Disney World Secrets -- The Best Ways to Meet Disney Characters

One of the best decisions you can make when visiting Walt Disney World is to meet the Disney characters. From Mickey and Minnie to Cinderella, Belle and even the newly crowned Queen Elsa and her sister Princess Anna, they're all there to make your dreams come true. And you don't have to know any inside Disney World secrets to find them -- the new My Disney Experience App tells you where and when to find who you want to meet.

But going back to one of my earlier Disney posts, it's important to remember that time is the most valuable commodity on your Walt Disney World vacation, so seeing as many Disney characters in as little time as possible is the ideal combination. And how you choose to do that is up to you.

Here are a few Disney tips to maximize your Disney character meetings:

Disney Character Dining

Walt Disney World character dining is a great way to see a handful of characters at one time while also getting a decent meal. It can be a little expensive, but if you have multiple, young kids, they're pretty cool about letting them share meals to help make the cost more reasonable. Plus, breakfast and lunch tends to be a bit more cost effective too, so if you're not dead set on dinner at Cinderella's Castle at 7 pm, an alternate character meal time may save you a few bucks.

Some of the Disney character dining experiences we've enjoyed include:

It's always fun to meet the main mouse.

• Cinderella's Royal Table -- Dining at the Castle includes a photo package with Cinderella, a few small princess items (a wand, a wishing star, etc.) and an opportunity to get autographs and photos with several princesses (generally Snow White, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, and one other in addition to Cinderella). One of my favorite Disney World secrets is that it's always fun to eat in Cinderella's Castle, but if your princess is celebrating her birthday, there are few places better to be, so spend her birthday in the Castle.
• Chef Mickey's -- One of the best Disney World secrets is that meeting all the originals at once can be a huge time saver and Chef Mickey's is just that. Served buffet style, we've done the breakfast and enjoyed it (there is a ton to choose from). Plus, it's at the Contemporary (a neat resort in its own right), so depending on where you're staying, you might be able to enhance your experience by taking the monorail there, which is always fun.
• Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (in Norway at Epcot)-- This is one of those Disney World secrets that I just learned about... We ate here for the first time this year and it provided a refreshing break from the standard fare that you find throughout the resorts. For lunch, we had access to a nice salad and seafood bar and the portions were more than fair. It also included a photo package with a Princess (this time it was Belle) and like Cinderella's Royal Table, the ability to meet multiple visiting princesses during the meal (Ariel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White).
• Be Our Guest Restaurant -- This isn't as much of a character meal as the others as the only character we met was the Beast, but it's Walt Disney World's newest dining venture and is a sight to see. Plus, it's the only place to get a beer at the Magic Kingdom. Plan to book six months in advance -- though if you're not successful at first keep trying as we were able to get a reservation about a month out when someone else cancelled.
• Ohana -- This is one we'll definitely do again. We had breakfast, which included meet and greets with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. The food was served family style and included everything you could want in a big breakfast (including Mickey shaped waffles). Located at the Polynesian Resort, it was definitely an experience that we'll repeat.

Again, these are just ones that we've experienced first hand, but there are meals with just about every Disney character you could imagine, so check out the Disney Dining section for more details.

Meeting Disney Characters at the Parks

If you don't want to spend a good chunk of your Walt Disney World vacation budget on meals, you can of course, find the characters throughout the different parks. And one of the nice newer features is that you can even Fastpass many of the character meetings, so if your little princess has to meet Rapunzel, it might be worth burning one of your Fastpasses on it (especially with the new ability to book more than three Fastpass+ attractions).

I try to weave a few Disney tips into these posts and here is a great one -- did you know that Disney characters will sign just about anything?

Many visitors walk into the park and their first stop is the stand to buy an autograph book for $13. It's not a bad thing because if nothing else, it gives the kids something to doodle on while you're walking around or waiting in line. But, we learned this year that Disney characters are willing to sign other souvenirs too.

We all got pixie dusted, not just the girls.

Therefore, after our kids got their princess on at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, we went to visit Cinderella and Rapunzel since that's who they were made up to look like. And instead of getting their autograph books signed, we had them sign the pink sash they got from visiting the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

Instead of being put into a drawer or jammed into an overstuffed bookshelf like the autograph books are, their sash (signed by Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel) is now proudly on display in each of the bedrooms. I saw others that had gotten stuffed animals signed too, so if there's space for a name, ask them to sign it -- it'll be a much better keepsake that way.

The only other Disney tip I'd add here is that we didn't bring a sharpie (and they don't sell them anywhere at Walt Disney World), so definitely bring one with you so that the signatures don't bleed...

Have fun meeting all of your favorite Disney characters and be sure to say hi to Mickey for me!

Like all of my Disney World blogs, I hope that this has been helpful. If you have a Disney question, I’m happy to help. Feel free to shoot me your question on Twitter (I’m @jonmkee) or via email (jonmkee at gmail dot com). Have a magical day!