Author: Food Diva
One of the most exciting parts of Disney World (for me) is meeting the Characters. I am 28 years old and I still get excited every time Cinderella says “Hi Princess” in her most wonderful Cinderella voice!
For our family, its a huge game. How many characters can we meet? My kids aren’t huge ride lovers. They enjoy some, but they really enjoy hunting down the characters and meeting them.
We took our first Disney trip as a family in 2009. My big girl was turning 3 and my little bit was 16 months. Those ages can be a bit difficult for character greetings. We prepared MONTHS in advanced by going to youtube and typing in “Meeting {{insert character name}} at Disney World”. By doing this we saw other little kids getting to meet the characters and I believe this REALLY helped my girls get use to the idea of walking up to them.
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| Meeting Mickey Mouse for the First time 2009.
We went to our local craft store and purchased a large spiral scrapbook with blank pages. We decorated the outside with Disney Stickers and used that as our autograph book. Each character had their own page to sign and later we attached photos from that greet! This has become a favorite book to flip through when we are having “we miss Disney” moments. You can see many more ideas of how to make your own autograph books HERE.  Pirate faces with Captain Hook and Smee (2009)  Loving on Minnie at Chef Mickey’s 2009 Other Tip for Meeting Characters with Small children is attending Character Meals. Our first vacation we did Akershus Princess Dining & Chef Mickey’s. That way we knew we would at least meet the Princesses and Mickey and Pals. This also allowed the girls to be in a comfortable setting (food makes every situation better) and have one on one time with the characters. By trip two in 2010 we were experts at meeting characters and that year, we had a mission! To add to our original book…characters that we missed the previous year. The girls had seen more movies and were ready to meet more characters. Characters like Lady Tremaine from Cinderella  and Mulan added to our book!
 Character greetings are such a special time for kids (and parents too!) I will never forget the sheer joy my big girl had after her conversation with Mulan. They discussed the movie from beginning to end. My big girl was a HUGE fan of Mulan at the time and was ready to find out “if she was ever scared being a secret girl solider”
Take some time your next vacation and really explore the world of character greetings!
*Tips from the Food Diva on Character Greetings
1) Watch YouTube Videos to help get kids use to meeting characters
2) Have a Disney Movie week before your trip to get to “know” the characters
3) Check the Times Guide at the front of each park to know when and where characters are (or download the Disney Parks App)
4) Take an autograph book and Marker for the characters to sign
5) Have fun, BE PATIENT WHILE YOU WAIT, and make a game out of it!
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