Meeting Characters Questions

[DMMarla07860]

I was thinking about meeting a few characters when I go. Not a lot maybe one or two or if they have characters that are only in Disney Tokyo, those type I'll save the rest for cruises like I normally do.

I've heard that line don't normally form and it's more free for all type thing, is that true?

 

[Corbisblue]

I was thinking about meeting a few characters when I go. Not a lot maybe one or two or if they have characters that are only in Disney Tokyo, those type I'll save the rest for cruises like I normally do.

I've heard that line don't normally form and it's more free for all type thing, is that true?

At the entrance to the parks, it is sort of a free-for-all form. But guests do line up when they are waiting for characters in these spots. You will see the lines when you enter the park, its hard to miss.

Then there are the normal meet-and-greet areas where you get into a queue. If you want unique characters, most of them will be walking around. Except Oswald, he has a meet-and-greet in the American Waterfront in DisneySea.

 

[DMMarla07860]

At the entrance to the parks, it is sort of a free-for-all form. But guests do line up when they are waiting for characters in these spots. You will see the lines when you enter the park, its hard to miss.

Then there are the normal meet-and-greet areas where you get into a queue. If you want unique characters, most of them will be walking around. Except Oswald, he has a meet-and-greet in the American Waterfront in DisneySea.

cool, thanks I'm sure I'm thinking too much about it and once seeing I'll learn everything fast, just good to be prepared since only have one day at Disney Sea and might to the other park, but not sure yet. Just happy to be able to go to Japan and eat Japanese food, though gotta learn to use chop sticks

 

[MukilteoSailor]

cool, thanks I'm sure I'm thinking too much about it and once seeing I'll learn everything fast, just good to be prepared since only have one day at Disney Sea and might to the other park, but not sure yet. Just happy to be able to go to Japan and eat Japanese food, though gotta learn to use chop sticks

At DisneySea they have several characters over in the American Waterfront. Those are usually less formal lines and more wait for your chance to get with the character. One character in that area that is popular in Japan, and with my daughter, is Marie.

Also there are fair amount of character meet and greets over on the Arabian Coast. Stitch and Angel have a line for their meet and greet and are very popular. Also Jafar, Aladdin, Abu, and Jasmine were walking around last time we were there. Actually Aladdin and Jasmine were standing in front of a wall and had a throng of people in front of them. Jafar and Abu were very approachable.

We see the Incredibles in Port Discovery quite often and Goofy in a costume on occasion.

Duffy and Shelly Mae are over in the Cape Cod area of American Waterfront.

The Fab 5 are out during the day by the large fountain when you first enter the park.

Ariel has her own meet and greet line over in Mermaid Lagoon. The line is usually around 20-30 minutes to see her when we go by.

Those are the characters I remember seeing as we are around TDS.

 

[Minnie222]

At Tokyo Disneyland, Mickey and Minnie (separately) meet at the front, after entering the gates. The lines are very long (30 mins+ )and it is in the sun. We skipped that one.

We bummed into Prince Philip in the afternoon. No real line. People just surrounded him, and whoever walked up meets him. I prefer a real line. But all in all, we were very happy seeing him there. It is because he is now hard to find in WDW and also because he speaks English in Tokyo Disney!!

 

[Ebiten]

It is a big free for all for the more popular characters, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc. depending on the spot. So if you want a picture/autograph you will have to be a little more aggressive to get the characters attention, like waving your hands when they look at you, stepping forward, or the best way I've seen is to have a child lol. They give special attention to children.

From what I've seen Tokyo Disneyland has more lines formed than DisneySea. At DisneySea I've seen the free for all at the entrance/plaza, American Waterfront, and at Port Discovery.

The more popular characters have CM's with them to help control the crowd but others usually do their own crowd control. I've seen Goofy and a few other characters request the crowd through gestures for the crowd to spread out and they will pose for the crowd for pictures when they are done for the day and need to leave for backstage.

 

[MukilteoSailor]

It is a big free for all for the more popular characters, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc. depending on the spot. So if you want a picture/autograph you will have to be a little more aggressive to get the characters attention, like waving your hands when they look at you, stepping forward, or the best way I've seen is to have a child lol. They give special attention to children.

I think it is almost harder to get a child in with the free for all. The characters do great with kids but you definitely have to be a little aggressive to get them in there or others will fill the void. It may be harder for us because we don't like to be pushy. It is not even a bad thing but it is a thing. It being Japan it is a respectful mob. Once you are in with a character others will respect that. I think everyone is just so excited to see the characters.

From what I've seen Tokyo Disneyland has more lines formed than DisneySea. At DisneySea I've seen the free for all at the entrance/plaza, American Waterfront, and at Port Discovery.

At TDS I mostly see lines for the characters in the entrance plaza area. Also there is a line for taking a picture with the big fountain.

The more popular characters have CM's with them to help control the crowd but others usually do their own crowd control. I've seen Goofy and a few other characters request the crowd through gestures for the crowd to spread out and they will pose for the crowd for pictures when they are done for the day and need to leave for backstage.

This made me think of something else. The roaming characters like to move. One minute they will be at a spot then they just pick up and move. Could be a short distance or to the other side of an area they are in (Toontown, TDL entrance area, etc).

 

[MukilteoSailor]

Recently character autographs became a thing here. They now sell autograph books in the stores here and we are seeing more people have them at character greetings. We got one for our daughter and it comes with stickers of almost all the characters you can find and the various outfits they wear. It doesn't include seasonal outfits (Halloween, Christmas, etc) but it is still pretty cool that you can see the different characters that are out there.

A lot of people just want to get a picture of the character, not actually pose with the character. I like to have my camera ready so I too can get those shots while I am waiting and am in a position to take the shot.

A word of caution from our experience. On one of our first trips we were in toontown and we were by Minnie's house. There was a short line for to get in (about 15-20 minutes). We thought not bad to see Minnie so we waited only to find out that there is no Minnie there. Everyone just wanted to see Minnie's house really bad that day.

 

[amyren]

We were just at TDR last week! As far as characters go in the morning at DL it' a free for all for the fab 5 (plus Daisy) then there are some random characters. We saw the Robin Hood crew & 3 little pigs. In the morning at DS we saw the fab 5 (& Daisy) plus the Pinnochio crew & Marie the cat. I didn't see other characters in the park except for safari Goofy, Mickey, Minnie (at a meet & greet with a queue at Lost River Delta). And Fiesta Donald. Oh wait I did see Abu running around in the Arabian coast.
The free for all wasn't that crazy. People respected "your time" with the characters and stepped out of the way. I got some really cute pics
I'm working on my trip report on my blog of your interested. I'm only up to day 3 of 21 though LOL.