Anyone else remember when??

[Minnie Imagineer]

I don't remember that
My first trip was 6th grade in 2004
That sounds like fun though
The lines for characters are way too long!

[Camping Mom]

Every once in a while, even now, you catch a character without a line. The best place we have seen is the front of Magic Kingdom in front of Tony's. There are usually 3 or 4 characters there and they don't usually have a line or if there is a line, it is short. I think people come in with their mind set on getting to the rides and just skip right by this opportunity.

I DO like the organized lines because I hated standing with our kids and just as you got up to a character someone would run up and push their child in front of ours. For the Happiest Place on Earth, there are a lot of impatient parents!!!

[murphy1]

You just brought back a fantastic memory for me. We were walking down Main Street with Snow White on one of the sidewalks and she was holding mine and my sister's hands. We had her all to ourselves, my mom still has the pic of it. You can see on my avatar how nostalgic I am (that is us in the tea cups, prior to it having the top on it back in the early 70's. Sometimes I really miss the smallness of the MK that it used to be and it just seem so huge to me now.

[disney99]

2 years ago my family was walking into Epcot from Boardwalk, as soon as we entered the gates we ran into Chip and Dale. They were just walking down the path playing with the guest.

I like the organized lines, I just wish there were at least a couple different places in each park for the more popular characters, (Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie...)

I can only think of one place in each park to see these characters on a regular basis.

[Aggie97]

I think the spontaneous interaction is great, but the character lines just make things easier, safer and more predictable for both guests and characters.

My parents always tell the story of taking me to DL for the first time when I was almost 4. All I wanted was to see Mickey, and I was so disappointed that we could not find him. Finally, at the end of the day, we happened to see Mickey coming out from a cast-only area, all by himself, with no one around. I sprinted over to him and gave him the hugest hug. My parents have a fantastic picture of it.

When we visited DLP in 2003, they were not doing organized lines for most character greetings. It was an absolute mob scene!