You can’t see a Disney World commercial without someone meeting a character. And chances are, if you’ve told your kids you’re going to Disney World then they’re super excited for you to bring them back a picture of you meeting Mickey Mouse.
But meeting characters is actually one of the more opaque parts of planning a Disney World trip. There are a few key greetings that you can plan ahead of time—like character meals or greetings on Genie+—but others you won’t be able to really be sure about until the day arrives and you check the character schedule.
In this post, we’ll break down the different ways to meet characters at Walt Disney World. We’ll also explain where you can get the best information about which characters meet when, and where they meet.
Note: My Disney Experience App
The “My Disney Experience” app is the official app for Disney World. At least one member of your party should have this app and be familiar with it if you want to have a good time at Disney World. Relevant to this post, most of the information on character greetings is in this app. Here’s the official Disney page for the app.
Meeting Disney World Characters — The Basics
For the most part, Disney World doesn’t have “roaming” characters. While that still happens with major characters and some frequency in Disneyland (in California), Disney World’s characters tend to greet in fixed spots with lines for published periods of time. Here are the ways you’ll meet characters at Disney World (we’ll cover some of these in much more detail below).
Character Meals. Character dining is a fixture of Walt Disney World. At a character meal, you’ll typically dine as characters pass by your table one-by-one greeting you. The characters at a given meal tend to be the same, but the restaurants retain the right to change them (typical changes would be, for example, replacing Goofy with Pluto, or Aurora with Ariel).
Major Character Greetings. Major greetings (my made up term) are permanent or semi-permanent, probably on Genie+, and typically are ongoing for the bulk of the day. They are categorized in the app as either Attractions or Entertainment (along with usually being listed among the character greetings), and have posted wait times.
Other Character Greetings. At each park there are greetings that are a bit more flexible. They’re typically only listed in the app or times guide. Greetings may be in 15-minute segments or multi-hour segments. Some have five scheduled greeting times during the day, while others only have one. These vary day-by-day and park-by-park.
Character Sightings. In the app, you’ll see some characters noted as “sightings.” This means these characters will be roaming in an area where they aren’t accessible for one-on-one greetings, but they’ll wave or maybe pose in the background of selfies. A typical example of this is Winnie the Pooh at Epcot. He doesn’t greet (as of this update), instead he roams around the grassy area by the Imagination pavilion often with a net pretending to catch bugs. These were common in late 2020 but are rare nowadays.
Streetmosphere Parties. The theme parks occasionally have small streetmosphere parties where characters appear. These aren’t as common now, but in the past included things like Donald’s Dino-Bash (Animal Kingdom), Hakuna Matata Time (Animal Kingdom), and Incredibles Super Dance Party (Hollywood Studios). These were more common pre-2020.
Party or Event Greetings. Certain ticketed events have unique character greetings available only during the event hours.
Disney Visa Card Greetings. Holders of the Chase Disney Visa credit card have access to exclusive character greetings (currently there are two of these at Disney World).
Character Palooza. Character Palooza is a “surprise” character greeting that used to occur in Hollywood Studios.
RunDisney Races. RunDisney races typically have characters along the course (there was one instance at a Disneyland race where there were few or no characters, and the fandom rightfully was upset). Our Disney World marathon post contains a list of the characters we saw last time we ran.
Roaming Characters. As we mentioned, roaming characters are rare at Walt Disney World. The most common spots to find them are Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (where they are the norm), and Frontierland in Magic Kingdom (where the Country Bears often roam).
Popular Character Greetings at disney World
Before we dig deeper into finding information about characters, I want to mention a few specific greetings that are popular and where you’ll find them. As this post hopefully makes clear, character greetings are often in flux, so you should always confirm this information before your trip…
Mickey Mouse. We have a separate post specifically on meeting Mickey Mouse at Disney World. Mickey greets at all four parks and several character meals.
Toy Story characters. Toy Story characters greet in Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios.
