Do you make it a point to have some interaction with the characters before you leave WDW? We like them, but I'd bet there are some trips where we haven't had a character meal or a picture with a character. Do you always make sure to make time for Mickey and the gang?
If we spot characters without a queue then it's too good an opportunity to miss, but I wouldn't want to prevent a kids getting the chance.
I can only please one person per day. Today isn't your day... tomorrow doesn't look good either.
If we spot characters without a queue then it's too good an opportunity to miss, but I wouldn't want to prevent a kids getting the chance.
Bah those kids keep me from getting on my rides, they can wait for the characters! 
Honestly we never wait in line for characters, we only get pics when there's no line either. Not so much because we want to save it for the kiddies as because we wait in enough lines in WDW.
I always feel kind of funny with the characters... I speak to them like they're little kids! No idea why -- it just comes out that way! We definitely don't wait in line for autographs -- been there, done that!
May 2008 CSR 
The first few times we went (as adults with no kids) we went nuts for characters..we went to Chef Mickey's every time..we waited in line but eventually there were only so many times we could meet Mickey before we said.."alright..no more". I'm sure once the boy gets old enough to enjoy the characters we'll be back at CM's and waiting in line all over again.
Bella
Characters are fine, but we usually don't go out of our way to hang with them. Crystal Palace is probably the closest we come to going out of our way to see characters and that's definitely not a must-do.