My kids know the characters aren’t real. (Although my 6 year old is kind of on the fence). But we all still love seeing them and interacting. Now there are one or two characters I like to see, a princess or two since I have boys, but Mickey, Donald, Star Wars characters are all a big hit. For us adults, it’s like we are kids again.
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Seriously? Disney is a fantasy. The entire resort. It’s fun to engage in fantasy. Do you go for some other reason?
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Nice pictures with Merida! It is great to have those with the hubby all in his gear!
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Y’all seem to suggest you can’t possibly be experience magic or fantasy unless you enjoy the Character Meet and Greets. It ain’t true. But for us, if all the characters disappeared from Disney, the place would be JUST as magical and we wouldn’t be bothered at all. It is in this that led me to wonder what it is everyone sees in the meet and greets. Living in a fantasy world I get: I’ve acted in plays/musicals, written plays, written two novels (both of which were fantasy in nature), several published fantasy-related short stories, have had a love of superheroes and such since I was five years old, creating my own characters, envisioning worlds of tomorrow, etc.
Just can’t seem to get into the character meets, though.
But the magic of Disney lives on, no doubt, for us. I wouldn’t go back over and over if it didn’t. As @MissBelleCA mentioned, we can do rides anywhere (and we do). But Disney is our true love.
No. That’s not what people are saying. You can enjoy magic and fantasy without character greets. Not everyone loves it and I am one of them, but I understand why folks enjoy it. Your incredulousness and questions surrounding the characters is curious for a Disney fan. Your child’s attitude is interesting. Sounds like you have a analytical skeptic there.
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On the plane this summer my 7 year old daughter lost her beloved stuffed koala. I was (still) trying to console her a few days later by telling her that Koala had probably stayed on the plane to go visit her koala family in Australia because she had been away from them for so long. Her reply: “Baby Koala is not alive, mummy, and she LOVES me!” My children’s ability to both accept fact and believe in fantasy simultaneously - regarding their toys, Santa, Disney characters, etc. is something I enjoy so much about watching them grow up.
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True. Reminds me of a case (a little different) we had with two of our kids. In one case, my son had a stuffed bat that he loved. (He was obsessed with bats…so much so that we went to Austin, TX on our trip to Texas one year JUST so he could see the bats.) Anyhow, his stuffed bat went missing, for which he was devastated. My wife found a replacement, and tried to convince him it was his bat. But he knew better…particularly when the original bat was eventually found!
And our DS8 had a stuffed Woodstock toy he’d had from very young…souvenir from a trip to Cedar Point. Anyhow, Woodstock similarly went missing. My wife told him a story about how Woodstock flew away to be with his family so much because he missed them so much. DS was sad about this, but kind of accepted it. But he kept waiting for Woodstock to return. So my wife found someone selling the same Woodstock on Ebay. After it arrived, we had this celebration about how Woodstock had returned. Somehow, though, kids just know the difference, and you could see the suspicion on his face. Once again, the original Woodstock was eventually found, at which point our DS was now certain: His parents were total liars! 
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Kids know truth.
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If all the characters disappeared, it would a Six Flags with bad rides.
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We don’t do any of the characters. I totally disagree. We find Disney so incredibly magical every time, almost to the point of giddiness!
But what I getting from this is that for SOME people, it is the characters that make Disney Disney. For others, it is just the general ambiance and such. I’d be hard-pressed to say it is the “rides” really, except that unlike MOST amusement parks, Disney is the one place that you can practically ride EVERYTHING with your entire family, regardless of age (with a few exceptions). It is an experience, characters or not!
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It is an immersive experience and to eliminate parts, changes the experience. That doesn’t mean everyone participates but their sheer presence creates an atmosphere. Same as removing the music although most don’t “hear” it, until they do.
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So true about the music! For example, would people be so impressed by Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter if it wasn’t for the continuous stream of movie music playing in the background? If certainly adds to the feeling that you’ve stepped into the movie.
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That’s how it is in the UK. You didn’t know?
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As a kid I would have never done a meet and greet. I hated people dressed up as characters. I knew they weren’t real and I didn’t understand why I’d want to pretend they were and how anything like that would be fun. My daughter was the same way when she was little.
Suddenly we’re both different people! This year I talked about meeting Baymax (and fist-bumping him) for months before our summer trip, and I had to rearrange our entire schedule to make sure my teenage daughter got to hug Piglet. I got a FPP to meet Ariel on my own while my husband and daughter were riding Splash Mountain, and I wore a mermaid shirt and mermaid ears. She talked to me as if I was four and thought she was real and I ate. it. up. It made my day!! I never thought I’d be one of “those” people, and I certainly never thought my daughter would. Haha.
My husband had a conversation in the TSM line with a small boy who was wearing a Spiderman shirt. He asked the kid a question about Spiderman and the kid proclaimed, “Oh, Spiderman’s not real. But Elsa is–I met her!” 
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Bahaha!
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Disney without characters? GooFY!!
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Ah! This explains EVERYTHING then. See, for us, since we don’t do meet and greets, we have never actually MET any of them. Therefore, they aren’t real. But once we MEET them, they ARE real!
(I’m suddenly having flashbacks to an old episode of “Growing Pains” where Kirk Cameron’s character is switching back and forth between TV stations. He suddenly came to the realization that even if he isn’t watching one of the channels, it is still happening, regardless.)
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I’ll clarify. I’m not talking about removing characters from the park, but I mean if there were not character meet and greets or even if they weren’t roaming around the parks. Obviously, Disney rides/themes are all based on characters!
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Quite honestly, your question still comes off as judgemental and snobby.
The answer is that people find enjoyment at Disney and Disney provides all sorts of ways to have fun. Suspension of disbelief is part of that (just look at the castle architecture).
The characters are tangible representations of the imagination. How exciting and wondrous to be able to interact with something that is or has been a part of your growing up!
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Actually, I felt some of the responses to my question came off that way. Not my question. My question comes off as one trying to understand the motivation, which is why I posted it. I have no issue with anyone having fun with character meet and greets. I’m just trying to figure out WHY!
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