Star Wars characters. There are roaming Star Wars characters at Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios. There are also usually greetings with BB8, Chewbacca, and Darth Vader in the Star Wars Launch Bay at Hollywood Studios.
Princesses. We have a separate post specifically on meeting Princesses at Disney World. There are princess greetings in three of the four parks (usually not Hollywood Studios), with the most popular probably being Anna and Elsa at Epcot.
Where to Find Information About Characters
First thing, you’ll need to know where to look to find out when and where to meet characters at Disney World. We’ll start with character meals before discussing where to find information about characters in the parks.
Filtering Restaurants for Character Meals
If you visit the Disney World dining website, you can filter for restaurants offering character meals relatively easily. Just click “Dining Experience” and select “Character Dining.” You’ll need to read the descriptions carefully, as some restaurants have characters only for certain meals. We have a post ranking all the character meals at Disney World, too.
Keep in mind that character meals are among the most popular Advance Dining Reservations at Disney World, and you’ll want to make them 60 (or more, if you have a Disney hotel stay) days in advance.
Park Map
Most people probably start with the park map as a guide to meet characters, but that’s the worst place to start. While the map often has character greeting locations and a limited list of fixed character greetings, it lacks most of the critical information about most of the greetings.
Using the My Disney Experience App to Find Characters
Without a doubt, the My Disney Experience app is the best resource for meeting characters in the park. The app is the official app of Walt Disney World and is available on iPhones and Android.
You shouldn’t have much trouble navigating to the character listing in the app. Click the “locator” icon on the bottom, then select “Characters” from the top menu. You can use the “Filter” option on the top left to filter by park. Click through the following slides to see this visually:
This is the most comprehensive character listing, but it doesn’t have all the information you need for every character. For starters, it is only a list for today. Moreover, once characters finish greeting for the day, they’ll disappear from this list.
Beyond that, there are a couple things to know. Let’s do two examples, one simple and one a little more complicated.
If you look at Tigger in the below example, you’ll see he meets in Magic Kingdom, in Fantasyland, at the The Thotful Spot. Click into his page, and you’ll see he greets from 10:45AM to 2:15PM and from 3:30PM to 6:00PM.
If you click “Find on Map” or “Get Directions,” you’ll be given a map view to help you locate him. Cast Members in the area can typically clarify the greeting spot. It’s typically at least near where you’d expect. Tigger greets near the Winnie the Pooh ride, Buzz Lightyear greets in Tomorrowland, etc.
To meet Tigger, you’d just go to his location at the scheduled time. Most days you’ll wait about 15 to 20 minutes, but if you arrive just before he starts greeting, you might have better luck.
Now, for our second example. Cinderella greets in Fantasyland at Princess Fairytale Hall. Click into her page and you’ll see she greets from 9AM to 10:30PM today. You might just think to go hop in line whenever (and to be clear, you can do that), but wait!
If you head back a few steps in the app and change from “Characters” to “Wait Times,” you’ll see Cinderella actually has a published wait time.
A little more investigating, and you’ll see she also is listed on the “Entertainment” section of the app. A tad more investigating and you’ll see this greeting is part of the Genie+ options at Magic Kingdom.
You wouldn’t have seen any of that extra information for Tigger (who isn’t on Genie+). This is why I categorize Cinderella as a “Major Character Greeting.” She meets every day in the same spot, is a part of Genie+, has a posted wait time, and is listed on the “Entertainment” page. You’ll also see the occasional character listed as an “Attraction.”
Best I can tell, there are two types of character greetings that don’t make it into the Character, Entertainment, or Attraction sections of the app. The first is Character Palooza, the special, surprise greeting that used to occur at Hollywood Studios. The second is any character meal. Since you need reservations for the meals, it wouldn’t make sense to list them as greetings in the app.
Character Palooza
Disney doesn’t publish any information about character palooza. The only place you’ll find information about it is from other guests online. Best I know, this hasn’t occurred since the parks reopened in 2020. If you’re planning an upcoming trip, you might want to throw a quick search into Google to see if any recent mentions come up.
