Some trips I don’t do any character meets and some I’ll do a bunch of them. It depends who I’m with, but some of the most fun experiences I’ve had were during character meets.
I appreciate the fun in making an efficient touring plan to ride as many attractions as possible during my vacations, but there is joy to be found in interacting with others. Sometimes those other people are CMs or other guests and sometimes those are college program kids dressed up as ducks or mice. Often those interactions stick with me a lot more than an extra 7DMT or BTMRR ride would.
Haha, I like your Spock voice! My husband actually went to school with Leonard Nemoy in Boston, back in the day.
With us, it’s a mix. I’ve scheduled 1 adr per trip with characters, to avoid m&gs in parks.
The littles either hid under the table, or ignored, go figure. Talking Mickey was a completely diff experience for 4yr old Dgd last trip, highlight for her, again go figure. Of course, he no longer talks, unfortunately.
This trip traveling w 3 princesses to be, so Akershus for us, should be cool. The guys on trip are opting to groove around EP instead of joining, also cool for them I guess haha.
I’ve got an fpp for Micky and Minnie m&g our 1st park day at AK, which is mostly for cousins, their 1st disney trip.
Dgs now 8, informed me quite a while ago, wanted me to understand there were real people behind those costumes. I call him genius boy, he’s been blase since about 4yrs old haha.
There is some truth there. In our case (and I’ve told this before in other threads, so forgive me repeating myself), my wife convinced our DS6 (after much cajoling) to meet Chewbacca. We dutifully waited in line and it was finally his turn. Wife ready with the camera, go!
He then proceeds to ask Chewbacca where he can find the RED Lightsabers. Chewbacca talks about Chewy style, and eventually my son became exasperated and smacks his palm on his forehead, exclaiming, “Why didn’t I pick one that could speak English?”
He never saw Chewy as Chewy. He saw hope that just MAYBE this guy could tell him where to find the red lightsabers!
Flash forward to this year. Now my DS is eight. My wife, once again, convinces him to meet Spider-Man. He eventually agrees, since there was no wait. He sits and talks to Spidey for several minutes…but only to ask him about how the web slinger actually works, and if it sticks even in the rain, etc.
Ah well. So much for that. But it created a memory in both cases!
We have a mixed family when it comes to characters. I love meeting them and pretending along that they are real. DH not so much. DD LOVED interacting with them when she was 4, we added a lot of meet & greets that trip that I hadn’t planned on because she had so much fun. She has no interest in the non-face characters for this upcoming trip, but wants to meet most of the face ones. I think I’ve talked her into Baymax and she’s said we can meet Chewbacca. But she still believes in Santa and fairies and such.
I know magic doesn’t exist, but it’s fun to pretend it does.
Meet and greets aren’t really our thing. We may do them for a meal to kill 2 birds with one stone, but stopping and waiting in a line to meet characters, or burning a FP on one - no way. DS6 (DS4 at the time) loved Jake and the Neverland Pirates (now it’s just Avengers and Star Wars), but wanted nothing to do with taking a picture with him. I think it was because of the non-proportionate head and the hard hair, so even at 4, he knew something wasn’t right. If we happen by one and the line seems reasonable, we’ll do it for the photo op. And while it’s not our thing, I certainly get the appeal.
That said, we did go out of our way to wait in line for Kylo Ren and he was so funny. He was so serious, it almost felt real. We still talk about the experience 1.5 years later.
Whoaaaa! Are they not real?! This changes everything!
Yes, my girls really think the characters are real, but they are still very little (under 4). They desperately want to meet the characters. All the time I hear “I’m going to meet (Anna, Elena, Cinderella, or any other character) and give her a big hug”. It’s super sweet and I can’t wait to see them meet them all next month. Our local zoo has a Halloween party where they have characters to meet while you trick or treat through the park. Last year one of my daughters saw Elena and just stopped in her tracks looking her up and down in awe. We literally had to drag her away as she just wanted to stay right there.
They also can’t wait to fight Darth Vader and think he will be real as well. They’ve been having conversations about “knocking him down and making him take a nighty night” so that may make for a fun photo op.
As they get older they may want to do less meet and greets, but for now that is the highlight for them.
