Cast Member’s Corner: Your Favorite Character Is Just Around The Riverbend

Have you ever gone to the Walt Disney World parks looking for one particular character?  You go around and around the park and either just miss them or have no idea where to find them?  Trust me it happens all the time, your little Princess or Pirate just wants a picture with their favorite character and you can’t find them, this can be very frustrating.  I’ve touched on this before, talk to the Cast Members.  They know a lot and can help you, if the Cast Member doesn’t know the exact answer they know how to get you that answer.

There are some characters you will only find in certain parks.  Flick, from “A Bug’s Life” you will only find in Animal Kingdom along with Turk and King Louie.  Magic Kingdom you’ll find Peter Pan and Stitch.  At Epcot you can find Mulan.  And at Hollywood Studios you can find Princess Leia.  All of the parks will have Mickey and all of his closest friends.  Of course depending on what park they are in they will change their wardrobe. 

When you enter a park you can walk around and some characters will be in plain site.  Right on a street corner or next to your favorite rides, others though are harder to find.  In Animal Kingdom I highly recommend going off the beaten path.  No I don’t mean to go into the woods and off the actual paths, I mean to take a right or a left when the path splits instead of following the crowd down the main path.  At Animal Kingdom back in the woods is the key place for your favorite characters to hide.  Also when you cross the bridge from Dinoland back to the Tree Of Life make a quick left.  Pooh Bear and his friends hide back there.  If you look hard you’ll see that there is a sign that points them out. 

At Epcot the characters don’t really hide, they are out in the open in their home country.  Hollywood Studios I’d take a walk down the Streets Of New York and visit the Muppets Plaza you can also try the Magic of Animation building.  Our favorite mouse frequents these places. 

Magic Kingdom has characters everywhere, literally.  Want to see the mouse himself or Princesses?  Go to City Hall.  Want to see Daisy Duck, Pluto, and Donald just come in the main gates and go to the flagpole at the beginning of Main Street.  Buzz Lightyear and Stitch can be found by their rides in Tomorrowland.  Peter Pan frequents right outside the Philharmagic right under a stain glass window with a certain fairy on it.  Aladdin and Jasmine relax by their magic carpet ride.  And of course my favorite, Tinkerbell and her fairy friends are located by the Adventureland Bridge.

Many of these characters meet and greet areas have a schedule posted at the entrance to their lines.  If that is not the case you can ask the character attendant or Cast Member that is with the character when they will be back.  They will know the schedule for their character that day.  If you have not seen the character you’re looking for take a look at the time sheet that the parks offer when you enter the parks.  It’s a single sheet of paper right by the park maps.  These not only have the times of the fireworks and parades but also the shows. 

Not all the shows allow you to take picture with the characters afterwards but some pull the guests into the show or get the guests close to the characters.  Jack Sparrow has a pirate tutorial that he chooses from the audience.  Frontierland does a hoedown that allows guests to dance with their favorite country bears and briar rabbit.  Some of these shows have times written out for the guests on these time sheets.  The show that is put on in front of the castle sometimes cannot be put on because of rain.  If that’s the case sometime Mickey and his pals will spend some quality time in the pathway going through Cinderella’s Castle.  They are more than happy to take pictures with the guests. 

If after all this you still cannot find your favorite characters ask a Cast Member.  You can ask any Cast Member and they should be able to tell you the answer.  If you know who you want to see when you come into the park I would recommend asking the Cast Members at Guest Services or the Time Board at any park.  If you’re walking around the parks and feel like you keep missing a character you can stop and ask any Cast Member to find out when the character will be out next and where you can find them.  If they don’t know off the top of their head they can get on a phone and call the CHIP hotline.  This will put them in touch with the characters themselves to see where they are and at what time that day.  Then you can be on your way to see your favorite character.

You don’t want to go home from the happiest place on earth without your little princess or little pirate not getting a picture with their favorite character.  So until next time friends, have faith and trust in your Disney pals, and let Disney shower you in pixie dust.

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Jess was born and raised on Long Island, New York but once college began so did her adventures. She’s lived in Florida, Wisconsin, and now South Carolina. Her family is part of the Disney Vacation Club and has been visiting since she was a little girl, and continuously goes every year. Besides being a big Disney fan she has also been a Disney Cast Member working in Magic Kingdom, and she counts it as one of the most magical experiences. She worked with everyone’s favorite elephant Dumbo, Cinderella’s Carousel, and Mickey’s Philharmagic. Jess has also visited Disneyland, Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, and gone on two Disney Cruises. She has so many great memories from Disney besides running half marathons and 5ks, birthday parties, and family reunions. If asked where she would want to go it is almost always Disney, and when asked why, it is almost always because she can eat awesome gluten free food! And it doesn’t hurt that there is always faith, trust, and pixie dust with magic in the air!