Seeing Character Wait Times
As we’ve mentioned, some character greetings have posted wait times, while others you’ll just have to go to the greeting and find out. (Some characters with Wait Times, like Cinderella, are on Genie+. Others, like Donald Duck, have wait times but are not on Genie+.)
Unfortunately, you cannot filter the wait times by Character Experiences. You can filter “Entertainment” to just show character experiences (and their wait times), but this will also show some non-greetings, like shows featuring characters.
Events and Parties
Characters may be available during special ticketed events at the park. For example, certain characters greet during Magic Kingdom After Hours and Early Morning Magic at Magic Kingdom.
The major two events for meeting characters are the parties. At Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, you’ll find rare character and rare outfits. You can read more about those events in those linked guides.
Here’s an example of Belle in a rare gown at the Christmas party:
When To Meet Characters
Well, obviously if your favorite character is only meeting from 10:15AM to 10:45AM and you have to meet her…that’s when to meet her. But if you have some flexibility…
We recommend meeting characters between noon and 6PM. This is “peak” time in the park—when waits for rides are long and you’ll want to do non-ride things, like shows and character greetings. (Characters will have longer waits during peak times, too. If a character is a priority for you, we encourage you to meet them earlier in the day.)
Arrive 5 to 15 minutes early. Except for the major, fixed characters, you can catch the shortest wait by arriving just a few minutes before a character arrives. Most guests don’t know ahead of time that the character will be there, and as soon as they arrive you’ll see everyone rush over. Beat them there so you don’t have to wait in lines.
Most greetings end before park close. Even the major ones, like Mickey Mouse, typically end at least 30 minutes before park close. Don’t plan a greeting as one of your last activities unless you’ve confirmed the time in the app.
Character Greetings on Genie+
Certain character greetings are so popular that they are part of the Disney World Genie+ system, allowing you to schedule your greetings ahead of time.
At Epcot, no traditional character greetings are on Genie+. Turtle Talk With Crush, in which audience members interact with an on-screen Crush, is on Genie+.
At Hollywood Studios, Meet Olaf at Celebrity Spotlight is on Genie+.
At Animal Kingdom, Meet Favorite Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost is on Genie+.
At Magic Kingdom, the following greetings are on Genie+:
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Meet Cinderella and a Visiting Princess at Fairytale Hall
Meet Tiana and a Visiting Princess at Fairytale Hall
Meet Ariel at Her Grotto
Meet Mickey at Town Square Theater.
Tips for Meeting Characters
There’s a saying about running that all you need is a pair of shoes, shorts, and a tshirt. But runners know most days you actually need some more things (like a sweatband or a watch).
All you need to meet a character is to get in line and say “hi” when it’s your turn…but you probably want to get more out of the interaction than that, so here are some tips…
Supplies To Bring for Meeting Characters
If you’re going to meet Disney characters, you’ll want to bring four things—a camera, an autograph book, and two pens.
No, the two pens aren’t so you have a backup (bringing a backup is a good idea, though). You need two different-sized pens. A regular pen is for characters who have ungloved hands or hands with regular, human-sized gloves. A large pen is for characters with oversized gloves (like Mickey Mouse).
Not all characters can sign autographs, but the handler will be able to tell you if the character can or cannot sign right now.
Character Handlers
Most every character has a Cast Member handler (or multiple handlers) who is in charge of managing their interactions with other guests. They’re basically there to do the things the characters might not be able to do, like tell guests where to line up or that the character can’t stop to chat right now. Handlers can estimate waits, tell you if the character does autographs, and tell you when else the character visits today.
PhotoPass
Most character greetings have PhotoPass photographers. These photographers will also take a photo using your camera, if you’d like. If there’s no PhotoPass photographer, the handler will typically be able to take a photo using your camera. You can read more about Photopass and Memory Maker at Disney World.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.