Daisy Duck and Donald Duck meet and greet at Animal Kingdom’s Discovery Island details

Daisy and Donald moved into Animal Kingdom’s Discovery Island location across from Flame Tree BBQ this morning.  Tigger and Pooh are now gone entirely from Animal Kingdom, but continue to meet in other locations.   Be sure to check out my Master Character Location list for all the places you can meet them.

Disney hasn’t had an opportunity to post their names, but they meet from 9:00am until 30 minutes before close daily.  There schedule is in my Animal Kingdom schedules and on my www.characterlocator.com app.

Jedi Mickey’s Star Wars Dinner at Hollywood and Vine in Disney’s Hollywood Studios review

Jedi Mickey’s Star Wars Dinner at Hollywood and Vine in Disney’s Hollywood Studios

This Star Wars dinner has a totally different feeling and appeal to it than its breakfast counterpart.  The breakfast meal is in a really dark environment and features dark characters (except Jawas) and they provide movie clips.  (recently added more content to the breakfast post, so you might want to click the link to check out the additions).

The Jedi Mickey’s dinner provides a much lighter feeling.  It’s bright and vibrant and there’s upbeat music playing.  It features some great classic characters that includes Chip n Dale as Ewoks, Jedi Mickey, Princess Leia Minnie, Darth Goofy and Stormtrooper Donald.  You can meet these same characters in the park during Star Wars Weekends in these costumes, but expect long lines and Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy rotate often.

Jedi Mickey’s Star Wars Dine cost information:

The cost of this Star Wars character meal is $55.99 for adults 10 and over and  $32.99 for children 3 to 9 years of age.  If you’d like to make it a Fantasmic! dining package the cost is slightly more at $59.99 for adults and $36.99 for children.  The meal will also include a FREE digital download of Ewok Chip n Dale. The meal will begin serving at 4:15pm daily and close with the park.

The Disney Star Wars Characters in attendance:

Chip n Dale as Ewoks

Ewok Chip n Dale are the official greeters of Jedi Mickey’s dinner at Hollywood and Vine.  They appear with a giant logo background right as you enter the restaurant.  They do not move about the restaurant, they are in a fixed location.  

My Star Wars Dine-In Galactic Breakfast review

My Review of the Star Wars Dine-in Galactic Breakfast at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at Hollywood Studios

Update 5/10/14  Added examples of the bonus content photos you receive to the bottom of the post.

Our day began by arriving at Hollywood Studios about 7:30 am.  We saw that there were two signs in the character meal area on the far left of the entrance points.  We headed for the right line for the Star Wars meals.  A few other people lined up behind us and a couple were in front.  A guy in front said one lady told him to get in the back of the single line on the left and another lady told him to get in the Star Wars line on the right.  

 

I told him that someone will come tell us to get back into the long line and a few minutes later a lady will come tell us to go back to the line on the right.  I’m such a prophet 🙂

Easter Polynesian Resort character meet and greets 2014

We left the Contemporary Resort and jumped on the monorail again and headed off two stops down the run to the Polynesian.  When we stopped there, a lady asked, “Is this Downtown Disney?”  Umm, not quite.  No monorails to Downtown Disney.  It’s hard enough to find a bus there, so they should consider it.  They would sell more tacos and stuffed Stitch dolls and Vinylmaters or whatever they are called.

We arrived at the Polynesian and began looking for the “Luau Lawn.”  No one at the Polynesian had a clue where that was, so we followed the signs to “Luau Cove,” which sounded close enough.  One guy tried to send us to ‘Ohana for breakfast.  I was willing to go, but he didn’t have a reservation and didn’t want to pay.  How rude!  

Easter Contemporary Resort character meet and greets 2014

After finishing up our Grand Floridian character meets and spending some time talking with some new friends, we headed over to the Contemporary Resort.  We were hoping to meet Chip n Dale in their black tuxedos.  We rushed down to find that the CM said the family before us were the last to meet them at that time.  We could wait around about 30 minutes to meet them and meet Mr. Easter Bunny or move along.  Before Chip n Dale rushed off, Debbie gave them each nut filled candy and they gave her a big hug.

Easter Grand Floridan character meet and greets 2014

We started out our Easter meet plan with the goal of hoping to meet Mickey and Minnie in their purple formal attire.  We thought we’d park at the TTC and take the monorail over.  We arrived before 8:00am with the goal of being on the Grand Floridian lawn by 8:15am.  Well, all didn’t go as planned.  As we prepared to board the resort monorail, we were told there would be a minor delay to do a “maintenance test.”  The train sat there for a couple of minutes, then we all boarded.  It moved back and forth a few times, made a really odd braking noise and then it totally powered off.

We sat there with no power for a couple of minutes and they re-booted the system.  We thought we were ready to go.  We moved a few feet forward and they reopened the doors and allowed more people to board.  After a few more minutes we finally moved a short distance.  The train would start, then stop, then start…

Why can’t I find Fastpass+ for Anna and Elsa?

A lot of folks ask me why they can’t find Fastpass+ options for Anna and Elsa X days before their trip.  The reason FP+ options are difficult to find for them is simple economics.  I’m going to present some made up numbers for the sake of discussion.

