Disney: Surprise Character Meet & Greets

Hey there, Kay here!

Some of you saw on my insta story, @keeping.up.with.k, that I spontaneously booked a flight to Disney here in the next few months. (Yay!) I was just there back in February and November of 2016, but ya can never have enough Disney, am I right?!

If you haven’t been to a Disney park in a while, you might be surprised to not see any characters freely wandering around. As of a few years ago, Disney got business-smart. They realized half of the attraction is to interact with the beloved characters. Enter Character Meet and Greets aka Character Spots; specific locations and set schedules for characters to interact with the public. So now when you visit Disney, along with planning your day around rides and snacks…you also have to add in the character wait times. (Luckily, you can use fast passes for rides & most characters.) My first few trips to Disney I was younger than the age of 5, so I didn’t remember much. When I finally got to go back, almost 20 years later, I was shocked that guests had to look up the designated character location on the Disney App, set times within which they are out, and then stand in line to meet characters. You almost have to plan your trip with a whole extra day just to meet characters!

My latest trip in February was SO magical because I randomly spotted a few characters that I had always wanted to meet – mind you, they were not set to do meet and greets on the app! So you can understand my complete excitement!!

Terk & Meeko

We had just finished up adventures through Animal Kingdom when Terk and Meeko were roaming the entrance gates. I was literally going through the exit gates when I noticed them. I turned to the attendant and said, “Can I go back in??” She replied with, “What’s the gorilla’s name?” I immediately yelled, “TERK!” and she said, “Most people don’t know that, so of course you can go back in!” It was crazy to me; people were just passing up these quality characters that helped form my childhood. I was shocked at how many people didn’t care that characters were walking around freely, no wait time! It was one of my favorite “meet and greets,” because I didn’t have to wait in line, it was a surprise, and I got as many photos as I wanted. Terk really loved my ears & yes, our shirts say, ‘Hakuna Moscato – it means drink wine.’ We thought they were just perfect for Animal Kingdom & drinking around the world at Epcot in the same day!

 

Terk really wanted my ears

Meeko loved our jokes

Mary Poppins

OKAY BROTHERS. Hold onto your umbrellas for this one, it’s about to be a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ride. So Mary Poppins is my all time favorite Disney movie. (I love all the classics wayyy more than the recent movies, I’m an old soul.) I was super depressed the day we went to Magic Kingdom because I didn’t see Mary on the app for a meet and greet and I just so happened to have my Mary themed ears on. We were going over the bridge into Liberty Square when my friend yelled, “It’s Mary!! She’s walking over there!” I stopped dead in my tracks but could only see the top of her precious white hat walking towards the gazebo to the left of the entrance. I took off running towards her, no F’s were given as I left my friends behind and it didn’t even dawn on me that she could be leaving her shift. #BLESSUP because she was just starting her shift under the gazebo but there were a few other people that beat me to her. I was totally out of breath by the time I reached her. The couple in front of me had a small child with them and all three just stared at me like I was a complete weirdo for wanting to see Mary so badly. The mom even said, “She must really like Mary Poppins… I’ve never met anyone like that before.” Way to make a girl feel good about her movie choices, lady. ANYWAYS. Mary was practically perfect in every way. She absolutely adored my ears and even let me pose with her parrot umbrella.

She was adorable!

This is what dreams are made of

Those are just a few of my favorite unplanned meet and greets. Be on the look out for more posts similar to this one. It’s always a liiiiittle more magical when you get to visit with a character when you didn’t see them located anywhere on the app. I can’t wait for you all to see & read about my other character interactions. I’m also really stoked for my next Disney adventure! Comment below who some of your favorite characters to meet with are!