I am learning beginner Chinese right now (conversational and a few characters) and I really enjoy learning characters but I also feel like once I've learned a lot I wont enjoy it so much. Which leaves me wondering how useful they are to learn on top of conversational skills.

What do you all think how useful is it to learn characters? What have other people done?

WOW~I like Chinese Characters as well! Since the origin of Chinese characters is so interesting and meaningful, each Chinese character looks like a beautiful painting.
By the way, I'd like to recommend an App for learning Chinese characters.
"Art of Chinese Characters"
[itunes.apple.com]

Hope you can enjoy it and have fun.