Rude Belle and Epcot Princess Dinner

[Stasieki]

I am not sure if anyone else has ever experienced this or not. On 9/2, we had 6:40 reservations at the princess dinner in norway at Epcot. We were with our 19 month old and another family with a 2 year old. Just like a lot of other reviews I have read recently, we didn't get called until 7:30. By this time my 19 month old was a little cranky. After standing in line to get our picture taking with Belle for 10 minuntes, we get up to her. At her age, a high five helps relax her around new people (this is her first princess experience). When I asked her to give Belle a high five, Belle stepped away and says "princesses don't give high fives". At first I thought she was kidding, so then I just stepped in, while holding my upset daughter to take the picture. Then, she literally stepped to the photographer and stated in front of everyone that she can't take a picture with a whining child (can't remember if those were the exact words, but pretty close). I know since she is only 19 months old, it won't scar her, but it really upset me. I was so tired by that time I didn't bother to complain, but I have send a letter to Disney. I am just curious is this is a "policy" with the princesses or did we just encounter Belle on a bad day. After that, we waited another 45 min's to get our food. We won't be going back. We did have great meals at the Animal Kingdom Donald Breakfast, Minnie's Tavern Dinner, and Chef Mickey's! Thanks for listening to me vent:) .

[kyirish25]

:eek: Sorry you were treated in such a way.

It would have been I could have done not to say "well we don't take pictures with witches" and walked away.

[UtahMama]

:eek: Sorry you were treated in such a way.

It would have been I could have done not to say "well we don't take pictures with witches" and walked away.

OHHHH That would have been perfect!

OP- good for you for writing a letter! We had lunch there and didn't have to wait. We had Ariel that was spectacular! Our table was near the "hole in the wall" the princesses are photographed in and whenever Ariel had a moment she came to visit with my toddler dd and my boys (who blushed profusely). She made our experience wonderful!

Maybe that Belle needs to stick to waving in parades?

[melomouse]

Oh NO!

That is terrible! I am so sorry that Belle was so obnoxious. While I know we never want anyone's job lost, in this case, Belle needs a good reprimand and re-training - at least.

Good your DD has you as her mom to step in. Geez - what a bummer for a little kid!!!

[momofdbsdc]

What an unprincessly and rude thing to do! I am sorry that you had a bad encounter with someone who is supposed to help make your trip magical! Thank goodness your daughter is so young and won't remember!

[Snow_White]

Yikes, what a rude "Belle"! She should be ashamed of herself.

[disneyfav4ever]

OMG! That Belle was incredibly rude. I'm so sorry for your experiance. Hopefully that Belle will not be there when I go. The character interaction has always been the best there for me, (I'm eating there for the third time next month,) and is the reason I keep returning. May I ask though, what other princesses did you see? I eat dinner there in three weeks and am hoping to see Ariel.

[Stasieki]

The other princesses that came to the table were Jasmine, Cinderella (that was a bonus!), and Ariel. They were all very nice. I am hoping to give it another try - I won't let Belle ruin it for me or my daughter:) . Have a great time - we got back last week and miss it already. We may go to MNSSHP or the Wine and Food Festival this fall - not sure which one yet.

[Laren]

Maybe that Belle needs to stick to waving in parades?

I concur!!!!

That is the worst thing I have ever heard of a character saying to a family.

She definitely needs to work at another position in WDW and not with small children, apparently. There is just no excuse for that.

Sounds like this Belle has spent too much time with the Beast pre-transformation!!! *hugs* hope your next experience is better. I'm just glad your child was too young to understand what was said!

Laren

[Stasieki]

Thank you all so much - at first I thought I may be over reacting, but it is nice to see other mom's and dad's can see my frustration. I just couldn't believe that would be princess "standard operating procedure" because all the other characters (Mickey, etc) had no problem helping my daughter feel more comfortable.

[curiouser]

Good for you for writing a letter! I would've spoken to the manager as well. We did the Norway Princess Breakfast a few trips back and we were less than pleased. Belle seemed hung over and Mulan was less than pleasant. When she arrived at our table she looked at us (myself, my SO and his parents) and said "Where are the kids"? SO's mom said "These are our kids" and Mulan rolled her eyes and said "No, I meant the little kids." We were boiling mad.

