Meeting with the characters...

hallowboy11

New Member
Original Poster
This is a topic I brought up in another thread, but I was just wondering everyone's opinion...

I make a trip to WDW at least once a year. This year, however, was special because I was with friends who had never experienced the parks before. It was really fun seeing their reactions to everything for the first time.

One of the things they all wanted to do was get a picture with every character possible. And being that we were there for 7 days during mid-April, I figured it wouldn't take too much of our time.

... - HA! :hammer:

Now, since I haven't done this in years, I didn't know about 2 things:

1. The characters don't 'roam' the parks anymore. They have specific times where they come out for pics.

2. Characters give 'autographs' now.


Well, the first thing wasn't too big of a deal - because now we could schedule times to meet with characters. Of course, that's what EVERYONE seems to do now! :lol: And the lines to meet with characters were always huge (even though the parks weren't too packed).

But when on earth did we start the whole 'autograph' thing??? I won't go off on a rant here - but seriously, it probably DOUBLED our picture time. I think every kid had a pen and pad - and took forever getting them out and ready to sign. Also, because of the long time they took, we would get cut off in line over and over and over and over again! ( :cry: I never DID get a picture with Donald! )

So, here are the questions for discussion:

Has anyone else experienced this?? Have you too had problems with long character lines and autographs??

And for you CMs, what do you think about the autographs?? Do they cause as much of a problem as I'm making them out to be??


*Btw, in case anyone cares, the fastest moving line to meet characters were with - Mike and Sulley!! No lie! And you know why??? Because of the costumes, they can't sign autographs.*
 

NowInc

Well-Known Member
...they have been giving autographs for as long as I can remember..they make a small fortune from selling autograph books..hehe
 

Dawn S

New Member
I have noticed that meeting the characters has become a bigger pain in the backside, but I never really pondered the "why" behind it. What you're saying makes perfect sense, but in all honesty, with all the kids excited about it & Disney making more $ off of autograph books, I don't see it changing.

I used to go character happy on every trip, but the last couple of times I've been, it's become low priority because it's just way too time consuming. Every now & then, ya get lucky & find one just coming out or one who hasn't been spotted yet...that is a great time to meet them. Nothing is more disappointing though than having a kid stand in line for so long, then get cut off when they're next. Now, I can understand why the time is limited & what torture it must be for the characters after a while, but how do you explain it to a 2 year old? When my daughter got a sunken face upon losing out on a chance to meet Minnie, a CM tried to perk her up. She said that Minnie needed to go for a lunch break. Well, although her intentions were good & appreciated, I don't think my daughter cared about Minnie's lunch. :lol: And yes, this always seems to happen after some family with a party of 10 felt the need to each get a picture, an autograph, play with the character's face & then finally get shoved off. Is it so hard to remember that other people paid to get in there, too? I think the real problem lies in people just generally being somewhat selfish. I've seen way too much of that with the characters.
 

Don L Duck

New Member
Well I'll tell ya for little kids It's like what meeting a big movie star is to an adult .If they had parks like that wouldn't you stand on line for your favorite's autograph.These park's are for young and old alike and there's more young than old.Plus just to see the kid's light up is fantastic and worth any wait.Most adult's keep their kid's under control and rarely do they cut in line a lot of the CM's see to that. At least that was my experience back in april we never got cut off and meet every one we stood in line for.Chalk up another reason for the character caravan.:lol:
 

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Thanks to my "realistic" parents....they told me "the truth" about who the characters REALLY were at the parks...so I was never too anxious to meet them ;)
 

hallowboy11

New Member
Original Poster
What I meant about getting 'cut-off' is like what Dawn said.

The characters are only out there for a limited amount of time, before they switch off. And when they are about to switch, CMs cut-off the line to end it.

Just an example. We were in line for Donald three different times - the longest time was 45 minutes. And all three, we were cut off. I think it's because we were four 20-somethings with no kids. But I was a bit miffed after the 45 minute time.

<shrug> No worries. :D
 

Dawn S

New Member
Originally posted by NowInc
Thanks to my "realistic" parents....they told me "the truth" about who the characters REALLY were at the parks...so I was never too anxious to meet them ;)

You poor, deprived child. :cry:
 

Don L Duck

New Member
Did they cut the line all together or did you wait for a few more minutes till the next showing? And remember it's Donald he's tough to see and get's very crowded very fast.:king:
 

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Dawn S


You poor, deprived child. :cry:

hehe..yes..I was a very realistic child...parents raise me as an atheist...dont try to fool me with santa claus or the tooth fairy...tell me lifes "truths"...I swear..I have no idea how i had any fun at all...
 

