By: Minnie Diva
When Disney Pixar’s Inside Out was released last June, I immediately fell in love. The heartwarming story of a tween girl and the emotions inside her head captured my heart and since the day I saw it, I have been DYING for a meet and greet at the Disney parks. I had to hug Joy and Sadness and ask them how Riley is doing! Last weekend, I finally got my wish when Disney World opened a meet and greet with Joy and Sadness in Epcot!
Rumors of the meet had been floating around since early March, but the opening date wasn’t announced until last week, and it just so happened to fall right at the start of my most recent WDW trip! We scheduled the meet into our plans last minute and I am so glad we did.
You can meet Joy and Sadness, the main characters of Inside Out at Epcot in the Epcot Character Spot. The Epcot Character Spot is located in Future World and is tucked right next to Innoventions West, in front of Figment, and it has expanded. You used to only be able to meet Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy, but now they have opened a line for Baymax, and a line for Joy and Sadness!
It is important to note that Joy and Sadness do NOT offer Fastpass+ at this time, and we wanted to meet them with little to no wait: so here is what we did. My party arrived at Epcot 20 minutes before rope drop and were through bag check and at the ropes about five minutes before the park opened, impressive considering this was during the busy Spring Break season. A moment after we arrived, the music started playing, and Epcot dropped its ropes! The Joy and Sadness meet is literally RIGHT next to where rope drop is. We shuffled about 10 feet forward and were at the doors to meet Joy and Sadness. About 10 minutes after the park opened, the doors opened and the small crowd that had gathered was ushered into Joy and Sadness’ queue.
The queue is arranged to make it feel like you are in long term memory. Memories line the walls and songs from the movie play through the speakers, adding to the colorful atmosphere. Since we arrived so early, we were about 15th in the queue and waited no more than 20 minutes.
Once we got up to the front of line, the character attendant led us into a room that was designed just like Riley’s headquarters and I was finally able to see Joy and Sadness! The room had the control center, furniture from the movie, and glowing memories lining the walls and ground. There was even a screen showing different scenes from the movie! I cannot put into words how cool it is. The location is absolutely awesome, and the characters are even more adorable. Even Sadness brought me so much happiness!
If you want to meet these two I would definitely say to go for it! Get there at rope drop to avoid long lines and get those autograph books ready. Both Joy and Sadness are able to sign autographs.
It was a blast to meet these two and become a feeling for a little while!
This was great advice