We are so excited that we only have one week until our WDW Four Park Character Meet Challenge to raise awareness and money for the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation! For those you might not know what I’m talking about, you can read about it here and here.
We have mostly finalized our itinerary. I say “mostly” because we will continue to check the character meet schedule up until the day of the event. But here is what we have so far.
Part One: Epcot
As I mentioned in my initial article, Epcot seems to have the most opportunities for character meets. Given that we cannot enter another park until 2pm, it makes sense to go to Epcot first, since we will be spending the most time there.
Our general plan is to head to the World Showcase and tour it clockwise, meeting as many characters as we can on our journey. Once that is done, we will do the meets near the Imagination Pavilion, the Pixar Short Film Festival, and World Showcase Entrance. Once done, we can exit the park for our next destination.
Our first set of meets is pretty straightforward.
- Meet Disney Pals Near Epcot Main Entrance at park opening
- Go to the World Showcase to Meet Donald Duck in Mexico when he is available at 9:30
- Meet Anna and Elsa in Norway, which is available continuously
- Meet Mulan in China at 10:00 when she is available
From here, it gets a little more complicated. The remaining World Showcase meets are not ideally staggered.
- 10:45, 11:55: Snow White (Germany), Jasmine (Morocco), Belle (France)
- 11:25: Aurora (France), Alice (UK)
The obvious next step is to meet Snow White in Germany at 10:45 since that is right next door to Mulan/China. However, it seems like it might be tough also to meet both Jasmine and Belle in that 10:45 meet window. If we can meet them in that time period, that’s great. Otherwise, we’ll have to decide if we want to double back and meet them in the 11:55 window.
So the plan is to meet Snow White, Jasmine, and Belle at 10:45, then Aurora and Alice at 11:25 (I am assuming we can meet both in the 11:25 window since the pavilions are adjacent.
At this point, we have to decide if we want to double back for Jasmine and/or Belle at 11:55 or keep going.
Either way, next up is the following:
- Meet a Favorite Pal at Disney/Pixar Short Film Festival
- Meet Vanellope and Joy inside Imageworks (near the exit of the Imagination Pavilion)
Finally, if we have time, we can meet Pluto near World Showcase Plaza at 12:30 and then leave the park for our next stop: Animal Kingdom!
Part Two: Animal Kingdom
At Animal Kingdom, we are only aiming for two character meets: Meet Favorite Pals at Adventurer’s Outpost, and Meet Moana at Character Landing
Our plan is to get a DAS return time for Adventurer’s Outpost. Depending upon the current wait time, we might snag it as we leave Epcot. Then we would meet Moana when she opens at 2:30. Both of the meets are pretty close together, so the logistics will be straightforward. Ideally, we would want to meet Moana just as her meet starts so we can save time for the next two parks.
Speaking of next parks, next up is Hollywood Studios!
Part Three: Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Studios presents two challenges from a character meet perspective. The scheduled meets are mostly clustered in two different areas of the park: near Animation Courtyard and the adjacent Pixar Place, and near Commissary Lane. Therefore you have to do some traveling to hit both areas. Second is that several of the the meets end in the 4:00 to 5:00 time frame. That means to maximize meet opportunities, we really need to get to the park by 3:30 at the latest.
Depending upon when we arrive at the park and how we are feeling, we might follow one of two paths.
Option 1: Animation Courtyard First
- Meet Disney Junior Pals during the 3:30, 3:50, or 4:10 meet window
- Meet Edna Mode in Pixar Place (she is there until 5:00)
- Meet Pixar Pals in Pixar Place during the 3:55, 4:15, or 4:35 meet window
- Meet Chewbacca at Star Wars Launch Bay
- OPTIONAL: Head to Commissary Lane to Meet Olaf and Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams
If we are running behind or are otherwise tired, we would skip the Commissary Lane meets. Note that Meet Olaf does support a DAS return time, so we can use that to save time if we do decide to go that route.
Option 2: Commissary Lane First
- Meet Olaf using a DAS return time
- OPTIONAL: Meet Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dream. This is optional since the line can sometimes be long and this meet does not support a DAS return time
- Meet Disney Junior Pals during 4:10 meet window
- Meet Edna Mode in Pixar Place (she is there until 5:00)
- Meet Pixar Pals in Pixar Place during the 4:35 meet window
- OPTIONAL: Meet Chewbacca at Star Wars Launch Bay. We would skip this if we are running behind and the line is too long
The goal is to leave Hollywood Studios by around 5:00. That way, we can enter the Magic Kingdom at 6:00!
Part 4: Magic Kingdom
The key milestone here is to make it to the Storybook Circus meets in Fantasyland before they close at 7:00. So we are going to tour the character meets “back to front” so to speak.
- Meet Daring and Dashing Pals in Storybook Circus
- Meet Ariel in her Grotto at the entrance of Storybook Circus (DAS eligible)
- Meet Tiana and Cinderella at Princess Fairytale Hall (DAS eligible)
- Finish up the challenge, appropriately, by meeting Mickey at Town Square Theater (DAS eligible)
Because most of these meets are eligible for a DAS return time, we can get return times for the next one as we wrap up the previous one, which should hopefully save us a bit of time.
Wow! I am getting tired just thinking about all this! However, we are doing it for a great cause as we will be donating $100 for every character we meet to the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation in honor of our dear daughter Little Banshee!
If you have any thoughts or suggests on our plan, feel free to leave us a comment!
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