Lets say, hypothetically,  that Anna and Elsa are able to meet 200 guests per hour per day when they move to the Magic Kingdom.  That would be 3.33 guests per minute, so it sounds reasonable for discussion purposes.  The Magic Kingdom has taken the stance that Anna and Elsa will only be guaranteed from 9am to 5pm daily, so we have 8 hours to work with.  If you multiply 120×8, you get 1600 people per day.  Fastpass+ usually offers express privileges to 1/3 of all the guests in an line. Given our mathematical proposal,  533 guests per day would be meeting Anna and Elsa using FP+.

There is easily 30,000 or more guests in the Magic Kingdom on a really slow day, so about 1% would be given an opportunity to meet the Frozen Princesses with a short(er) wait given our numbers on a slow day.  Guest are crying out because there “must be a better way.”  The only better way is to offer this meet and greet in multiple locations until the demand cools down but that does cost more money.  Moving them to Magic Kingdom and offering FP+ is a plus, but probably not enough to make the line really short.

If you can’t find Fastpass+ for Anna and Elsa using my tip about booking them one at a time or using the copy method, your best bets are:

1.  Arrive before park opening and go straight there on a morning Extra Magic Hour day.  This eliminates anyone skipping character meals, or eating then running out to beat you to the second rope behind the castle.

2.  If you don’t have Extra Magic Hour privileges, you should arrive before park opening and head straight there and make your way as close as possible to the rope behind the castle, eliminating as much wait as possible.

If you don’t have FP+ and sleep in, you’re still going to wait in a REALLY long line.   I’m still guessing that those with FP+ from around noon onward will experience a wait of an hour or more, unless Disney forces more people to just wait longer in the stand by line.  I’ll update you next week and let you know if my guess is correct.

The Best time to meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen at Epcot

I receive a lot of questions concerning when and where to meet Anna and Elsa from the movie Frozen in Epcot. We know the ladies will be relocating to the Magic Kingdom on April 20th, but what about those who plan to travel to Walt Disney World before April 20th? When should you meet them?

Option 1: Extra Magic Hour Plan

If you have extra Magic Hour privileges, you should use that hour to wait in line for Anna and Elsa and use your FP+ wisely to ride Soarin or Test Track and two other favorites later in the morning. It may seem silly to waste an hour standing in line because the girls don’t arrive until 9:00AM, but that will probably be the shortest wait you’ll see for them in Epcot. I would arrive at least by 7:30 AM and make a beeline for the Norway Pavilion. The meet is in the Princesse Plass, which is on the left hand side when entering the pavilion.  One person could hold the spot while the others do some rides, if you wish.

Option 2:  Book a breakfast dining reservation at Akershus before park opening.

This one might be pretty difficult at this point in time, but is the most popular way that people have used to save time for this meet.  Many people will book a pre-park opening reservation between 8:00 am and 9:00 am, eat some breakfast, then dart out to get in line.  Some have even booked the breakfast, then skipped it entirely absorbing the $10 per person fee.  The gate Cast Members do check for reservations before entering the park.  This group of people are the reason the wait time is already at 2 or more hours when the first of the rope drop crowd reach Norway these days.

Option 3:  Try the late afternoon.

This one isn’t guaranteed to work, but many people have reported success getting in the line after 4:30pm.  Of course that success could still result in 1 1/2 to 2 hour waits, but it’s worth a try if you arrive early in the morning and you’re quoted a 5 hour or more wait.

When Anna and Elsa move to the Magic Kingdom, my current recommendation will be either go straight there at Rope Drop, especially on an Extra Magic Hour day, or use a Fastpass+ for early in the morning. Perhaps my How to Find Difficult Fastpass+ Reservations could help.  I’ll be there the first day and several days after the April 20th move to report the best way to meet them in the Magic Kingdom.

How long did you wait to meet them?  How long would you wait?

Book those Fastpass+ for Anna and Elsa at the Magic Kingdom now!

As of March 14 at 6:06 guests are beginning to book Fastpass+ reservations to meet Anna and Elsa at the Magic Kingdom.  This image was sent to me by a Facebook reader named Sam for a reservation on May 15th.  Another reader named Dawn said they just booked for May 7th

Let the booking begin!

My thoughts on Anna and Elsa moving to Fairytale Hall in the Magic Kingdom

Disney has confirmed the news that Anna and Elsa are moving to the Magic Kingdom’s Fairytale Hall on April 20, 2014.  I mentioned that this would be happening a couple days ago and it created a lot of buzz.  Disney is only guaranteeing them until “EARLY EVENING,” they will then be replaced by “visiting princesses.”  That’s an important term, so don’t breeze over it without taking note.

When I began this site, I committed myself to sharing my unabashed opinions.  I’m not a media person and don’t have media credentials and really don’t want them.  I don’t want my opinions being influenced by someone feeding me some tarts and giving me access to an attraction that average guests don’t have.  I have nothing against those who do, just not my style.  I want to experience the park just like you do and tell you the best way to maneuver the parks.  So here’s my opinion on the move that will be happening.