Man great topic! Bringing dd5 and DD almost 2 in November… I hope my 5 year old enjoys the magic and feels likes she’s meeting real princesses… when she asks it’s hard to find the words. I want her to make believe and believe in all of these things as long as she wants. For me, her being 5 is too young for me to tell her they aren’t “real.”
To me, the characters are what makes Disney World special. I can ride amazing roller coasters anywhere in the world. I actually love crazy roller coasters. But Disney is more than that.
And as someone who has done improvisation, seeing those characters answer all those questions is a work of art.
Last year, I went to see Rapunzel. We chitchatted and took our pictures. At some point, I asked her: where is Pascal? She replied: oh, he loves the big tree with all the shiny objects and spend a lot of time there. And I was like, what? Well, she was referring to the newly placed Christmas Tree on Main Street. We ended up spending way too much time looking for Pascal in the Christmas tree. As a note: no kids were present on that trip.
Also, we went to the MNSSHP in DLR. I was dressed as Belle and the BF was Obi-Wan Kenobi. We went to meet Chewbacca. The CM and Chewbacca’s reactions upon seeing my boyfriend were amazing. And kept asking me from which planet I was from.
One year, we went as a family - all adults - to WDW at Christmas. The morning of our last full day, we went to Cape May for breakfast. We were seated at one of the “booth on one side, chairs on the other” tables, and my sister and I were on the booth side. Well, Goofy decided we needed to be thisclose to each other and would not move until we had moved so we looked like conjoined twins. Once he was otherwise occupied, we went to get our food, and sat at our own area. Well, he looked over from across the room, saw us not thisclose and marched over, sat on the seat next to me, and wiggled into me until we were shoved over to the wall at the end of the booth seat. After that, if we saw him begin to turn, we’d immediately scoot thisclose to each other and hug like our lives depended on it. Our parents were cracking up! (And to show the detail that the friends will go to, there was a change-over while we were there (when they all disappear - it’s a friend change). There was a table close to us with a small boy who thought it was hysterical how Goofy was being with us and would howl with laughter every time. As soon as the characters came back out, Goofy marched over and squished us again. Clearly his friend we started with told the new friend what was going on so that the interaction could continue - especially for that little boy.)
My second shows the detail to which the face characters have to know their character and their character’s story. My parents and I went on the Disney Magic in February 2017 - a month before the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie came out. My mom and I did the Princess Gathering (Cinderella absolutely blew me away with knowing my name, my mom’s name, and asked about where my dad was (getting a massage) - turns out my sister (a crew trainer on DCL) knows her friend and had sent word we would be onboard. But that’s not the WOW thing.) where we met Belle, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Belle. I pretty much always lead into anything with Belle by asking her if she’s read any good books lately. It’s always fun to see what she comes up with - never anything that would be out of character, usually something in the fairy tale realm - but it’s never specified in the animated movie what she’s reading, so she has had a bit of free reign. So I led with that and she said “Oh! Yes! I’ve been reading Romeo and Juliet! Two lovers in fair Verona…” and we discussed that. Well, when I saw the movie on opening night, my jaw hit the floor when it was clear that she had finished Romeo and Juliet. The character bible had already been updated a month out with details that could/should be incorporated into her conversations if applicable. It really is amazing when you think about how much they have to know about the character and keep it straight while they are never knowing what they are going to get thrown.
Interaction with characters who may or may not be people in costume is no different than exercising your imagination and suspending your reality as you sink into a good book, travel to a galaxy far, far away or watch the tasty Winchesters slay monsters. People who must be sure everyone must know that characters are “not real” are nurturing a need to inflict pain and pop that bubble before someone else does.
You just reminded me! Last trip, we saw Sadness and Joy and we took a picture where everyone is looking sad. Joy is on the left, hands on her hips, totally not agreeing with what is going on. It was great.
I have another from Animal Kingdom where I was talking to Mickey and Minnie about traveling - and specifically on “Mickey’s ship”. I said something about how good the chocolate soufflé is at Palo and Minnie threw up her hands like “Hallelujah!!!” It was hysterical!!
This is so me too. I’m a grown adult, but I love the feeling at Disney that is a land of fantasy. My DD and I enjoy interacting the characters as if they are real. So fun!
