Discovery River Character Cruises at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Ended in 2024)

Unfortunately, the character cruises at Disney’s Animal Kingdom have ended. They have been removed from the My Disney Experience app, and most of the characters have returned to regular meet-and-greets. This article is left for historical reference and photos. See our retired characters guide for more details.

A few years ago, we saw the introduction of character cruises to Disney’s Animal Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of those cruises remain in 2024. Below, we’ll discuss the character cruises at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. They are perhaps the most unique way to see some of our favorite characters.

However, it’s important to note that we’ve seen a good deal of fluctuation in the character schedule at Animal Kingdom recently. For instance, Pocahontas and Meeko were meeting in The Oasis each morning around the holidays. We saw them pretty regularly over a couple of months’ visits. But on our last two visits, they had been moved back to the boat.

Then, we saw where Goofy and Pluto had rejoined the character line-up at Donald’s Dino-land Bash in Dinoland, U.S.A. Both characters had returned to regular meet-and-greet locations. However, they are also now listed as being back on the character cruises.

We’ve made it a point to visit the Animal Kingdom multiple times to check the status of these meet-and-greets. Recently, we found that Dug and Russell are once again meeting at the Wilderness Explorer’s Clubhouse. However, they are meeting separately. While we were waiting, we saw Kevin roaming Discovery Island. While this might sound insignificant, Kevin was moved out of Discovery Island to a new path in Dinoland a few months ago.

So, as always, we encourage you to check the My Disney Experience app on the day of your visit. If you need help locating a character, we have found that asking someone in a blue shirt at a character location is the best way to get information specific to that day. Hopefully, we’ll see the character meet-and-greets reach some level of consistency soon. Many guests plan for these sorts of things.

Character Cruises

As of this update, the following character cruises are available at Disney’s Animal Kingdom:

• Adventure Flotilla (Featuring Scrooge and Launchpad McQuack)
• Discovery River Character Cruise (Featuring Pocahontas and Meeko)
• Dino-Bash Flotilla (Featuring Goofy and Pluto)
• Discovery River Character Cruise (Featuring Rafiki and Timon)
• Discovery Island Drummers Flotilla (Not Characters)

Guests can see the character cruises at Disney’s Animal Kingdom from various points throughout the park. They begin their journey on the water at the Discovery River Amphitheater near Expedition Everest. From there, they join the Discovery River and circle the park before returning to the same location. The character cruises can be seen from most of the bridges around the park.

We’ve had good luck seeing them from the bridge to Pandora, the bridge to Africa and Asia, the bridge near Expedition Everest, and the bridge in the Dinoland area. Each character’s cruise projects music. Therefore, you’ll likely hear the background music when a cruise comes near the area. You can usually then look toward the water and see it pass.

You might also like to watch them from the amphitheater. When the character cruises are about to begin, we often grab a snack and find a seat in the outdoor theater. If you look at their times in the My Disney Experience app, you’ll notice that most of the character cruises are spaced a few minutes apart. So, if you take a 30-minute break, you can likely see all of them from the theater.

Adventure Flotilla (Featuring Scrooge and Launchpad McQuack)

Scrooge McDuck and Launchpad McQuack met as part of Donald’s Dino-Bash years ago. They are now part of the Adventure Flotilla.

Pocahontas and Meeko Character Cruise

Next, we have another set of characters you can typically only find at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Pocahontas, and Meeko. Pocahontas formerly met on the Discovery Island Trail. But she now shares a flotilla with Meeko. (We’ve run into the pair meeting in The Oasis multiple times over the past couple of months. So keep a watch out for them.)

Dino-Bash Flotilla (Featuring Goofy and Pluto)

Goofy and Pluto have recently returned to their regular meet-and-greets. However, on our last visit, they were back on the boat. Make sure to check the My Disney Experience app for their status on the day of your visit.

Discovery River Cruise (Featuring The Lion King Characters)

Lastly, we have a character cruise featuring Timon and Rafiki from The Lion King. You can also see Timon at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in The Festival of the Lion King performance.

Retired Character Cruises

As of this update, the other character cruises have retired. They included cruises with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, who meet at Adventurer’s Outpost, Donald and Daisy Duck, who meet at Donald’s Dino-Bash, Chipmunk O’ Saurus (Chip and Dale), and Dug and Russell.

While we love the character cruises at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It would be nice to see the characters return full-time to their former meet-and-greets. If you’re visiting the park with the hope of meeting characters, it can get confusing.

For more information about meeting characters, we have a list of every character meet-and-greet at Walt Disney World. You might also enjoy these other park guides:

• Hollywood Studios Characters Guide
• Magic Kingdom Characters Guide
• Epcot Characters Guide
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Characters Guide