b/c you pay up front.  This trip we did the O'hana Breakfast with Lilo & Stitch, Chef Mickeys and the Garden Grill.  For those that don't know, I am a monstrous Stitch Fan and I was so worried I would get passed over for being an adult, I told my server about it.  She laughed at me and said, he will stop at every table, no worries.  I could have come straight home I was so happy about Stitch.  But then it was only Tuesday.

The Disney Mobile app for Verison phones helped a lot.  You could look up your characters and find out where they were appearing.  What part of the park and how long they would be there.  You have to be a Verison Customer to use it, I think but it worked well, especially with que wait times. (More on this later)

Taking their queue from Mickey's Toon Town Fair (now closed) in EPCOT there is now the EPOCT Character Spot.  A place where you can meet 5 classic characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto) get your pictures take with either your own camera or with Photo Pass and get autographs. It is inside and cool.  The characters have their own backgrounds and each station has a photo pass photographer.  It is of course targeted at kids but enough adults go through that they don't think you have lost your mind.   It was so fun even David got in the pictures.

The characters that seemed the most popular with adults where Phineas and Ferb in Hollywood studios.  We found their appearance on the mobile app and their que did not seem too long.  Standing listening to the music and watching the encounters in front of us, we realized that the adults out numbered the kids by a wide margin.  Funny.

I did use my autograph book but only at character dinning.  It just seemed cumbersome any other time.

To recap:  We saw Phineas and Ferb, Mickey (x3), Minnie (x2), Pluto (x2), Goofy (x2), Donald (x2), Pooh, Daisy, Lilo, Stitch (x2), Chip and Dale, Baloue, King Louie and Marie (from the Aristocats).

Weird side note - the character spots in the World Showcase did not have photopass photographers.