Be sure to catch up on the 1st part of the Character Challenge trip here!
We went over our game plan for Day 2 and knew it was crunch time! The goal was to finish up the remaining characters AND drive home.
I swapped our park pass from Hollywood Studios to Epcot and we mapped out a very rigid time schedule to make it from character to character around the entire World Showcase by 2:00ish which was the time when we’d be allow to park hop to Hollywood Studios to wrap up everyone to meet there.
In going over the character meeting times and locations we realized they ARE staggered in a way that you CAN meet them all in order – if you hussle!
If you were wanting to do a mini-character challenge just meeting the characters located around World Showcase would be fun and exciting. It was a LEGIT challenge.
We kicked off the day running and ended it straight up exhausted. Mary Poppins was the first character and she started her meetings at 9:30 AM. Each character after met every half hour. So our plan was to be EARLY in the line for each one to ensure we’d be able to meet them ON that half hour marker in order to make it to the next! Yes, LOTS of hustling.
And then Mary was lattttte. Which kinda caused us a bit of worry but we just rolled with it and were the first in line to meet her.
We had a bit of downtime since Alice was our 2nd character and she also meets in the England area. The girls took my phone and walked around to check things out while I waited in the spot for Alice!
Alice was adorable and taught them how to curtsy!
We then bee-lined to France and were able to meet our 2nd blue dress Belle on the trip.
Afterward, we went over to wait for Aurora. It was roughly 11 am by that point and the crowds were def starting to join us and we started to notice a pattern of seeing several of the same guests over and over in line.
Apparently we weren’t the only ones excited to be back to character hugs! I loved chatting with other Disney people 🙂 We met this adorable 75 year old man who was there from England with his daughter and who loved singing to each of the “back in his day” princesses.
I love all of Aurora’s adorable expressions! The pics of her and Britt together are so cute!
Up until that point, we were on a steady pace and were arriving 15 min or so prior to each meet and greet start time. But apparently Aurora is quite popular as her wait took awhile and it threw us off track a bit.
We had to RACE to Jasmine and by the time we got there a long line was already formed. Thankfully many guests ended up abandoning the line as we waited and we were able to still meet her during that first set!
Tess was the most excited to meet Jasmine because she had been carrying around her Jasmine Nuimo all day. When we met Donald we let Britt go first and let her have her special moment so I tried to treat Jasmine the same way for Tessie 🙂
Tess said that Jasmine was her favorite character but that her favorite character MOMENT was watching Britt be reunited with Donald. Tess really does get her joy from seeing other people have theirs.
So many of these character experiences weren’t only part of the challenge for us…but were first time EVER meetings too. Jasmine in Epcot was a first time! Anytime we’ve ever passed by her line it’s always INSANE so we’ve never waited.
It was so fun having the focus BE the characters because usually when we’re at the parks the character meetings are the first things on the itinerary that get SKIPPED due to the long lines.
Up next was Snow White. She was super sweet and brought back good memories of the trip Katie and I took to Epcot when we got to meet her together.
After Snow White I made my first big error of the trip. I had assumed I KNEW where Daisy met. We raced to that location only to discover I WAS WRONG. Instead of meeting at the entrance area of World Showcase she actually meets towards the back side (before France) where the Skyliner is. Ugh.
That meant our entire flow was thrown off and that we’d have to be doing extra walking and back tracking in order to get everything done.
We could either rush more OR just take a break to wait through a cycle in order to get back on track. We opted to hang out at Mulan’s meet and greet location for 40ish minutes.
We ate lunch and took turns taking potty breaks and enjoyed sitting in the shade and talking to cast members. Btw I have a new favorite lunch for the parks! I’ve started picking up Chicken Salad Chick on the way down and making my own lettuce wraps. SO YUMMY.
Mulan was so pretty and her entire area was just beautiful!
But we then had to RACE to get from China to International Gateway! Basically halfway around the World Showcase!
The three of us were SUCH an epic team. Britt would RACE ahead (with her Apple Watch of course!) to hop in the lines and then Tess would either ride in the stroller OR walk beside me during times when the stroller was just too heavy.
Neither girl complained a SINGLE time. We were all three INTO it. We enjoyed every second and all stayed positive and kept the mood fun and upbeat the entire two days. I was so impressed with them both. SO much walking and ZERO rides and they were still ALL SMILES!
It was Daisy’s LAST meeting time of the day so we had to RUSH and the PRESSURE WAS ON.
Britt’s racing ahead paid off and she was the first in line! We got nervous because Daisy was late. What if she bailed? What if her schedule changed?
Thankfully she made it!
She was our last World Showcase character. We met them ALL in under 4 ½ hours!
We saved meeting Elsa and Anna in Norway for last as they meet ALL day and didn’t have a specific time. After Daisy finished up we rewarded ourselves with treats and a nice leisurely walk all the way back to Norway.
Had to stop for a pic in front of Tick-Tock on the way. Britt is so precious in her loyalty. Her first trip to Disney she fell in love with Donald and still loves him 8 years later. Her very first favorite animal was an alligator and here we are, she still loves em!
I learned a BIG character hack on this trip and that is if you want to meet characters who are there all day…WAIT. I was SHOCKED when we arrived in Norway and Elsa and Anna’s meet and greet had a 5 minute wait! It was EMPTY.
