Before we start, I am not telling you where to wait around for the characters. This is just where I personally have met the characters and where you might be more likely to see them as I have experienced when I have been. So please don't tell me I'm wrong because it is all basically down to luck when meeting characters.
I have been to Disneyland Paris 8 times now and I have met quite a few characters but here I am going to be telling you where I met the characters when I went in December 2013, my latest trip.
So, the first place that you can meet the characters without a doubt is in your Disneyland Hotel.
I stayed in my favourite hotel, the Sequoia Lodge, and every morning you can meet a character!
When you go down to breakfast, near the hotel shop there is a photo backdrop where every morning you can queue up for a photo with either Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Chip and Dale. The characters at the hotels, what I have experienced are the 'main' characters dressed in there ranger outfits. You can get their autograph and a professional photo by a photographer that puts your photo on a photo pass where you can get the photo printed out at the hotel shop.
Another great place to meet the characters is having a character breakfast or a character dinner. These are amazing experiences to have a meal with the characters. There are a few restaurants around the park that you can have a character meal these are:
- Auberge de Cendrillion
- Cafe Mickey
- Inventions
Auberge de Cendrillion is in Fantasyland in the Disneyland Park and offers a traditional French cuisine. Suzy and Perla, the mice from Cinderella, give you a nice warm welcome before entering the restaurant. When you enter the restaurant you will be in the company of various princesses and princes such as Cinderella and Prince Charming, Ariel and Eric, Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip etc. I haven't been in this restaurant but I do know 100% that here you have dinner with the princesses.
Cafe Mickey is located in Disney Village just by Lake Disney as you enter the Village from the hotels. When we went in December we did go to Cafe Mickey for the fact that I personally love it there. The food is traditional Italian inspired cuisine. You get shown to your seat and order your drink. You then get asked what food you would like and the food service is amazing, it gets to you so so quickly and the staff who works in Cafe Mickey are so so polite. They are about 4 characters that wonder about the restaurant and then they go for a rest then some different characters come out! They come to your table and signs your autograph book and you can have a photo with them!
When we went I was with my Mum and myself for my 18th. I saw Goofy there and I desperately wanted to have my photo with him. He was focusing on the children but he came over to me so I was happy! Another thing I love about Cafe Mickey is that on the wall there are TVs around the room with a video playing off all the films Walt Disney made in release order! I loved that so so much!
The last restaurant that you can have a meal with characters is Inventions in the Disneyland Hotel which serves international cuisine. I personally have never been in this restaurant so I can't say much about it.
So in the park, when I went, I got a programme, which tells you what characters you can queue up for to meet, what times they are out and where you have to go to see them!
The first character I met was Duffy Bear! I have never met Duffy Bear and this was an amazing experience! My mum wasn't so keen on Duffy but after we met him she loved him so much!
He was so lovely to the children and was dancing with them and spending a lot of time with them which I thought was amazing. He even spent a lot of time with me! He was giving me cuddles and kisses and took my Minnie ears off me and putting them on his nose! I thought Duffy was lovely...so I brought my own oops! You could meet Duffy at the boarding house on Main Street USA.
The next character you could queue up for was Winnie The Pooh! I met Winnie when I was a little girl so I was excited to meet him again! He was next to Casey's Corner at the fountain.
In Fantasyland, I first went to the "Meet Mickey Mouse" attraction where you queue up for about an hour to meet Mickey. One thing I loved about this was when you were queueing you were in a like cinema with a big screen playing the short animation films with Mickey, Pluto, Goofy etc in which made the time go so quicker when queueing. When you meet Mickey he is backstage in his dressing room with his costumes and mirror its lovely! You get a professional photo took and when you go to the exit of the building there is a photo booth to view your photo and get it printed off and can be put into a frame.
Another place to meet characters in Fantasyland is the Princess Pavillion! You have to queue up again for about an hour to meet the princesses. When queueing there are lots of glass figures of the main objects from the princess films such as the dingle hopper, an apple, a glass slipper etc that light up behind a glass window which I thought were beautiful! There are 3 princesses that you can meet that are behind walls so you have no idea which princess you could meet and you can only meet one! They spend alot of time with you asking you about your day, your name etc and again you get a professional photograph that you can get printed and put into a frame. One thing I loved about meeting Aurora is that she told me to look out for her on the parade and when we went to watch it I waved at her and she kept her eyes on my camera and I got some beautiful photos of her!
In the Studios I felt there was more characters wondering about rather then to que up for.
There are some characters that you can queue up for of course!
The first was Minnie Mouse in the Toon Town area. The queues to meet the characters in the Studios aren't very long. The characters don't spend as much time, they just sign and take a photo with you then you have to move on, but its still a lovely experience.
When I met Minnie, right next to her Pluto was out! So I went to queue up for Pluto! Again it was the same as Minnie, a autograph and a photo then off you had to go!
Another you could queue up for was Buzz Lightyear! I've never ever met him and I was so so so excited to meet him! At the time I had a really bad migraine but I was so determined to meet him and considering I had a bit of blurred vision and a bad headache I looked quite good in my photo haha!
Just before the parade in the Studios there was lots of characters around! Which I loved because I really miss seeing characters just wondering around the parks and not having to go to specific places to see them at!
There was Aladdin and Jasmine, Mushu from Mulan, Donald Duck and Mary Poppins and Bert. There was a huge huge group around most of the characters but Mary Poppins and Bert had the least so I went to meet them. They were so lovely and kind asking me about my day, they signed my autograph book and had a lovely photo with me! The characters came out near the cinema and the stage in the Studios where the parade goes to.
I hope this does help you know where abouts to go to meet characters but like I said it is luck and the characters at the certain places where you can queue up can change during the year. At the end of the day, I think that meeting characters is just pure luck. Where you are at a certain time. Yes there are places to meet characters but depending where you are at a certain time you might see characters wondering about, it is, in my personal view, luck.
Hope this helps you all!
