Disney Fantasy Halloween on the High seas Character Meets

[DisneyMaleficent50]

Disney Fantasy Halloween on the High seas Character Meets

 

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We are first time cruisers on a 7 day Fantasy cruise in October and my DD5 is very into character meet and greets.

I am trying to meet as many as possible in different outfits.

Could anyone from past cruises help me out here by answering any of the following questions

1. What events do I need to get tickets for? I heard about a princess gathering?

2. On the Masquerade Party night the character dress in costumes. How can we get photos with them? Is there lines after the party? Are they in costumes earlier in the day at their meet n greets?

3. How bad is the line to meet Jack and Sally after the movie? Do they sign books?

4. On pirate night are the characters dressed as pirates all day for meet and greets or just for the party? Do they greet at party?

5. Are the characters in beachwear at Castaway Cay?

6. Do characters appear in the same outfits on all the non-specialty days(NOT Halloween/Pirate/Castaway Cay) or do they change outfits throughout the cruise?

 

Any info on characters would be appreciated!!!!

[moki'smommy]

1) ticketed events will be listed in the "Welcome aboard" navigator that you can pick up in the terminal. Typically they will be a princess gathering and a Frozen character meet and greet (these have been the most recent ones). Tickets are free but need to be obtained as soon as possible after boarding at the location listed in the Navigator. It varies--most of the time recently it has been the excursions desk (Port Adventures), but it has also been at Guest Services.

 

2) They appear shortly before the party

 

3) It varies. They do cut the line off at a certain point.

 

4) The characters start to appear in pirate costume in the late afternoon of pirate night--slightly before early dinner.

 

5)yes

 

6) The repeat characters like Mickey, Minnie, etc. will have different costumes on different days. The princesses have one (or at most 2) outfits that they appear in. We were told on one tour that Minnie has over 250 different costumes kept at WDW and that as many as 50 may be on board at any given time. She will have her formal and semi formal gowns, costumes for the stage shows, and a different dress each night of the cruise...as well as her "welcome aboard" costume for daytime on day 1, etc. In Europe there was a costume for each country, etc.

 

You can see the character schedule for each day in that day's Navigator, the electronic message boards in the lobby, and by calling the PALS line from your stateroom phone.

Edited September 22, 2015 by moki'smommy

[DisneyMaleficent50]

wow thanks for all the info. So no need to rush out for early morning greetings on Halloween or pirate day as they will not be in those outfits till later in the day.

 

And wow so they do change outfits then...I was hoping if we met goofy on day 1 we would be good as we would already have to get Pharaoh goofy and pirate goofy and swim trunk goofy......but if he is changing looks all the time on the other days I guess we will have to.

[davidmbfonz]

I've got some pics of a few of the characters in costume in my trip report. There were several characters setup during the Mousequerade Party with rope lines - very minimal wait times. Got some great shots!

 

DDR-141025-H_Goofy-13868622 by davidmbfonz, on Flickr

[DisneyMaleficent50]

davidmbfonz-thank you for your great trip report. it is what actually prompted me to join this board. I loved all the pictures and your narrative was excellent.

 

Any tips for meeting characters is greatly appreciated

[davidmbfonz]

So cool, Maleficent!

 

To be honest, we don't have any good tips - we didn't really try all that hard to get photos with the characters, and still ended up getting plenty (and all the "key" ones, in our opinion). It sounds like you're really into the characters (which is cool!), and want to get the really unique ones. I'm quite certain you'll be able to get all of them, and more if that's what you focus even a little bit on. As others have said, those Navigators list the characters and their times - so use that to the fullest!

 

Hope you have a GREAT time!

 

:D

 

Oh, one other thing I thought to add - I LOVE how the Disney characters always stay in character and work hard at not 'breaking the 3rd wall'. For instance, in that Goofy shot, even when our kids weren't looking (because he was behind them), and even when they were finished taking photos, Goofy kept goofing around - didn't stop being Goofy for a second. I know this is a "no duh!" observation, but it's really one of the things that sets Disney apart - in the parks, or on these magical ships!

Edited September 23, 2015 by davidmbfonz

[moki'smommy]

Tip for character meet and greets:

 

If it fits your schedule, show up at the designated area 3-5 minutes before the character is due to arrive and start the line. As soon as the character shows up, the line will form rapidly. Being at the front gets you out quickly and often enables you to get into a line for a second character who is out at the same time.

 

Remember that if a line gets too long, a CM will cut it off (stand there and tell people "no more" for that session)...and often tell you when that character will be available again.

 

But the lines on the ship are no where NEAR as bad as at WDW. You'll have plenty of character interaction time.

 

Also, if you missed anyone you really wanted to see, they may be available at the "Till We Meet Again" session on the last night. That's a time when you may find 20 characters out, so the lines are short and move rapidly. However, they may not be in the outfit you wanted.

[DisneyMaleficent50]

thanks!!! those are great tips. I didn't realize that they greeted at the till we meet again on the last night

[moki'smommy]

thanks!!! those are great tips. I didn't realize that they greeted at the till we meet again on the last night

 

What we've always seen them do is the line up across the balcony, then they scatter around the third and 4th floors for about 15 minutes. Finally, they are called back up and do the "Now it's time to say goodbye" song and disappear. I don't specifically remember it on the Fantasy, so maybe we didn't attend on that cruise. In fairness, most of my recent cruises have been "Magical," so it could be done differently on other ships. It also has been scheduled on some sailings to interfere with pub night so that you had to make a choice which to attend...but pub night has been seriously shortened on all recent cruises and I've read that it has been discontinued on at least some (we were on one where it was totally cut out, but that was before I read that it was discontinued as a policy matter).