chewiebar
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2020
Hi! I was reading some trip reports where people were mentioning they / their children barely saw any characters, and that made me sad to think about, so I wanted to make a list of some tips and tricks to make sure everyone gets the chance to spot their favorite characters!
(Adding only MK now, the other parks later, this took longer than I thought to do for one park!)
I’ve been 5 times since the reopening and have noticed some trends that might be helpful.
The first 4 trips I was mostly focused on rides, but since the lines have gotten longer, this trip I focused on an hour or two of rides at rope drop and 2 hours before park closure, but this last trip in April, I brought my DSLR camera and really wanted to slow down and enjoy the characters!
(Photos below are mostly screen shots from phone videos for time keeping)
MAGIC KINGDOM:
My personal ideal plan:
- Get to the parks an hour before park listed. Do more popular rides until about 9:15. I saw my first train station characters at 9:30 but I’m fairly certain they come out earlier, I just think the first ~ 90 minutes of park opening can be used more efficiently by doing rides and then when the parks get more crowded, be on character watch, from the train station ones to then the cavalcades.
- After train station characters and after you see the first Mickey cavalcade around 11am, you have about 90 minutes before the first princess cavalcade, so do rides with a typical shorter wait like dumbo, tea cups, little mermaid, and /or pooh.
- Make lunch reservations after princess cavalcades / or go home and nap or swim / or do a few more things before park hopping at 2.
The train station characters have no listed times, but maybe you’ll notice some patterns from what i saw below and notice how frequently they come out.
The app, under entertainment, will show you when the first cavalcade departs every day. Note they start by splash mountain and take around 15 minutes to get to the end of the route by the train station. (The typical parade route)
Not every cavalcade happens every day of the week. (Ex, tinkerbell had Friday off, it looks like the MK cavalcade might have Sunday’s off, the app will tell you day of “there are no show times today” )
After the first listed cavalcades, they will just appear on the parade route randomly, so I find it best to see the first rounds of the day for each of them to ensure you see them.
Rain might modify all of these patterns and schedules obviously.
(Additionally, I know chip & dale + country bears hang out on the second floor balcony by the country bear jamboree, and buzz and stitch have been seen on the tomorrowland platform, but I have 0 idea on the frequency of those. If I missed any other MK characters, please let me know!)
Train Station Characters:
I didn’t notice them playing music like they do for the cavalcades, so it’s best to stay in the area and wait!
Get some water or Starbucks and hangout where you can view the train station.
You’ll see when the characters are coming from the right side (right side when you are facing train station with castle behind you) when a cast member starts to rope off a walkway for them (they used to come up the train station ramp, but not anymore since they but the scrims up around the station) - photo below of rope set up
You can get good photos of characters as they walk from backstage and then up the stairs to the platform (and then again when they are coming back down) but be more prepared than I was, and have your camera on continuous mode, because they don't slow down! They will wave, and might say hello or happy birthday etc as they are walking up and down, but no full interactions.
They are up there for 5-10 minutes and make for some really good character interactions. The face characters can have full conversations with you, even though it is awkward to yell back through a mask and make sure they’re talking to you and that you don’t seem crazy if they’re really talking to someone else (lol this was me the whole time) Gaston was especially chatty!
It’s possible to have good interactions with the fur characters too, but it’s a little harder to make sure who you think the characters are making gestures to! (Ex, I had my dslr and one of the fur characters saw me taking photos and motioned asking me if I was shooting them or their neighbor, and I pointed to them, and they struck some poses for me! It was really sweet after I realized they were “talking” to me!)
While you’re waiting for characters to come up to the train station:
- Tony’s restaurant doesn’t open until 11:30, so I sat on the white benches outside the restaurant with no one else around, and used the restaurant bathrooms with no one in there either.