We arrived at 2:15 and walked right through! We tried to slow down a bit to be able to soak in the moment of having the space to ourselves. It was a great chance to look around a bit and get some pics too. I think the 2 pm timing was perfect because at 2 people can park hop so guests were either leaving to go to another park or just arriving and not rushing to get to Elsa and Anna ya know?
I’ve never been a big fan of Elsa in the parks. I don’t think Disney has mastered getting her RIGHT. She never feels like the REAL Elsa. She’s THE only character that I feel that way about. She is not the magic for me!
Even though it would make it longer to, ya know, actually get home that evening we still decided to ride the Sky Liner over to Hollywood Studios. It was my first time park hopping between Epcot and DHS and it was a fun way to travel rather than walking all the way to the car and driving 😉
Being my first time using the Skyliner for park hopping I didn’t know that we’d have to go back through security! You also may be asked to fold your stroller – since we just had the single stroller we were fine but I don’t know if our double stroller would have fit.
We marked off our list on the way. EPCOT DONE!
I also sparked it up while we rode. When we arrived at DHS we were able to get a really cool pic of Tessie in front of her fav – Tower of Terror!
While riding (it’s a bit of a lengthy trip from Epcot to DHS) I checked wait times and my heart sank. We had to still meet Olaf, Sully, Mickey/Minnie, AND the Disney Jr characters. With our Daisy hiccup it was after 3:00 by that point and many of the characters stopped meeting at 5:00. We were pushing it!
The girls and I decided to wait until the end for the Disney Jr characters because if we had to miss them, that’d be okay.
We headed to Olaf first! Each girl had their own book bag with their own snack bags and notebooks and Nuimo friends. They never complained about any lines. My girls are BEST friends and were so content to just snack and play 🙂
Our longest wait times for the entire trip were: Cinderella and Elana (first meet of the trip!) which was 1 hour and Olaf which ended up being 45 minutes. In both of these situations, the actual wait times were LONGER than the posted wait times.
In every other line the wait time was significantly lower than the posted time. I’m telling ya now that Genie is a thing you cannnnnnot trust posted wait times!
We were hugging Olaf at 3:45 🙂
Sully is currently meeting at the back of One Man’s Dream. Out of all the characters we had on our list I was the second most excited (Mickey was first, duh) about SULLY!
I’ve technically “met” Sully before at the Monsters Dance Party they used to have in Tomorrowland but I’ve never had a true meet and greet with him.
He was slightly disappointing. His handler was kinda rude. We didn’t have much of a wait and were excited and enjoying the moment and she was very brash and rushed us.
Sully was clearly annoyed when I asked for a solo pic with him and did his arms like “WHY” so I just rolled with it haha.
The pics were awesome though – I love his fluff!
Took just a minute to walk through One Man’s Dream on our way out as Sully ended up being SO much quicker than we’d anticipated. We were in and out before 4!
The Disney Jr pals stopped meeting at 5 so we went straight there and it’s just around the corner from One Man’s Dream so it was quick and easy.
Thankfully none of their lines were very long and we breathed a HUGE sigh of relief knowing WE’D MADE IT!
We aren’t big on Disney Jr. We’ve never seen Vamperina or Fancy Nancy. Britt went through a brief Doc stage and we have some on DVD but that’s about it.
I have always loved the Pluto meet in this area though! The little stage set up is just SO CUTE. The lightning always looks great for pics with our fav pup!
Much like at Epcot, we saved the characters that had the latest closing time until last. It just so happened to be Minnie and Mickey! Pretty perfect to end our challenge with the mouse that started it ALL.
The wait time posted said 60 min and we waited less than 30! 4:55 we were hugging Minnie 🙂
Sorcerer Mickey is my least fav version of Mickey. I didn’t grow up super into Disney or the parks so I just don’t have the same attachment to the Sorcerer version that others around my same age probably do.
But hey, I’m never passing up ANY version of Mickey!!!
WE DID IT. TWO DAYS – 34 CHARACTER HUGS! WHOOP WHOOP!
The girls also completely filled both of their autograph books! When we left the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet Britt said “Minnie did something strange when she signed mine.” Yall. SHE SIGNED IT DAISY DUCK! I’ve never heard of that happening (although I’m totally sure it does) and I built it up big time about how special it is that she has that!
We stopped to grab some dinner and a treat as our reward for completing the challenge. We were all three flat out EXHAUSTED but so happy!
We headed back to the Skyliner to get back to Epcot. We also hit up a gift shop so the girls could grab new autograph books for our next trip.
Character Challenge COMPLETE!
We were able to hit the road by 7:30 and I was SO pumped that the drive back felt like nothing 🙂
It may sound silly but this was my all-time favorite Disney trip ever. In my review of the entire year of 2022 this was a hard to pass memory for me.
It was the first time I’ve had an EMILY experience with my girls. Yes, I was still MOM but I got to just be ME. They require sooooo little actual “parenting.” I was able to relax, just have FUN and they loved getting to see that side of me too.
It was like being on a friend trip – but with my daughters. So, so special. A trip and experience I will forever remember and cherish. I’m so blessed to be their mom. They are both incredible girls and without them alongside me this trip would have never been half as fun!
