Captain Hook is scary

[tomm4004]

Last May we hit WDW with my 2y8m niece. She absolutely loved it, and has talked about it for months. Every plane that flies over she yells, "It's going to Disney World." This week her parents told her that they were going back in April. She said NO. Why not, they asked, perplexed? Because of Captain Hook.

One day the Captain Hook character scared her (I think at EPCOT at the Flower and Garden festival?). She ran away, but he kept coming after her and drove her to tears. I never knew this at the time. I just found out about it today. My brother said that Hook had been trying to show my niece that he wasn't scary, but it backfired. We spent today trying to convince her that Hook wouldn't be there, and I said that his hook was just there to help him scratch because he gets very itchy. I'm not sure if it worked. My brother said she had a nightmare about him.

Anyone else have a similar experience and have any remedies? Thanks.

 

[CLandrum]

I wish I had a suggestion. My daughter was around five on our first trip. We were next in line to meet Minnie the Queen of Hearts walked up and kicked Minnie in her leg. My daughter was mortified and was crying and asking Minnie if she was ok the entire time she was with her. This was also her first ever character encounter. She is 8 now and still talks about it. Now everytime she sees the Queen of Hearts in the parks she yells at her and tells her she is mean.

The best thing I can say is to remind her of all the fun she had last and tell her that she is at Disney and nothing bad can happen there.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

Unfortunately kids have bad experiences with characters from time to time in the course of them just having fun and putting on the show. I would just reassure her that Captain Hook means no harm and was just having fun. If they see him when they are in the parks then they know to just steer clear of him. I wouldn't tell her that he won't be there though...it is a very common occurrence to see him around the Magic Kingdom. Then if she does see him, she is likely to react even worse.

 

[GrumpysWife]

Let me first say that my 3 year old son LOVES meeting the characters. Having said that, this September at the Magic Kingdom he really wanted to meet Captain Hook (he was dressed as Peter Pan). When it was his turn, he became afraid and had "issues." Later we took him to see Wendy (who had heard about his encounter). When Wendy finished meeting her friends, she took my son by the hand, walked him over to Captain Hook and they shouted "TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK!" Captain Hook was frightened away and my son is now empowered with that phrase! :sohappy: Maybe it could also work for other little ones?

 

[piratetreasure]

I wish I had a suggestion. My daughter was around five on our first trip. We were next in line to meet Minnie the Queen of Hearts walked up and kicked Minnie in her leg.

Oh my god. I hope they fired the person in the Queen of Hearts suit!!!

 

[drew81]

I wish I had a suggestion. My daughter was around five on our first trip. We were next in line to meet Minnie the Queen of Hearts walked up and kicked Minnie in her leg. My daughter was mortified and was crying and asking Minnie if she was ok the entire time she was with her. This was also her first ever character encounter. She is 8 now and still talks about it. Now everytime she sees the Queen of Hearts in the parks she yells at her and tells her she is mean.

The best thing I can say is to remind her of all the fun she had last and tell her that she is at Disney and nothing bad can happen there.

That makes me laugh. I'm sure there was something behind that.

 

[piratetreasure]

That makes me laugh. I'm sure there was something behind that.

I dissagree. That was cruel and wrong.

 

[drew81]

I dissagree. That was cruel and wrong.

It probably was some playful interaction between the characters. Granted, it probably should not have been in front of guests.

A lot of the other villains don't appear at the parks and especially at MNSSHP because of kids being scared of them. Parents complain and then the characters aren't out anymore. I know guests complained about some of the pirates in Boo to You and they were taken out of the parade. But then there are the parents who are determined to have their kid get a picture with the character even if they are frightened by them.

 

[devoy1701]

Oh my god. I hope they fired the person in the Queen of Hearts suit!!!

The Queen of Hearts regularly acts like that (from what I have seen) when she's out. She's always very grumpy and "picks on" other characters that are near her or that she is passing as a way of showing that she's tough and mean. She really gets into character at MNSSHP on the Wonderland candy path or whatever they call it.

 

[yankspy]

Let me first say that my 3 year old son LOVES meeting the characters. Having said that, this September at the Magic Kingdom he really wanted to meet Captain Hook (he was dressed as Peter Pan). When it was his turn, he became afraid and had "issues." Later we took him to see Wendy (who had heard about his encounter). When Wendy finished meeting her friends, she took my son by the hand, walked him over to Captain Hook and they shouted "TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK!" Captain Hook was frightened away and my son is now empowered with that phrase! :sohappy: Maybe it could also work for other little onesquote]


I like that. Good idea. Although, as you can see above Hook was more than willing to hook me.:lol:

 

[Pens24]

The villians are meant to scare the guests...The villians are my favorite characters and I always liked to see them out in the parks but since so many guests complained that they were scaring the kids they stopped having most of them in the parks except for on MNSSHP...I understand that they scare the children but they are suppose to since they are villians and I think that they should make more regular apperances in the parks

 

[CLandrum]

I agree I love the villians to and I enjoy their villian type behavior. But there is a time and a place.

When the "Queen" did this it was 12am during extra magic hours and there were several villians traveling together through the park. I was excited at first to see them all together but my attention was deverted by my crying daughter.

Oh and I am also sure there was a story behind it to maybe an inside joke between the friends of Minnie and the "queen". While I thought it was funny along with several others in the park kids just have different reactions and don't understand that villians will be villians. They expect every character to be nice.

 

[GrumpysWife]

:ROFLOL:Too funny!!

 

[BigB911]

Let me first say that my 3 year old son LOVES meeting the characters. Having said that, this September at the Magic Kingdom he really wanted to meet Captain Hook (he was dressed as Peter Pan). When it was his turn, he became afraid and had "issues." Later we took him to see Wendy (who had heard about his encounter). When Wendy finished meeting her friends, she took my son by the hand, walked him over to Captain Hook and they shouted "TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK!" Captain Hook was frightened away and my son is now empowered with that phrase! :sohappy: Maybe it could also work for other little ones?

That is awesome!

My DD is a huge fan of Princess Aurora, so naturally she dressed as such for MNSSHP. When she saw that she could meet Malificent, she just had to! She told me she was going to tell her that she was a big meany. We even rehearsed it while in line. But, once we it was our turn, she lost her nerve. I stood in the middle for the picture, and looking at it now, DD looks absolutely terrified! Even though she told me she wasn't scared, she told DW that she thought Malificent would think she was the real Sleeping Beauty and prick her with a spinning wheel. DW just explained (as did another poster) that Mickey wouldn't let anything bad happen at his park!

 

[Mad Stitch]

There was a time I was standing in line with a father and son (about 5 or 6 years old) in front of me. Jafar had come out from a backstage door and approach the son who was holding a box of popcorn. Jafar tried to take a piece but the boy pulled the box away. The father told him that Jafar would like a piece of popcorn and that he should share. The boy reluctantly held out his box to Jafar. Jafar then took a piece of popcorn and then flicked it in the boys face! The boy started crying loudly, the father just chuckled.

 

[CLandrum]

Sounds like the boy knew better and maybe his father should take a lesson from him.

 

[joanna71985]

There was a time I was standing in line with a father and son (about 5 or 6 years old) in front of me. Jafar had come out from a backstage door and approach the son who was holding a box of popcorn. Jafar tried to take a piece but the boy pulled the box away. The father told him that Jafar would like a piece of popcorn and that he should share. The boy reluctantly held out his box to Jafar. Jafar then took a piece of popcorn and then flicked it in the boys face! The boy started crying loudly, the father just chuckled.

Wow. While the Queen of Hearts was one thing, Jafar definitely should have known better. No excuses here.