Invero

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by hallowboy11
1. The characters don't 'roam' the parks anymore. They have specific times where they come out for pics.
Actually... every so often... you can catch a few roaming characters within the parks... not so much as you used to be able to find... but sometimes it'll happen. :) And of course... depending on how popular they are... they'll sometimes get instantly mobbed... lol...


Originally posted by hallowboy11
And for you CMs, what do you think about the autographs?? Do they cause as much of a problem as I'm making them out to be?
Well... on one hand... kids love 'em... (and so do I, when they have ME sign them!!! lol) but on another hand, I know exactly what you mean about time requirements... when Pluto decided to come visit me and take a ride with me on my Monorail... we had to wait on the platform for our train to arrive... So, of course people started lining up for pictures and autographs... but due to time restraints, I had to announce that it would be pictures only... no autographs... (I told them that Pluto's paws were tired... or something like that) I still felt bad because we still weren't able to get everyone in, but at least we got more pictures in...

All in all, that was a smash hit with the guests... even if they didn't get to have thier picture taken with Pluto, they got to ride on the Monorail with Pluto (and 2 groups of 4 got to ride in the front with Pluto!) :)
 

hallowboy11

New Member
Original Poster
Originally posted by Don L Duck
Did they cut the line all together or did you wait for a few more minutes till the next showing? And remember it's Donald he's tough to see and get's very crowded very fast.:king:
:brick:

:lol:

They cut the line all together and I'm not sure if he came back those days. Three times - three different days. The funny part was that it was the same not-too-happy-in-the-heat CM girl who kept cutting us off. I tried to make light of it - made a couple of jokes.....(Hey, it's US again!).. she did NOT laugh. CUT! (Make slicing gesture) :hammer:
 

hallowboy11

New Member
Original Poster
Re: Re: Meeting with the characters...

Originally posted by Fantasia Boi

All in all, that was a smash hit with the guests... even if they didn't get to have thier picture taken with Pluto, they got to ride on the Monorail with Pluto (and 2 groups of 4 got to ride in the front with Pluto!) :)

That's GREAT!! They should do something like that more often! Put Pluto in a Monorail Uniform.
 

Invero

Well-Known Member
Re: Re: Re: Meeting with the characters...

Originally posted by hallowboy11


That's GREAT!! They should do something like that more often! Put Pluto in a Monorail Uniform.

Actually... our official characters for Disney Transport is Huey, Dewey and Louie... each one wearing a Bus, Monorail, or Watercraft costume... we have stickers and pictures and whatnot... but I don't think we have the real characters for it... *pout*
 

Erika

Moderator
Originally posted by NowInc


hehe..yes..I was a very realistic child...parents raise me as an atheist...dont try to fool me with santa claus or the tooth fairy...tell me lifes "truths"...I swear..I have no idea how i had any fun at all...

LOL...my parents were the opposite...they over-indulged my overactive imagination (come to think of it, they probably had no choice).

Bed-time prayers usually lasted a good 10 minutes as I God-Blessed everyone I knew (pets included) as well as every character I could remember seeing at the MK, as well as the Loony Tunes ones I had seen at Great America...ALL REAL, I TELL YA!!! ...I used to practice flying by jumping off the windowsill in my bedroom...I not only left notes for Santa on Christmas Eve but expected notes in return, which I got, in Mom's handwriting...I had an imaginary friend who was a Ringtail Cat that I kept around much longer than was probably healthy!

So did you like the "reality" approach? Or would you have done it differently? I STILL live in a fantasy world so I really can't judge either way :lol:
 

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Erika

So did you like the "reality" approach? Or would you have done it differently? I STILL live in a fantasy world so I really can't judge either way :lol:

Acutually..I think I liked it. Saved me the heartache of finding out all the "lies" of life...and it opened doors for me that probobly wouldnt have been options had I been dissillusioned from some of the "child like" ways of thinking (Music and computers for example).

...somtimes tho...i sorta wish my parents did the tooth fairey thing with me tho...but mostly cuz i would have liked the cash ;)
 

Erika

Moderator
Originally posted by NowInc
...somtimes tho...i sorta wish my parents did the tooth fairey thing with me tho...but mostly cuz i would have liked the cash ;)

LOL Yeah-- :lol: the tooth money was a nice touch!
 

Don L Duck

New Member
Hey Now:I didn't realize Santa Claus was about life's lie's.I thought he was all about love and giving and sharing.Tell me are you still an Atheist? As far as the tooth fairy goes that's to bad all that money wasted.:lol:
 

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Don L Duck
Hey Now:I didn't realize Santa Claus was about life's lie's.I thought he was all about love and giving and sharing.Tell me are you still an Atheist? As far as the tooth fairy goes that's to bad all that money wasted.:lol:

I am in fact still an Atheist...so i get to sleep in on sundays ;) And yeah..im still bitter than i never got any tooth cash..grrrr
 

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