By Dopey Diva
I am a huge fan of the movie Up. I absolutely love the beginning with the love story of Carl and Ellie. I would love to do a meet and greet with Carl, but I have never seen him at a Disney park other than in the Pixar parade that used to be at Hollywood Studios. I never really planned on doing a meet and greet with Dug and Russell. To be honest, I didn’t even realize there was one at the Animal Kingdom until we happened to walk by as they were being escorted by their handlers away from the meet and greet site. We were actually quickly walking by, headed to see the Lion King show, when I stopped to see how long the wait was. Since I have a few people in our group I try to be polite and make sure they are all willing to wait in line for a meet and greet. Even though we only had 30 minutes before the Lion King show, everyone agreed they would wait so I could meet Dug and Russell.
The line wasn’t too incredibly long, looked to be about a 20 minute wait. That day did happen to be a hot one, of course most days at the Animal Kingdom seem hotter than the other parks. Luckily the area was shaded and there were a few fans blowing some cool air on us. My 3 yr. old wasn’t exactly the most patient child to wait with that day and he kept climbing under the ropes and wandering around. There was a pond nearby with some birds that kept him occupied for a short while. Once we finally got up to the front though he was very excited to get to meet Dug. He ran up to him and plopped himself right on Dug’s lap. Russell came over to chat with him as well but my son seemed to prefer Dug.
After my youngest son had his meet and greet the rest of my family came over to meet Dug and Russell. My husband had some fun with Dug and yelled “Squirrel” and Dug stopped immediately and pointed. It was really funny. Normally the characters give most of their attention to my kids, and I love that they do that. But I was lucky this time and got some special attention from Russell. He came over just to me and gave me a big hug! I had some fun with this picture through my Disney Photo Pass.
After we enjoyed our meet and greet with Dug and Russell, which is located in the Discovery Island area in the Animal Kingdom, we made a mad dash over to the Lion King show. Luckily we arrived about 2 minutes before the show started. I can say this non planned meet and greet visit was totally worth it!
