Disney: The Characters!

 If you have not been to Disney World since you were a kid you may be surprised to learn that the characters are not as easy to see as they used to be. I went to Disney when I was 10 and I remember about all of the characters (even then the main mouse did not just mill around) roaming around the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. You could easily greet them and have your picture taken with them. This is not the case anymore- you have to be willing to hunt for characters, stand in long lines, or pay for a character meal. Since John was morally opposed to the character meal (because of the cost), he was determined that this trip we would see the five main characters and get their autographs!  

On the first day we were at Hollywood Studios a good 50 minutes for rope drop and low and behold guess who was walking around (with their handlers of course), Donald and Mickie. So we wee off to a good start- very beginning of day one and 2/5 of the way to our goal.

Only one of our children was extremely excited about Minnie, the rest were "forced" to smile!

After walking around a little bit at HS we actually ran into Donald again (well not really ran into, rather stood in line for 20 minutes to see) and this time he had my personal favorite... Daisy!

Now we are on Day 2... The Magic Kingdom has started a brilliant new thing- now you can get a fast pass to see Mickey and Minnie (or the Princesses). Our kids were thrilled to finally meet and shake hands with the one and only Mickey Mouse. Loved to see them and get pics in their traditional outfits too!

Here you can see the mice signing the kids autograph books... this is also a new phenomenon since I went as a kid. If you are a planning a trip MAKE SURE to take an autograph book for the characters to sign. My kids LOVED collected autographs.

My favorite character pic from the trip.

 

Autographs and smiles with Jessie and Woody. Woody was by far the most animated and "true - to - character" character that we saw. I was really impressed and so were the kids!

 

So, on the last day we still had not seen the final two of the main five... but low and behold in Dinoland at Animal Kingdom they were waiting on us! (Actually, we waited for them, about 30 minutes. Thank goodness we brought snacks to pass the time.). Goofy was also a very animated and "true - to - character" character.

 So we did not end up going to a character breakfast. Next time our plan is to do the Dining Plan and go to several character meals.. but that is still 2 years away so we will see!!