Characters in the Magic Kingdom - Part I

My daughter is absolutely obsessed with Disney characters. It's kind of scary, really. She wants to meet EVERY SINGLE ONE as many times as she possibly can. Hubs and I have to limit her to one autograph book per vacation. She even wants to meet characters that she doesn't know. And then she even runs up to strangers and tells them all about her experience with the characters. For this reason alone, I bring the twins to character dining as much as possible during our vacation.

The twins and Vidia, the sarcastic fairy

Pumpkin has even gotten her brother interested in meeting characters. We had to purchase Magoo his own autograph book so that he could get in on the action. (We have SO many pictures of Pumpkin from the last vacation, poor Magoo wondered why there weren't so many pictures of him!) Aside from the character dining, there are many different places throughout all of the Disney parks where guests can meet characters. While waiting in line today to see Tinkerbell and one of her fairy friends, Pumpkin started chatting with the little girl in front of us and telling her about the different characters that she and her brother had met. The little girl's mom was listening, and when Pumpkin said she met Snow White, the woman almost convulsed. She had no idea that Snow White was available to take photos in the Magic Kingdom. 

It dawned on me that a lot of people don't know where to find some of their favorite characters that they can pose with. I thought that a few different blog entries about where you can meet and greet with characters would be really helpful to my readers. However, since there are so many different characters across four different parks, I need to break it up into at least four entries.

This blog post will address meeting characters in the Magic Kingdom.

The Twins in front of the castle

As soon as you enter the Magic Kingdom, you are on Main Street USA. To the right of you is the Main Street Theater, to the left is City Hall and in front of you is City Plaza. In the Plaza, you will find different characters-- Usually Pluto and Daisy. Once, it was Pluto and Marie (from Aristocats). Every so often, they will have "Forgotten Characters Week" and rare characters will appear in this location. This week, there were characters from Disney's Robinhood, but the lines were just waaaaay too long.

At the theater, you will always find Mickey Mouse as a magician. Sometimes, you will see Minnie with Mickey. It happened to us once, and my daughter was absolutely over the moon. In another part of the theater, you can meet and greet with three different princesses. These princesses are usually Cinderella, Aurora and Rapunzel or Belle. You can get a fast pass for both of these parts of the theater, which is really great. Be forewarned that you exit through a gift shop, so if your child is as much of a shopaholic as mine is, you may be in some trouble.

Directly across from the theatre on the other side of the Plaza is City Hall, which houses guest relations. To the left of City Hall is this little alcove that is seemingly just a place for guests to get out of the sun. WRONG!!! Snow White actually appears here throughout the day! Since it's one of those little Disney "secrets" (just something that not many people know about), the line is usually very small. 

Of course, this is the parade route for all of the Magic Kingdom parades, so guests can see pretty much all of their favorite characters throughout the day. At the end of Main Street USA is Cinderella's Castle, which is where each parade ends in a performance and where the fireworks take place.

Now, I fully intended on writing a lot more tonight, but we are leaving Disney tomorrow and heading home. It's after 11pm and I still need to take a shower. I wanted to at least share one "secret" in this entry-- Which I did. 

More coming soon!