Here’s when I saw them on a Friday, so you can see how frequently the train station characters came out + Cavalcades:
I had a dole whip and took a million photos and photo pass pictures and was getting ready to leave to park hop and saw the princesses at the end of their route at 12:55 pm (so they probably started from the beginning of the route at 12:40)
I went to guest services to leave a cast compliment for a photopass photographer and was walking out of MK when I saw Pooh WITH his friends on the trolley at 2:04pm. (Pooh was not with his friends earlier on the train platform so I was sad that I had seen everyone else besides him!)
- Pooh + Friends and Dapper dans only go up and down Main street, around the hub and around the flag pole since they are just on their trolley car.
*I don’t think Tinkerbell comes out on Fridays, the day of my observation.
I didn’t stay all day, so I can’t confirm if the final MK cavalcades went around at the listed end time on the app, or if they had any additional rounds after that.
Ive also never seen the train station characters at the end of the day, but I think they are around 2 hours before the park closes (??)
Feel free to post your character sighting patterns here and add anything I missed!
I will be adding the other 3 parks later
Parked myself near the train stairs to try to get good photos of all of the characters! Forgot the scrim would still be showing at this angle
Example of the entertainment listed on a Sunday, (no MK cavalcade listed times, so maybe they take sunday off?)
When the CMs start to get the rope out here by the popcorn stand, you know the characters will soon be coming up or going down from the train platform.
Best shade and view of when the train stations characters will come out, at Tonys.
My beautifully drawn parade route that the cavalcades follow.
Allow about 15 minutes for the cavalcades to make it from the start time of their departure near splash to reach the end of the route near the flag pole. Time stamps and screen shots from the entertainment section of the app.
(Adding only MK now, the other parks later, this took longer than I thought to do for one park!)
I’ve been 5 times since the reopening and have noticed some trends that might be helpful.
The first 4 trips I was mostly focused on rides, but since the lines have gotten longer, this trip I focused on an hour or two of rides at rope drop and 2 hours before park closure, but this last trip in April, I brought my DSLR camera and really wanted to slow down and enjoy the characters!
(Photos below are mostly screen shots from phone videos for time keeping)
MAGIC KINGDOM:
My personal ideal plan:
- Get to the parks an hour before park listed. Do more popular rides until about 9:15. I saw my first train station characters at 9:30 but I’m fairly certain they come out earlier, I just think the first ~ 90 minutes of park opening can be used more efficiently by doing rides and then when the parks get more crowded, be on character watch, from the train station ones to then the cavalcades.
- After train station characters and after you see the first Mickey cavalcade around 11am, you have about 90 minutes before the first princess cavalcade, so do rides with a typical shorter wait like dumbo, tea cups, little mermaid, and /or pooh.
- Make lunch reservations after princess cavalcades / or go home and nap or swim / or do a few more things before park hopping at 2.
The train station characters have no listed times, but maybe you’ll notice some patterns from what i saw below and notice how frequently they come out.
The app, under entertainment, will show you when the first cavalcade departs every day. Note they start by splash mountain and take around 15 minutes to get to the end of the route by the train station. (The typical parade route)
Not every cavalcade happens every day of the week. (Ex, tinkerbell had Friday off, it looks like the MK cavalcade might have Sunday’s off, the app will tell you day of “there are no show times today” )
After the first listed cavalcades, they will just appear on the parade route randomly, so I find it best to see the first rounds of the day for each of them to ensure you see them.
Rain might modify all of these patterns and schedules obviously.
(Additionally, I know chip & dale + country bears hang out on the second floor balcony by the country bear jamboree, and buzz and stitch have been seen on the tomorrowland platform, but I have 0 idea on the frequency of those. If I missed any other MK characters, please let me know!)
Train Station Characters:
I didn’t notice them playing music like they do for the cavalcades, so it’s best to stay in the area and wait!
Get some water or Starbucks and hangout where you can view the train station.
