With up-close characters meet and greets resuming at the Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks today, it's time to update our advice for these character encounters.
You can find character locations and meet-and-greet locations listed on the daily schedules in the official Disneyland and Walt Disney World's My Disney Experience apps. If you get lucky, you might even find characters out "in the wild" on the streets, too - though this is far more likely at Disneyland in California than at Florida's Walt Disney World. Disney is bringing back characters meets in phases, so not all locations that hosted meets before the pandemic will be available right away.
Meeting and sharing a hug with a character can be a highlight of a Disney trip, which is why so many fans have been awaiting their return to the parks. But character greets can turn ugly when guests fail to show proper manners. Based on conversations with several "good friends" of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and other Disney theme park characters, here is our advice on how to meet and greet their "friends" in a way that will keep you - and them - safe and happy.
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I'd also note that most characters have "companion" CMs that manage the interactions as well as coordinate the PhotoPass CM (if there is one). There are some "face" characters that manager their own spots in California where interactions can be more impromptu, but 90% of the time there is a CM there to help facilitate the interaction. Guests should always start their interaction with the "companion" before approaching or attempting to interact with a character, especially a "head" character.
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I haven't gone in for a hug since I was a little kid, since I realized these were people in costumes, and the Tweedles turned me down for a recreation of The Walrus and the Carpenter (after that I got it).
The last time I tried a physical interaction with a character was when I offered Minnie a high five on her way to a Disney Visa exclusive meet & greet.
And IKNEW that was where she was going (and that I don't have a Disney visa card). So when she left me hanging, I let it go. She had places to be, and how would the performer know that I wasn't going to try to pull the high five into more (I wasn't, but they cannot KNOW that).
Any physical interaction needs to be accept willingly by the character (or initiated by the character, and accepted willingly by the guest, with both being able to set boundaries).
This is all the right way to do things.