Want a Photo of your first Mickey Hug? Check out this less than magical offering

Are you ready for a hug with Mickey Mouse? Will you be able to have a PhotoPass photographer take your photo? Check out what we discovered.

Character Meet and Greets Return

We are very excited to share that Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and Aulani are now have non-distanced character meets! Get those autograph books ready! Guests can now meet their favorite Disney pals without any kind of mask or social distancing requirements.

New characters will return in the coming months such as our favorite pal in Disney’s Animal Kingdom this summer. For now, Guests can interact and hug their favorite characters in the parks and with Character Dining throughout the Walt Disney World Resort.

“Character Sightings” offered Guests the opportunity to have a socially distanced interaction with their favorite Disney characters. At a few locations, PhotoPass photographers were present to snap photos of this socially distanced interaction. While at other locations, Guests could take a selfie or ask a family member or possibly a Cast Member to capture a photo.

Many wondered if PhotoPass would return now that socially distancing has been removed. Find out what we discovered in the Magic Kingdom as we were finally able to hug Mickey Mouse.

PhotoPass Has Returned

In the Magic Kingdom, Guests can now meet with Mickey Mouse at Town Square Theatre. Mickey Mouse looks ever so dapper in his 50th-anniversary attire. At the time of this writing, the wait times to see Mickey Mouse at this location are quite high.

Wait times of over an hour were present to meet Mickey Mouse at the Town Square Cinema. We selected to use a Lightning Lane for this location which was well worth it.

When we first entered the meeting queue, we noticed that a PhotoPass photographer was not present. What has returned are the somewhat less magical automated cameras. When we first met Mickey Mouse, it was amazing to get to hug him once again. In the past, a PhotoPass photographer would have captured each special memory of this interaction.

The interaction experience was perfection. Mickey Mouse gave us hugs, interacted with us, and posed ever so perfectly. The automated cameras just seem to be less than magical. We were directed by the Cast Member to smile at the camera. A burst of photos was captured at once. After we had said our “See ya real soon” to Mickey Mouse we were directed to scan our Magic Bands at the PhotoPass kiosk.

Is this Magical or a Giant Fail?

The biggest complaint that I (Donna) have with the automated cameras is that it misses many of the spontaneous interactions that happen before the standard “Smile and Pose” photos are taken. These are generally some of my favorite photos to remember these great experiences such as the photo (featured above) was taken of Mickey Mouse looking at the ornament that my daughter decorated.

Once I (Donna) hugged Mickey initially, I later was able to hug him for an automated photo. I will never turn down a Mickey hug, but this was a bit more posed and missed the initial magical interaction.

If you want to visit Mickey Mouse in his 50th Anniversary attire at Town Square, you may want to be prepared to capture your spontaneous photos of interactions before the automated photos are taken.

The biggest complaint that I have with the automated cameras is that it misses many of the spontaneous interactions that happen before the standard “Smile and Pose” photos are taken. These are generally some of my favorite photos to remember these great experiences.

We still hope that maybe a PhotoPass photographer may return to this location, but for now, this is the only photo option that can be included with the PhotoPass Memory Maker photo package.

What do you think of the automated photos? Do you think this helps to reduce wait times or do you think they are less than magical? Will you be seeing Mickey Mouse at the Main Street Cinema on your next trip to the Magic Kingdom? Share your thoughts with us on our Facebook Page.