You’ll see when the characters are coming from the right side (right side when you are facing train station with castle behind you) when a cast member starts to rope off a walkway for them (they used to come up the train station ramp, but not anymore since they but the scrims up around the station) - photo below of rope set up
You can get good photos of characters as they walk from backstage and then up the stairs to the platform (and then again when they are coming back down) but be more prepared than I was, and have your camera on continuous mode, because they don't slow down! They will wave, and might say hello or happy birthday etc as they are walking up and down, but no full interactions.
They are up there for 5-10 minutes and make for some really good character interactions. The face characters can have full conversations with you, even though it is awkward to yell back through a mask and make sure they’re talking to you and that you don’t seem crazy if they’re really talking to someone else (lol this was me the whole time) Gaston was especially chatty!
It’s possible to have good interactions with the fur characters too, but it’s a little harder to make sure who you think the characters are making gestures to! (Ex, I had my dslr and one of the fur characters saw me taking photos and motioned asking me if I was shooting them or their neighbor, and I pointed to them, and they struck some poses for me! It was really sweet after I realized they were “talking” to me!)
While you’re waiting for characters to come up to the train station:
- Tony’s restaurant doesn’t open until 11:30, so I sat on the white benches outside the restaurant with no one else around, and used the restaurant bathrooms with no one in there either.
Here’s when I saw them on a Friday, so you can see how frequently the train station characters came out + Cavalcades:
- 9:30 - 9:40 // Princesses
- 9:50 - 10:00 // Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Daisy and dancers group
- 10:05 // Dapper dans on the trolley car riding down Main Street
- 10:15 - 10:25 // Princesses
- 10:30 - 10:40 // Pooh’s friends
- 10:35 - Goofy cavalcade was ending at the fire station while Pooh’s friends were still on the platform and they were dancing to the music and waving to goofy! It was so wholesome.
- 10:40 // Dapper Dans going around on the trolley
- 10:55 - 11:05 // Fantasyland friends (Aladdin, Alice, Moana, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Gaston) - last train station characters I saw.
- 11:06 // Turned around from those friends going backstage and Mickey cavalcade was coming to an end at the fire station end of the route.
- 11:20 // Evil stepsisters were under the back side of the castle.
- 12:12p // Mickey cavalcade in front of the castle
- 12:28p // The first princess cavalcade came around the castle.
- 12:40 // the newly renamed Magic kingdom cavalcade came by sleep hollow (Peter, Alice, Moana, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, Gaston)
I had a dole whip and took a million photos and photo pass pictures and was getting ready to leave to park hop and saw the princesses at the end of their route at 12:55 pm (so they probably started from the beginning of the route at 12:40)
I went to guest services to leave a cast compliment for a photopass photographer and was walking out of MK when I saw Pooh WITH his friends on the trolley at 2:04pm. (Pooh was not with his friends earlier on the train platform so I was sad that I had seen everyone else besides him!)
- Pooh + Friends and Dapper dans only go up and down Main street, around the hub and around the flag pole since they are just on their trolley car.
*I don’t think Tinkerbell comes out on Fridays, the day of my observation.
I didn’t stay all day, so I can’t confirm if the final MK cavalcades went around at the listed end time on the app, or if they had any additional rounds after that.
Ive also never seen the train station characters at the end of the day, but I think they are around 2 hours before the park closes (??)
Feel free to post your character sighting patterns here and add anything I missed!
I will be adding the other 3 parks later
Parked myself near the train stairs to try to get good photos of all of the characters! Forgot the scrim would still be showing at this angle
Example of the entertainment listed on a Sunday, (no MK cavalcade listed times, so maybe they take sunday off?)
When the CMs start to get the rope out here by the popcorn stand, you know the characters will soon be coming up or going down from the train platform.
Best shade and view of when the train stations characters will come out, at Tonys.
My beautifully drawn parade route that the cavalcades follow.
Allow about 15 minutes for the cavalcades to make it from the start time of their departure near splash to reach the end of the route near the flag pole. Time stamps and screen shots from the entertainment section of the app.
