One of the "things to do" at Disney these days is get your photo taken with a character in costume. Most people also carry around autograph books, and the characters actually sign your book.
If you or your kids want photos like that, it's not as easy as it sounds.
It started out where a character would come out and stand at a certain spot in the park, and people would come up and pose with the character and get photographed. But then the number of people wanting to see the character got larger, and a line formed. And the poor guy inside the suit would end up standing there in the heat, in the suit, until the line was satisfied. Which was hardly ever, because people kept getting in line. This is an impromptu line, right out in the open. Not organized.
So Disney started limiting the time the character spends out there. A handler comes with the character, and makes sure the character is only out for ten minutes. So when it's time to go, the handler shuffles the character off, and apologizes to the people still in line.
What this means is that if you're not one of the first people in line, you probably won't ever get to see a character. Mind you, a new character comes out in five minutes, the handler announces this before they leave ... but it ends up meaning you wait in line 20-30 minutes just to get your photo snapped with Stitch or Goofy.
So there are two ways around this.
(1) Go to Mickey's Toontown Fair
This is a section of the Magic Kingdom, just like Tomorrowland and Frontierland. In this section is the "Judge's Tent" (one of the attractions). It's a building. You go in, and get in one of three lines.
The day we went, one line was for Pooh characters (ex: Pooh, Eeyore, and Rabbit), another line was for princesses (ex: Jasmine, Belle, and Cinderella), and a third line was for the classic characters (ex: Minnie, Goofy, Donald). You pick a line, and wait in line. The characters in the lines vary by hour and by day.
In groups of eight or so, you get taken from the front of the line, into a room, where the three characters are arranged in a row. Each member in the group goes down the line and gets their photo taken. Then you all leave in a group. If you want to get in a different line, you can then do so.
The good thing about this is that it's out of the sun, indoors, and air conditioned. Another good thing is that secretly, there might be THREE rooms containing the same three characters. The rooms are all seperated and you have no idea that's going on. But the assembly line system moves along quite nicely, because there's three times the number of Poohs, for example. Each group of eight goes to a seperate room.
(2) Arrange a Character Meal
From what I've gathered, this is a rather new thing at Disney World. Cast members would ask us how we liked the meal, saying that they haven't had a chance to see how it works yet.
Basically, here's the deal: they take the sit-down restaurants in the park, and instead of first-come-first-served seating, where you place your name on a list and wait 10 minutes to be seated ... instead they set aside mealtimes (ex: 3:00pm-4:00pm, 5:00pm-6:00pm). And you make your reservation days (or months) in advance.
So you show up for your reservation, and get seated, along with a whole restaurant of folks arriving at the same time who also have reservations. You get your meal served. During the meal, characters come out and visit each table, every single table.
If people with reservations don't show, then they might take people who walk up expecting first-come-first-served seating, but most of the time, those people get turned away because the restaurant is full.
For one dinner we had, in Epcot in Norway, the characters who came to the table included five seperate princesses. Each one came to the table in turn. The five princesses roamed the room and made sure each one visited each table. During each visit, you stop, photograph whatever you want, and get your autograph book signed. Another character meal we attended had Chip & Dale, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto.
There are a LOT of benefits to this approach. One is that you kill two birds with one stone. You gotta eat. And you want to get your photographs with characters. Why not do them at the same time. Also, it's indoors, out of the sun, air conditioned. But the best benefit is that you're guaranteed a photo opportunity with each character. Guaranteed. And the icing on the cake is that if you're not having dinner at that time, you can't just walk in and get a photo with the character. Those characters are there for you, and you only.
In fact, after every table is visited by every character, the characters then stay and make a second round if time permits.
