Joy to the World: Disney Characters Abound at Aulani

Duffy!!
This was the first character I encountered at Aulani. I was so thankful to get my picture with him because I never saw him again the rest of the trip. He also wasn't one of the ones with scheduled photo ops while we were there.

Finding Disney characters at Aulani is easy. If you compare this to the experience in the parks or even on the cruise, you will be pleasantly surprised. Not only do the characters regularly wander the grounds, but you can call a certain number from your room phone to get the list of scheduled character photo opportunities. The only time I used the phone to find a character was to find Stitch. Unfortunately, my Stitch pictures are still on another memory card, but we found him just as he was about to leave and there wasn't one person waiting to take a picture. I have to admit that I found the characters at Aulani much more friendly than in the parks or cruise. Perhaps this is because the lines weren't as long, but they all spent time with people and took plenty of pictures. Duffy also gave especially good hugs!

I don't know that I ever saw Mickey wandering the grounds like Donald, Minnie, Goofy, Duffy and Chip and Dale. We got our Mickey pictures at the character breakfast at Makahiki. Before getting seated for breakfast, they had you line up for pictures with Mickey. They took pictures that they sold, but they also were more than willing to use your camera(s). During breakfast, the other characters that came around were Goofy and Minnie.

Other opportunities to see the characters were at the Starlit Hui as well as the pool party. Having a waterproof camera at Aulani is pretty important if you want to catch the characters in action because you never know when you might be on the lazy river and a character might appear along one of the bridges.