now I beg to differ with that!!
Disneyland is crawling with characters you just have to know where to look, my suggestion is to first off go to City Hall to find out who is going to be out and where but there are usually some key spots where characters can be found!
Main street in the center plaza there are always characters, I always have seen goofy by the firehouse there and across the way mickey and minnie. also right inside the front gate i've seen all the princesses as well as Rafiki and the Queen of Hearts.
Toon Town offers quite a few characters roaming around, same with fantasyland... I'd say do a character breakfast if you are in it for seeing just mainly characters
Over on DCA in the sunshine plaza right where you enter is usually where you can find Lilo & Stitch, and travel back to the hollywood backlot to find all sorts of characters, that is where they come out of (behind tower of terror) and I have seen the following within a matter of 10mins: Stitch, Lilo, The Incredibles, Wilbur Robinson, Bert (From Mary Poppins), Stanley, Cruella DeVille, and the whole group of the fantastic 5. I think it just depends on what time you are there...
There are also shows with Flick & Atta, Woodys roundup, the Brother Bear totem story, Aladdin & Jasmine in adventureland, and i believe there is princess story time that characters are at and will stay to take pictures and sign books. That is how i see alot of my characters... right behind haunted mansion and the pirate store is where i have found Jack Sparrow along with some other pirates, altho I believe they now reside on tom sawyers island. There is the new pixie hollow where the faeries will hang out and the Jedi Knight training show too. Pooh Corner (in critter country) offers Tigger, Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore to visit
hopefully that helps! shows are always your best bet to seeing the characters because they are there for the purpose of telling stories and interaction with the crowd