[swankybeth]

That's terrible! Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. :sad2:

[JESW]

Wow! How rude! So sorry that you were treated that way! One of my most favorite Disney pictures is from when ds was about 7 and we had breakfast in the castle and Cinderella was standing with him looking at his Pokemon cards! :) So nice when the characters just let go and make everyone feel welcome.

Jill

[Carys]

Good grief! I don't have children, but I would have been flabberghasted to be the next person in line and have seen that - perhaps Belle needs remedial princess lessons from Cindy. :confused3 Hopefully she was just having a really bad day.

[BillSears]

I'd have reminded Belle that it wasn't so long ago that she was a commoner just like the rest of us.

[lucincia]

Maybe you stood in line to take a picture with the Beast :)

[Stasieki]

That's pretty much what it felt like. We are going to stick with Chef Mickey's - that was by far our best character experience.

[Luv2Roam]

Sounds like Belle needs Cruella to be her new best friend. :rolleyes:
Sorry Belle evidently had PMS while you were there. ;) :sad2: (No excuse for that behavior even if a kid was screaming their head off.)

[eyeheartgoofy]

Geez, I would be upset too. I actually felt sorry for our Belle as she spent a fair amount of time trying to coax the terrified toddler in front of us into a picture (I felt Mom should have just let the kid skip the picture - the child was screaming, but Mom INSISTED on a picture and Belle and the handler were trying to help).

[JohnMouse]

I'm sorry to hear of your bad encounter with Belle. That CM ought to be reading some of Queen Clarisse's "princess lessons" like she gave to Mia.:lmao:

I went to Akershus last week and the Belle I had was very sweet and princessey. During the dinner, I saw Ariel, Aurora, Cinderella and Mulan. They were very nice to me too-especially Mulan.princess: (Next to Belle she is my favorite character.) Oh, and the dinner itself was excellent.

Stasieki, I hope you will consider Akershus again-hopefully Belle will be much nicer.

[ChevyNat]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience!
Once when I was in Epcot, I was waiting in line to take pictures with Mulan, the girl in front of us was whining and crying to her Dad... Mulan just turn to her and said ah, ah, ah, we are at Disney, and there's no crying here, if you want to take a picture with me, you have to stop the crying!!! I don't know if she was joking, but her face did not seem to be.
When it was our turn, she was happy and talked to my kids... maybe it was a way to make kids stop crying???:confused3

[meeko_33785]

It might very well be a policy that Disney has in place that prevented her from having a picture of her taken with a crying child. It definatly wouldn't surprise me if it was. I do agree that Belle might have gone a bit overboard with the whole "Princesses don't give high fives" thing though. Even if she was trying to be funny, it doesn't seem very friendly or in-character for Belle.

[lucincia]

It might very well be a policy that Disney has in place that prevented her from having a picture of her taken with a crying child. It definatly wouldn't surprise me if it was. I do agree that Belle might have gone a bit overboard with the whole "Princesses don't give high fives" thing though. Even if she was trying to be funny, it doesn't seem very friendly or in-character for Belle.

And, in "reality", Belle isn't even a real princess, as compared to other Disney princesses. If I remember my story correctly :)

[only1alexa]

It might very well be a policy that Disney has in place that prevented her from having a picture of her taken with a crying child. It definatly wouldn't surprise me if it was.

I agree - Disney wouldn't let my 8 1/2 month old take a pic with bare feet (don't recall their reason why) so I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't take a pic with a crying child. My son was always taking his shoes and socks off and the CM waved her hands in front of their photographer because she saw he didn't have shoes on. The character (a gorilla I didn't recognize) put his hands over DS's feet but she insisted they couldn't take the picture.

Belle sounded more like another B word though and could've been MUCH more polite about the crying child part. The high five part was totally not necessary; no reason she couldn't do it! :mad:

Sorry you had a bad experience there!

[JohnathanS]

It might very well be a policy that Disney has in place that prevented her from having a picture of her taken with a crying child. It definatly wouldn't surprise me if it was. I do agree that Belle might have gone a bit overboard with the whole "Princesses don't give high fives" thing though. Even if she was trying to be funny, it doesn't seem very friendly or in-character for Belle.

If this is the case then I would suggest that they have the the handler or photographer address these issues and notthe character. Having the character handle something like this breaks the suspension of disbelief.

In any case, writing a letter is definitely the thing to do. I would have probably made a trip to guest relations that very day!