If you’re a Disney Parks fan, you’ve probably realized by now that things tend to change around Disney World’s parks and hotels constantly. Seriously, it seems that we’re always talking about construction, menu changes, and changes to entertainment almost daily and now we’ve got one more MAJOR change to talk about!
Mickey and Minnie
We just saw that a few characters switched up their meet-and-greet location to an entirely different land in Magic Kingdom — and now Disney’s Animal Kingdom seems to be following suit with big character changes.
Change has come toAnimal Kingdom once again and this time it’s affecting characters within the park. Since the reopening from the pandemic closures, Disney’s Animal Kingdom initially brought back characters at a distance through the use of flotillas that would glide down the Discovery River.
Adventure Flotilla featuring Russel
During these intermittent flotilla sightings, you could catch a glimpse of some of your favorites like Timon and Rafiki from The Lion King, Dug and Russel from UP!, Launchpad McQuack and Scrooge McDuck, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and even Pocahontas and Meeko.
Launchpad and Scrooge flotilla
Now that the Disney World parks have been reopened for a few years again, it seems that character meet and greets around this particular park are looking to return to a pre-pandemic state. We’ve seen Mickey and Minnie return to their spot at the Adventure Outpost…
Mickey and Minnie
…caught both Goofy and Pluto out and about meeting in the park once again…
It’s Goofy!
…spotted Russell and Dug back in the Wilderness Explorers Clubhouse…
Russell meeting at Wilderness Explorers Club House
…and even spotted Pocahontas meeting in the Oasis towards the front of the park.
Pocahontas
The only characters we still have questions about currently are Launchpad and Scrooge as both of their pre-pandemic meeting spaces are being used for additional restaurant seating or a Wilderness Explorer stop. Disney hasn’t added them back to the list of character meet and greets within the parks and hasn’t made any further announcements on them yet.
Hey, Launchpad and Scrooge!
So it seems that we might see them on the flotilla a bit longer than the rest or there could be the off chance that they’re either relocated or not brought back to a one-on-one meet and greet as soon as the rest.
We’re always looking at all the changes happening around Disney World every single day so be sure to stay tuned with us for the latest!
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I still have questions on why Tinkerbell no longer has a meet and greet at Magic Kingdom. Could you find out about that?
My daughter was friends with Russell and enjoyed him immensely , as he has a lot of freedom to be silly and prank people since he is a young boy! Really a great meet and greet with the right cast-members! Glad to see his return!