Characters can be met through meet and greet spots, character meals, and even attractions such as Enchanted Tales with Belle in Magic Kingdom. Some can be accessed by using a Fastpass, but for Elsa and Anna, you generally need to select the Fastpass the maximum 60 days ahead, otherwise it is a very long line up, even up to several hours. Some Disney experts suggest that if you go during parades or immediately following the rope drop, you can avoid a long line up. Cinderella and Rapunzel also share a character greeting in MK, which is not quite as popular. Enchanted Tales with Belle is unique because it is an attraction where kids get to play parts in a short play for Belle, and one child (apparently usually a girl) gets to be the Beast and dance with Belle. My daughter got chosen to do this, while my son (the only boy in our group) played Maurice. Afterwards, every child gets to have their photo taken with Belle (no autographs are allowed) and they can be accessed by memory maker or purchased online using special photo cards that parents are given.
For all your meet and greet options, you need to go online to the Disneyworld website or to My Disney Experience and look at the list of the daily character greetings. Some characters stary in the same location, such as Mary Poppins in the United Kingdom at Epcot, and Lightning McQueen and Mater are in Hollywood Studios. You can't Fastpass for these ones, you just have to line up. The various characters are also available at different times of the day, and for a variety of lengths of time.
Perhaps the best chance to meet your favorite characters is at character dining, but this, of course, comes with a price. The characters come by one by one to meet your family at your table, and if they talk they will chat briefly with you and your kids. Of course, you can take photos with them. These meals are expensive. You have to look at them as a unique experience and a chance to meet the characters more intimately to feel that you got value for your money. There are several restaurants with a variety of characters in both the parks, resorts, and even a couple of Downtown Disney Resort Area hotels. The most popular of these is Cinderella's Royal Table for breakfast or lunch, which can usually only be booked by phone by calling at 7am Eastern time exactly 180 days in advance. This one includes a photo with Cinderella.
When our kids were about to turn five, we did both Crystal Palace for lunch with the Winnie the Pooh characters, and breakfast at Chef Mickey's with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy (all dressed in chef attire). At both of these, the kids didn't eat much, but loved meeting the characters! Also, at each of these the characters danced or paraded for everyone about every half hour or so. At Crystal Palace, our young ones didn't understand at first that the characters would come to their table, so when at the door they saw Pooh, they charged after him to try to give him a hug! There are even specially themed ones like at Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood Studios, where during Star Wars weekends, Mickey and friends dress up in Star Wars outfits.
Characters are a big part of Disney World, but you really have to plan ahead strategically to meet the ones that you really care about.
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