Bad character experience

DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
We had an iffy interaction with Santa & Mrs Claus in Epcot back in 2014. We lined up super early, and my daughter, who was almost 4 at the time, was so excited to be the first kid to get to meet Santa. She waited patiently for about 30 minutes, just so she could be first. So finally Santa and the Mrs come out and they walk around the pavilion, waving and ho ho hoing and what not. Then, they go over to the kidcot coloring station and grab a little girl by the hand. They bring her up their chairs and let her sit and talk with them, take pictures, etc. My daughter was sad that she didn't actually get to go first after all that waiting. Thankfully, when the little girl was done, she happily ran up for her turn. The other odd thing about that interaction was the Santa and Mrs Claus didn't talk to her at all. Just smiled and posed for pictures. I tried to hand him our autograph book and he said, sorry, I can't do that. It was just strange overall. And a little disappointing. Definitely the least friendly Santa we've ever met.
 
King Panda 77

King Panda 77

Thank you sir. You were an inspiration.
Premium Member
Goofyernmost said:
My first thought was... this must be a newbie, but, to my surprise you have been a member since 2003. It was a parody of a very famous thread that has been dying and resurrecting every few days here on WDWmagic. I'm sorry that you didn't know that, but, I really don't know how to tell a more outrageously unbelievable story then the one that I spun there based on an old post by one Katiebug and her un-magical day at WDW.
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Or was katiebug actually psychic and parodying you ...o_O
 
mergatroid

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
Can't say I have any bad ones, no. Only really meet characters at the Crystal Palace breakfast which we initially started going to in order to get into the MK before it opened for photos. As we're in our 40's with no kids we were a bit embarrassed at the idea of interacting whilst eating with Winnie and friends. However the characters have always been great and we discovered they don't force themselves on you and are very good at judging how much you want to interact with them and make it fun instead of awkward. My wife now eagerly stands when they approach and they will give her a hug and she'll ask them a question and they mime a reply. If I'm eating and stay seated they know not to force me to get up and will usually just high five me as I greet them or pat me on the back. One time Piglet stood looking at me with his arms outstretched waiting for a hug until I got up and hugged him, however it was actually very funny and before I could sit down he took a position near the table and rubbed his tummy looking at my food. We now go every year for this breakfast and it's no longer for the photos of an empty park.
 
GVentola

GVentola

Well-Known Member
I had an embarrassing character experience out at Disneyland with Mary Poppins and Bert. I've gone into detail about it before, but basically, everything could have been avoided if they had a cast member with them to take photos. Apparently, Mary Poppins was extremely offended when I asked her to take a photo of Bert and I (I already had a photo of myself with Mary out at Epcot). Some people online told me later that characters aren't allowed to take photos. Well, I didn't know, and she could've been nicer about it. Maybe, you might argue, she was acting in character. Mary Poppins is sometimes haughty for supposedly being "practically perfect in every way". But she took it too far because I was embarrassed and so mortified that this bad memory sticks out in front when thinking of my vacation instead of all the good things that happened.
 
Tori

Tori

Well-Known Member
I've never had a bad experience.

KBLovesDisney said:
Once, sadly. When I was a kid and it was our check-out day, so I was already in a horrible sad/cry-fest kind of mood. We were eating at O'hana and the characters were walking around. I wanted to get Goofy's autograph before we left, but we were already finished eating and about to leave. My dad told me to go up to Goofy to get the autograph. So, I walked up to Goofy, didn't say anything but tried to hand him my book and pen. He looked at me and instead of taking my book and pen, he pointed and then proceeded to give me this motion of "walking around the room" gesture. And then he walked away.

Yep, that was a lovely day. :arghh::cry:
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Goofy probably didn't know you were finished and forgot his autograph. They have to stick to the rotation. Next time tell your server or character attendant and they can help you out!

Derrit said:
Character Interactions are just awkward in general.
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It's only as awkward as you make it out to be.
 
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Chef Mickey

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
BTW, I take a lot of the "bad experience" stories with a grain of salt anyway.

Parents are by nature going to be on high alert that their little Johnny or Susie be treated like royalty. If one thing goes wrong it what is usually a pretty chaotic scene, some parents are going to be offended and blame Disney. I see it all the time.
 
englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
As someone who was a costume character professionally (not at Disney, but professionally)...a better thread would be..."bad guest experiences"

I can't tell you how many times some "edgy" 10 year old would try and sock me in the peanuts, or would attack my nose and hang off it, and his (normally a boy) parents would stand there and laugh. I also can't tell you how many times I was groped by middle aged women...it happened a lot, especially during dance routines during walk around/free roam portions of a show (no, twerking up against me is not appreciated).

But, behind the mask, I smiled through it. All part of the job. :p
 
K

KentB3

Well-Known Member
I never really had a bad character experience in the parks (they have all been great!), but I did have a few moments. When I went to the character breakfast at Akershus in 2005, the photographer and character attendant with Belle in the lobby area was looking at us funny like they couldn't understand why we as adults would go to a character greet, or even go the character meal, almost like they thought something was wrong with us! Also, groups with children got better service from the wait staff (especially if they had girls) that all-adult groups. The character interaction was much more rushed than all other character meals I have been too, but the characters were still great with us, especially Mulan. The other characters we got were Snow White, Jasmine (from Aladdin), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), and Mary Poppins. This was the third character meal on that trip we had Mary Poppins (she also appeared at Cinderella's Royal Table and 1900 Park Faire), and I joked with were, saying that her flying umbrella helped he get around to so many places! :hilarious:
 
danitaytay

danitaytay

Well-Known Member
So this experience was actually incredible and hilarious for me but probably would be considered a "bad character experience" to the family on the other side. We were at dinner at the Crystal Palace and were waiting for Tigger because he was our last character for the rotation and we were one of the first tables seated when you walk in to the left dining side. So Tigger begins to approach our table all excited and bouncing around, and all of a sudden this mom pushes her two sons literally right into our table so they were blocking Tigger from coming to us.
She says, "I don't want to wait anymore for Tigger so my kids are going to meet him first." I think my mom and I were just about as baffled as Tigger, who literally turned to the mom, shook his head, and literally stepped around the two kids so he could get closer to us. The family just awkwardly stood there as Tigger spent over 5 minutes with us, and we had the best character interaction ever. He was amazing. When the time came for him to finish with us, the mom once again pushed her two kids in front of the next table he was walking to and he literally just stepped around them and continued on. We were in hysterics!
 
graphite1326

graphite1326

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
My first thought was... this must be a newbie, but, to my surprise you have been a member since 2003. It was a parody of a very famous thread that has been dying and resurrecting every few days here on WDWmagic. I'm sorry that you didn't know that, but, I really don't know how to tell a more outrageously unbelievable story then the one that I spun there based on an old post by one Katiebug and her un-magical day at WDW.
Click to expand...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH not katiebug again
 
graphite1326

graphite1326

Well-Known Member
JohnD said:
I had a "bad" experience but it was my fault. I had just gotten my picture with the 7 Dwarfs at MNSSHP. I thought I would be cool and pat Grumpy on the head. Forgot it was plastic. Grumpy shook violently and angrily, both in character and probably for real! LOL. Oops!
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This reminded me of something. I was just people watching one day and all the dwarfs were out. One boy. I'd say about 10 years old, reached up and squeezes Grumpy's nose. A middle aged gentleman come out of nowhere and obviously a high ranking employee of WDW. He was very short with the boy and made him apologize to Grumpy.
 
Jiggs

Jiggs

Member
I can officially say that when we went to meet Gaston, as soon as we got in line the meet and greet stopped.
This happened three times.
 

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